Kurstin was born in Los Angeles, California. He is Jewish.[8] He started playing piano at age five. Soon after, he picked up guitar and bass. Kurstin joined his first band at the age of 11, and at 12 co-wrote "Crunchy Water", the B-side to classmate Dweezil Zappa's "My Mother Is a Space Cadet".[9]
In a 2013 interview, Kurstin said that his education in jazz had played a vital role in his pop success. "It's still something I carry over into my pop music work. It's really important to me that the notes I'm choosing strike the right emotional chord."[11][12]
Career
1994–2004: Geggy Tah, studio and session work
Kurstin continued to perform with Hutcherson, Coleman, McPherson and others following his graduation. In 1994, he formed Geggy Tah with Tommy Jordan, whom he had met at an LA jam. A friend passed a demo they recorded on to David Byrne, who signed them to his label, Luaka Bop. "They incorporate so many disparate elements into their sound that one senses a new sensibility afoot", Byrne said in 1997.[13]
Geggy Tah released their debut album Grand Opening in 1994; Kurstin played bass, clavinet, guitar, organ, piano, synthesizers and drums, and was credited as a songwriter, producer, programmer, and backup vocalist. In 1996 the band released Sacred Cow. It included the song "Whoever You Are", which became a hit in 2001, after it was used in a television spot for Mercedes-Benz. As the song ascended the charts, Geggy Tah released their final album, Into the Oh.[14][15][16]
Kurstin signed a worldwide publishing deal with EMI (now Sony/ATV) in 2002. While he had consistently written songs since the age of 12, he intensified his efforts, working "day and night, pumping out songs". In addition to writing on his own, he collaborated with songwriters and artists including Sia, whom he met through Beck in 2003.[20][21]
2004–2010: The Bird and the Bee, Lily Allen, Sia
In 2004, Kurstin was introduced to singer Inara George by a mutual friend, Mike Andrews. Then producing George's solo debut, Andrews hired Kurstin as a pianist for the album. Kurstin and George clicked musically in the studio and together they formed the bird and the bee. Shortly thereafter, they were signed by Blue Note Records chairman Bruce Lundvall.[22] Described by Entertainment Weekly as "space-age pop that cunningly combines bossa nova languidity with Beach Boys-style lushness", they have since released four albums and an EP. Kurstin was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album for the Bird and the Bee's 2015 release, Recreational Love.[23][24][25]
After working on tracks with artists including Peaches, All Saints, Pink, the Flaming Lips, and Kylie Minogue, Kurstin was introduced to Lily Allen. Along with other musicians, co-writers, producers and engineers, he worked on her 2006 debut, Alright, Still, which went on to achieve platinum status. For her second album It's Not Me, It's You, Allen worked exclusively with Kurstin; he co-wrote every song and played all of the instruments on the record, which he also engineered and produced. The album's first single, "The Fear", spent four weeks at number 1 in the UK, and the album hit number 5 in the US and charted in the top 10 in eight other countries. With Allen, Kurstin won three Ivor Novello Awards for his work on the double-platinum It's Not Me, It's You. Based in part on the album's success, as well as his work on a bird and the bee record, Kurstin was nominated for his first Producer of the Year Grammy in 2010.[26]
Kurstin's first commercially available collaboration with Sia was "Death by Chocolate", released on her 2008 album Some People Have Real Problems. In 2010, he produced Sia's fifth album, We Are Born. It reached number 2 in Australia and number 37 in the US. It won ARIA Music Awards for Best Pop Album and Best Independent Release.[27]
2011–2016: Kelly Clarkson, the Shins, Pink, Adele
In 2012, Kurstin earned his first number 1 song in the United States and two Grammy Award nominations for Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)", which he co-wrote and produced. He reunited with Clarkson in 2013 (on Wrapped in Red) and in 2015 (on Piece by Piece). "I think what makes him stand out as a producer is his skill as a musician", Clarkson said. "He can play anything phenomenally. His abilities as a musician give him an advantage, because he doesn't have to rely on anyone else to interpret his vision."[28] In 2012 Kurstin produced and wrote or co-wrote five songs for the Grammy-nominated Pink album The Truth About Love, including its first single, "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)". The album was Pink's first number 1 in the United States; it charted in the Top 10 in 31 countries, and as of 2016 had been certified seven-times platinum. Later in 2012, he began production on Tegan & Sara's Heartthrob and worked closely with the Shins' James Mercer on Port of Morrow, which debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200.[29]
Kurstin in 2013
