Artwork for Behind The Board episode with Jack Antonoff

Jack Antonoff

Daniel Mendoza/The Recording Academy

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Behind The Board: Jack Antonoff On Chasing Voices, Ignoring Outsiders And Why Discomfort Makes For The Best Music

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Five-time GRAMMY-winner singer/songwriter, producer and engineer Jack Antonoff explains each of his roles' importance and shares his formula for success, in the newest episode of Behind The Board
Taj Mayfield
GRAMMYs
Oct 5, 2021 - 2:42 pm

Five-time GRAMMY winner Jack Antonoff classifies himself as operating in four different lanes of music: artistry, engineering, producing and songwriting.

"They bleed together because they're interesting, but in my head, they're really, really separate," stresses Antonoff in the latest episode of Behind The Board.

Watch down below to hear Antonoff make the distinction between each.

Watch Jack Antonoff Break Down His Musical Process

While Antonoff may notice relative gulfs between his changing roles, the results seem to stay the same as long as he has a hand in them.

As an artist, Antonoff won two GRAMMYs in 2013 for Best New Artist and Song Of The Year as the guitarist for the pop band Fun. and currently serves as the lead singer of the indie pop band Bleachers. The behind-the-scenes version of Antonoff—the engineer, producer and songwriter—works with artists like Lana Del Rey, Lorde and Taylor Swift and takes home GRAMMYs for Album of The Year (2020's Folklore) and Best Rock Song ("Masseducation").

So what's Antonoff's key to success? "Find that thing that brings you discomfort and sit in it," shares the 15-time GRAMMY nominee.

Watch the above video for more advice from Antonoff and check down below for more episodes of Behind The Board.

To learn more about the world of production and engineering, follow the Producers & Engineers Wing on GRAMMY.com and Instagram.

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Joel Little

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Behind The Board: Joel Little On Working With Lorde, How Vans Warped Tour Inspired Him & More

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The GRAMMY-winning producer/songwriter talks though his path of starting a band, a record label and a successful studio career
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Apr 6, 2020 - 2:44 pm

New Zealand-born producer/songwriter Joel Little's career took off when he co-wrote and produced Lorde's 2013 smash hit, "Royals." But as with any successful professional, the journey began long before the accolades rolled.

Behind The Board: Joel Little

A guitar player since age 13, Little's road to a career in music started with Vans Warped Tour in 1998, where everything changed. He started taking the idea of forming a band seriously after seeing that show, and went on to form pop/punk outfit Goodnight Nurse in Auckland in 2001.

On the side, he started a label with his Goodnight Nurse bandmate, Sam McCarthy, and found some early success working behind-the-scenes on music. He setup a recording studio, and one of the first artists who came in to work there was Lorde. Little earned a GRAMMY win for Song Of The Year and another nomination for Record Of The Year for his work on "Royals."

In the latest episode of Behind the Board, Little shows us around his current setup, and talks about what works for him as a producer/songwriter. To Little, it's not about his ego or imposing his influnce into the process.

"I shouldn't be trying to force myself on the song," he said. "I'm there to help [the artist] say what they want to say."

He aslo recounts the best advice he's ever recieved, talks about learning the ropes and setting up his studio without studying audio engineering in school and more above in the video above.

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Behind The Board: Jahaan Sweet On Working With Boi-1da, Drake & What Makes A Great Record

 

Behind The Board: Heba Kadry

Heba Kadry

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Behind The Board: Heba Kadry On Working With Björk, Audio As Escapism And Constantly Improving

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In the latest episode of Behind The Board, Egyptian-born mastering engineer Heba Kadry explains how her first major project with Icelandic legend Björk proved what she was capable of, the necessity of experimentation and how even bad mixes can teach
Lior Phillips
GRAMMYs
Oct 25, 2021 - 3:26 pm

Growing up in Egypt, Heba Kadry quickly learned the value of fusing technical knowledge, musical passion and people skills. 

Her father was a civil engineer and her mother was a chemist, so scientific rigor and precision were important — but her father's tinkering as a keyboardist and mandolinist helped unlock her passion for music. 

As a mastering engineer who has worked with experimentalists like Björk, Beach House and Hayley Williams, Kadry's ability to bridge her scientific mind with an artistic soul has proven invaluable. But first, she put in time as a jingle writer for an ad agency.

