the controls. Best known for his work with the American rapper Nas, Remi has produced such commercial tunes as Ini Kamoze’s ‘Here Comes the Hotstepper’ and the Fugees’s multi-platinumalbum The Score . He has also worked with Ms Dynamite, Toni Braxton and Lauryn Hill.
Hill’s debut album has been cited by Amy as having had a huge influence on her as a youngster. She is also a huge fan of Nas, telling one interviewer, ‘I am Nas’s biggest fan. He’s my favourite. I’ve been in the club when he’s walked in and I’ve had a panic attack and had to walk out. It’s like Michael Jackson, Bad -era hysteria.’ For Frank , Remi was at the controls for the majority of the tunes and also played bass on some of the tracks.
Despite having such a star-studded CV, he does not have a huge celebrity presence of his own – quite deliberately. He explains, ‘I didn’t want to be seen as a public figure. An industry person, cool – most people in the industry over five or six years, I have crossed paths with them, because I have been around that long, so all the presidents and senior VPs I have crossed paths with them by now, but I am not really or want to be a public figure. I like to be known by industry peers and people I work with, but I like the fact that I can walk around.’
Nor does the broad range of genres he works in ever cause him any confusion as he moves from artist to artist. Indeed, he believes it enhances his work. ‘I think the fact that I listen to and work on different types of music keeps me fresh whenever I get back to whatever it is,’ he says. ‘A lot of the times, I create based on the project and the artist. It’s not like I’m just making it just for making it’s sake; sometimes I do that, but I’ll get into Amy Winehouse, and I won’t be thinkingabout what I did for Shabba Ranks. It’s different, but, say, on the Amy Source album, there’s a cover of “Moody’s Mood for Love”, which is a jazz song by James Moody and King Pleasure, and we made that into a Reggae song. So [with] me having different influences, I can mix it. But I also keep them separate just by working around the artist’s project at hand, whatever’s needed.’
Expanding on his methodology, Remi said, ‘I am concerned with songs that are going to stick and that takes a vehicle, great lyrics that are going to stick, that is when you’re going to get a classic album overall. I really get in and work with people and work on a lot of music if I have my choice and, even if someone only wants to do one song, I’m, like, “Let’s do four and you can pick the best one off it.”’
One of the songwriters Amy had worked with on the album was Felix Howard. He told music critic Garry Mulholland that the beginning of their songwriting partnership was amusing. ‘He told me that, the first time she turned up at his studio to write with him, she picked up her battered old acoustic guitar and started playing this song that just lasted for ever and ever and ever,’ reveals Mulholland. ‘Felix had to say, “Stop! Maybe you could sing “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” [a hellishly indulgent Bob Dylan track] in five years’ time when you have an audience!” He said she was just on her own planet. She’d no interest in what the market was looking for. Her instincts have to be reined in by the producers and songwriters she works with. She’d probably be writing fifteen- or twenty- minute-long folk odysseys with no chorus.’
Frank was recorded in Miami, where Remi has quite a setup. ‘My main studio is in Miami in my home,’ he says. ‘Every room in my house has something musical. I have ridiculous amounts of equipment. I call my house Instrument Zoo.’ Among the musicians to work with Amy on the album were guitarists Binky Griptite and Thomas Brenneck, drummers Troy Auxilly-Wilson and Homer Steinweiss, saxophonists Andy Mackintosh, Chris Davies, Jamie Talbot, Mike Smith and Neal Sugarman and pianist John Adams.
Hill’s debut album has been cited by Amy as having had a huge influence on her as a youngster. She is also a huge fan of Nas, telling one interviewer, ‘I am Nas’s biggest fan. He’s my favourite. I’ve been in the club when he’s walked in and I’ve had a panic attack and had to walk out. It’s like Michael Jackson, Bad -era hysteria.’ For Frank , Remi was at the controls for the majority of the tunes and also played bass on some of the tracks.
Despite having such a star-studded CV, he does not have a huge celebrity presence of his own – quite deliberately. He explains, ‘I didn’t want to be seen as a public figure. An industry person, cool – most people in the industry over five or six years, I have crossed paths with them, because I have been around that long, so all the presidents and senior VPs I have crossed paths with them by now, but I am not really or want to be a public figure. I like to be known by industry peers and people I work with, but I like the fact that I can walk around.’
Nor does the broad range of genres he works in ever cause him any confusion as he moves from artist to artist. Indeed, he believes it enhances his work. ‘I think the fact that I listen to and work on different types of music keeps me fresh whenever I get back to whatever it is,’ he says. ‘A lot of the times, I create based on the project and the artist. It’s not like I’m just making it just for making it’s sake; sometimes I do that, but I’ll get into Amy Winehouse, and I won’t be thinkingabout what I did for Shabba Ranks. It’s different, but, say, on the Amy Source album, there’s a cover of “Moody’s Mood for Love”, which is a jazz song by James Moody and King Pleasure, and we made that into a Reggae song. So [with] me having different influences, I can mix it. But I also keep them separate just by working around the artist’s project at hand, whatever’s needed.’
Expanding on his methodology, Remi said, ‘I am concerned with songs that are going to stick and that takes a vehicle, great lyrics that are going to stick, that is when you’re going to get a classic album overall. I really get in and work with people and work on a lot of music if I have my choice and, even if someone only wants to do one song, I’m, like, “Let’s do four and you can pick the best one off it.”’
One of the songwriters Amy had worked with on the album was Felix Howard. He told music critic Garry Mulholland that the beginning of their songwriting partnership was amusing. ‘He told me that, the first time she turned up at his studio to write with him, she picked up her battered old acoustic guitar and started playing this song that just lasted for ever and ever and ever,’ reveals Mulholland. ‘Felix had to say, “Stop! Maybe you could sing “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” [a hellishly indulgent Bob Dylan track] in five years’ time when you have an audience!” He said she was just on her own planet. She’d no interest in what the market was looking for. Her instincts have to be reined in by the producers and songwriters she works with. She’d probably be writing fifteen- or twenty- minute-long folk odysseys with no chorus.’
Frank was recorded in Miami, where Remi has quite a setup. ‘My main studio is in Miami in my home,’ he says. ‘Every room in my house has something musical. I have ridiculous amounts of equipment. I call my house Instrument Zoo.’ Among the musicians to work with Amy on the album were guitarists Binky Griptite and Thomas Brenneck, drummers Troy Auxilly-Wilson and Homer Steinweiss, saxophonists Andy Mackintosh, Chris Davies, Jamie Talbot, Mike Smith and Neal Sugarman and pianist John Adams.
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