Seven Tracks: Lido

Producer discusses collaborations with Banks, Ella Mai, Mariah Carey, Jaden Smith, and more...

Lido is a real triple threat.

A songwriter, producer, and vocalist, his work seems to see past the barriers in his way, a kind of free-flowing creativity that lingers in its own distinct universe.

As a collaborator Lido has worked with some of the best out there, ranging from pristine R&B with Mariah Carey and Ella Mai, through to hip-hop jams with Chance The Rapper and Jaden.

New EP 'IOU2' is out now, and it proves that some of Lido's best ideas are held back for his own material, for his most personal moments.

Clash caught up with the producer for Seven Tracks – a guide to some of his most potent, and high profile, productions…

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¿Téo? – 'Belong In The Sun' ft Lido

There was about a months time where I almost only made bossa nova inspired music and one night this chorus popped into my head. I immediately called my friend Mateo and he came to the studio the next night.

I made a percussion loop, recorded down the chorus and explained the chords I wanted him to lay down on guitar. The whole process felt like a jam and a couple weeks later we added real bass to it to make it even more live.

I love the mix of programmed hip-hop inspired drums with live guitar and bass and Mateo sounds perfect on it!

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Ella Mai – 'Easy'

Me and Ella wrote this in our first session. I asked her what she was missing, what she really wanted to make and she said she really wanted a ballad for her album. I never listen to what the organization around the artist wants to push them towards, but rather what the artist themselves are inspired to do. I feel like it always turns out better.

My heart is in gospel music and Ella gave me an incredible opportunity to do something I’d wanted to do for a long time.

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Mariah Carey – 'The Distance' ft Ty Dolla $ign

Me and Skrillex made the beat on a trip to Vegas and he later played it for Mariah and Poo Bear in a session. I came in later that night and we all finished it together.

It was a really cool experience for me because Mariah’s music was a really big part of my childhood and she was such a genuine and cool person to work with! Also Skrillex is one of my people in the world and has trusted me, putting me in so many rooms I’d never be in without him.

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Jaden – 'BLUE'

J came to me with a poem that he wrote over some piano chords and wanted me to add a bassline for it. It was one of those sessions that spiraled out of control because of the inspiration. All of a sudden we had a whole new part to the piano with a verse on it.

We kept that spirit throughout the entire recording process and kept coming up with new parts for almost three years. In the last few weeks, I brought in my drum kit to the studio and a few very talented musicians to bring it all together.

Jaden is such an unapologetic artist and amazing friend and I love making music that feels like a huge crew of people all contributing their signature parts. I’m lucky to have a lot of talented friends.

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Chance The Rapper – 'Angels' ft Saba

The original idea for this song we made on Peter Cottontale’s livingroom floor late one night. Chance hit me up a few weeks later with a demo for the song which was totally different than what we started out with.

Whenever that happens I always want to take it even further and that’s when I recorded my friend Santell’s vocals and pitched it up and sent it back sounding completely different again. A really cool journey for a song.

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Towkio – 'Drift'

Towkio brought me in as the executive producer on his 'WWW' album and we spent two weeks in Rick Rubin’s studio Shangri-La finishing all the music. This is probably my favourite production off the album because it came so instantly to us late one night in the studio. He’s an incredible rapper and a good friend.

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Banks – 'Better'

This is one of my favourite productions I’ve ever done and Banks is incredible. Almost all the sounds in the whole production are made out of Banks’ super dope vocals.

Just like a lot of my favourite productions, it happened intuitively and quickly in the studio together with the artist.

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Lido's new EP 'IOU2' is out now.

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