Mike Dean is going to become a name you hear more often.
Although he’s been in the biz for years, it’s his recent coups that have garnered the attention of the masses.
He was a go-to Kanye West collaborator for The Life of Pablo from demo to finish. He was also a writer and producer on Beyonce’s Lemonade.
In a recent interview with Billboard, Mike reveals the behind-the-scenes details about his Lemonade sessions with Beyoncé (which were two years in the making), his upcoming projects with Travis Scott and Desiigner and how he stays on the cutting edge of music.
Check out excerpts below:
You wrote and produced “Love Drought” with Beyoncé on Lemonade. What were those sessions like?
We were in the studio together. Just writing sessions. Lotta producers, lotta singers. We’d just have them all collaborate. “Love Drought” was one of the songs that we made. I was just lucky enough for it to make the album. It didn’t change from the day we recorded it. It’s been the same for a couple years. I can’t really talk about that stuff though.
How do you and Beyoncé decide what made the cut with so many people in the room?
It just depends on what the whole crowd likes, I think — what moves people. The studio is kind of like a focus group. It’s like a constant focus group, 24 hours a day. When you’re not in the studio you’re always texting or talking about it.
It’s been a kind of a whirlwind these past several months, starting with Travis Scott’s album.
Yeah, it’s been crazy. [Rodeo] was the first time I ever executive produced, which is pretty dope. We’re about to do the same thing on his new album. Think we’ll start up as soon as he finishes up the tour with Rihanna. Anthony Kilhoffer (Kanye’s engineer) first brought Travis around. He discovered [Travis] on Twitter. Then I started working with him shortly after that. Travis used to hit me and Anthony on Twitter everyday for like two years back in like 2010, 2011. We kind of ignored him and then…
How is it working with Desiigner?
He’s a lot more of an artist than you think he is. He’s not just some Future knockoff. He talks like that — he sounds like he’s got Auto-Tune on his voice in real life. He talks like Future raps, which is weird.
READ THE FULL MIKE DEAN INTERVIEW HERE
http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/magazine-feature/7356874/producer-mike-dean-lemonade-beyonce-kanye-west-desiigner
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