In addition to Clarkson, in 2013 and 2014 Kurstin wrote and produced songs which appeared on albums by Lana Del Rey, Foster the People, Ellie Goulding, Lykke Li, Katy Perry, and Charli XCX. He co-wrote and produced Ellie Goulding's "Burn", which was the number 1 single in the UK for three consecutive weeks, teamed again with Allen, and collaborated with Sia on 1000 Forms of Fear. Her most successful album to date, 1000 Forms of Fear debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 and charted at number 1 in Australia and Canada and reached the top five charts in Denmark, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. 1000 Forms of Fear earned three ARIA Music Awards. Kurstin was nominated for a Record of the Year Grammy for the album's lead single, "Chandelier", and once again nominated as Producer of the Year.[30]
Kurstin scored the 2014 adaptation of the film Annie and served as the soundtrack's executive producer. With Sia, he created new arrangements for the Broadway musical's original tracks and co-wrote several new songs for the film, including "Opportunity", for which he received a Golden Globe nomination.[31][32]
Kurstin began working with Beck on his follow up to the Grammy-winning Morning Phase in 2015. He co-wrote and produced "Dreams", the first single from the album Colors.[33]
Kurstin co-wrote and produced three songs on Adele's 2015 album, 25, including its first single, "Hello". In an interview with Rolling Stone, Adele said: "This song was a massive breakthrough for me with my writing because it'd been pretty slow up to this point, and I felt after I worked with Greg [Kurstin] on this, it all poured right out of me." Kurstin also played bass, guitar, drums, piano and keyboards on "Hello", which reached number one in 28 countries. It was the first record to exceed 1 million in digital sales over a 7-day period. As of February 2016, the album has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.[34][35][36]
2016–present: Producer of the Year, Foo Fighters, Liam Gallagher, Paul McCartney, Adele, Miley Cyrus
Kurstin's fourth album with Sia, This Is Acting, was released in January 2016.[37]
In February 2017, he won four Grammy Awards. He won Record of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year for his work on Adele's 25. He won Producer of the Year (Non-Classical) in recognition of his work with Adele, Tegan and Sara, Sia and Ellie Goulding.[38]
In March 2017, the BBC reported that Kurstin was working with Paul McCartney on a new studio album.[39] Kurstin co-produced the song "Love" on Kendrick Lamar's album Damn, released in March 2017.[40] On June 1, 2017, a single by Liam Gallagher entitled "Wall of Glass" was released, which was certified platinum in the UK.[41] It was one of four Kurstin-produced tracks included on Gallagher's debut album As You Were, three of which were co-written with Gallagher.
Kurstin produced the Foo Fighters album Concrete and Gold, which released on September 15, 2017. In an interview with Music Week,Dave Grohl said: "If you want to survive you have to kind of push a little bit. I just imagined the sound moving outwards. Not necessarily alternative instrumentation and shit like that, just sonically to push it out. Greg is a fucking genius. He's a brilliant producer and he has this sonic intuition that I have never seen in anybody else."[42] During Hanukkah of 2020, Kurstin and Grohl released previously-recorded covers of songs by Jewish artists, one per night.[43] This continued in 2021[44] and 2022.[8]
In 2017, Kurstin launched No Expectations, a publishing joint venture with Sony/ATV. The first songwriters signed to No Expectations were Jesse Shatkin and Wendy Wang.[45]
In 2017, Kurstin produced tracks on CHVRCHES third album called "Love Is Dead". The album was released on May 28, 2018, on Virgin EMI Records and Goodbye Records.
Kurstin produced the Paul McCartney album Egypt Station, recorded over a two-year period at studios in Los Angeles and Sussex, England, and mixed at Abbey Road Studios. The album was released in September 2018.[46]
In 2018 and 2019, Kurstin reunited with Liam Gallagher to co-write and produce four tracks for his second solo album Why Me? Why Not., including its lead single "Shockwave". The album was released in September 2019.[47]
Kurstin also co-produced Maren Morris' second album Girl, which won the CMA Album of the Year award in 2019.[48]
He wrote and produced three songs on Halsey's album, Manic, released in January 2020.[49]
In May 2021, Kurstin won the ASCAP Golden Note Award, given to songwriters, composers and artists who have achieved extraordinary career milestones. Beck presented him with the award.[3]
Kurstin and Adele reunited to co-write "Easy on Me," the first single from Adele's 2021 album, 30. Kurstin also produced the track, which hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on October 27, 2021. "Easy on Me" was Kurstin's fourth #1 hit on the Hot 100.[52]
In September 2022, Kurstin performed at the tribute concerts for Taylor Hawkins at Wembley Stadium in London and at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, he played with Them Crooked Vultures and, with Rufus Taylor and Justin Hawkins, members of Coattail Riders. [53] He played with Dave Grohl and Rush's Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson in London. [54]
Brian Joseph Burton, known professionally as Danger Mouse, is an American musician and record producer. He came to prominence in 2004 when he released The Grey Album, which combined vocal performances from Jay-Z's The Black Album with instrumentals from the Beatles' The Beatles, also known as The White Album. In 2008, Esquire named him one of the "75 most influential people of the 21st century".
