Ken Lewis: Grammy Award Winning Mix Engineer, Songwriter, Producer, Arranger; has worked with Kanye West, Beastie Boys, Usher, Lenny Kravitz, Janet Jackson, Jay-Z, Mary J. Blige, Aretha Franklin, etc. HipHopDx recently interviewed Ken Lewis. The interview came out really out nice and very detailed. Here are some of what we thought were the most interesting parts.
DX: Your site said you had over 20 years of experience. How did you get into music before you got to where you are now?
Ken Lewis:
At eight years old, I started begging my parents for a guitar. Two
years later, when I was still begging, I think they realized I was
serious. I’ve been playing guitar since I was 10, I went to Berklee
College of Music in Boston, graduated there and came to New York City
and started assisting in a studio. I worked my way up to engineer, and a
couple years later I went freelance. I’ve been freelance ever since.
Just putting one foot in front of the other. Building my career day by
day and credit by credit, and here I am.DX: Who have you looked up to, as far as producers and mixers?
Ken Lewis: Producers, I’ve learned a ton from Just Blaze and Kanye West. Those are the first two that come to mind, as guys I’ve done a ton with over the last couple of years. I wouldn’t call them mentors, but when you work with someone that many times for that long, who’s that good at what they do, a lot of that rubs off on you. Mixers, I think Manny Marroquin is definitely one of the top of my list. Tony Mazarati and Dave Pensato, they’re three of the best serving.
DX: What are some pros and cons of working with Kanye West? What’s the most fun to do with him, and what’s the worst to deal with?
Ken Lewis: Usually, I don’t work in the same room with him. He’ll call me up, ask me what he needs, and let me do my work at my studio. Most of what I do for Kanye involves me creating music in one way or another, and all of my tools to create music the best way are at my own studio.
There have been occasions…one time, he called me before the 2005 Grammy Awards. He asks me, “Ken, what are you doing today?” I say, “Whatever you want me to be doing.” [Laughs] That’s pretty much my stock answer whenever he calls. He says, “Come to New York. I need you to make an interlude for my Grammy performance, live.“ I’m like, “Okay.” So I literally brought my entire studio to Sony Music Studios, I think the only thing I used at Sony was their chair. Kanye comes in, and he’s like, “After 'Jesus Walks,' it’s going to be me up in silhouette, and then I want this big, cinematic, sweeping orchestral thing. Then there’s going to go into a car crash, I’m going to die, and the angels are going to take me away into a gospel song. I need you to do the big, sweeping orchestral thing.” I’m like, “Sure, I can do that, no problem.” He doesn’t say, “Do you know how to make the big, sweeping orchestral thing?” He just says, “This is what you’re doing.” This is Kanye, I’ll find a way to do this on an amazing level. He hums me a basic melody, and that’s it. It was a 10-minute meeting, he comes in, gives me this animated rundown of what he wants, hums a basic melody, and says, “Go.” He never came back to the studio. Fourteen hours later, I was finished creating the orchestral interlude, and a week later, I was sitting at the Staples Center on the floor at the Grammy Awards, watching Kanye perform “Jesus Walks” into my interlude.
You never know what a day is going to be like with Kanye. I think on of the craziest things about what I do with him and for him, is it’s never the same thing. Sometimes I’ll do sample recreations for him, because I’m pretty much the go-to guy for that—I hate doing them, but I’m good at them. It’s tedious, grueling work, but somebody’s got to do it, and I seem to be the best. I did the horn arrangements on “All Of The Lights”. Again, he gives me this really basic melody, he calls me up and he’s like, “Ken, I need you to do a horn section on this. Here’s the melody, I just need you to blow it up into this big,” whatever he was telling me he wanted it to sound like. That was extent of the conversation: five minutes. I went, brought in my horn section, did the whole thing here, sent it back to him and he loved it. That’s what made the record. But he didn’t ask me before he hired me, “Hey, do you know how to arrange horns?” [Laughs] You might think that would be the first question, but he never asks me. I guess I’ve come through for him in so many crazy roles over the past few years, he pretty much figures, “Ken will figure out how to do it, so we’ll send it to him.” It’s a pretty good position to be in. I seem to be not be one of his inner circle guys, but I work on every one of his albums, and he knows whatever he asks me to do, I’ll get it done in a great way—I hope.
DX: How was working on Watch The Throne? That album had a lot of mystique around it.
Ken Lewis:
I’ve never seen so much protocol over an album or files in my career,
and I’ve seen some pretty steep security protocol. That was impressive
and frustrating at the same time, but I understood exactly why they were
doing it: to prevent leaks, and it worked. Most of what I did on Watch The Throne
was out of my own studio. I was in the Mercer [Hotel] a couple times,
and at another studio one time doing a horn arrangement. But I usually
get called in near the end of his records, and it’s a frantic two or
three-week sprint to the finish line. Watch The Throne was no
different at all. I would finish up creating music for one song, and I
would think I’d be done. Then they’d call me back as soon as they got
that, and be like, “Okay, next song. I need you to do vocals on 'Lift Off'. ”
Finished that. After the album was supposed to be finished and turned
in, way after the deadline, they call me up, like, “Kanye wants you to
put horn sections on “New Day.” You need it done and delivered by 7PM.” I
look at my watch, and it’s noon. And I had to had it hand-delivered, to
the Mercer, by 7PM. So at the same time, I’m calling all my horn
players and I ended up doing the horns at my favorite tracking studio in
Manhattan, Madpan. It’s centrally located, so if figured it’d be faster
for me to go to the horn players than for them to come to me. I was in
the studio by 3PM, I had already been working up the horn arrangement at
my own studio and on the drive to the studio. I had all my ideas locked
in by about 4PM. Great horn players, we cut for about two hours and
they left. I put the whole arrangement together and polished it from 6
to 6:30, threw it on my thumb drive, took a cab to the Mercer, and
walked in about 10 minutes after 7PM with a finished horn arrangement
for “New Day.” Then I collapsed.
Just Blaze always finds a way to elevate a song, and Kanye’s the same way. Everyone else that that song was done, everyone else wanted the album to be done. But even though Kanye was past his deadline and fearing pushing the release date back, he’s like, “Nope, this is not perfect yet. I need a horn section on this. How do I get a horn section? Call Ken.” I’ve got to give crazy respect to producers like that, who can listen to a song that everyone else thinks is finished, then have the ear and vision to say, “No. This is really close, but it still needs a horn section.” Then have the connections and reach already in place to get it delivered in seven hours. You’ve got to hand it to him, he’s a genius.
DX: How did you get to the point of working on so many genres, especially all at once instead of a different genre per year?
Ken Lewis: I think it’s just experience. I’ve literally been making records seven days a week, 48 weeks a year, for 20 years straight. And most of those days are very long days. The average person is working four or six hours in the studio, maybe five days a week. Then in one week’s time, I’ve already doubled the amount of time I’ve spent in the studio. So in a year, I’ve spent twice as much time in the studio as they have. In that time, I just try to be a sponge. I think there’s a natural musicality that I already have, and it’s like being a professional athlete or something like that. If you practice your craft every day, you’re going to get better and better at it. My mission with my career has been to be a good producer, but not necessarily in one genre. To be a great songwriter, but not necessarily in one genre. To be a great mixer, but not necessarily in one genre. To be able to do any of those things on any record, any time I want. So far, so good. I think it keeps everything really fun and really enjoyable, but at the same time, it’s prevented me from being one of the biggest in one genre. But as long as I’m happy, I’m cool with that.
Read the full interview here
