We often forget what it takes to deliver a high quality song since we’re only taking our imagination till the artist or maximum, the producer of the song. A mixer and a engineer has a very essential role in a song’s success. A weak tune can turn into a listenable one when it’s mixed right and all elements are heard in the manner that they are supposed to be heard.
With that in mind, I reached out to Andrew Dawson, a 3x Grammy Award winning mixer, engineer and producer who has worked on some of the biggest Hip-Hop & R&B albums of the last decade including all 5 Kanye solo albums, Tha Carter III & IV, Drake’s Thank Me Later, Common’s Be, Beyonce’s 4, Rick Ross’ Teflon Don, Jay-Z’s Blueprint III, UGK’s Underground Kings, T.I.’s Paper Trail and Nas’ Hip Hop Is Dead, just to name a few. If those titles don’t satisfy you enough, check out his entire discography here. Not to forget, he also earned co-production credits for Kanye’s ‘Power’.
Andrew and I discussed working with Kanye, how he’s stuck to Andrew for the past 8 years, his favorite Kanye songs, producing Chamillionaire’s banger ‘When Ya On’, Lil Wayne’s Carter III & Carter IV, upcoming projects and much more. Check out our exclusive two page interview.
HHNM: Hi Andrew, thank you for taking out the time to speak with us.
Andrew Dawson: Sure, no problem.
HHNM: I was looking at your credits. You have mixed and engineered some of the biggest albums of the last decade. How does that feel?
Andrew Dawson: It’s a pretty exciting thing actually. I don’t spend much time to kind of look back at stuff like that. I was talking to my manager the other day and I couldn’t even remember some of the songs I have mixed in my career because they’re so many. I had to go back and look at it. It’s nice to sometimes look back and say “hey I remember doing that one” (laughs). I’ve just been focused on what’s next. But it’s really been a great trip so far. I’m really excited about the future as well.
HHNM: Great. You obviously have a special working relationship with Kanye since you have mixed/engineered all his albums till now. Tell me how you started working with him.
Andrew Dawson: Well, I was working in a studio in New York City at one time. And Kanye was working on his The College Dropout Album. He was about half way into that album and he had a couple of engineers working with him with whom he wasn’t really happy. My name came up next on the list like “ok, you’re next” and he decided to give me a try. And then 1 day turned into 2 days, turned into week, turned into a year. And it’s been about 8 years now. Rest is history.
HHNM: This is a hard question but if you had to pick your 3 favorite Kanye songs, which ones would they be?
Andrew Dawson: Ahh.. This is a tough one. Let me think. One of them would be ‘Blame Game’ off My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. I really love that one because it’s a great story and well put together. And.. Gosh, it’s so hard to pick. Another one I really like is ‘Gone’ off Late Registration. I like that because we were able to do a different sound with that one. And the third would be ‘Jesus Walks’. I love working on that one and I had a feeling it would become really big. Which ones are your favorites?
HHNM: Oh taste of my own medicine? (laughs). He’s got some amazing songs. I like ‘Hey Mama’ a lot. I also love ‘Through The Wire’ and ‘All Falls Down’. I think his first 2 albums are his best work.
Andrew Dawson: Yeah, that’s a great list too.
HHNM: Did you also mix or engineer the highly acclaimed album Watch The Throne. Is it a tough job to work with two legends like Kanye and Jay-Z at the same time?
Andrew Dawson: Actually, you know what, I did not specifically work on that album. I was involved with a few songs we had done in Hawaii that ended up on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. But I was not a part of the Watch The Throne sessions per se.
HHNM: I know you have worked with artists outside of Rap as well. What is your most memorable studio session?
Andrew Dawson: Wow, you’re asking me some tough ones (laughs). I can’t pin point one session but the stretch of sessions for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy were amazing. You know, just the stream of talent which was coming in the studio to work on the album. Some people you wouldn’t expect to come by the studio and hang out. Like one day it was Brandon Flowers (from The Killers) at the studio. Next day we had Elton John coming by. The next day we had Rihanna. Like all in a span of probably just a week. It was really cool.
