BIOGRAPHY

So much of what makes music special occurs in a world just beyond the spotlight, where unseen technicians make the decisions that will define the songs and albums we love...

For the last 25 years, Philippe Weiss has quietly established himself as one of the greatest mix engineers around. He rarely gives interviews or enters the public eye, and yet he’s worked for Madonna, David Guetta, The Alchemist , Usher, Kendrick Lamar, Selah Sue,Evidence, Black Coffee, Charles Aznavour, Drake, Martin Solveig, Ben l’Oncle Soul and Alicia Keys to name just a few… and he’s reaped number one hits and multi-platinum records on both sides of the Atlantic. “I’ve always had one goal in my head,” says Philippe, “understand what the producer and the artist have in their minds, and then put it between two speakers.”

Philippe was born and raised on the shores of Lake Geneva in Lausanne, Switzerland. As a teenager, he became obsessed with the early days of hip-hop. He followed the New York scene like a hawk, and snapped up anything that Public Enemy or Run DMC released. Once he realised the instrumentals in these records were carefully constructed from samples of older songs, he made it his life’s mission to collect soul, funk and jazz vinyls from all over the world. At the age of 18, he convinced his parents to let him fly to New York with just a copy of the yellow pages in which he’d underlined every record shop in the city. He dragged 200 vinyls home, which he then played in DJ sets across Lausanne.

Music was always going to dominate his life, he just wasn’t quite sure how.“One day, I will work with Madonna,” he told his friends as he left Lausanne for the UK in 1993 – they all laughed (little did they know he’d be working with the Queen of Pop herself by 2012). After finishing a sound engineering course in London, a young Weiss sent 150 CVs to recording studios all over the world. He received no responses and decided to follow up with phone calls. He tells the story: “The first studio I called was Studio Davout in Paris, France [a mecca for music recording, established in 1965], and the man on the phone said, ‘Oh yeah, I have your CV here. In fact I will hire you.’ I couldn’t believe it.”

Learning the ropes in Studios Davout, Weiss watched as artists like Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Charles Trenet, Michel Legrand and NTM wandered in and out. Within a year he was assisting the acclaimed American engineer Tony Smalios (Tupac, Elton John, A Tribe Called Quest) and working almost 400 hours per month on any album he was assigned to. “Basically, those years built me,” he says.

In 1995, he decided to take a gamble with Assassin’s Rocking Squat and New York’s MC Supernatural. “I’d never mixed a record before, only assisted,” he says. “I told them: let me mix your next song, and if you like it you can pay me. They said yes, so I mixed it, using just instinct, vibe and emotion. When the record came out it sold over 100,000 copies. Since then, my career has never stopped.”

Now aged 46, with a track record as prestigious as his, you’d understand if Weiss only worked with huge names, but he still keeps his ear pressed firmly to the ground. Twice a year, he finds a band who have a low budget and reduces his rates to help them achieve their vision. “Young bands are the future,” he concludes, “they are the stars of tomorrow.”

Weiss now works from a studio in his house in Paris, which he built himself. From this laboratory of music mastery he’s mixed tracks for Drake, Diplo, and the South African house music megastar Black Coffee. He also teaches, and right now he’s building a range of amplifiers which he will soon be released under his Red Lab banner.

“To be a good mix engineer,” concludes Weiss, “you must put your ego to one side and focus on your artist. You need them to be happy. You must interpret their ideas. I put so much energy into everyone I work with. After all that, you need a deep understanding of music culture. I mean, how can you mix music if you do not have style and passion?”

Words : Joe Zadeh / Picture : Lydie Tamko