Cirkut

Today’s pop music has Cirkut’s hands all over it.

Cirkut is one of the world’s leading songwriters and producers. Monster hits he has worked on recently include ‘Seven’ by JungKook (ft Latto), ‘Unholy’ by Sam Smith (ft Kim Petras), and ‘Hold Me Closer’ by Elton John and Britney Spears; he’s also co‑written and co‑produced major hit songs by Lil Nas X (‘Star Walkin’), Kanye West (‘Hurricane’), Maroon 5 (‘Girls Like You’), Ava Max (‘Sweet But Psycho’), the Weeknd (‘Starboy’), Miley Cyrus (‘Wrecking Ball’), Katy Perry (‘Part Of Me’), and dozens more.

Along with a handful of other producers, his work has come to define the sound of modern pop and R&B. “I try to remain humble, and not credit myself unduly, but I recognise that I have a sound,” he admits. “I think it’s to do with the drums hitting hard, which comes from hip‑hop. Even if it’s bubblegum pop, the drums have to be in your face, punchy, and they have to have some grit to them. They have to be not too dirty, but also not too clean. Coming from the pop world, the vocals also have to be nice and bright. I’ve done music that’s darker and more subdued, but I think my forte is a sound that’s bright, punchy, aggressive, loud and in your face. So I guess I helped create a certain sound.”

Cirkut: Even if it’s bubblegum pop, the drums have to be in your face, punchy, and they have to have some grit to them. They have to be not too dirty, but also not too clean.

Touching ’Base

Cirkut, aka Henry Walter, has his roots in Canada — he was born and grew up in Halifax — and in hip‑hop. Although he has long ceased to work exclusively in the genre, the influence continues to run through everything he does. “I draw inspiration from what I’ve grown up on, from many different genres, whether it’s electronic music like Daft Punk, Justice, Sebastian, Mr Oizo, or hip‑hop stuff like DJ Premiere, Pete Rock, RZA and Large Professor, or more indie rock stuff like MGMT, or ’70s soulful funk, or New Wave. I’ve always injected what I love in what I’m working on. I think that’s what everyone does: chasing that feeling of nostalgia of what they grew up on, while also making sure it sounds new.”

Cirkut’s journey began when he started DJ’ing at the age of 14. “When I started as a DJ, I had a Technics 1200 turntable, and I was into ’90s hip‑hop, scratching and vinyl. I loved what I was hearing, and wanted to learn how to make beats myself. So I downloaded whatever I could get my hands on at the time: Cool Edit Pro, Adobe Audition, Reason, Acid, Fruity Loops. I didn’t really know what I was doing. I was just messing around. Then I found [Steinberg’s] Cubase SX. The way everything was laid out made sense to me, and I stuck with it. I’m now on Cubase 12, which shows you how long I’ve been using it!

“The MIDI in Cubase is the best, and there are many hidden features that you can dig out, and many macros and things to program to make your flow much quicker. Your choice of DAW is a personal preference, and you can accomplish the same things in any DAW. Ableton is incredible, and Pro Tools is great for audio. At the end of the day it’s just a canvas, a tool to put down your ideas and your music. So I stick with Cubase. I think it is the best. It’s what I’m comfortable with, and I’m really fast and efficient in it. I’m close with some of the representatives at Steinberg and they listen to my comments and suggestions on how to improve it.

“After high school I moved to Toronto, where I went to a recording engineering program at the Harris Institute. During that time I was looking for an internship, and I read an article in a local newspaper about the electronic music duo Mstrkrft, who at the time were not globally known, but were already hot DJ/producers in Canada. I really liked their music, which is aggressive hard electronic dance. I ended up briefly interning with one of them, Al‑P, but he didn’t really need me, so he said, ‘You make cool beats. I’ll refer you to our lawyer.’”

The lawyer was Chris Taylor, who represented many big Canadian acts, and remains a well‑known Canadian music industry lawyer and label executive. “Chris had a beat CD of mine, and gave it to a few people. It ended up at Kobalt Music, and was sent to their writer and producer Nicole Morier, who happened to be in the studio with Britney Spears. So they wrote a song called ‘Mmm Papi’ to a beat that I made. The Britney track opened doors, and I’m obviously grateful for the opportunity, but listening back to it now... I didn’t really know what I was doing at the time. It’s a good and fun song, but if I’m being honest I didn’t know how to produce.”

