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January 24, 2011

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He's a red-hot producer with a blue-chip vision.

RedOne, pop's master of grabby melodies, buoyant beats and colorful sonic kinks, imagines building a musical portfolio as respected as those of heroes George Martin and Quincy Jones.

After years of struggle and setbacks, the Moroccan native has established a record of creative and commercial triumphs amid the music industry's vagaries and volatility.

After all, RedOne was the linchpin that turned disco freak show Lady Gaga into a mainstream goldmine.

Last year, they shared the dance-recording Grammy for Poker Face. This year, he's nominated (with Gaga and other participants) for best album, The Fame Monster.

He's also up for producer of the year for Monster and Gaga singles Alejandro and Bad Romance, plus Enrique Iglesias' I Like It, Usher's More, Mary J. Blige's Whole Lotta Love and the all-star We Are the World: 25 for Haiti.

At the Henson Recording Studios, where he's working on Gaga's upcoming Born This Way, the loquacious producer turns giddy on the topic of his newly released collaboration with Jennifer Lopez, On the Floor. But he's reticent about the gestating Gaga album, due out May 23.

"It's too precious to talk about," he says. "I'm very excited. She's very independent, but when we get together, something happens. We both have the edge and we never settle for OK. She became this phenomenon, but in the room together, we're just songwriters."

RedOne, 38, also has been working on a U2 club album and with rising acts on his 2101 label, Swedish-Congolese R&B singer Mohombi and Detroit rocker Porcelain.

He's producing Interscope artist Zander Bleck, whose voice RedOne describes as "a mixture of Jim Morrison, Bono and Freddie Mercury— there's no male singer like that right now."

Universe of melody

Aside from RedOne's knack for melody and pop zing, expect little sonic overlap.

"I don't want to copy whatever is already out there," he says, insisting there is no single RedOne Sound. "A lot of people try to label you. I'm not a synth guy, and I'm not a beat-maker. I'm a guitar player, a musician, a songwriter. Melody is the universal language. Give people melody, emotion and a simple lyric they can sing anywhere in the world."

RedOne's production philosophy has little to do with studio gadgetry or buckets of gloss.

"No matter how hot a track is, it has to be a great song first," he says. "I've heard a lot of covers of Poker Face and Bad Romance on just a guitar, and it sounds good."

In the studio, his board-side manner is both pushy and Zen.

"I get the best out of the artist, but not by being negative," RedOne says. "Be fun, make the artist feel good. I will tell them, 'It's good, but ... it's not good enough.' I never say it's bad. Don't kill the beautiful vibe."

RedOne credits supportive relatives for that vital lesson. Born Nadir Khayat in the northern Moroccan city of Tétouan, he was the youngest of nine children in a close-knit family of avid musicians.

He was exposed to a wide spectrum of music in a multicultural region that embraced African, European, Middle Eastern and Western sounds. He started as a singer/guitarist and subconsciously functioned as a producer.

"I didn't know I was thinking as a producer," he says. "I was hearing things in songs that other people didn't hear and saying, 'They should have done this or that,' always analyzing."

Doing what it took to survive

At 19, he and best friend Redouan (the name RedOne adopted and modified) went to Sweden, home to his rock and pop idols Yngwie Malmsteen, Europe, ABBA and Roxette.

After a brief stay with his brother's friend in Stockholm, RedOne was homeless. His fractured English hurt job prospects, and Swedes seemed aloof, yet he refused to return to Morocco.

"I did everything possible to survive," RedOne says. "I would not go back home without making my dream come true. I washed dishes in restaurants. I sold vegetables outside in the cold for $40 a week. I only looked forward to performing in a rock band Saturday night and rehearsing Sunday.

"Nobody knew I was sleeping on the floor of a kitchen in a restaurant. I was crying a lot, but quitting was not an option."

Gradually, RedOne made inroads as a producer in Sweden, stamping hits for the A-Teens and Darin.

"There's a lot of talent in Sweden, but I wanted to go global," he says. "Every summer when I went to Morocco, they weren't hearing my songs. It killed me."

