满帆 Stories

满帆 名人堂 inductee Benjamin Rice has helped write 和生产 songs for artists like Selena Gomez, 阿格兰德, 约翰的传说, 茱莉亚·迈克尔斯. But it was his longstanding role as a producer for Lady Gaga – and his contributions to the soundtrack for her film 一个明星的诞生 -这让他获得了格莱美奖.

“(因为我的作品被提名 一个明星的诞生 这是我第一次参加格莱美, 我坐在第一排，紧挨着Lady Gaga. 她是一号椅子, 我当时是二号主席, 很前, 就在台阶旁边……我没想到会坐在第一排. 那真是太疯狂了，”他回忆道.

Ben earned a Grammy win that night in the Best Song Written for Visual Media category for his work on “Shallow,这首歌的原声音乐很受欢迎. 格莱美奖对音乐行业的任何人来说都是职业生涯的最高点, 但它们只是本非凡的音乐之旅中的一站.

终身热爱音乐

本对音乐的热爱始于12岁, 当他注意到他所在教堂敬拜乐队的鼓手演奏时. 这是本第一次看到现场打鼓, and he started hanging out at the church and using their drum kit to play along to songs on the radio.

他继续演奏音乐，并在高中时开始在一家录音室当学徒, 最后变成了实习. 当他在大学里成立了一个叫Pilotdrift的乐队时, Ben discovered that working on the writing process and the studio recording process simultaneously with his bandmates led to superior creative results. That experience working on “both sides of the glass” gave him a unique perspective that helped him throughout his career.

“There's a lot of cross-pollination of learning how to engineer and record other people and then being in a band and trying to record 和生产 your own ideas,本说。. “能够捕捉音调, 工艺的想法, 和生产, 把你的指纹印在所有这些声音和想法上, 是我真正感兴趣的早期作品吗. 能够在玻璃的两面工作, 学习工程方面的知识, 但也要站在另一边，成为一名表演者, 在玩, 正在写作. 这就是我现在所做的，从本质上说，就是在做玻璃的两面.”

本结束了与Pilotdrift的公路旅行, 但他也想探索其他职业的可能性. 他参了军, 但几年后，他因伤出院，决定重返乐坛. 他利用《菠菜台子大全》的福利进入满帆学习录音艺术.

在满帆工作期间, Ben learned more about the nuts and bolts of the music production process and developed a noteworthy work ethic. 在他毕业前三个月, 本联系了全赛欧大学毕业生和名人堂入选者乔什·古德温, 这引发了长达数十年的职业关系. 在本搬到洛杉矶之后, 乔什帮助他获得了洛杉矶著名录音室Record Plant的采访机会.

“Josh’s recommendation for [Record Plant] just to give me an interview was the key that opened the door to that possibility,本说。. “这真的是任何人能给你的最好的礼物. 没有人能给你指明道路或者给你车钥匙然后说, “这是怎么做的,但它们能把你和别人联系起来.”

与Lady Gaga合作

在唱片厂, Ben developed a rapport with the other producers and engineers in the studio and gained experience working with a variety of genres, 从乐队到录音再到管弦乐编曲. Ben’s boss noticed his extra efforts, and when Lady Gaga came into the studio to work on her album Artpop 他给了本一个高级工程师的职位.

“我永远不会忘记被Lady Gaga的职业道德深深打动的瞬间, 她的创作承诺, 她想让事情变得更好的永不满足的欲望, 按下按钮, 鞭策自己, to write, 生产, to record. And [paying attention to] every little detail from the mic selection to how we're mixing it… I had never worked with someone quite like her, 我记得我当时马上就想, 我想成为其中的一员. 如果成功的话，我想以某种方式成为这支球队的一员.’”

本专注于给Lady Gaga和她的团队留下好印象, 这一切都得到了回报:他得到了和她直接合作完成任务的机会 Artpop.

“(在第一天和她一起工作之前)我整晚没睡，”本回忆道. “我睡在工作室里, 把硬盘里所有的歌都翻了一遍, 使自己熟悉[他们]. And [thinking], ‘If she wants to work on this song tomorrow and do vocals, what's my approach? 我准备好音轨了吗? Is this session prepped to start recording right away, or do I need to clean some things up? 黑板上的所有东西都是按照它应该的方式出现的吗?’”

接下来的几周，本一直与Lady Gaga和她的制作人并肩工作，直到 Artpop 是完整的. It was the start of an extensive professional relationship that took Ben from Record Plant to the Grammys.

“(在 Artpop使我和她一起工作了多年. I went from being the second engineer to her engineer to her vocal engineer to the vocal producer who’s comping and tuning and all those things. 它只是继续增长，”本说.