Dream Job

‘Mmm Papi’ appeared on Spears’ sixth studio album, Circus (2008), which was a US number one. He shared co‑writing and co‑production credits with the other two members of the electronic‑rap trio he was a part of at the time, Let’s Go To War. Realising that he preferred a behind‑the‑scenes role in the studio to being an artist, Circut formed a production duo called the Dream Machine with fellow Let’s Go To War member Adrien Gough. They hooked up with a fellow unknown Torontonian, Abel Tesfaye, and co‑wrote and co‑produced the song ‘High For This’. It became the very first song released by Tesfaye, aka the Weeknd, and the opener of his first mixtape, House Of Balloons (2011).

Cirkut’s reputation grew, and he signed to Dr Luke’s publishing company Prescription Songs. He soon found himself working with Dr Luke and Max Martin on a song called ‘Seal It With A Kiss’ for Britney Spears’ seventh studio album, Femme Fatale (2011), and on two songs for Katy Perry’s 2012 album Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection, ‘Wide Awake’ and ‘Part Of Me’. The latter in particular became a milestone.

“It was my entry into the pop world, working with these pop music giants. I was just a kid and here I was, working with Dr Luke and Max Martin! At the time I wasn’t a full‑fleshed producer yet, I was more of a beatmaker and was good at creating interesting sonics. When I came in the song was already fully written. It sounded more like indie pop, and I felt I could put my production sauce on it. So I stripped back the drums, and made them hit harder, and the bass more aggressive and pumping, all from a hip‑hop perspective. It was a great experience. Since then, I’m definitely asked for that sound.”

Punk Production

This experience led to a string of high‑profile co‑writing and co‑production credits as Dr Luke’s right‑hand man, including Jessie J, Flo Rida, Rihanna, T‑Pain, Nicki Minaj, One Direction, Kesha, will.i.am, Miley Cyrus, Pitbull, Shakira, Usher, Maroon 5, Jennifer Lopez and more. Then, in 2016, Cirkut worked, without Dr Luke, on eight songs on the Weeknd’s Starboy album (2016), including the two songs that were famously co‑written and co‑produced with Daft Punk. “It definitely was a highlight of my life and career to be able to collaborate with them. Abel contacted me and said ‘Hey, I have a bunch of songs, I’m not happy with the production on it yet, I’d love to have you come in and do your thing.’ Abel, Doc McKinney and I then worked at Conway Studios here in LA.

“For ‘Starboy’ and ‘I Feel It Coming’, the initial writing was done by Abel and Daft Punk in France. I wasn’t present for these sessions. Daft Punk gave me the files and entrusted me to finish their production and put my stamp on it. It was a great honour. I worked on their sessions with Doc McKinney. I was such a fan of Daft Punk and I wanted to respect the song and respect their creation, and I took what they did and tried to enhance it.

“In ‘Starboy,’ the 808 initially was riding on the one main note in the chorus, so I made the decision to go with the root note of the chords of the bass, which I felt improved the chorus. I also made the drums punch a bit harder, and did some side‑chaining, and a bunch of other production things to finish it.

“There was a lot of live instrumentation on ‘I Feel It Coming,’ with live guitar, synths and percussion. I kept most of that, but stripped back most of the programmed drums. There was some sort of a sustained legato bass line, but I felt it needed more movement so took that bass line off, and started playing around with a sound in a sample pack that was inspired by Daft Punk. It was a sort of low‑pass resonant bass similar to the bass sound on their track ‘Voyager’. I pulled that up and went ‘boom boom boom boom’.

“It was such a great experience to work with them. I got to meet Thomas Bangalter, who came to LA the day we were finishing ‘Starboy’ and ‘I Feel It Coming’ at Conway. He said ‘I love what you did on the songs,’ which meant a lot to me. We spent a few hours together on the songs just fine‑tuning everything. He was very easy to work with, but very particular, like ‘Maybe this bass note on bar 48 needs to be moved 10 milliseconds.’”

The Old & The New

Cirkut created his current studio in Los Angeles three years ago. The equipment and layout reflect all stages of his career, from his DJ background to impressive amounts of keyboards and guitars. Strikingly, his studio also has a considerable amount of outboard and a tape recorder.

“I love to work here. I’m spoiled now and don’t want to go anywhere else! Instead I try to make everyone come to me. I love it, it’s all set up according to how I like to work. I began on just a laptop, with no hardware, very bare bones, but in the past few years I’ve started acquiring more older vintage analogue equipment because I find that it really complements the modern production aspect. There are great plug‑ins that emulate analogue, but it’s not like the real thing.