In 2006, RedOne did go global with his Bamboo hit, chosen as the World Cup's official melody. He produced a mash-up of the tune with Shakira's Hips Don't Lie, featuring Wyclef Jean, that was performed at the Cup final to an estimated 260 million viewers. For RedOne, newly married and relocated in New York, it opened fewer doors than expected.

"It's because soccer is the biggest sport by far everywhere in the world, except in America," he says. "I had to struggle more. My wife and I had an air mattress in our apartment, that's it. I lost all the money I had saved. There was no work. I never thought of giving up this dream until I got married, because here is another person to take care of."

On New Year's Eve 2006, RedOne's resolve cracked while he and wife Laila were watching Jennifer Lopez in the biopic Selena.

"She got killed, and I broke down," he says. "In the new year, you think back, how was my year? I had given my life to this, and I felt like nobody was giving me a chance. I told Laila, 'I can't do this anymore.'

She said, 'We're not dying, we're not in a war, we're blessed. If worse comes to worst, we'll go back to Sweden.' We borrowed money from her sister and decided to stay three more months."

Lopez proved pivotal in his U.S. launch. Within a week, Epic summoned RedOne for a J. Lo remix. Karma, he thought. The label decided against releasing the track but paired RedOne with newly signed pop singer Kat DeLuna to co-write and produce Whine Up.

Dismissed as 'unmarketable'

"The song was a half-hit here and No. 1 in markets overseas, good enough to get me a buzz," says RedOne, who was enlisted to produce her full album. "I got paid enough to survive a whole year. That was my turning point."

After working for years with unknowns, RedOne was determined to take on only signed artists. Yet he reluctantly agreed to meet a quirky underground singer who'd been dropped by Def Jam. Lady Gaga.

"There she was, the big glasses, the clothing, the attitude," he recalls. "She was interesting, special. That got me right away. She knew music, and I asked her to go to the studio that day. We did the first song, Boys Boys Boys, and I felt like a new sound was born."

Singer/rapper Akon, an early Gaga enthusiast and RedOne booster, was impressed, but others dismissed her club-based sound as unmarketable.

"It got a lot of resistance" from industry elites, says RedOne, who co-wrote and produced five tracks on Gaga's 2008 debut, The Fame, and four on 2009 follow-up The Fame Monster.

"From day one, I knew RedOne was going to be one of the most prolific producers of our generation," says Akon, who enlisted RedOne for songs on 2008's Freedom and his upcoming Stadium album. "I always felt like he had the right attitude and the talent. He's smart, young, energetic and has a great ear for international music. That's the key for him."

RedOne's ability to blend exotic seasonings into melodic pop "created a whole new sound," Akon says. "RedOne is such a loyal and creative guy that I can't think of anyone more deserving of this (best producer) Grammy."

Billboard named RedOne among 2010's top 10 producers. In 2009, he ranked first among producers and second among songwriters (behind Lady Gaga).

"His songs have a great pop sensibility — big hooks, great melody, an interesting sound," says Keith Caulfield, Billboard's associate director of charts. "As he would likely echo, his collaboration with Lady Gaga on The Fame was the watershed moment of his career. She would probably say the same for him. Had that combination not been fruitful, they would have very different careers. People are banging down his door."

While dance-pop is hardly new, the pair shoved the beat-driven sound to center stage.

"When someone as successful as Gaga sells a string of huge hits, you get a lot of wannabes who want to replicate the success," Caulfield says.

"RedOne's in demand because he helped create a very commercial sound."

It's accessible but not generic, thanks to a broader palette of influences, Caulfield adds. "He's producing music that's poppy and a little bit other, just different enough to sound interesting to American ears."

RedOne's rise enabled him to work with icons and idols, including Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson, who occasionally met with the producer in Las Vegas and at the singer's Los Angeles home during the year before he died in 2009.

RedOne is eager to develop new talent, "but I would never say no to the legends —Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder."

He is saying no to reviving his rock 'n' roll career. A capable singer and instrumentalist, RedOne isn't lured by the limelight.

"No, it's way, way, way behind me," says RedOne, who lives in L.A. with his wife and their 2-year-old son, Daniel. "I have no drive to do it at all. The big artists want to be out there, to be seen everywhere. I want to do music, but I want to have a normal life. I love good friends and family and watching soccer. That's enough."