http://remixmag.com/artists/remix_captain_contagious/

By Kylee Swenson

Jun 1, 2006 12:00 PM

If learning to play piano at age nine always produced the kind of payoff for people that it has for Scott Storch, the world would be filled with keyboard-playing millionaires. But the recipe for supreme success includes more ingredients than proficiency at playing an instrument. Songwriting talent, a producer's ear, business savvy, drive and a willingness to take risks are what bred Storch's giant career. Financially speaking, he is in the upper echelon of musicians and producers: At 32, he has a fleet of luxury cars; a Miami mansion; insane jewelry; a yacht named Storchaveli; and every pop, R&B and hip-hop artist falling all over him or herself trying to work with him.

Despite all the flash, Storch's origins were more humble. He got his first taste of success as keyboardist for The Roots in the early '90s. But as time went on, Storch felt the urge to do more. �I was really thrilled with all that we could accomplish with The Roots and doing all of the touring, that whole lifestyle of being a member of a band,� Storch says. �I just felt like I could be doing more with my career than being a member of a band. I really had a passion for being a producer. So I had to take a step backward to take a step forward.� Being that The Roots were rapidly gaining popularity, it was a risk, especially giving up his mechanical share and financial security by leaving the band. �I remember at the time I was dating this girl, and she was trying to make me feel like I had done the wrong thing,� Storch says. �You know, I'm living in this apartment, and I'm behind on my rent, and I see my group that I just quit is performing on The Jon Stewart Show. It was a moment, but I said, �It's all good. I'm going to survive this and do my dream.�� Fortunately, he was right. A few years after leaving The Roots, Storch produced and played keyboards for Things Fall Apart (MCA, 1999) and won a Grammy for The Roots' hit �You Got Me.�

Other early adopters of Storch's production skills included Noreaga and Busta Rhymes. Then, introduced by Eve (who rapped on �You Got Me�), Storch met Dr. Dre. �He had an appreciation for me and my piano playing,� Storch says. �Obviously, him being the biggest producer in the world, he doesn't really need any other producers, but he opened the door creatively, and he gave me a lot of opportunity. As I earned my stripes over there, the amount of responsibility and the size of the gigs I was getting over there were growing.�

Working with Dre also helped Storch collaborate with other artists in the studio. �Sometimes, have a vision for a record where he'll program a drum pattern and tell musicians such as myself what to play verbatim, and we'll emulate it for him, through him,� Storch says. �He's capable of doing a lot of the stuff, like playing piano. But he creates a little band. He's orchestrating his little orchestra. And sometimes, I'll be at the keyboard noodling, and he'll be at the drum machine noodling, and we'll find each other in that way � all of a sudden, boom, there's a record.� That's how the infectious piano rhythm came about on �Still D.R.E.� from Dr. Dre's Chronic 2001 (Aftermath, 1999). �I took this idea I'd been hearing, a styling that had been used in a lot of jazz records where there's this lazy, behind-the-beat ,� Storch says. �You're playing the chord but arpeggiating it at the same time while playing it. And that's what created that insistent little rhythm.�
LATE-NIGHT COLLABORATIONS

Storch, who reportedly pulls in more than $80,000 a track, shouldn't have to work the graveyard shift, but that's how he rolls. According to his right-hand man, engineer Wayne the Brain, the day begins in the studio, Miami's Hit Factory, at 8:30 p.m. Sometimes Wayne doesn't even get to sleep until 10 a.m. the next morning. As of this writing, Storch and company (also including engineer Conrad Golding) had finished tracks with Redman, Paris Hilton, Method Man, Irv Gotti and the Making of the Band 3 girls.

Some of the biggest hits of the last few years were created with Storch at the helm: Chris Brown's �Run It,� 50 Cent's �Candy Shop,� Terror Squad's �Lean Back,� Beyonc�'s �Me, Myself and I� and Christina Aguilera's �Can't Hold Us Down,� to name a handful. He also worked with Timbaland on Justin Timberlake's �Cry Me a River� and with Dre on Eve and Gwen Stefani's �Let Me Blow Your Mind.�

Storch recently recorded eight tracks with Paris Hilton. The single �Turn It Up� is breathy and dancey like Britney Spears, also recalling girl groups of the '80s. It's not surprising that she doesn't have a particularly big or amazing voice, but Storch made the most of it. � ability to, not really sing like a Mariah Carey, but sing in a hip, new-wavey, mid-'80s, Blondieish, early-Madonna tone,� he says.
THE POWER OF PITCH

Even when Storch is working with teenage artists, such as Chris Brown, he creates a bed of music and works with vocalists and songwriters to create something that even 30-year-olds secretly sing in their cars. Those guilty-pleasure tracks are a perfect combination of simple, infectious hooks with a clean, pitch-perfect production.

� is one of the few people I've run across in the world who has perfect pitch,� Wayne the Brain says. �As an engineer, I've had to work very hard to achieve separation in a mix. A producer will give you two things that are basically not really in the same pitch range, and you'd have to work hard to get both elements to sound good together. Scott's stuff comes out sounding good. Scott will take one out of 30,000 kick drums that he has and tune it exactly to interact with the bass properly before the record gets tracked down to Pro Tools. We try and make the record spectacular from the moment it's created, so there's no guesswork, no later misjudgments of the record. There's none of that, �Oh, I can't wait to hear it when it's mixed.��

But Storch suggests that perfect pitch isn't the be-all and end-all. �Sometimes people will try and make the vocals as perfect as they can in pitch and disregard the timing and the pocket of them, and there's a lot of variables,� he says. �Sometimes you don't want to take all the life out of it. I'd rather have maybe one line that's slightly out of pitch, but the feeling is more there, and the energy has the beat.�

Still, pitch, timing and space are always on Storch's mind. �You'll be having a conversation with him,� Wayne says, �and in the back of his head, the entire record is going on, and he'll be like, �I got this idea. It needs a little bit more room.� And he'll pull stuff out. A lot of times we'll go do a record for an artist, and he'll come back and strip everything out except for a click and start completely over.�

Gutting the song allows Storch to hear what's conflicting and what better suits the track. �Sometimes, if you have a nice kick that's more midrange and punchy and sort of poking more so than round,� Storch says, �that would be an opportune time to use a nice sub-bass.�

#PicABeat Audio Photo series. Where the beat is inspired by the photo.
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