Geggy Tah is a band initially composed of writer/singer/bassist Tommy Jordan and keyboard/guitarist Greg Kurstin. Each of them has a younger sister who was unable to pronounce her brother's name when very young; "Geggy" and "Tah" were the baby girls' mispronunciations of their brothers' names. The band was known for its eclectic and playful live shows that featured both Jordan and Kurstin playing a wide array of instruments. David Byrne said that "Geggy Tah are so postmodern they've come out the other side...They incorporate so many disparate elements into their sound that one senses a new sensibility afoot, an inclusionary wave...like nothing I've heard before."
Paul Richard Epworth is an English record producer, songwriter, musician, and remixer. He has worked with artists including Adele, Florence and the Machine, Rihanna, and Maxïmo Park, among many others. He is a member of the Music Producers Guild and is the founder and owner of the independent record label Wolf Tone, which has released music from Glass Animals, Rosie Lowe, and The Horrors.
Sacred Cow is an album by Geggy Tah, released in 1996. It contains "Whoever You Are," a number-16 hit on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The band toured with Sting, Soul Coughing, and Barenaked Ladies in support of the album.
The Bird and the Bee is an American indie pop musical duo from Los Angeles, consisting of Inara George and Greg Kurstin. Kurstin is a nine-time Grammy Award–winning producer and multi-instrumentalist who has worked with artists including Sia, Adele, Beck, Kendrick Lamar, and the Foo Fighters. George and Kurstin met while the two were working on her debut album and they decided to collaborate on a jazz-influenced electropop project. Their debut EP, Again and Again and Again and Again, was released on October 31, 2006, followed by their self-titled debut album on January 23, 2007.
Samuel Dixon is an Australian record producer, songwriter and musician, based in London. Dixon has produced and written with artists including Adele, Sia, Kylie Minogue, Christina Aguilera, Paloma Faith and Jack Savoretti. He is a multi-instrumentalist, best known for his work as a bass guitarist.
Timothy Lee McKenzie, better known by his stage name Labrinth, is an English singer, songwriter, rapper, and record producer. Labrinth signed as a recording artist with Simon Cowell's record label Syco Music in 2010, initially collaborating with the English rapper Tinie Tempah. He appeared as a featured artist: uncredited on the single "Pass Out", but later officially on "Frisky"; then he released his first solo single, "Let the Sun Shine" in September. All three songs peaked in the top five on the UK Singles Chart.
American record producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Greg Kurstin has written, produced, engineered, and performed on albums and tracks for a wide range of recording artists, spanning from pop, rock, to indie, jazz and Christmas music. In addition, he has written and produced records as Action Figure Party and as part of the musical duos Geggy Tah and the Bird and the Bee. He has won 8 Grammy Awards, including Producer of the Year in 2017 and 2018.
Jesse Samuel Shatkin is an American songwriter, producer and engineer. He has worked with Sia, Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Lopez, Fitz and the Tantrums, One Direction, and Miley Cyrus, among others. Shatkin was nominated in 2014 for Grammy Awards as both a producer and as a songwriter. Both nominations were based on his work on the Sia track "Chandelier", which he co-wrote and co-produced. He was also nominated in the Record of the Year category in 2013 as an engineer on Clarkson's single "Stronger ".
Piece by Piece is the seventh studio album by American pop singer Kelly Clarkson. It was released on February 27, 2015, by RCA Records. It was her final album under her recording contract with the label, to which she signed after winning the first season of American Idol in 2002. She then made the switch to Atlantic in 2016. The album saw Clarkson reuniting with frequent collaborators Greg Kurstin, Jesse Shatkin, Jason Halbert, Eric Olson, and Chris DeStefano. She also gathered material from songwriters such as Sia, Matthew Koma, MoZella, Bonnie McKee, David Jost, Semi Precious Weapons lead singer Justin Tranter, and former Cobra Starship member Ryland Blackinton, among others. Inspired by the orchestral production on Wrapped in Red, Clarkson wanted all the songs on Piece by Piece to resonate like its own film soundtrack, taking a cue from the soundtracks of the feature motion pictures Cruel Intentions (1999) and Love Actually (2003) and commissioning orchestral arrangements by Joseph Trapanese.
