Music, Pop

Behind the Scenes how Pop Hits are Made Today

No Comments 9 January 2016

Behind the Scenes  how Pop Hits are Made Today

This is a fascinating story of how many pop hits are written by teams.

How an Unlikely Duo Became the Hottest Songwriters in Pop Music

JOE COSCARELLIJAN reports for the NY Times. Jan 7.


LOS ANGELES — Ten minutes into a recent recording session with a Grammy-winning producer they had never previously met, Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter, the in-demand pop songwriters of the moment, had a bouncy new hook.

“She’s a new girl now,” Ms. Michaels, 22, sang with finger-snapping pop-soul syncopation for maximum catchiness. Mr. Tranter thumbed the words into his iPhone, fleshing out Ms. Michaels’s lines, which alluded to liquor and Instagram. The pair petted each other’s tattooed arms while volleying ideas, never separating by more than a few feet until Ms. Michaels entered the vocal booth. Mr. Tranter, 35, called out suggestions and encouragement.

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Less than an hour later, they had a story of feminine renewal — taken from Ms. Michaels’s life, but sung from the male viewpoint — and a simple, layered keyboard demo. There were 10 minutes to spare before dinner, enough for J-Roc, the producer known for his work with Timbaland (Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé), to cue up a futuristic R&B track.

Within three minutes, Ms. Michaels had delivered another melody wordlessly into her phone, citing Radiohead as inspiration. “Hot butter on breakfast toast,” J-Roc said, approvingly.

That fresh perspective, along with speed and precision, has been the modus operandi for Ms. Michaels, a professional songwriter since her early teens, and Mr. Tranter, a former glam-rock frontman, throughout their radio-dominating hot streak. Last year, the unlikely duo scored four Billboard hits together (and some apart), including “Good for You” by Selena Gomez and “Sorry” by Justin Bieber, both of which peaked in the Top 5 on the Hot 100 and topped the pop airplay chart.

The pair’s other successes included “Love Myself,” the self-care anthem by the Oscar-nominated actress Hailee Steinfeld (“It’s very clearly about masturbation,” Ms. Michaels said), along with tracks for Demi Lovato and Fifth Harmony. After helping elevate newer stars beyond their tween die-hards, Ms. Michaels and Mr. Tranter were courted for sessions with established icons like Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani, Courtney Love and John Legend.

“They became my go-to writers so quickly because their batting average was so, so high,” said Aaron Bay-Schuck, the president of A&R at Interscope, whose job includes finding big artists their hits. “They just kept delivering.”

In this age of carefully engineered hit-making, with upward of a half a dozen writers contributing to each potential smash, earning a song placement on a top-tier album is highly competitive. In addition to known quantities pitching songs on spec, major labels often convene so-called writing camps for their biggest artists, featuring an array of musicians from different worlds all gunning for the same finite track list.

Increasingly, as genre lines and principles continue to blur, indie-leaning musicians are making their living in the studio, not onstage, guiding the sounds of pop radio with near-anonymity. Following in the footsteps of 4 Non Blondes’s Linda Perry and Semisonic’s Dan Wilson, artists cultivating careers as writers include Miike Snow’s Andrew Wyatt and the Cardigans’ Peter Svensson.


“It’s very valuable to have people from different backgrounds and perspectives in a room together,” Mr. Bay-Shuck said of Ms. Michaels and Mr. Tranter.

Besides churning out irresistible radio candy, the duo have developed a proven knack for giving a relatable voice to stars’ public psychodramas. After delivering for both Mr. Bieber and Ms. Gomez — famous exes — at the moment of their professional maturations, the songwriters contributed to Ms. Stefani’s post-divorce comeback single, “Used to Love You,” a midtempo ballad from a 25-year pop veteran.

“I think when you know the story, it’s much easier to write,” Ms. Michaels said of her job as a pop-star counselor and translator. “I’m just good at listening, taking exactly what they feel and putting it on paper. It’s a very therapeutic thing.”

Photo

Fluency across styles, like the Prince-inflected minimalism of Selena Gomez’s new single, “Hands to Myself” — has kept Ms. Michaels and Mr. Tranter from being pigeonholed. Credit Elizabeth Weinberg for The New York Times
Mr. Tranter often serves that same role for his songwriting partner. “Julia writes the songs as if she’s the artist,” he said, estimating that Ms. Michaels leads 75 percent of their studio time. “I’m the extra piece to the puzzle.” (Without Ms. Michaels, his credits include Fall Out Boy’s “Centuries” and new music for Joe Jonas’s DNCE.)

Having been through the industry wringer as the vocalist for the New York rock group Semi Precious Weapons, Mr. Tranter cherishes his new role of behind-the-scenes sensei.

