Ken Lewis (musician)

Ken Lewis is an American record producer, mixing engineer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist based in New York City. He has been nominated by name for his contributions to 7 Grammy-nominated projects including on Eminem's Recovery, Kanye West's The College Dropout, FUN.'s Some Nights, and others. He has also contributed production, songwriting, engineering, arranging and/or instrumentation and vocals to numerous gold, platinum, and diamond records including Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars' "Uptown Funk", Lil Wayne and Drake's "Believe Me", and Kanye West and Jamie Foxx's "Gold Digger" (among many others). He is the creator of two web-based instructional platforms: Audio School Online and Music School Online. Lewis is also half the production team, Katalyst, with Brent Kolatalo.

Ken Lewis
BornCincinnati, Ohio
OriginNew York City
Genres
Occupation(s)
Years active1993–present
Associated acts
Websiteiproducemusic.com

Early life and education

Ken Lewis was born and grew up in the Cincinnati, Ohio area.[1] As a child, he showed an interest in music and learned how to play the guitar at age 10.[2] He attended Lakota High School in Butler County, Ohio and graduated in 1988.[3] After high school, he went to the Berklee College of Music in Boston,[4] graduating in 1991.[5]

Career

After graduating from Berklee, Lewis moved to New York City where he got a job as an assistant in a music studio. He worked his way up to engineer at the studio before becoming a freelance producer and engineer a few years after that.[2] Between the mid-1990s and 2000, Lewis engineered, produced, or played instruments on 16 gold and platinum albums and recorded acts like Mary J. Blige, Diana Ross, Jody Watley, George Benson,[6] Public Enemy,[7] and numerous others. In October 2000, he was among the first mixing engineers to be signed to New York-based Sound on Sound Studios' engineer and producer management arm known as SOS Management.[6]

In 2004, Lewis mixed and performed on the Usher song, "Throwback", which appeared on Usher's diamond-certified Confessions album. Also that year, Lewis worked as a writer, arranger, musician, and vocalist on Kanye West's debut studio album, The College Dropout.[2] He co-wrote the song, "Last Call".[8] The following year, he created music for West's single "Gold Digger" featuring Jamie Foxx,[9] although he went uncredited on that song.[10] Throughout this period, Lewis worked with fellow Lakota High School alumnus[3] and Berklee attendee, Brent Kolatalo.[4] In 2007, he formed a production team with Kolatalo that was originally known as "The Skywalkers"[8] and was later renamed, "Katalyst".[4] By 2008, Lewis had worked with acts like Joe Budden, Ghostface Killah, John Legend, and Danity Kane, among numerous others.[8] He mixed back-to-back number one albums that year with Danity Kane's Welcome to the Dollhouse and Day26's self-titled album.[9]

Also in 2008, Lewis contributed to the Kanye West album, 808s & Heartbreak, performing staccato flute on "Heartless" and creating the orchestral section in "RoboCop".[10] In 2010, he continued working with West, contributing to his next album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. His vocals and brass arrangements were featured on "All of the Lights",[11][12] and he (along with Alvin Fields) provided the chant vocals on "Power".[1] He was also an engineer on Eminem's album, Recovery, that would eventually be nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and won the award for Best Rap Album.[3] Also that year, he mixed Jeremih's "Down on Me" (featuring 50 Cent).[2] In 2011, Lewis created the choir and live band arrangements for Drake's "Lord Knows", which appeared on his album, Take Care.[13][14] He contributed to five songs on the Jay-Z and Kanye West album, Watch the Throne, in various roles including writer, horn arranger, musician, vocalist, engineer, and accordion player.[2][15]

In 2011 and 2012, he was noted for creating the "big drums" for both Fun.'s "We Are Young"[16] and Alicia Keys' "Girl on Fire".[12] In 2011, he also founded Audio School Online, an instructional platform with video tutorials and lessons on how to produce and engineer music.[1] In 2013, he was a co-producer on 9 songs on the J. Cole album, Born Sinner,[13] and produced the song, "Don't Front", on the Eminem album, The Marshall Mathers LP 2.[12] He is also a writer and performer on Lil Wayne's "Believe Me" (featuring Drake). In 2014, Lewis wrote some of the lyrics for the Rick Ross song, "Sanctified" (featuring Kanye West and Big Sean). He also mixed the Wu Tang Clan's entire secret double album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, which was notably auctioned as only a single copy.[13]

