One studio owner had a small extra room, and I convinced him to let me put my gear in there and work there. I then went freelance and took clients with me to different studios, and I'd make friends with a bunch of different people, including studio owners. I basically worked as a recording engineer, and bought gear from whatever money I could set aside. Not long afterwards, I moved to Los Angeles, where I went to the Los Angeles Recording School, and after that I got an internship in another studio here. "It was at Mother West Studios, a small facility that records indie bands and so on. At the age of 16, he persuaded his parents to allow him to drop out of school to do an internship at a small New York demo studio. I just want to make music.” It's something that the 26‑year old appears to have had in his sights since he began playing drums and piano as a child, while growing up in Teaneck, New Jersey. It is perhaps unsurprising that when asked why he doesn't join Mars and Lawrence on tour and stays alone in his studio, Levine replies "I don't want to be famous or on stage.
Some of the mixing has been outsourced, but I mixed 'Nothin' On You' and 'Billionaire' here.” "So do you record and mix everything there, or do you go to other studios?” People come in here and they go like: you did all these hits on this?” "That setup is probably not much more advanced than that of many of our readers.”
JUST THE WAY YOU ARE BRUNO MARS TEMPO PRO
"I have a Yamaha 02R, Pro Tools HD, a Manley Langevin Dual Vocal Combo pre/compressor/EQ, a Neumann U87 and Event SP8 speakers with an 18‑inch Mackie sub, and that's it.” "What do you have in terms of recording gear?” "I have an Akai MPC4000, Roland Fantom S88, V‑Synth GT, a regular V‑Synth, Korg R3, MicroKorg, Novation Ultranova, Dave Smith Mopho, and two Virus TIs.” "What are you working on there at Levcon, Ari?” He rarely gives answers that extend beyond two or three lines, prompting continued repeated questioning: Levcon contains a strikingly minimal amount of gear - little more than a decent home studio - and whether there's a direct connection between these two things is hard to say, but Ari Levine proves as economical with his words as with his gear. Levcon Studio is a surprisingly modest affair, dominated by racks of synths - and containing only one microphone!Īll this is more than enough reason for SOS to track down the trio's tech‑head and main instrumentalist, Ari Levine, at the Smeezingtons' Levcon studios in Los Angeles, which Ari co‑owns with his manager and brother Josh. Given that the team isn't yet three years old, this is exceptional. At the time of writing, the Smeezingtons have produced three American and four UK chart‑toppers, and have received five Grammy nominations. 'Nothin' On You' and 'Billionaire' then put the Smeezingtons into the hit parade stratosphere, as did Mars' solo album and two other major hits the team co‑wrote and (co‑)produced: Cee Lo Green's 'Fuck You' and Far East Movement's 'Rocketeer'. Levine's instrumental and production talents proved a perfect complement for the two singers' focus on melody and lyrics, and their first joint writing and production effort, 'Get Sexy' by the Sugababes, was a UK number two. Mars and Lawrence had already tasted the big time with Flo Rida's super hit 'Right Round', but they'd co‑written it with a posse of other writers, and didn't co‑produce. As part of his journey, Mars combined forces in 2008 with fellow‑singer Philip Lawrence and musician/songwriter/engineer Ari Levine, and began the Smeezingtons. The singer's first mainstream exposure had come earlier in the same year, with performances on B.o.B.'s mega hit 'Nothin' On You' and Travie McCoy's 'Billionaire', both co‑written by Mars and produced by production trio the Smeezingtons, of which Mars is a part.Ĭritics have assumed that Mars' appearance on these two songs was a producer's vanity effort, but in fact his ambition from day one has been to become a pop star he developed a parallel career as a producer purely because, well, the path towards stardom tends to be of the long and winding variety. This, followed a few months later by the worldwide smash hit 'Grenade', made sure that his debut album, Doo‑Wops & Hooligans, also sold like hotcakes. Fellow Smeezington Ari Levine reveals how they created his hit album in a modest LA studio.īruno Mars shot to the top of the international charts in the summer of 2010 with his song 'Just The Way You Are'. Bruno Mars is the year's hottest pop star, and one‑third of ace production team the Smeezingtons.