“We’ve seen over time new technology coming in, like in the ’80s with the advent of drum machines, and then computer software, and how this stirred up resistance. There’s always going to be two sides, where some people are hardcore purists who believe in strictly analogue acoustic musicality and then some who only use computers. I think it’s nice to have a mix of both.

“I love collaborating with great musicians who can pick up a guitar and play some amazing chords and sing a melody. That’s not my forte. I feel like I’m best at taking what I’m hearing in the room and framing that in the right sense and interpreting it how I believe the final song should be heard. Over maybe 15 years or so I’ve accumulated knowledge and my way of doing things, and made it into my own thing.

“I could probably write and produce whole songs myself, but I feel like collaboration is best because we try to curate groups of writers. Whether it’s people I’ve never met before or people I work with all the time, everyone has their specialty and what they do best. I find that is when the magic happens. I do what I do best, and maybe there’s someone who’s a great guitar player, someone else who’s great at lyrics and melody, and then you have the artist. The best combinations are when everyone knows their role and is doing what they do best, and there’s not too much overlap.”

Cirkut: “I could probably write and produce whole songs myself, but I feel like collaboration is best...

Shared Space

Cirkut’s studio is therefore set up for collaboration, with a large main space, many instruments, and a second workstation. “I have two UA Apollo x16s, so plenty of inputs and outputs. I also have a Flock Patch XT digital patchbay, which is really helpful in getting many pieces of gear into Cubase. I’ve been acquiring a bunch of vintage outboard gear that was used on some of my favourite records from the past. Out of curiosity and being a nerd I just wanted to have them. It’s fun.

“So I got the Eventide H3000, a Roland Dimension‑D chorus, which sounds amazing, and two [Empirical Labs] Distressors which are pretty standard. For preamps I have four Neve 500 1073LBs, two Shadow Hills 500 series, and four API 3124s. Plus I have the [Chandler] EMI TG‑2. That going into a Tube‑Tech CL‑1B is my primary vocal chain, which is just great. I used to send the TG‑2 into an 1176, but I like the CL‑1B better for compressing vocals. It’s just smoother and more forgiving, even if you’re compressing a lot.

“I have a medium‑sized vocal booth, which I use probably 80 percent of the time. But sometimes people like to have a SM7 and sit on the couch in the main room, and sing with the speakers on, just to get a rough. Sometimes you just want to get the idea out with no real pressure of having to record final vocals. But where I can, I like to do vocals in the booth because it’s isolated and tight and dry and it sounds better. In the booth I swap between a reissue of the Telefunken 251, which sounds amazing — I have yet to record a voice with that mic that doesn’t sound good — and a Sony C800G, which is popular with a lot of rappers and some singers. I also I have a U87, and some other mics for the instruments. But I’m not obsessive about mics.

“Each of my keyboards go into their own separate preamp, which might be overkill, but I just like them all ready to play. I use mainly the four Neve 500 series for that. I don’t really swap them out too much. I know that they’re high‑quality preamps and that’s good enough for me. I don’t really go too into the weeds like ‘Oh, let me try the Jupiter‑8 with another preamp.’ I’m a nerd, but not that much of a nerd!

“I have a Roland Space Echo sitting here, which I love. Of course there are a lot of great plug‑in emulations, but something about the original just has a sound to it. If I’m looking for a really organic kind of acoustic sort of vintage sound, I’ll go to that instead of plug‑ins because I want that real raw saturated tape echo sound.”

Key Words

“My synths include a Roland Jupiter‑8, which is a classic. I also have an Oberheim OB‑8, a Roland Juno‑106, and a Sequential Circuits Pro One, which is a monophonic version of a Prophet‑5. I find that it has a different sound and it’s so warm and analogue and good for bass and leads. I also have a Fender Rhodes, which goes through a Boss CE‑1 chorus pedal, adding a nice rich warm chorus effect. And there’s a Sequential Circuits Prophet‑5 and a Moog Voyager. Plus I have Oberheim DMX and Roland TR‑808 drum machines.

Cirkut has a large collection of pedals, and says that he gets results by manipulating sound in real time that he wouldn’t with plug‑ins.

”I also have a bunch of pedals. I’ll usually re‑amp or play through them. They all have plug‑in equivalents of course, but the spontaneity of jamming through them and recording that is inspiring, because you have this audio to work with that’s gone through these pedals. You can chop up the audio and use this unique, baked‑in sound. You wouldn’t necessarily achieve the same sound when using plug‑ins, because you’d be automating plug‑ins and that achieves different results.