HHNM: Was that challenging as well? Because that album is quite experimental in parts and has lot of layers. So many artists contributing, who are not even credited on the main track list.
Andrew Dawson: Definitely. There was so much stuff going on and so many layers used. It was a challenging album to put together from the mixing and engineering standout because there were a lot of elements involved and to make it all fit together definitely wasn’t easy. But it came together very well. You know it’s hard to pick my favorite album but this one was certainly one of his best.
HHNM: You produced Chamillionaire’s ‘When Ya On’ which is actually one of my favourite beats of 2011. How did that beat come about? Do you have more work with Chamillionaire coming up?
Andrew Dawson: Oh great, thanks! Yeah, I would love to work with Chamillionaire some more but we don’t have anything planed together right now. That beat was really fun, it came together really quick. It was one of those beats which come out quick and good. He had heard that beat on a CD that I had sent to one of his friends. It will be great to work with him again. I think he did a great job on that beat.
HHNM: You’re also credited on Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III and Tha Carter IV. How was the experience of working with Wayne?
Andrew Dawson: Oh yeah, those are big albums. Actually, on Tha Carter IV, my involvement was a lil bit less because I only did some sample replaying. But Tha Carter III, I mixed the entire album and the experience was great. That was a huge album. It did a million in the first week and it was very rare at that time for an album to do so. Tha Carter IV did close to million too. It’s fun working with him. Hopefully, I will be a part of Tha Carter V too (laughs).
HHNM: Okay. Have you heard Tha Carter IV?
Andrew Dawson: Oh yeah.
HHNM: What are your thoughts on that album which is commercially very successful but panned by most critics.
Andrew Dawson: know there are a lot of songs that are spartan, production wise. I mean, if I had to pick between III and IV, I would probably pick III. But I think there are a lot of good songs on Tha Carter IV and I don’t understand why people would dislike it. I actually kinda dig that record.
HHNM: You worked on Fun.’s ‘We Are Young’ too. It’s multi platinum already and was the number 1 song in the country till last week . How did that collaboration happen?
Andrew Dawson: Yeah, that was a surprise. I was just talking to Nate, Jack and Andrew, the 3 guys of Fun. after it kinda blew up. They really had no idea or never thought the song would go so big. That makes it even cooler. We recorded that album at my studio in Hollywood and Producer Jeff Bhasker’s studio in Santa Monica. So we split it and did the album over a course of 3 months. We were recording the album during this time last year and I knew some of the songs there had big potential and I’m really happy with the success they’ve had with the album. Their next single is big too. They will probably end up with 5 singles off that album.
HHNM: What’s next for Andrew Dawson? Will you be producing more in the future?
Andrew Dawson: I’m currently finishing up work on Pet Shop Boys’ 11th studio album. Putting final touches on that. Another guy called P.O.S., I’m working on his album which is coming out this Fall. There’s another group that just put out a new mixtape. Their name is The Morning Benders but they’ve recently changed their name to POP ETC. I did some work on their mixtape and also working on their album.
HHNM: You have a diverse clientele. Is there any artist out there that you really want to work with but haven’t got the chance yet?
Andrew Dawson: I’d really love to work with Katy Perry. I think she would be great to work with. Producing, writing and recording with her. I’ve also never worked with Eminem. I’ve always been a great fan of his and would be great to work with him as well.
HHNM: This is something we ask everybody we interview here at Hip Hop N More: Prince Or Michael Jackson and why?
Andrew Dawson: That’s a tough one for me because I grew up in Minnesota about 10 minutes away from Prince’s studio Paisley Park out there. I think I have to say MJ. You know what, the intellectual side of me, the technical & trailed musician side of me wants to say Prince but my heart & soul tells me I wanna listen to those MJ songs. So I gotta go with Michael Jackson.