How I Made: London on producing Rema's chart-topping 'Rave & Roses' album
In this feature on Dummy, we’re asking artists to drill down into how exactly they make their music. We’re looking to hone in on the processes, equipment and locations they made their sounds in, and following Swiss Portrait, we speak to London, the 22-year-old self-taught producer whose credits include Wizkid’s Grammy-nominated ‘Made in Lagos’, Tiwa Savage’s ‘Koroba’ and Ayra Starr’s global smash shit ‘Bloody Samaritan’. Rising up through the ranks to establish himself as one of the UK’s most sought after producers, his most prolific work can be found throughout Afrobeats superstar Rema’s ‘Rave & Roses’ album: a critically-acclaimed project which topped charts across Africa and debuted on Billboard World Albums at no. 7. To find out more about how the record was created, we sat down with London to get the low down on his production methods.
Where was the project made?
“We made most of the project in Lagos, Nigeria. We started working on the project pretty much in Ghana in 2020.”
What software or hardware did you use to produce the album?
“I made most of the beats for the album on FL studio. Recorded all the song on Logic Pro used a Neuman TLM 103 mic to take Rema’s vocals.”
Who did you work on it with?
“A lot of my friends worked on this album with me, to name a few, Kill September, Higo, Dez Wright, Sarz, BurssBrain, KMZ.”
What was it like working with Rema?
“It was amazing! He’s a really incredible artist and he’s very much involved with the whole recording and production process, from making the beats to the mixing and everything, so it was great working with him.”
What are your favourite tracks on the record and why?
“My favourite tracks are ‘Addicted’, ‘Oroma’, ‘Love’, ‘Hold Me’, ‘Wine’ and ‘Time N Affection’. I love these records because they really allowed me to show my versatility as a producer.”
Were there ever any difficult moments working on the record?
“I’d say the only difficult moments for me was when we were mixing the album. That’s always the hard part for me haha. Also, when I was mixing the vocals for ‘Addicted’ it became quite difficult because I’ve actually never made anything like that before.”
How did you overcome those moments?
“I just had to keep going and not really overthink the whole process.”
Could you talk through some of your main musical inspirations?
“My main music inspiration would have to be Drake. There’s just a certain way his records sound and it’s so amazing from the beat to the mix to how he flows on the beat, he’s a really amazing artist.”
Did you expect the success of the record?
“To be honest there were some fears in the beginning when I had first started working on the album, but when we did the listening event and I saw how people enjoyed the masterpiece we’ve created I wasn’t worried anymore.”
Stream Rema’s ‘Rave & Roses’ below:
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