Article by Ben Knight
lophiile is an American producer, Dj and remixer best known for merging his jazzy chords into his music, creating a beautiful R&B/Hip hop sound. Recently he won a Grammy for producer for the song, Avenue, on the eponymous album ‘H.E.R’ . This of course was a huge hit, and as a producer he has helped a number of artists musically by complimenting their vocal talents with his signature R&B sound.
As a producer, lopiiile most commonly uses the DAW Ableton Live 9. He released a sample pack earlier this year to fellow producers on the music enabling website splice.com sharing a small number of his signature sounds including drums, synths. After releasing this to the public, we began to see just how talented this man is. He uses a microphone and technical effects to produce a variety of sounds. One of the widely used drum kicks by lophiile is actually the sound of lophiile himself tapping a tissue box. Although this would sound mad to most people, this became part of his signature sound that he uses on tracks such as CommonSense and LateAss.
The synth sounds that he uses as a producer give off a strong ‘80s/‘90 vibe. The complexity of his chords and melodies are complimented by the unique synths he uses. He regularly offers masterclass sessions to the public to inspire and teach them. I, personally, have been lucky enough to be part of one of these sessions via a Skype call. In this session I submitted a remix to lophiile that I had made, and for an hour he gave his time and a vast amount of knowledge, as well as pointers on how to edit my samples, how to create better sounds and play with the melody of a song.
lophiile was mentored by none other than German producer ‘ZEDD’ who actually met him in a guitar shop. In a 2015 remix competition for one of ZEDD’s songs Beautiful Now, lophiile posted a submission and won. Since then, his sound has become a lot more personal and sophisticated in terms of instrumentation and melody. He mainly focused on remixes until the year 2018, when he released his first E.P To Forgive. Each song on the album is an expression of lophiile’s musical abilities, and as he explains ‘A very personal expression of myself’ He now creates original tracks rather than remixes, his latest being the track No Bus.
Although is popularity is limited in the public eye, his demand as a producer is growing and he has influenced a lot of R&B based music we hear today. His unique sounds and chords are attracting the attention of Grammy winners and solo vocalists from all around the world. His guidance from ZEDD and his experience working with Grey’ has made him a huge competitor in the music production industry. I would encourage all producers out there to look at his work and download his sample pack, to open up a whole word of musical possibilities.
