Greg Wells

Last updated

Greg Wells
Birth nameWilliam Gregory Wells [1]
Born1967or1968(age 56–57)
Origin Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
Genres
Occupations
  • Record producer
  • audio engineer
  • songwriter
  • multi-instrumentalist
Years active1998–present
Spouse
​
(m. 2013)​

William Gregory Wells (born 1968) [2] is a Canadian record producer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and mix engineer. He has worked with Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Quincy Jones, Adele, Twenty One Pilots, Missy Elliot, Burt Bacharach, Celine Dion, Kid Cudi, Deftones, Timbaland, Taylor Swift, Michael Bublé, Stephen Schwartz, Dua Lipa, John Legend, Selena Gomez, the Count Basie Orchestra, Rufus Wainwright, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Ryan Tedder, Weezer, Jazmine Sullivan, Katy Perry, OneRepublic, Carrie Underwood, Jamie Cullum, Pink, Theophilus London, Keith Urban, Crash Test Dummies, MIKA, Aerosmith, Elton John, and Sir George Martin. Throughout his career, Wells has written or produced projects selling a cumulative 130 million units. [3]

Contents

A classically and jazz trained multi-instrumentalist, Wells is featured as a drummer in Modern Drummer , [4] as a pianist in Keyboard , as a synth programmer in Electronic Musician , as a songwriter in American Songwriter and Billboard , and as a producer, mix engineer, and music maker on the cover of Mix with Ryan Tedder in the May 2017 edition.

Early life

Wells grew up in the town of Peterborough, Ontario, [3] Canada, the son of United Church of Canada Reverend Dr. Bill Wells. [5] At age 11, he was in a wheelchair unable to walk for two years with Perthes' disease. Wells attended Adam Scott CVI, [6] learned to play several instruments, [7] and joined many musical ensembles in his hometown from the local orchestra to bar bands to being a church organist/choir director, as well as DJing dances and presenting a weekly radio show on Trent University Radio CFFF-FM. [7] He studied classical piano, drums, pipe organ, orchestral percussion and music theory at Toronto's Royal Conservatory of Music. [8] At age 15, Wells was awarded the top prize out of all categories in the Peterborough Kiwanis Music Festival, the Founders Award, and represented Peterborough twice at the Kiwanis Music Provincial Finals for the province of Ontario. At age 17, he attended the Humber College Jazz Music Program in Toronto as a piano major. [3]

Career

After moving from Peterborough to Toronto at age 17, Wells worked as a live and studio musician with Canadian musicians Rob McConnell and Kim Mitchell. [9] He joined Kim Mitchell's band at age 19. Wells recorded keyboards and backing vocals on Mitchell's Rockland , toured Canada several times with the band, and won the award for Best Keyboardist at the 1990 Toronto Music Awards.

Wells was awarded a Canada Council arts grant to study in California with Clare Fischer, composer and string arranger for Prince. He traveled to Los Angeles at age 21 with the intention of returning to Canada, but Fischer began recommending Wells as a pianist. Wells joined k.d. lang's band soon afterward, [10] performing with her on the 1993 Grammy Awards where she won Best Pop Female Vocal.

His first recorded song as a songwriter was with Aerosmith on the double platinum Nine Lives , followed by "The Reason" on Celine Dion's 31 million selling album, Let's Talk About Love . DreamWorks executive Lenny Waronker tapped Wells in 2001 to produce Rufus Wainwright. Songwriter Kara DioGuardi started collaborating with Wells in 2003. Wells then produced, mixed and played most of the instruments on Mika's 6 million selling #1 debut album Life In Cartoon Motion .

In 2007, Wells produced both Timbaland's and OneRepublic's version of the song, "Apologize". The song ranked number 50 on the list of the Billboard Hot 100's All-Time Top Songs list from the chart's first 50 years. It stayed at number one for eight consecutive weeks on the Billboard Pop 100 chart, and spent 25 consecutive weeks in the top 10. It was ranked number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 Songs of the Decade. [11]

The biggest selling worldwide album of 2018 [12] The Greatest Showman: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was produced and mixed by Wells.

Wells has designed best selling music software, creating the "El Rey" compressor plugin with Acustica Audio and Studio DMI, [13] and a signature series of plugins with Waves Audio. [14]

Wells, Ryan Tedder and Nina Woodford co-wrote (with Wells producing and mixing) the 2019 Special Olympics theme song "Right Where I'm Supposed To Be", executive produced by Quincy Jones. The song was performed by Ryan Tedder, Avril Lavigne, Luis Fonsi, Hussain Al Jassmi, Assala Nasri and Tamer Hosny live at the opening ceremonies in Abu Dhabi. [15]

Wells produced the Grammy and Golden Globe nominated song "Beautiful Ghosts" performed by Taylor Swift for the 2019 film Cats , an adaptation of the 1981 musical of the same name. [16] The song is co-produced with Cats creator Andrew Lloyd Webber, and written by Taylor Swift and Lloyd Webber.

