Grammy week has arrived! We’ve made cheat sheets on all the best producer nominees, so you can impress the guests at your Grammy party. Read up on Benny Blanco below, then check out the full series here.
#1. He’s got almost as many #1 hits as years to his name
At just 28, Blanco has produced and wrote with artists such as Katy Perry, Flo Rida, Ke$ha, Britney Spears, Maroon 5, Pitbull, Rihanna, Justin Beiber, Major Lazer, The Weeknd, and the list goes on. Since 2008, he’s had a whopping 25 Billboard #1 songs. Now let us all take a moment to feel inadequate.
#2. He knows how to fit in
Part of being an effective producer is knowing how to be the missing piece. “Many people try to do too much and they get in the way… The best producers are those that can bring out the best in everyone.” Blanco (whose real last name is Levin) is a great collaborator, he knows how to make everyone feel comfortable and use fellow songwriters, musicians, and artists for their strengths and not weaknesses.
#3. He gets his best ideas in bed
Benny dislikes the sterile environment of a professional recording studio and often works out of his own bedroom. Even better, he makes sure he has a bed in every home studio he works in. He claims that it’s on the bed — any bed– where he develops his best ideas.
#4. He’s a keyboard nut
One thing that sets Benny apart from most producers his age is his reluctance to use software instruments. “I never use in-the-box keyboards… I play everything myself and don’t even know how to use MIDI,” said Blanco in a 2012 interview with Wall Street Journal that goes into his keyboard-stuffed home studio. “Everything in my sessions is recorded as audio.” And they aren’t always top-of-line instruments either. One of the synth sounds used in Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” was from a $25 Casio VL1 keyboard Blanco picked up at a vintage store in LA.
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February 6, 2016
