THE PRODUCERS

Rob Davis, Spike Sent and Steve Levine have helped create major hits for everyone from massive attack and madonna to kylie and the clash. here, they discuss their careers, their gear and their studio techniques?

No one can doubt that there has been plenty of publicity about Kylie's behind but there has been precious little written about what''s actually behind Kylie. That all changed recently, however, with the news that the song Come Into My World has won a Grammy as the Best Dance Recording, beating off stiff competition from the likes of Cher and Madonna at the American music industry's most prestigious awards.
Behind Kylie all the way in this instance is songwriter and producer Rob Davis who, along with Cathy Dennis, wrote and produced Come Into My World, as well as Kylie's smash Can't Get You Out Of My Head, a number one in over 20 countries. Although well chuffed with his Grammy, it all came as a bit of a surprise to Rob.
'Amazing, I really wasn't expecting it, and it came up so quickly as well,' he says. 'What's more, Jimmy Jam of Jam and Lewis was giving out the award which was great because I've always admired their work.'

Glam Past
Grammy aside, Rob is no stranger to success having had a long career in music before Kylie had even picked up a spanner in Neighbours. Rob was the guitarist with 1970s glam rockers Mud before making the transition to backroom boffin behind a large number of pop/dance hits. As well as the work with Kylie, they include the track Groovejet by Spiller and hits for Holly Vallance and Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Rob's interest in production started in Mud when singles such as Tiger Feet were being produced by the prolific Chinn and Chapman team.
'Even from the Mud days I had a studio with a Revox and did bits of production, working out harmonies as well as writing songs. It all came naturally really,' he says.
Moving from guitar to the high-tech world of synths, sequencers and samplers involved quite a learning curve, even though Rob got into the electronic music revolution early on.
'All through the 1980s I had Korgs and Linndrums, stuff like that. It came slowly. The technology's got better over the years. Guitar's now back in quite a big way in R'n'B - cutting guitars up for example - and there are more effects for guitar nowadays.'

Dance Mentor
From glam rock to dance music is quite a leap. So how did it come about? 'Well, I got into dance in 1988 or 1989. I met Paul Oakenfold who lived near me and he said 'come and see me play' so I went to loads of his gigs to check the music out. He said he knew where this music was going so I started writing tracks and vocals for him and got into it slowly through that.'
The Oakenfold connection led to the hit Ibiza anthem Jibaro by Elektra and plenty of work writing top line vocal parts over dance grooves. But Rob's main mode of operation for new material these days is to write songs from the ground up, often with collaborators such as Cathy Dennis.
'I keep loads of notebooks of lyrical ideas but I do like to put a loop down or Korg drums, some chords and maybe some vocals. Sometimes I'll have a co-writer, maybe a girl singer and a lot of them like grooves so I keep a lot of not quite complete backing tracks with ideas on. My publishers will be given a list of people looking for songs and I can write with them in mind. Sometimes I write with the act themselves, as with Blue.'
One of his biggest hits wasn't written with the eventual recipient in mind however. 'When Cathy and I did Can't Get You Out Of My Head we didn't even think of Kylie. It was just one of those things where we had a tune and sent it off to a few people. Then I heard that Jamie Nelson at her record company wanted Kylie to do the song. He just went beserk over it.'

Studio Gear
As well as co-writing Can't Get You Out Of My Head, Rob ended up producing the song and two other tracks for the Fever album, with Kylie doing the vocals at his home studio in the garage of his Surrey house. Home studios are something that Rob keenly espouses. 'A lot of producers and writers that I work with say they wouldn't do that because you start taking your work home. But I find that having a studio in your house is very efficient and you get much more work done. For example, I can fall out of bed at four o'clock in the morning and write a bassline.'
According to Rob, those early morning basslines are more than likely to emanate from Korg equipment such as the Triton workstation. 'I have had the Triton for about five years. What I particularly like is the fact that it's multi with really good sounds that are easy to bring up and you can save the whole program. If I'm using eight to ten sounds in a track I can turn the Triton on and everything that I had yesterday is there. You don't need to record it into audio. Also, they're great sounds. I love things like the dark R'n'B bass and the Wurlitzer - I start practically every writing session with those two sounds.'
As well as his main Triton, Rob also makes use of a MicroKORG and a Triton rack, as he explains. 'Obviously, the rack has got the same sounds as the workstation but I wanted more freedom with the outputs especially for drums. So now I use both together.'
The all-new Triton Extreme also features in Rob's studio at present and certainly seems to have hit the spot with him.
'I really love the strings in the Triton Extreme. They seem to have a real wide stereo, the Largo strings are particularly good and the cellos are lovely. Overall, the effects sound classier and the vacuum tube circuit is great, especially on the bass to make things a little bit dirtier. It makes my favourite Dark R'n'B bass patch sound even better. The kits also sound great. I particularly like the Nu Kit and the Modern Rock Kit. Getting rock drums to sound good is really hard.'
Apart from heavy Triton usage, one other distinction of Rob's songs is that they have kept Posh Spice, Victoria Beckham, off the number one chart slot on two separate occasions - in 2000 with Spiller's Groovejet and in 2001 with Can't Get You Out Of My Head. So has Posh sent her heavies round for a 'little chat''''
'Yes,' laughs Rob. 'She has been down here and we've met about writing a tune. Nothing's happening just yet but it may do.'
If Rob's track record to date is anything to go by, a Posh Spice number one may not be too far away.