Mike Elizondo

The producer, songwriter and bass player has found huge success in diverse genres. GEORGE SHILLING (who also likes wearing several hats) compares notes

Mike Elizondo studied classical double bass for a good number of years before finding himself in a studio, employed by Dr Dre, replicating electric bass parts from old records on hip-hop productions. He was soon part of the Aftermath label’s core team, and co-wrote Eminem’s The Real Slim Shady and coproduced tracks on Snoop Dogg’s 2000 album The Last Meal. He co-wrote and co-produced much of 50 Cent’s Get Rich Or Die Trying, including the hit In Da Club. Other credits included Mary J. Blige, and Eve and Gwen Stefani’s singles and in 2005 he produced Fiona Apple’s Extraordinary Machine album. Other diverse credits have followed including Regina Spektor, Alanis Morisette, Jay Z, Ed Sheeran, twenty øne pilots, and Rag’n’Bone Man.

In 2018, he moved from LA to Nashville, setting up an impressive studio with a classic SSL 4056E/G and the latest Genelec The Ones monitoring system.

How come you made the big move?

I’ve been coming to Nashville for ten or eleven years, primarily as a songwriter. I love the environment and the work ethic. The

talent pool is immense — a lot of incredible musicians. As an experiment, a couple of years ago opted to make some records out here that were not based in Nashville but just — ‘Hey, let’s meet in Nashville and go and record there.’ And just had a great time.

Were there any disadvantages to having a solid musical education?

No. I took the approach that the more knowledge I could have, the more wellrounded I’d give myself a chance to be. If I was getting into classical music and studying, I wanted to be as authentic — I didn’t want a crash course; I wanted to study with the best. And I studied with guys from the LA Philharmonic. For a good time, I thought that was going to be my career, playing in an orchestra. And I loved playing acoustic, straight-ahead jazz. I loved fusion. But I also loved playing heavy rock. I don’t feel like it gets in the way. And it’s definitely come in handy in string sessions and horn sessions and it’s easier to talk to musicians in very specific terms.

At the outset did you listen to a lot of rap records for research?

I didn’t. I met Dre when he was starting his Aftermath label. He had a lot of artists, and he was experimenting. I’d just show up with my bass. In the initial sessions, it was ‘Here’s a record, can you re-play this bass line?’ They were really keen on having real electric bass, so I learned how they liked to hear things and how I should play. A lot of times they were referencing records that I was already familiar with. Eventually, he would want me to come up with a bass line. That’s where the songwriting door was opened. Then I started playing more keyboards and guitar, and that led to production. He was very generous and offered me equal splits on the publishing, and then would give me production credit where he felt I’d contributed. That opened the doors for the productions that came later.

/ The control room of Elizondo’s Nashville studio, with new Genelec The Ones monitoring

Tell me about these Genelecs

I’ve used Genelecs for years, then I went through a phase when I was using Adams, and Focals, but what sparked this was that I had a control room where I didn’t want to put mains up in the walls and go through that whole rabbit hole, so I asked my friend Adam Hawkins what he thought, and he turned me on to the Genelec The Ones. It just seemed like the perfect situation where I can have these speakers as my mains, and maybe keep NS10s or Proacs for nearfield. Then these Genelecs showed up and they just blew me away. They sound great as nearfields as well. I’m using them 90% of the time. Occasionally we’ll switch to the Proacs, or I’ve got another listening station with Focals. But my main source behind the SSL is the Genelecs. Some speakers, you feel like you have to learn them. But for myself and other engineers that have come in, you quickly understand what they are giving you. That’s been crucial, and they’ve been phenomenal.

How was it setting up the Genelec software?

That was intriguing. The cool thing is that you can have multiple prime positions. Ninety percent of the time the artist is hanging out on the couch at the back, and rather than making them come up to the board, you can hit a button on the software and it makes the couch the prime position. It definitely makes a difference, but you have to remember to switch it back or it sounds really strange! I even have a third position where I do my programming and what it does is pretty phenomenal.

And do you tune it to taste?

Absolutely, it’s very intuitive to bump certain frequencies; when it was first set up we experimented a little bit. But now it’s set exactly the way I like it. Really the test is when you take it out of the room, but really, there was no learning curve, it translated really well. If I crank it to the level you’d normally have your mains it sounds incredible. But at a lower level, it still has the same punchiness and focus. That’s what’s blown me away.

You work in diverse genres; why do people come to you?

I think if artists only work with someone from their genre, they can get bored doing the same thing over and over again. So maybe they want to work with someone who’s going to bring a different perspective. So the fact I’ve had success in multiple genres makes me a little more intriguing. They know I’m capable of doing stuff that gets on the radio, so I’m not going to go way off the deep end.