While his proudly queer band never achieved mainstream success despite four record deals and what Mr. Tranter estimated as $500,000 in personal losses, Semi Precious Weapons has been cited as an influence by Lady Gaga, for whom it opened on world tours, and Sam Smith, who recently credited his career to Mr. Tranter on Instagram.

“Gwen texted me and was like, ‘Wait, is this just what you do?’” Mr. Tranter said of Ms. Stefani. “‘You just inspire people and make them feel comfortable and strong and confident?’”

When his band fizzled amid suggestions that he act less feminine, Mr. Tranter, bubbly and warm, focused on his interpersonal and melodic skills in the studio: “I was really good at getting the vibe going in most sessions,” he said. “Being a songwriter, you are accepting that this isn’t about you. If you do want it to be about you, you’re going to be really miserable.”

After so many false starts toward stardom, he added, “I just want to make music that people hear, and I’m not ashamed of that.”

Pop songwriting sessions can often be like blind dates, with an array of writers and producers shoved into a room with minimal direction. Ms. Michaels and Mr. Tranter, who are both represented by the music publisher Warner/Chappell, met at one such setup in late 2013, though Ms. Michaels’s shyness almost doomed the collaboration.

“When you’re in the room with somebody you don’t know, and you have to be practically naked, it can be really overwhelming,” she said.

So Ms. Michaels hid in a hall closet while the producer played a beat on loop and Mr. Tranter stood by skeptically. She was “so nervous and insecure,” Mr. Tranter recalled, until suddenly “she kicks open the door and sings this insane melody with my song title plugged into it. I honestly knew at that moment: ‘Oh, this is over’ — in a good way.”

Rita Ora and the mega-D.J. Calvin Harris recorded that first song soon after; Christina Aguilera and Kelly Clarkson picked two others from their first batch of five. “That ratio is insane,” Mr. Tranter said.

Although Ms. Michaels had more session experience of the two, landing interstitial music for MTV’s “The Hills” and the theme song for Disney’s “Austin & Ally” by 18, she found a champion in Mr. Tranter. “I’m very emotional and vulnerable,” she said. “He’s very light and energetic and keeps everything bright. I like to think of us as one perfect human being.”

Born in Iowa and raised near Los Angeles, Ms. Michaels, who is prone to disarming giggles and over-sharing, was home-schooled as she and her older sister pursued music. She was self-taught on piano and never trained as a vocalist. “I just wanted to write the songs,” she said. “I never wanted to sing them.”

Ms. Michaels also had a millennial’s omnivorous music taste, moving between the teen pop of her formative years (Ms. Spears, ’N Sync, the Spice Girls) and metal bands (she once had a colorful Mohawk) before discovering female singer-songwriters like Fiona Apple and Lauryn Hill.

Fluency across styles — from the tropical reggaeton beat of “Sorry” to the Prince-inflected minimalism of Ms. Gomez’s new single, “Hands to Myself” — has kept Ms. Michaels and Mr. Tranter from being pigeonholed, or even linked to their various hits by many listeners.

What ties those songs together is that they are often “under-sung,” Mr. Tranter said, “drawing attention to the story.” More important, he added, “I want to make sure in every song we write that women are given power.” (His gender-swapping exclamations around the studio include “Oh my goddess!” and “A-wo-men!” )

That project extends to his work with Ms. Michaels. “She’s so confident in what she does, and yet because this world is so awful to women she still apologizes for having ideas,” he said.

In the studio with J-Roc, one such unnecessary apology from Ms. Michaels prompted a gentle mocking from Mr. Tranter: “Oh, I’m so sorry I’m writing all these songs and making people all this money,” he said lovingly.

Returning the next night, the duo filled in Ms. Michaels’s melodic sketch from the end of the prior session, once again taking inspiration from her life but also from some celebratory studio supplies around them. “Strawberries and Champagne,” she sang, “ain’t gonna fix a damn thing.” J-Roc mimed shooting heroin to convey his bliss.

Because of Ms. Michaels’s age, demographic and recent successes, questions about the next step for her are inevitable. Songwriters like Sia, Ester Dean, Jessie J and Bruno Mars have attempted the leap from studio to stardom with varying degrees of success. “There will be no shortage of labels that are interested in Julia as an artist,” said Mr. Bay-Shuck of Interscope. “Ultimately, she has to ask herself what she wants.”

For the moment, it’s not more spotlight. “Now more than ever, because of social media, songwriters are getting way more attention,” Ms. Michaels said, adding that she often suffers from panic attacks and was only recently recognized in public for the first time.

“I write songs for myself, but I never keep them,” she said. “I’m like, ‘O.K., that was my therapy — it’s out of my body now. I’m going to give it to somebody else, so it can be their therapy, too.’”

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Peter

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