In 2015, he earned a songwriting credit on the Kendrick Lamar track, "The Blacker the Berry", which appeared on Lamar's album, To Pimp a Butterfly. He was also an engineer on the multi-platinum single, "Uptown Funk", by Mark Ronson and featuring Bruno Mars.[17] That year,[1] he also founded the Music School Online, which is similar to Audio School Online except that it has video tutorials and lessons geared toward teaching students how to sing or play instruments.[4]

In 2016, he contributed to Lady Gaga's album, Joanne, playing drums on the track, "Come to Mama".[18] In the following years, Lewis has worked on multiple BTS projects (You Never Walk Alone, Love Yourself: Tear, etc.)[19] and Taylor Swift's 2019 album, Lover.[20] With Brent Kolatalo as part of their production team Katalyst, Lewis has produced songs for Future, Ciara, Eminem, X Ambassadors, Kendrick Lamar, K Michelle,[13] Kanye West, Jay-Z, Des Rocs, and many others.[21]

Nominations and awards
Year Award Category Nominee(s) Result Ref.
2005 Grammy Award Album of the Year Confessions by Usher Nominated [22]
The College Dropout by Kanye West Nominated [22]
2006 Late Registration Nominated [22]
Record of the Year "Gold Digger" by Kanye West (feat. Jamie Foxx) Nominated [22]
2011 Album of the Year Recovery by Eminem Nominated [22]
2013 Some Nights by Fun. Nominated [22]
Record of the Year "We Are Young" by Fun. Nominated [22]
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References
  1. Nick Ruffini (17 August 2015). "The secrets behind grammy winning and multi-platinum success with Ken Lewis". Drummer's Resource (Podcast). Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  2. Ketchum III, William (26 October 2011). "Producer Ken Lewis Retracts Claims Made That Shyne Was Dropped By Def Jam". HipHopDX. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  3. Hilty, Lindsey (2 March 2011). "Lakota alumni win Grammy awards". Journal-News. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  4. Dorn, Anna (7 October 2016). "Meet Ken Lewis: Hip-Hop's Max Martin". DJBooth. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  5. "Alumni Grammy Winners". Berklee College of Music. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  6. Walsh, Christopher (28 October 2000). "Sound on Sound Branches into Engineer Management". Billboard. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  7. Filicky, Brad (13 October 2003). "Loretta - The Translation". CMJ New Music Report. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  8. "Ken Lewis: The One Man Band ...From Joe Budden to Kanye West". All Hip Hop. 13 May 2008. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  9. "Bringing the Brass Bling to producer Ken Lewis". New York Brass. 22 May 2010. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  10. "808'S & KEN LEWIS' HEARTBREAK". Affinity Music Group. 18 December 2008. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  11. "Kanye West's 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' By The Numbers". XXL. 11 November 2010. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  12. T, Jason (2014). "On the Record: Grammy-Winning Producer Ken Lewis". B&H Photo and Video. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  13. "Ken Lewis (Producer/Mixer)". SpeakHertz. 9 June 2014. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  14. "Ken Lewis: Producing the goods". Blues & Soul. 2011. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  15. Lilah, Rose (19 July 2011). "Production Credits For Jay-Z & Kanye West's "Watch The Throne" Revealed". HotNewHipHop. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  16. "Fun. Behind the Board". Berklee College of Music. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  17. Garrison, Lucas (18 March 2015). "All 71 People on Kendrick Lamar's 'To Pimp A Butterfly' Album". DJBooth. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  18. Kaufman, Gil (21 October 2016). "Meet the Creative Team Behind Lady Gaga's 'Joanne' Album". Billboard. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  19. "Ken Lewis - Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  20. "Taylor Swift - Lover - Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  21. Putnam, Rob (14 August 2019). "Producer Crosstalk: Brent Kolatalo". Music Connection. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  22. "Ken Lewis". Grammys. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
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