You produced the massive Travis Scott hit Sicko Mode, featuring Drake. The viscosity of that track is quite amazing, the build-up, the changing beat – how did you approach that project?

I was in the studio working with Hit-Boy, who's a legendary producer and a good friend of mine. We've been working together a lot since 2016, and it was about two and a half years ago that we made this idea which is now part one of Sicko Mode.

We were in the studio one day and I was presenting ideas to him. I was basically coming up with stuff out of thin air, and I’d used a combination of some of my VSTs and one of the bass patches from the Analog Keys which is what you hear in the intro of the song: the organ sound, that really thick bass and a few other layers.

Hit-Boy tweaked some of the sounds, re-worked the bass, and added drums to it, and it really started to sound like something big and special. You know, in the moment when I’m not thinking of a particular artist, or thinking of trying to make something for someone, that’s when some of the best stuff comes out.

I’ll make things with these incredible producers, and they’ll take what I’ve given them and bring it to life with the artist. So, Hit-Boy brought it to Travis, and then it came together. He and Drake recorded the song to the first part and then attached the other two songs to it, so it became almost like a three-movement piece. I’m really happy to be a part of that song. It’s doing really well right now, and I hope it stands the test of time!

Can you think of a song that you produced or wrote that you felt would be a world-wide hit that didn't, and then one that maybe you didn't think would be a hit that broke through everywhere?

Yes! There have been several times where I’ve made something in the studio with an artist or with other people and we all kind of give each other that look – oh, this is the one! – and sometimes it doesn’t work out. I think over time your ear and your perception of things gets better. I’d say in the beginning stages it was more like that.

Funnily enough, I did feel the other way about Broccoli, which is what I produced for DRAM, featuring Lil Yachty. We made that beat last minute in the studio, and we didn’t even know what was going to happen. Lil Yachty showed up at the very end of our session with DRAM, and everything just happened so quickly and so fast. I remember listening back to that beat and that song and saying, I mean, this is cool, I don’t think it could be a huge massive hit, but it sounds good. Then, once we put it out, within a matter of a week we were getting millions of plays and a lot of good press. Soon enough, it’s on the radio, a few months after that.

Music is very mysterious. You just don’t know. You just have to put in the work every day, and the results will come organically.

Broccoli has that neat Dancehall vibe, and the chords – it sounds like an acoustic piano at first and then it turns into – flute? Was the Analog Keys part of that one as well?

Actually, that song is where the Analog Keys shines the most. That little flute that you hear is actually a patch called Snakecharmer, I think it is the number four patch in the A bank (editor’s note – it’s in the A bank of the Analog Four MKI and MKII as well, in another slot). To sum it up briefly, what happened was we had already finished our session with DRAM, and Lil Yachty was about to show up to the studio.

I turned my Korg-SV1 piano back on, and I just started pushing the Keys without sound because the engineer hadn’t connected it to the interface yet, so I was asking him to give me sound while I was playing. When he put it on, those were the chords that you hear that I was playing.

Then we put the drums together and did it all so quickly, and DRAM ran up to me and started singing this melody so kind of in a panic I just flipped naturally to the Analog Keys and found that patch and started playing that flute line, and it just came together like that.

Big thanks to Elektron for providing a soundscape for these big songs.

When did Elektron become part of your life?

It was around 2015. I was online looking for new synths and new keyboards – it’s something I do every day – and I was just instantly attracted to the image of the Analog Keys. It looked so small and portable, the keys looked nice, and I was like: what is this machine? I started looking at videos, and hearing some of these sounds and seeing people do amazing things with it. I had been using quite a big keyboard for some time, the Korg SV-1 is not a walk in the park to carry around!

I decided to get an Analog Keys to try, bring to some of my sessions and just feel it out. I started using it every single day, I started learning the sounds and messing with the patches and tweaking knobs and stuff. It soon became a very important part of my portable rig which I bring with me for producing. Mainly my laptop, my VSTs, and I usually bring one of two keyboards with me that are analog.

Since then, the Keys has always been with me, and it always provides that sound that just cuts through everything. Whether it’s a high flute patch, or an earth-shattering bass, or a very interesting pad that I can create chord progressions that inspire people with.

Every time I brought that keyboard around big producers, or artists, I’ve played sounds that make them go: whoa! What the hell is that sound? What is that? You can’t find sounds like this on any VST! Sound-wise and quality-wise it’s just a unique instrument. It’s a very underrated keyboard. I think for a lot of people, especially in the field that I’m in, with producing in hip hop and pop music, it’s a very slept-on instrument so I feel happy to be a champion of these products.

You're an amazing pianist, to the point of improvising new classical music on the fly. What do you think is more complex and challenging: classical music or contemporary music?

You know, I’ve come to learn, especially since I was in the Conservatory, that it wasn’t the fast, virtuosic pieces that were difficult for me to execute, because a lot of it is muscle memory and a lot of it is just kind of exercise – you’re practicing to perfect a difficult passage.

