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Hi Emile, welcome to VENTS! How have you been?
Thanks for having me! I’ve been great!
So when did you hear about the whole social distancing and restrictions, as a producer, did that make you concerned and why?
It did make me concerned because I had one client after another cancel and I’m typically booked up 3-4 weeks in advance. I also didn’t have any new sessions being booked.
Was it easy to rise to the occasion or did you stumble upon some rather technical problems? Did you see yourself maybe losing some jobs as many others unfortunate have?
After losing several high paying projects, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I’ve never been the kind of person who makes up excuses for things and even with everyone canceling and the world shutting down, I still continued to work from home. I have been doing sessions remotely for the last few years with certain artists and friends, and so I decided to focus on that even more.
Speaking of which, let’s talk about Now United “By My Side” – how did you jump into this project?
I met the group through a very close friend and business partner of mine named Aurora Pfeiffer. She was pitching some of my songs and she sent a song called “Na Na Na” to Now United’s a&r Iain Pirie last fall and several weeks later we were in the studio together recording it. Well, fast forward a few months later, Iain and I were talking and looking for ways to record a 15-member group who couldn’t travel, and who didn’t have home studios. So I came up with the idea of recording their vocals on their iPhones using their “Voice Memos” and putting the song together that way. It was a bit challenging, but through lots of patience and hard work, “By My Side” came to life.
I am guessing remastering these low-quality vocals to much higher was rather challenging. Can you tell us a bit about how you did this? Did you have to fix the music to go along with the vocal quality you built or what was the process like?
Some vocals were more challenging than others. Everyone has a different voice and a different tone and so I had to find a way to keep the recordings consistent or somewhat workable. I had some of the singers sing in closets, move their bed mattresses to a wall and sit underneath it like it was a tent, put tights, socks, or underwear over their phone so that we can create some kind of “pop filter” for the vocals, etc. Remastering the vocals was pretty easy for me. Besides being a writer and producer, I also mix and engineer all of my records. So I knew which plugins and tools I needed for each voice to create something that felt hi-res and competitive with the current hits on the radio. I almost always mix the vocals to the chords of the songs. That is my starting point. Once I have it sounding good as an acoustic song, then I mix in the drums, bass, and everything else until the balance is there.
Would you say it was rather a blessing in the end that you found this new production style, or are you eager to go back to the traditional style?
The blessing is being able to do what you love for a living. I enjoy working from home and remotely just as much as I enjoy being in the studio. The goal is to keep making music and thanks to technology, I can do that anywhere in the world.
How does it feel for you that from all the songs you’ve produced, this one in particular has gotten such a great response? Did you feel relief when seeing those numbers and overall reception? What do you think this could mean for your future in producing?
I think it was amazing! Iain Pirie really gave me a real shot with this group and this method of recording. Truth is, it was all an experiment when we did it. We had no idea how the end result was going to turn out. And since “By My Side”, Now United and I have recorded another several songs remotely and we are planning to continue working this way for as long as we need to.
What else is happening next in Emile Ghantous’ world?
I have been working on a lot of other projects and have a lot of singles coming out soon. Some of the artists include Baby Goth (Universal Republic), Celina Sharma (Virgin/London), Carly Gibert (Universal), Charlie Wilson (who I have been working with for over 10 years), Haven (who has become one of my favorite up and coming new artists), Whitney Woerz (Universal/Island), WanMor (who are the children of Wanya Morris of Boyz II Men), and many others. I also do a lot of K-Pop and J-Pop, and help consult for up and coming new artists. I’m just thankful that after all of these years in the industry, that I am busier than I have ever been.
