Words EDDIE GREY TOP OF THE CLASS

Los Angeles-based Eddie Grey is a multi-faceted composer, arranger, songwriter, and sound designer whose successful track record speaks for itself. Since playing with synthesizers and writing on computer programs from an early age, he embarked on a journey of musical education that would take him into the world of composing and songwriting. His composing work has seen many high level placements through writing main theme tunes for a number of shows, including his role as composer on Emmy Award-winning series Born This Way. Headliner recently caught up with Grey to see what makes him tick…

How did you first get started in music and audio?

I’ve always felt like I’ve had this super special relationship to it. I’ve actually only been producing for 10 years; prior to that I was just performing and touring. But then I needed to figure out a way to make money, and it’s kind of a long story, but I figured out that you can make money through music licensing and it turned out the barrier to entry wasn’t that high. It’s been an uphill climb ever since!

What do you consider to be your current job title?

I’m always just following that impulse - that calling to music whatever form it may come in, so it’s hard to put a name on myself. Nowadays I’m turning into at least what looks like some kind of consultant, or teacher. But to be honest, behind all of that, I still feel like a student who just loves to constantly learn. And there’s so many different opportunities out there! I just made some videos for a plugin company, so I’ll have a new plugin video dropping on my YouTube channel. I just feel so honored that I get to be a part of the conversation.

What does your typical day-to-day look like, and how does composing a score for TV and film compare to songwriting for an album?

Every day is a little bit different. Today I’m making a course on control surfaces for my second YouTube channel, which is @thatlogicproguy, and then in the second half of my day I’m mixing a song for a publisher for music licensing.

With regards to the second question, I think deadlines are probably the trickiest thing. There’s music production and there’s vocal production, and the latter is an art that requires a lot more attention to detail. In fact, I almost hate writing songs because of the level of sacrifice involved. If I start making a record with someone, that’s about 25% of my year just spent working on six songs, whereas in score I could write probably 400 songs over the course of six months.

What is your usual process when it comes to songwriting and composing?

A guy named Matt Thorne, who is a mentor of mine and an unbelievable producer, always talks about the reference. Whatever our orientation when we start making a song, we should always constantly look back at our reference and whatever style or genre we’re playing in to help better inform our decisions. We’re trying to find an amalgam of maybe two, three or four references; perhaps I’ll take the snare and the distortion from somewhere and then take the guitars from somewhere else, and then maybe we’ll add a

Phaser pedal going into the board and try recording it that way.

For score composing it’s mostly the same, but I’m not as obsessive [laughs], and instead I just let loose. For example on Born This Way, we learned early on that it was Southern California rock with electronic and modern elements. I just wrote and I wrote and I wrote, and it just kind of came out naturally. With score composing, I look back once and then I’m off to the races.

I decided to go hybrid with my setup a couple of years ago, mostly because I think it’s good for learning when you get out of the box. For me it’s a little bit more exciting, and you can experiment with running sounds through different bits of gear. Obviously that’s a major disadvantage for a composer who’s trying to get things done quickly, so when I work on film and TV I’m 99% in the box.

I understand you’re a fan of Leapwing Audio plugins; what do you like about them and what advantages do they bring to your workflow?

I remember first seeing a tutorial of StageOne in around 2016; once I downloaded the trial for myself I was pretty much sold. It allows you to make anything mono compatible, so it’s one of my go-to imagers.

I’m really big on a few things: imaging, panning, and then obviously EQ and compressionthose are the first four things that I always do. I like placement in mixes, like where exactly am I going to place the synthesizer or these backup vocals? StageOne does a pretty phenomenal job of helping with that. But to me, their magnum opus has to be CenterOne. It’s incredible for vocals, allowing you to work with all that mid channel information, duck the music and put the vocals right on top. I don’t know any other plugin that does anything like this. Anytime I have vocals, this is something I have to use to get that perfect blend, and to get the vocals to sit right on top of the mix.

What’s in the pipeline for you?

I’m currently building a database; think of it as a place to go where you can learn all about music production, for Logic Pro users specifically. I have to talk about this stuff so much on my channels that I just figured I’m going to create an encyclopedia of sorts. I want to create something that I can look back upon and be proud of. Plus I think it’s super important to document all this information, and I love doing it! I’m also working with a couple of companies to create content for them, and I’m always either consulting, betatesting or creating presets for plugin companies. Every day for me is about how much fun I can have, and what else I can do to improve this musical journey that I started a long time ago.