In early 2019, Splice hosted its first ever gathering of creators, featuring one-on-one sessions, Q&As, and panel discussions.
For one of our panel discussions, we spoke to NOVA Wav, a Grammy Award-winning production team comprised of Denisia “Blu June” Andrews and Brittany “Chi” Coney. They’ve produced for the likes of Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Ariana Grande, Kehlani, and countless others.
Here are a few insights from their panel.
How “Love Happy” by the Carters (Beyoncé and Jay-Z) came to life:
“I remember sitting down with Jay-Z, and he played us a song a couple months before we actually went out to record. And he was like, ‘You know, I like the track,’ but they only had [this] sample. So he was like, ‘I like the track but there’s something about it that just doesn’t move.’
So we literally went and looked up hi-hat loops that had like a 3/4-type-of-groove to them. And I believe the hi-hat loop came from the Mdl pack, if I’m not mistaken. And we literally took the hi-hat loop, but like chopped it in different ways, so it was a little bit different. We then added a plugin called HalfTime to it, so it did like these little weird things and dadada – it became ‘Love Happy’ on the Everything is Love album.”
Advice for musicians going into the industry:
“Just kind of know why you’re doing what you’re doing. I think that a lot of people go into music because, ‘Oh, you know, I want to be popular or I want to make a lot of money.’ I think just kind of have a vision and know why you’re doing it. Then, surround yourself with people who have the same vision.”
Visibility in the music industry:
“I think we do need more visibility – just being women of color, just being two women as a production and songwriting team – that’s something you don’t see a lot. So I just think that we definitely need more visibility in terms of being able to inspire young women. But as far as popularity, that’s something we don’t care about.”
March 2, 2019