"My first day recording one of those jingles, I went to a studio in downtown Cairo," Kadry shares. "[There was] a guy sitting behind the board, and I was like, 'That guy. How do I become that guy?'"

Watch the below episode of Behind The Board to hear what Kadry has to say about flying to Iceland to work with Björk, the value of getting thrown into the fire and how working through bad mixes can give you the ability to improve good mixes.

With a long catalog full of beloved independent experimental artists, Kadry emphasizes the importance of trying new things. 

"You've got to be down to experiment," she explains. "Instead of mastering being this correction process, mastering can be the cherry on top, the sweetening. How do you make things even better, more lush, more beautiful?"

Check below for more producer and engineer stories from the Behind The Board series.

To learn more about the world of production and engineering, follow the Producers & Engineers Wing on GRAMMY.com and Instagram.

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Behind The Board: David Greenbaum

David Greenbaum

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Behind The Board: Producer-Engineer David Greenbaum On His Musical Beginnings & Capturing Happy Accidents

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The five-time GRAMMY winner celebrated for his work with Beck brings us into his music-stuffed space for a candid chat about artistic decision-making
Morgan Enos
GRAMMYs
Feb 17, 2021 - 12:16 pm

Producer-engineer David Greenbaum cleaned up at the 57th and 61st GRAMMY Awards thanks to his work with one artist—the imitable Beck Hansen. His production on 2014's atmospheric Morning Phase and 2017's radiant Colors netted him Album Of The Year, Best Rock Album and Best Engineered Album for Morning Phase, and Best Alternative Music Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for Colors. This year, for the 63rd GRAMMYs Awards Show, he’s nominated for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for 2019’s Hyperspace. 

Now, for the latest episode of Behind The Board, Greenbaum details the path that led him here.

David Greenbaum Talks His Musical Beginnings

"I played in bands originally, and then it sort of became an obsession, you know?" he muses from his music-stuffed space. "My bedroom, I converted into basically something very similar to this." As Greenbaum explains, his interest was so insatiable that he went from recording friends' bands to writing his own material. "I just wanted to be able to do everything," he says with a grin.

Greenbaum is keenly aware that spontaneous imperfections can make a tune transcendent. "Some of my favorite moments in sessions are the experiments and the accidents," he says. "Some of the most magical things have come from when you accidentally loop a thing—it's doing something weird, or the computer screws up—and you're just like 'Wait a minute! What was that? That was amazing!'"

Watch Greenbaum's appearance on Behind The Board above and check out other episodes of the series here.

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Peter Asher

Peter Asher

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Behind The Board: Producer Peter Asher On James Taylor, Cher, Linda Ronstadt & More

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The legendary record maker talks about the importance of songwriting, the evolution of his studio tools and his work with some of the world's biggest artists
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Mar 15, 2019 - 10:39 am

Over the course of his five-decade-plus career, GRAMMY-winning producer Peter Asher has touched some of the finest recording in music's cannon. His body of work has earned him 13 GRAMMY nominations in all, and he won the coveted Producer Of The Year GRAMMY Award for 1977.

Peter Asher Shares How He Got Behind The Board

His musical and sonic imagination can be heard on recordings by great artists such as Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Neil Diamond, Diana Ross, Randy Newman and more, and in his work as an artist himself with Peter and Gordon, all of which has informed his core philosophy for making great records; it's all about the song. 

"You can't make a great record without a great song." says Asher. "My admiration for great singers is possilby even exceeded by my admiration for great songwriters. And when someone is both, when it's a James Taylor or an Ed Sheeran... that's the best of all possible worlds."

Asher earned his first two GRAMMY nominations back in 1970 for his work with Taylor, including noms for Album Of The Year for Sweet Baby James and Record Of The Year for "Fire And Rain." 

"[Becoming] a producer was an ambition of mine. The minute I started making records as an artist and watched what a producer does, I kinda went, 'I want to do that. I can do that,'" he says.

In this episode of "Behind The Board," Asher also talks about what tools he uses in the studio, how those tools have changed, what it's like making albums with Cher, Ronstadt and Taylor, his experience being in the recording session for the Beatles' "Hey Jude," and much more.

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