“For me, using hardware is about the sound and the process. It’s nice to have your hands on some knobs, and then there’s the sound. I’m by no means a purist who wants to use only analogue synths or outboard gear. I use it all. But there’s something about the analogue circuitry. Even the flaws when they go out of tune or one of the voices is off, there’s something real about that. I’ve done A/B comparisons where I load up the same patch on analogue and the plug‑in emulation it, and I notice a difference. And if you have a difference on many tracks, it has a cumulative effect. But when I’m working at another studio, I have my plug‑ins and I can easily achieve what I need to do. I don’t need all the hardware, even though it can be a constant source of inspiration and of different sounds.

“My monitors are PMC Result6, which are kind of the entry‑level PMCs. They’re not anything crazy but I love them. I’ve used them for probably five or six years now. I have a sub here as well. I also have the big BB6 XBD‑A monitors. I’m a big fan of PMC monitors. But it all comes down to personal preference and what you’re used to. Whether you have Barefoots or ADAMs or KRKs or Genelecs, it’s all about what you know. I just happened to know the PMCs. When I’m mixing or do a bounce of a final production and I then listen to it somewhere else, it usually is pretty on par with what I’ve been hearing here.”

Consolidating DAWs

“I’m usually the man at the computer, engineering and producing at the same time. For over 10 years I used Cubase for production and programming tracks, and Pro Tools for vocals. The audio editing is great in Pro Tools, it’s hard to beat. But six months ago I started doing everything in Cubase, including recording vocals, editing, and comping. I used to bounce a two‑track of the instrumental from Cubase to Pro Tools, record vocals into Pro Tools and then bounce the a cappella back into Cubase. At some point I was like ‘This is annoying.’ So I decided to do everything in Cubase. It’s been fun because it’s so fast.

“I have tried to make a beat with MIDI, synths and drum samples in Pro Tools, and it works fine, but something about it does feel cumbersome. I don’t find it as creatively free‑flowing as Cubase. Of course, it’s what speaks to you and what you’re comfortable with. When I used both Cubase and Pro Tools, I installed the same plug‑ins in both programs. I love doing everything in one program now. I’m surprised because I thought it would be too much for Cubase, but I can keep my buffer on 64 samples and I never have any issues.

“Some of the main soft synths I use in Cubase are Xfer Serum, Sylenth and Spectrasonics Omnisphere. I love all the different kind of waveforms you can select in Serum, and the functionality. You can produce really interesting sounds. Sylenth is a classic, and I’ve used that for over 10 years. Sylenth makes it really easy to make whatever sound you have in your head. Omnisphere can be used for almost everything, but when I’m looking for a specific organic sound, like a rare instrument that I wouldn’t have in the studio, I tend to go for Omnisphere.

“Also, in the days when I still worked with Pro Tools for audio recording, I’d finish sessions in Cubase. With every production I do I try to get the mix as close as I can to how I’m hearing it. I’m definitely a very sonic‑oriented person, and am constantly mixing as I go. For the final rough mix, I’ll start with nothing on the master. Once there’s a vibe going, once it’s feeling good and I want a little extra icing on top, I’ll gradually put stuff on the master bus. If I’m still recording, I try to be conscious of adding stuff that has zero or very little latency.

“I try to be restrained and not rely too much on the master chain, because ideally you should make the mix sound great without a master bus. I’ve seen producers put eight or 10 plug‑ins on their master bus, but when you bypass them all and your mix falls apart, there’s something wrong in the mix. You should get your mix right first.

“Once I’m 75 percent into my mix, I slap iZotope Ozone 10 on. I have my own presets to get it sounding bright and big and loud. I’ll also use a little of the FabFilter Pro‑L 2 and Xfer OTT on the master, and a Cubase plug‑in called Quadrafuzz. I don’t even adjust any of the knobs on the Quadrafuzz. It has a sound to it, it adds some saturation and punch. But I have to take it off when sending stems to the mixer.

“I often work with mixer Serban [Ghenea], and prep my sessions for his final mix in Cubase, and then I’ll put the WAV files into a Pro Tools Session, and send that to him, because he uses Pro Tools. Serban always brings it to another level. I always leave a bit of room, knowing he’s going to elevate it. He always gets the vocals so loud and clear and in your face and bright but just not too harsh, just the perfect balance between pop and in your face and loud, with glue to keep it all together.”