Two very different kinds of education went into the music that earned Rogét Chahayed a Grammy nomination for non-classical producer of the year in 2022. One was the traditional music school: the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where Chahayed studied classical music and jazz and obtained a degree in piano performance. The second was a studio internship of late nights and split-second decisions: playing keyboards and building beats for hip-hop mogul Dr. Dre from Los Angeles.
“The real me is a mix of classical music, jazz harmony and technique, all together,” said Chahayed, speaking via video from his home studio in Los Angeles, where rows of electronic keyboards filled a wall of shelves, “So you’ll hear the voices of Debussy and Ravel and things like that, which I really like, in my left hand, but maybe I’ll try some Art Tatum in the right hand, I like to try to see the connection between everything.”
Chahayed’s huge catalog includes Doja Cat’s “Kiss Me More”; “Far Away” by Jessie Reyez; Halsey’s “Bad at Love”; Big Sean’s “ZTFO”; Miguel’s “Sky Walker”; “I Want War (But I Need Peace)” by Kali Uchis; Nas “27 Summers”; and two Grammy-nominated songs from previous years, Drake’s “Laugh Now Cry Later” and Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode”. His nomination on Sunday is for songs with the likes of Kali Uchis, Doja Cat and Anderson .Paak.
Chahayed’s studio work is based on a wealth of music theory and music history, along with instinct, attention and luck. As a producer and songwriter, he can compose complex harmonies and subtle multi-track orchestrations, reflecting his conservatory studies.
But Chahayed can also come up with skeletal, arresting earwig riffs that he often enriches, spatially and harmoniously, as a song unfolds. He doesn’t mind repeating just two or three chords. “A lot of my friends as composers and classical instrumentalists might look at that like, ‘Oh, it’s so simple,'” he said. “Actually, producing music reminds me a lot of the way Mozart would compose. Obviously much of Mozart’s music is very simple and very digestible, and it’s so open that if you make a mistake you can hear it all. The difficulty is to find the simplicity, to find that golden chord progression.”
Chahayed deftly navigates how songs are made in the 21st century: a process that is at once musical, technological, intuitive and brutally Darwinian. Hooks and beats recorded in moments can remain on a hard drive for months to be discovered, adapted and completed by collaborators who have never met. All that matters is whether someone hears that a song has potential, wants to finish it and finds something that works.
“If I have a philosophy, it’s that I want to be able to execute the artist’s vision first,” Chahayed said. “But also to do it in an innovative way, that’s always finding a way to push the boundaries sonically.”
Colombian-American songwriter Kali Uchis has released only a few songs with Chahayed’s production — including “Aguardiente y Limón,” named in his Grammy nomination — but they live close to each other in Los Angeles, and she often visits his studio to work on music. to work.
A Guide to the 2022 Grammy Awards
The ceremony, originally scheduled for January 31, was postponed for the second year in a row due to Covid and is now scheduled for April 3.
“He just likes to just create, create, create,” she said over the phone from Los Angeles. “Only for the sheer satisfaction of making things that are unique, and not for any kind of ulterior capitalist motive. If it ends up being a big song, that’s great. But with me and Rogét, I’ve never been in the studio and felt a strange pressure to go in any direction. It was always very organic, very natural and very, just, free.”
After graduating from the Conservatory in 2010, Chahayed moved back to Los Angeles where he grew up; his mother is from Argentina, his father from Syria. He played jazz and chamber music performances and gave piano lessons; he also found a mentor: Melvin Bradford, better known as Mel-Man, one of the main producers of Dr. Dre since the 1990s.
“I went to his house and did five to eight strokes a day. From 1 pm to sometimes 2, 3 or 4 am,” he said. “We would send countless beats to Dre every day, hoping that maybe something would click.”
He added, “It was definitely a big difference from sitting in a class and learning about Bach chorales or ear training.”
Chahayed also collaborated with others, including producer Wesley Singerman. In 2013, they outright sold some of the songs they had made; their music appeared, uncredited, on Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 album “To Pimp a Butterfly” in “For Sale?” And you.”
In 2014, Mel-Man surprised Chahayed one day by taking him to an unmarked building. It was the studio of Dr. dre. “This door opens and I just see a giant SSL and Dre sits there with his hands turning the knobs,” Chahayed said, referring to a Solid State Logic recording console. “He told me he heard I was nice on the keys and that he would put me to the test.”
He passed collecting and began working on Dre’s productions. “You have a responsibility to always be the best you can be and constantly display musical excellence: technique, taste, flavor, rhythm,” he said. “I’ve had Dre there standing over everyone and saying, ‘Hey, what have you got?’ And when you have the biggest, most influential producer and rapper in the world telling you that, you have to act.”
One of Chahayed’s first blockbuster hits was Dram’s “Broccoli” (now called FKA Dram by Shelley), starring Lil Yachty, which has been streamed over a billion times. The steady-sounding piano chords, Chahayed said, were a happy coincidence. He had packed up his equipment after a session with Dram, but got a last minute call that Lil Yachty was on his way to the studio. He took out a keyboard and plugged it in, playing a few chords to test the connection; those chords became the central loop of the song.
“Where and how I find most of my success as a producer and songwriter is, you know, just showing up,” Chahayed said. “Finding a sound and coming up with the progression, or a riff, or something recognizable that grabs people’s attention.”
“Kiss Me More”, Doja Cat’s hit with SZA that has been nominated for Record of the Year (the recorded song), Song of the Year (the composition) and as part of Album of the Year, could have ended as a single . more stray computer file. Chahayed teamed up with Yeti Beats, the longtime executive producer of Doja Cat, on what he called “a beat cook-up session.” Yeti Beats suggested some “keywords” – “anime music” and “cute” – with Doja Cat in mind.
“I grew up with four younger sisters, and we all interacted a lot about anime and video games,” Chahayed said. “This cute jazzy vibe from a lot of games kind of seeped in. So I tapped back into that realm that particular day and we came up with a few ideas.”
He opted for a guitar-like sound and recorded a twinkling little riff that “just kind of came naturally in the moment,” he said. “I knew there was something special about that job.” Yeti Beats repeatedly presented the riff to Doja Cat and sped it up during one session; it clicked.
As Chahayed’s reputation grew, so did his control over his music. Sometimes he turns down requests to use his beats for certain songs. And whenever possible, he tries to collaborate with the lead artist in real time.
“For most people, a common procedure is having tons of beats and melodies and ideas and things like that. Many artists have a different kind of attention span, and may respond better to things that are ready-made. But I’ve adapted more to the spontaneity of just showing up with the instruments. I like to work with the artists who let me cook from scratch.”
He also looks ahead. “I always have a five to ten year plan,” he said. “Fortunately, I was able to reach my last five-year goal: you know, get #1, get a Grammy nomination, rack up tons of record sales and chart things. And it’s cool, but it just fuels me to move on. My real passion is that I want to score films. I want to do what John Williams, Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer and Bernard Herrmann do. Those guys are my real heroes.”
He added: “I will never stop producing. I will never stop making beats. I will never stop working with artists. But I would love it if you watch a movie and ‘Music by Rogét Chahayed’ see. That’s my obsession.”