If you haven’t yet heard the Justin Bieber song “Thought of You,” it is only a matter of time. It’s the ninth track on Bieber’s third album, Believe, and while it has yet to hit airwaves as a single, its earworm potential is undeniable. There’s something joyous about the way all the sounds come in and start grooving together, a blend of sugary synths, handclaps, and sirens. The song demonstrates the weird mix of euphoria and precision that now characterizes pop music: Every note sounds focus-group tested and groomed to perfection. You get the sense that the man behind the track is part composer, part gem cutter, and part drill sergeant.
The man behind “Thought of You” is Ariel Rechtshaid. He is a 32-year-old music writer and producer who has worked with a notably diverse set of artists, including Usher, Cass McCombs, Snoop Dogg, We Are Scientists, Glasser, and Theophilus London. He masterminded the 2005 platinum-selling ballad “Hey There Delilah” by the Plain White T’s and is a veteran performer in his own right: He played guitar and sang for a ska-punk band called the Hippos in high school and later helped launch an indie rock outfit, Foreign Born. As a producer, Rechtshaid isn’t as well known as Max Martin, Dr. Luke, or David Guetta (they’re the kings of production, he’s still a prince), but a string of wise partnerships, including an ongoing alliance with Philadelphia-based hit-maker Diplo, makes him an artist to watch. He lives in Los Angeles, where like many in the business, he uses the audio production software Pro Tools to compose, edit, and mix sounds. But, he told me in an interview recently, he’s also stocked his studio with more old-school technologies: guitars and synths, drum machines, and analog recording equipment. “I’m big into playing and recording everything, then reviewing it, cutting out moments that feel good and bringing them together, just seeing what comes of it,” he says.
While Rechtshaid’s songs have the deliberate, micro-managed feel of a lot of modern pop music, they come about through experimentation. Rechtshaid builds songs from the ground up, without a particular vision in mind. He describes messing around with chords on the piano or guitar, haphazardly throwing in drum tracks, running everything through various distortions. One of his rules is not to repeat himself. That means trying to outrun not only the so-called “formula”—a typical hit’s rote journey through intro, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, lift, bridge, and outro—but his own instincts. “I realized at a certain point that everything I knew, all my intuition, always got me to a place that I could predict,” Rechtshaid explains. “That’s less inspiring than when something unpredictable happens.”
What’s the most unusual song he’s ever worked on? He points to “Climax,” by Usher, which he describes as “all tension and very little release.” Restless for a slow jam but reflective for a club track, the song throbs and smolders instead of “arcing” like a standard R&B tune. (It also just claimed the number three spot on the Pazz and Jop 2012 Singles chart).
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