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INSIDE TRACK Kevin Kadish at The Carriage House. Secrets Of The Mix Engineers: Kevin Kadish Channelling their shared love of ’50s kitsch, Kevin Kadish and Meghan Trainor created 2014’s ‘All About That Bass’ Written by Meghan Trainor & most talked-about hit single — and turned Kevin Kadish Trainor into a superstar overnight. Produced by Kevin Kadish PAUL TINGEN song, its celebration of big bass, aka big Tennessee song contest at the age of 17. booty, aka big bum, proving the source of In the Spring of 2013 her publisher Carla eghan Trainor’s ‘All About endless controversy. Wallace had the bright idea of introducing That Bass’ has topped hit The song’s staggering success has Trainor to musician, writer, engineer, mixer M parades in two dozen countries, catapulted the two protagonists behind it and producer Kevin Kadish. Wallace must including the US — where it went four from relative obscurity into the limelight. still be feeling pretty pleased with herself, times platinum, with well over four million Singer Meghan Trainor was only 20 when for a couple of hours into their first writing sales, and was recently nominated for two it was released, and had until then not session together, Trainor and Kadish had Grammy Awards — and the UK, where really aimed at being an artist. Originally co-written and recorded most of ‘All it went ‘only’ platinum with more than from Massachusetts, her ambition was About That Bass’. half a million sales. During its extended to be a songwriter, and she was signed Kevin Kadish’s rise to the top has also reign at the top, ‘All About That Bass’ to Big Yellow Dog Music, a Nashville been the subject of a sizeable number also was the world’s most discussed publisher, after winning the 2011 Sonicbids of articles, with the press sometimes 20 February 2015 / www.soundonsound.com No Concept, No Song Over many years as a professional songwriter, Kevin Kadish has evolved his own methods. “I keep a list of all the ideas I get, at any point, wherever I am, which mostly consist of titles, a few lines or concepts that I think could be a good idea for a song. In some cases I also may have a melody, but for the most part they are lyrical concepts. If there’s no concept, like just a word that sounds cool, I don’t keep it. I need to know what I am writing about, what I am going to do. If you’re going on vacation you don’t just hit the highway and drive in whatever direction. You could drive for hours and still not arrive anywhere worthwhile. The destination is crucially important. These titles and concepts serve as sparks of inspiration, and they will morph into something bigger. And then the hard work comes in: they say that songwriting is five percent inspiration and 95 percent perspiration, and I think this is true.” presenting his as a rags-to-riches tale. On the phone from his Nashville studio, Kadish admits that the success of ‘AATB’ has turned his life upside-down, but stories of a dramatic transition from zero to hero have been greatly exaggerated. “This is my first global number one, so yes, it is a life-changer! And yes, I may have slept on friends’ couches and been totally broke at one point, but that was a long time ago. The success of ‘All About That Bass’ did not Kevin Kadish: “There were people in Epic who asked whether our version of ‘All About That Bass’ should be sent to a top mixer or tweaked in other ways. But LA Reid just said: ‘No, don’t touch it! Just master it.’” come out of the blue. I’ve been making a living for 15 years as a songwriter and a producer and even before the release of ‘All About That Bass’ I had sold around 15 million records and had enjoyed several hit singles, including top five and top 10 songs.” Don’t Worry About The Radio Kadish’s studio, called The Carriage House, is a state-of- the-art facility located in his property near Nashville. It’s professionally designed by Ross Alexander and fitted with exquisite kit, such as an 8:2 tube Dymaxion sidecar desk made by Ian Gardiner of Boutique Audio & Design and Steve Firlotte of Inward Connections, as well as mic pres and compressors by Chandler (LTD1), Daking (52270), Burl (B1D), Classic API (VP28), Tube-Tech (CL1B), and outboard by Retro Instruments (Sta Level), Empirical Labs (Distressors), Helios (F760), Chandler (TG1) and more, plus Adam S3A and Yamaha NS10 monitors. Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, Kadish studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and the University of Maryland, graduating in 1993 in Music www.soundonsound.com / February 2015 21 INSIDE TRACK KEVIN Kadish • MegHAN TRAINOR Management. As an artist in his own right, Album. In addition, Kadish has co-written an EP of music inspired by that era for a he toured in support of some pretty big songs for and with a wide range of artists long time. Meghan and I bonded over our names in the ’90s, and he got his first from Miley Cyrus to Meat Loaf, and Joe mutual love of the Jimmy Soul song ‘If You big break when meeting producer Matt Jonas to Skillet. Want To Be Happy’, and we decided to do Serletic (Cher, Stacie Orrico) in 2000. He Kadish moved to Nashville in 2006, and an EP inspired by the 1950s and then find worked with Serletic for 10 years, acting as it was here that the magic that resulted out whether anyone would like it.” the producer’s staff writer and co-writing in ‘All About That Bass’ took place. “The songs for the likes of Willie Nelson and thing with Meghan happened completely The Reluctant Engineer Stacie Orrico (including her worldwide out of the blue,” recalls Kadish, “and the “I am primarily a guitar player and singer,” hits ‘(There’s Gotta Be) More To Life’ and songs also came out of the blue. She did elaborates Kadish. “And I can program ‘Stuck’. Kadish also collaborated with not have a record deal, we just wrote drums and keys. I learned engineering out Jason Mraz on the latter’s Mr A-Z album in songs that we liked, and didn’t worry of necessity. I got my first Pro Tools rig 2005, which earned him his first Grammy about the radio. I love 1950s and early when working with Matt Serletic, a Digi Award nomination, for Best Engineered 1960s music, and had wanted to make 001. I had never used Pro Tools, or really 22 February 2015 / www.soundonsound.com The complete Pro Tools session for ‘All About That Bass’. Drum parts are at the top, followed by an audio render of the all-important upright bass track, the other pitched instruments, then the four lead vocal tracks and, finally, vocal harmonies. do is retro. I can do retro, or non-retro, in my studio, as I prefer. “More often than not people come to my studio to work with me, but it is not a requirement. For me writing here is easy, of course, because I have all my favourite gear. I often start with programming a beat so I know what the groove is going to be and it helps to keep the melodies consistent phrasing-wise. You want to make sure that things are not dragging. These days I program drums in Native Instrument’s Maschine. I make my own kits, using my own samples, and I love it. It has taken my drum programming to a whole other place. I work with both the software and the controller, and I exclusively work in Pro Tools. Also, I don’t have an assistant. I do everything by myself here, writing, recording, editing, and mixing.” A Chorus Of Choruses Because Kadish and Trainor were under no pressure whatsoever, they felt free to experiment, leading ‘AATB’ to be, in Kadish’s words, “sort of an anti-chorus song. There’s no clear structure to the song. The first verse is nothing like the second verse, the two are completely different rhythmically and melodically. The ‘all about that bass’ line is a chorus, but really it functions as a breakdown chorus every time. The most traditional part of the song is the pre-chorus. So the song is sort of free-form. I think it was something that was new for Meghan as a writer. As a typical song structure it is hard to do, but it might be part of the reason the song worked, because it is so unpredictable. “I think it was Clive Davis who once said engineered, before that. I had owned desk, which has eight 610 preamps that that your first verse should be a chorus, some ADATs and four-track cassette sound incredible and Abbey Road Studio your chorus should be a chorus, your pre- recorders when I was at high school, but airplane-style faders. I use it purely for chorus should be a chorus, your bridge never considered myself an engineer. But tracking. I also am a fan of the Classic should be a chorus, and so on. In other since that first Pro Tools system I have API stuff, which comes as a kit and you words, every part of the song should be definitely learned a lot about engineering, then have a tech build it for you. These memorable. That is what makes a hit song.

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