"Invincible" is a song by American singer Kelly Clarkson from her seventh studio album, Piece by Piece (2015). It was written by Sia, Jesse Shatkin, Steve Mostyn, and Warren "Oak" Felder. Produced by Shatkin, the track is an anthem about self-empowerment. "Invincible" features uncredited vocals from Sia, as well as string arrangements by Oliver Kraus. It was first released as the first promotional single from Piece by Piece on February 23, 2015, but then issued as the album's second single to Hot Adult Contemporary radio stations on May 18, 2015 through RCA Records.
"Dance with Me" is a song by American recording artist Kelly Clarkson from her seventh studio album, Piece by Piece (2015). Produced by Greg Kurstin, it was the first song written by Dan Rockett after collaborating with Polow da Don in his tenure as a studio runner and an audio engineer at Interscope Records. Originally penned as a David Bowie and Lady Gaga duet, the track was later sent to Clarkson who was recording songs for her first greatest hits album Greatest Hits – Chapter One (2012) at the time. Instead of being included for Chapter One, she later recorded the song for Piece by Piece. An '80s U2-inspired energetic synthpop and dance-pop anthem, "Dance with Me" is a song about dancing and escapism, serving as an invitation and to dance with one another.
"Water Under the Bridge" is a song by English singer Adele from her third studio album 25 (2015). Adele wrote the song with its producer, Greg Kurstin. Columbia Records released the track as the album's fourth single on 14 November 2016. A mid-tempo pop, soul and soft rock song, "Water Under the Bridge" incorporates influences of 1980s music, R&B, and a gospel choir over guitars and snare drums. Inspired by her relationship with charity founder Simon Konecki, who Adele dated for seven years and married in 2018, the song speaks of forgiveness and details the crucial point in a courtship of determining whether one's partner is willing to put in the work to make it succeed.
"Never Give Up" is a song recorded by Sia, from the soundtrack of the Garth Davis-directed film, Lion (2016). Written by Sia and her producer Greg Kurstin, the song was released on 18 November 2016. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Song Written For Visual Media. It is an electropop ballad, with influences of Indian Music.
As You Were is the debut solo studio album by English singer and songwriter Liam Gallagher. It was released on 6 October 2017 by Warner Bros. Records. A critical and commercial success, the album debuted at number one in the UK, outselling the rest of the top 10 of the UK Albums Chart combined and achieving gold certification in its first week. It has since been certified platinum in the UK. It also achieved the highest single-week vinyl sales in 20 years, with 16,000. In part for his work on the album, producer Greg Kurstin also won the 2018 Grammy Award for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical.
"Wall of Glass" is the debut solo single by English singer and songwriter Liam Gallagher. Gallagher co-wrote the song with Andrew Wyatt and producer Greg Kurstin. The song was released as the lead single for Gallagher's debut solo studio album, As You Were (2017). It was initially set for release on 2 June but was instead released a day earlier.
Concrete and Gold is the ninth studio album by American rock band Foo Fighters, released on September 15, 2017, through Roswell and RCA Records. It is the band's first album to be produced alongside Greg Kurstin. Described by the band as an album where "hard rock extremes and pop sensibilities collide", Concrete and Gold concerns the future of the United States from the viewpoint of the band's frontman and lead songwriter Dave Grohl, with the heated atmosphere of the 2016 elections and the presidency of Donald Trump cited as major influences by Grohl. Juxtapositions serve as a common motif in both the album's lyrical and musical composition, with Grohl further describing the album's overall theme as "hope and desperation".
Johnny Mathis Sings the Great New American Songbook is a studio album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis that was released on September 29, 2017, by Columbia Records and was composed of covers of recent hits by other artists. His last project to tackle the latest radio favorites was the 1996 release Because You Loved Me: The Songs of Diane Warren.
The Hanukkah Sessions are a series of video presentations of popular songs originally written or performed by Jewish artists, as covered by musicians Greg Kurstin and Dave Grohl. Kurstin and Grohl covered eight songs per year for this project, and released one per night to digital streaming platforms for each night of Hanukkah in the years 2020 through 2022.
↑ Endelman, Michael (January 19, 2007). "the bird and the bee". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on February 4, 2007. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
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