Wells received a Grammy nomination for co-producing and mixing all songs for Lin-Manuel Miranda's 2021 movie and soundtrack album In the Heights , [17] directed by Jon M. Chu. Wells worked on a second film with Alex Lacamoire and Miranda, the animated hit movie musical Vivo directed by Kirk DeMicco. [18] Wells also worked on a third film for Lin-Manuel Miranda's directorial debut, mixing the songs in the musical film Tick, Tick... Boom! . [19]

Wells is the music producer, mix engineer, and multi-instrumentalist for both Wicked films and soundtrack albums. [20]

Personal life

Wells is married to Swedish songwriter Nina Woodford. He has six children. He worked out of his studio in Los Angeles [3] until it was destroyed along with his home in January 2025 during the Palisades Fire. [21]

Credits

Awards

Wells received the Pensado Giant Award at the 2017 Pensado Awards for achievements in the field of record-making. [23] He has been nominated for a Grammy six times, won a Grammy in 2019 for his production and mixing on The Greatest Showman film and soundtrack album, and in 2023 won a 2nd Grammy for Michael Buble's album Higher. [24] In June 2015, Wells was awarded an honorary degree from his alma mater Humber College, a music school in Toronto. Wells was nominated as producer of the year in 2000 and 2019 at the Canadian Juno Awards. [25]

YearNominee / workAwardResult
2008 [26] "Love Today" Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording Nominated
2011 [26] Teenage Dream Grammy Award for Album of the Year Nominated
2019 [26] The Greatest Showman: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media Won
2022 [26] In The Heights: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media Nominated
2022 [26] Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album Nominated
2023 [26] Higher Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album Won

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References

  1. ↑ "Greg Wells on ASCAP".
  2. ↑ "Don't judge 'Cats' film by its trailer, says Canadian music producer Greg Wells". Red Deer Advocate . Black Press Media. The Canadian Press. November 19, 2019. Archived from the original on August 27, 2024. Retrieved August 27, 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Meet the London, Ont.-born music producer who's worked with Michael Bublé, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Quincy Jones and John Legend (To name a few)". Toronto Star . March 25, 2022.
  4. 1 2 "Features: Greg Wells". Modern Drummer, Stephen Belans, July 2016.
  5. ↑ "Musician returns to church that seeded career" Archived August 19, 2017, at the Wayback Machine . Peterborough Examiner, By Jessica Nyznik, March 7, 2016
  6. ↑ "Peterborough’s music pedigree a secret no more". My Kawartha, Dec 12, 2014 by Paul Rellinger.
  7. 1 2 "Producer Extraordinaire Greg Wells: Pop Passions, Musical Obsessions and the Greatest Showman". January 28, 2019.
  8. ↑ "Alumnus Greg Wells Wins Grammy Award | the Royal Conservatory of Music".
  9. ↑ Larry LeBlanc (February 27, 1999). "Dummies Hand In their Latest Set". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. pp. 18–21la. ISSN   0006-2510.
  10. ↑ Larry LeBlanc (February 27, 1999). "Dummies Hand In their Latest Set". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. pp. 18–21. ISSN   0006-2510.
  11. ↑ "Apologize OneRepublic Inside the Track #4 - Videos - Mix with the Masters". March 2, 2017.
  12. ↑ "The Greatest Showman soundtrack named best-selling album of 2018". March 13, 2019.
  13. ↑ "El Rey - Acustica Audio".
  14. ↑ "Greg Wells Signature Series | Bundles". Waves. Retrieved September 28, 2022.
  15. ↑ "Special Olympics World Games Abu Dhabi 2019 Launches Official Pop Anthem Produced by Grammy Award Winner, Greg Wells". March 11, 2019.
  16. ↑ ""Beautiful Ghosts" (From The Motion Picture Cats) by Taylor Swift". Tidal . Retrieved December 2, 2019.
  17. ↑ "Greg Wells". grammy.com. Retrieved December 22, 2022.
  18. ↑ "Jaxsta".
  19. ↑ "THE tick, tick...BOOM! SOUNDTRACK FROM THE NETFLIX FILM DIRECTED BY LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA OUT TODAY!". November 12, 2021.
  20. ↑ https://www.theschwartzscene.com/quarterly-newsletter/issue-73-fall-2022-stephen-schwartz-musical-news/
  21. ↑ Willman, Chris (January 12, 2025). "'Wicked' Music Producer Greg Wells on Losing a World-Class Studio as Well as Family Home in the Fires – and the Sorrow of Saying Goodbye to the Palisades". Variety . Retrieved January 13, 2025.
  22. ↑ ""Billboard Chart Beat"". Billboard . Archived from the original on October 31, 2005.
  23. ↑ "Fourth annual Pensado awards honor Greg Wells". Mix Online
  24. ↑ "Grammys 2023: Winners List". The New York Times . February 5, 2023.
  25. ↑ Larry LeBlanc (February 12, 2000). "Morissette leads Canada's Juno nomination list". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. pp. 45–. ISSN   0006-2510.
  26. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Greg Wells". GRAMMY.com. Retrieved October 17, 2024.
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