Thursday, July 14, 2011

Mike Elizondo: Inside the Mind of One of Music's Most Versatile Figures By Ben LoPiccolo

50 Cent, Fiona Apple and Avenged Sevenfold -- certainly not artists that would normally be grouped together, but for producer and songwriter Mike Elizondo, working with any of the three is always a possibility. He stopped by GRAMMY Camp® for today's guest professional panel to share some useful advice gathered throughout his career, telling stories and answering questions from Campers.


While plenty of guests had spoken during the week about their work with many different artists, Elizondo was the first who had worked with such an eclectic mix in the creative perspective.


"I have a pretty short attention span, so if I only did one style of music I would get bored," he explained. "You've got to be versatile enough to try different things."


Continuing throughout the panel, Elizondo mentioned that for each Camper, being flexible is the most important trait to have in order to excel in the industry. After speaking about the broad range of genres he had worked in, he described that his philosophy while working is to be someone that takes an artist to places they haven't been before, and to evolve along with them. For someone that started as a session bassist, production was not something that he expected to be skillful with, but after a lucky break with Dr. Dre and Bono he was able to explore his unknown talent. "Keep an open mind," Elizondo began. "There may be some other areas in music you may not even know exist, but that you may actually excel at."

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