一个明星的诞生

In 2016, Lady Gaga reached out to Ben and asked him to work with her on the soundtrack for her upcoming movie 一个明星的诞生. 他们多年来建立起来的职业纽带 Artpop 帮助他们制作了轰动一时的专辑.

“在我和她的关系中, (我们)已经开发出了一种舒适水平,他说. “我们都知道，她是一位才华横溢的艺术家. But she's also very down-to-earth and very committed to her art and to the work, and so was I. 我感受到了她对我的信任，我当然也相信她. 我们开始有了一种融洽的关系，我们可以讨论声音, 感觉就像我和(前)乐队成员之间的关系一样.”

生产过程为 一个明星的诞生 soundtrack was similar to the process Ben was familiar with from his time playing in Pilotdrift. 许多歌曲都是在制作的同时创作的, 本又开始在玻璃的两面工作了.

“我和(这部电影的制片人兼导演)布莱德利·库珀(Bradley Cooper)合作了两年, 每天或每周来一次工作室. (他说)‘这是剧本里的情节. 这个场景是这样的.“音乐家在那里. We're all trying to shape these ideas for two years… That's where my relationship with [Lady Gaga] led. 最终就是建立信任, 建立忠诚, 营造舒适感, 并证明了我可以被信任，继续迎接挑战, 把工作做好,本说。.

说这部电影的原声带很成功是一种轻描淡写的说法——它的销量超过了1万部.2019年在美国销售了200万份. It also earned seven nominations at the 2019 Grammys (including Record of the Year and Song of the Year for “Shallow”) and won in two categories (Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and Best Song Written for Visual Media for “Shallow”). 本在台上接受了格莱美最佳视觉媒体歌曲奖. 几年后，他得到了另一个为整部电影写配乐的机会.

Wish

本和另一个音乐人的工作关系, 歌手兼词曲作者茱莉亚·迈克尔斯, 让他有机会出演迪士尼2023年的动画长片 Wish. He’d worked with Julia off and on for about eight years and they’d developed a strong foundation of creative trust. 当茱莉亚被邀请为 Wish她带着本一起作为联合编剧和制片人.

协同生产过程中 Wish 是本两面工作经验的延伸吗. He was playing instruments in the studio and writing with Julia as he concurrently engineered 和生产d the movie’s songs.

“[Julia and I] had to keep each other inspired and we were able to constantly draw on the relationship that we had built… [If we’d been] starting kind of as two strangers meeting for the first time to take on this challenge it would be way more challenging, 但是我们已经建立了那种二手的交流方式,本解释道. “There’s so many things we don't have to discuss that we just understand innately in each other… If she's singing, 我一笑，她就这么说, 这意味着它很好. She'll do something really incredible, and I'll just chuckle and we’re both like, ‘Yeah, that's it. 让我们继续.’”

上工作 Wish 带来了一些令人兴奋的新挑战. 在录制《菠菜台子大全》的过程中，有一首歌 野生动物和植物和谐相处, Ben had to help cast 28 singers and record them as they sang together at Fox’s Newman Scoring Stage.

“我们正处于纽曼得分阶段. 这是一个历史性的进球阶段，非常非常重要. 在那里工作本身就是一种体验……(在我们的歌里) 我是明星, where we have nature coming to life, it required a lot of voices that we had pre-assigned. 这是一段28人的录音, 所以有28个声音提升, 28 mics, 28 GoPro cameras to capture facial expressions while they're singing in case that's used in animation later, 所有这些都是一次性完成的. We're doing the whole song top to bottom… we are recording 28 people at the same time in the live room at Fox.

Ben继续说道:“我认为我们甚至打破了迪士尼的记录. “They said this was the largest undertaking [they’d done] as far as a vocal recording is concerned.”

留下遗产

本12岁时在教堂打鼓，现在已经有了很大的进步. The number of projects he’s worked on and the number of artists he’s worked with keeps growing, 他对音乐和制作过程的持续热爱帮助他建立了一个遗产.

“我喜欢能够参与创造对别人有意义的东西, 以某种方式感动某人. 当我不在的时候，我想成为制造这些东西的一部分, 留下一份遗产, 感觉自己为这个充满激情的世界做出了贡献,本说。.

“(音乐)是一种我们都会说的语言，我们都会受到它的影响，”他继续说道. “无论你是在婚礼上还是在生活中的其他重要时刻演奏歌曲, 音乐永远是每个人生活中的伴侣，就像配乐一样. 所以我很高兴能和这么多才华横溢的人一起工作, 学了这么多, 成为对世界有影响的事物的一部分, 这对其他人来说有意义. 推而广之，这对我来说意义重大.”

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