Music Producer
De Vries began his music career playing keyboards for the English eighties pop-soul band The Blow Monkeys (with whom he has an ongoing creative relationship to this day), then spending the late eighties as one of the UK's most in-demand session keyboard-players/programmers and up-and-coming producers, working with artists such as Annie Lennox, The Sugarcubes, David Bowie, D Mob, Coldcut, Cathy Dennis, The Soup Dragons, Junior Reid, Brian Eno, U2, and Lisa Stansfield.
His work with The Sugarcubes led to a key role on Björk's "Debut", which marked the beginning of a long collaborative relationship with producer Nellee Hooper; the team were responsible for landmark recordings with Massive Attack, Björk, Madonna, The Sneaker Pimps, Tina Turner, and U2, and ultimately the soundtrack and score for Baz Luhrmann's Romeo+Juliet, for which de Vries - along with Hooper and co-composer Craig Armstrong - received the first of his two BAFTAs.
Since then de Vries has made records with, amongst others, Robbie Robertson, Neil Finn, Anja Garbarek, PJ Harvey, Melanie C, David Gray, Madonna, Perry Farrell, Skin, Darren Hayes, the Sugababes, Bebel Gilberto, Sophie Solomon, The Leaves, Elbow and Pet Shop Boys.
His best known work includes writing and production contributions to Björk's extended body of work, a professional relationship that has continued throughout the Icelandic singer's career.
De Vries produced both of Rufus Wainwright's Want albums (Want One and Want Two), and appeared in the documentary, All I Want, discussing Wainwright's life. He is documented as saying that Wainwright's song, "I Don't Know What it Is", was one of the most complex production challenges he has ever faced, with its hundreds of layers of separate orchestral, choral, and vocal parts.
Most recently, De Vries has produced and written with Josh Groban on his multi-platinum 2007 release, Awake; mixed Rufus Wainwright's 2007 LP, Release the Stars; and produced the 2008 album A Piece of What You Need by English singer-songwriter Teddy Thompson. Thompson approached de Vries early on with the desire of them working together while de Vries was working on the Want albums with Rufus Wainwright, who is a friend of Thompson.
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Famous quotes containing the word music:
“Hell is full of musical amateurs: music is the brandy of the damned.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)