What I found more difficult was playing slow things, with less notes but so much space to fill. I feel like it’s nice to do what I do now because it all comes from the heart. It’s all creative. Naturally, I am an improviser, so I find that classical music is, if you put the time in, and the consistency, it’s really – I mean, it is difficult, but to me it feels more like an accomplishment to write a good, solid pop song with chord progression and good song structure.

I think they’re both difficult in their own ways, but I find it more rewarding to finish a song than to have performed a classical piece, because it just comes from the heart. Of course, the classical music is what inspired me to do what I do. I always bring that with me in my sessions. I always have the ear and the feel for what I’ve learned in the past except now I bring that to the table with newer sounds.

A lot of people have commented that the flute line on Broccoli sounds somewhat classical, the way it’s played. It’s nice to still feel connected to my roots!

I think that Mozart would have an amazing time if he had access to a synthesizer back in his day! In his Notenbuch, he made sure to write his pieces very plainly so that everyone who played them would be inclined and inspired to do their own twist on them, to make them their own. I think he would have appreciated the additional personal touches you could add to a song when you use a synthesizer. What do you think?

I think that’s a very interesting thing to bring up, because what a lot of people don’t know is that classical music was improvisation, and a lot of the big stars of classical music like Mozart and Franz Liszt and Chopin, they were all improvisers, and Bach of course.

Most of these pieces that you hear were them just doing things, remembering what they improvised and, obviously, writing it down because no one sits there note for note and writes it. They play it and you get the feel of it.

I think Mozart would have a blast on some of these new synths (laughs)! He might be a little shocked at first, but if he had access to any of this gear, that would have been next level. It’s nice to be able to channel that and do that now, bearing in mind the classical technique and everything.

You recently got the Analog Heat, right?

I think it’s amazing. A very unique-sounding pedal. It cuts through differently than most pedals I've used. It's fun to put different sounds through it, whether it's one of the patches on a keyboard or drums, it can really bring a lot to the sound.

I don't play guitar, but it's nice to have a pedal like that, because I can plug it, pull out a nice guitar patch and make it sound a little bit more powerful.

I love putting drums through the overdrive of the Heat and tweak the sound. It's a very fun and useful toy to have!

You produced and co-wrote Halsey's chartbuster Bad at Love a couple of years ago. Again, there's that thick, viscous quality to the music. The drone bass, like syrup, the tight, ticky percussion driving it on: like yoghurt with Pop Rocks! How'd you come up with that vibe?

That one I had worked on with another incredible producer by the name of Ricky Reed. I was in the studio with Ricky, and the way that song came about: I was showing him a lot of the sounds that I had on my 'boards, because it was one of the first times that we worked, so I brought my Prophet 8, I had a little toy Casio which I connected through some pedals, and I brought the Elektron (Analog Keys).

A few different sounds in there, that song is nice because of the showcase of different synths on it! Basically, I had started a track and made a loop of the synths, the twinkly Keys, and all those sonic things together, and Ricky is an incredible producer, he took my sample loop, brought it to Halsey and put everything together. That song came about naturally and nice, and after I had made that track with him, I got a call maybe a year later and they said: hey, that idea you made with Ricky, it's going to be a song for Halsey!

I remember going into the studio to listen to it, because they hadn't released it yet, and once I heard that, that was the song that in my mind I said: this is going to be a hit. Sure enough, it was!

What feeling, mental space or imagery do the Elektron machines evoke?

I'm a huge fan of being inspired by outer space, and noises that are out of this world. I feel like the Elektrons, especially the Keys, always transport me to a different place, every time I'm looking for a sound. I basically want all the music that I make to give people the feeling of shooting for the stars and going further beyond what is considered normal in music. You hear a lot of songs, productions, sessions, radio hits - it's very formulaic. I always encourage myself and encourage others that I work with to kind of just do something different and shoot for the galaxy.

I used to work for Dr. Dre in 2014, and was signed to Aftermath as a producer, but before that I had a mentor by the name of Mel-Man. He would always tell me, when we made beats together: start off with an outer-space sound! Having that kind of guidance inspired me to always find things that were different and choose sounds that had more of a voice. I find that Elektron really gives me that. It's so unique and special. To me it's a keyboard from outer space! I'm just lucky to have it.

Finally, do you have any words of advice for all fledgling producers out there?

It's a very simple piece of advice, and it's to have fun. I know it sounds light, easy, but sometimes in this industry, this business, you get caught up by the things that really aren't that important like trying to make hits or trying to make money or trying to get a song to so-and-so. It all happens naturally! That's what I've experienced.

All my experiences were organic, every song that I made, I had a big smile on my face, I was having a good laugh with the people in the room. There were no feelings of negativity or anything like that. My best advice is having fun, make music with your friends and people that you can call friends, people that you can trust and people who trust you. Don't be afraid to take risks sonically! If it's a weird sound or a weird progression or a melody that's a little different - try it! It may or may not work.

Do what you're best at. If your thing is drums, make the hardest, most smacking drums ever! If your thing is guitar or keys, if that's your style of production, then be the best at that, don't try to be anything else. Always, to be a master of one rather than be a jack-of-all-trades. If you're going to do it, make sure you love it and make sure you're having fun!

Interview by Daniel Sterner

Photo by Juliana Rose