In addition to getting extensive play on Top 40 radio stations, they have all worked with Grammy-winning producer Ariel Rechtshaid, a Los Angeles native born to Israeli parents.<\/p>\n
Rechtshaid, 36, has become one of the most eclectic and sought-after music producers in the industry. He\u2019s probably best known for working on hits with Usher and Carly Rae Jepsen \u2013 she of “Call Me Maybe” fame \u2014 but his diverse resume is also filled with well-regarded indie acts like\u00a0the funky R&B singer Blood Orange, folk rocker Cass McCombs and ’70s ballad-style crooner Tobias Jesso Jr. In fact, the LA Weekly dubbed him<\/a> \u201cthe indie super-producer.\u201d<\/p>\n At the moment, Rechtshaid is working with Haim<\/a> \u2014 an ’80s-style pop-rock group composed of three sisters, also born to Israeli parents in Los Angeles \u2014 on the follow-up to their acclaimed 2013 debut album \u201cDays Are Gone\u201d that Rechtshaid also produced.<\/p>\n In spite of his success Rechtshaid \u2014 who is tall and lanky, with frizzy curls that spill onto his forehead \u2014 describes his rise through the industry in modest terms, as if his success has been the result of a series of chance developments. He explains his parents\u2019 immigration to the United States much in the same manner.<\/p>\n \u201cGrowing up in Israel in the ’50s and ’60s, I think it\u2019s just kind of a romantic idea to make it out to L.A.,\u201d Rechtshaid said of his dad, who before moving to the U.S. would extend his radio\u2019s antenna with tin foil in order to hear rock music. \u201cCan\u2019t read into it too much, it just kind of happened.\u201d<\/p>\n Rechtshaid was born in a community near Beverlywood, in West Los Angeles, with a high concentration of Hasidic Jews, though his parents were not Hasidic. When he was 5,\u00a0they moved to the diverse neighborhood of Van Nuys.<\/p>\n He describes his parents and his upbringing as \u201cnot very religious but inherently observant.\u201d<\/p>\n Not surprisingly, it was also saturated with music. Rechtshaid got a guitar in sixth grade and started listening to punk rock and hip-hop; groups like the Beastie Boys and Talking Heads dominated his massive collection of CDs.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was an endless amount of music that I was buying,” he said.<\/p>\n In high school, Rechtshaid and some friends formed a ska punk band named The Hippos. With Rechtshaid as frontman and guitarist, the band\u00a0released two successful records \u2014 one on a midsize label and one on a major label \u2014\u00a0and toured the country.<\/p>\n Around this time, Rechtshaid also began recording his friends\u2019 projects in his parents\u2019 garage. It was a more complete way of expressing himself through music than playing in a band, he explains. (Today\u2019s producers often do more than engineer music; they guide the aesthetics of an artist\u2019s sound and help the musicians write songs.)<\/p>\n \u201cThat band was really the reason why I got into producing and writing as, like, an obsession, because I didn\u2019t really feel like I was expressing myself in that band at all,” Rechtshaid said. “And I wanted to learn how to.\u201d<\/p>\n Amid this garage-recording period, he connected with the Plain White T\u2019s. Rechtshaid helped the band record what would become its third album, released on a small indie label, which included the bare acoustic tune \u201cHey There Delilah.\u201d<\/p>\n The album sold modestly and the band continued to fly under the mainstream radar. But two years later, after signing a major label contract, the Plain White T\u2019s decided to put \u201cHey There Delilah\u201d\u00a0 on its fourth album, 2007’s \u201cEvery Second Counts,\u201d in an attempt to get the song some radio play. It rocketed to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Chart and sold millions of copies worldwide.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was really kind of a funny phenomenon,\u201d Rechtshaid said.<\/p>\n By the time Rechtshaid worked with Usher in 2012, his career was already on the rise. But his work on the acclaimed track \u201cClimax\u201d earned him a Grammy Award and cemented his status as a unique industry talent. He went on to work with established pop royalty like Beyonce, Kylie Minogue, No Doubt and Snoop Dogg (during his reggae Snoop Lion phase).<\/p>\n Rechtshaid doesn\u2019t have a signature sound as much as a penchant for sounding original in the studio \u2014 much like the innovative bands he listened to in high school (see the wacky vocal manipulations<\/a> on Vampire Weekend\u2019s \u201cModern Vampires of the City\u201d album or the hushed instrumentation<\/a> of the Usher track). It\u2019s hard to pinpoint many trademark sounds in his work, but many of Rechtshaid\u2019s productions feature a healthy dose of bass and fuzzy, almost garbled-sounding synthesizers.<\/p>\n Along the way, Rechtshaid has grown close to several of his collaborators, including other members of the tribe. He says he\u2019s \u201cvery tight\u201d with Haim as well as Ezra Koenig, the lead singer of Vampire Weekend (the group’s latest album includes a song about an Orthodox Jewish girl falling in love with an Arab falafel shop employee).<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a really smart guy and he\u2019s very knowledgeable about a lot of things, including Judaism,\u201d Rechtshaid said about Koenig. \u201c[O]ne thing we both are are American Jews in 2015. And there\u2019s a lot to that, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Share](\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\")