Leading up to Bernz’s debut album See You On The Other Side‘s release, we got the chance to sit down with Producer David Grants to hear about working with Bernz on “Outta My Brain” ft. Jarren Benton and “It Don’t Go” ft. CES Cru. 

So, you worked with Bernz on his upcoming album See You On The Other Side and I was just curious, how far back does that relationship go, or how did you get in touch with Bernz?

Actually, Bernz and I don’t go back that far. We have a mutual friend, Kap Kallous. He toured with Strange, I think on the MURSDAY tour, and I think another tour before that. I guess Bernz is familiar with Kap’s music and he knew that I produced majority of the records on there. He said he liked the music and he was going to be out in Vegas for his birthday just on a solo trip.

Long story short, he was like “yo, so I know your boy [David Grants] has a studio and he makes beats so I was wondering if I could meet up with him on my birthday, kind of just to vibe out and have a fun session.” We ended up doing that and actually the first song that we worked on was the “Outta My Brain” joint. It was cool, it kind of struck at the right time I guess you could say.

What’s the difference when you’re working with Kap in the past than when you’re working with Bernz, because they do have some similarities but they do have their own styles. What would you say the main difference is?

That’s a tough one because they’re both spur of the moment and they’re both very quick because they have natural talent, so it’s like they will both hear a record and they will get that instant instinct about what to do to it. For some artists, it takes them a while to latch on to something, they may sit on a beat for weeks, even months.

I’ve had instances where I’ve sent somebody something and they hadn’t gotten back to me in three months, and they were like “Hey, I finished that song”, but then you have someone like Bernz who knocks out half of the “Outta My Brain” joint in one session. Bernz and Kap are similar in that aspect, but I think they differ in-terms of where their style is at the moment. More similarities than differences I would say.

What kind of a role did you play in the creative process for both “Outta My Brain” and “It Don’t Go“? Did Bernz tell you what he was looking for?

I would say with “Outta My Brain”, I didn’t actually know what he was looking for at the time so I kind of just played him a bunch of beats and I think the “Outta My Brain” beat ended up being like the eighth or ninth one he heard. I think when he heard it he just knew exactly what he wanted to do with it. As far as creative influence, he would just lay down an idea and be like “yo, do you like that?” There was never really a no. He’s a really talented guy so it made my job that much easier. I also engineered the first half of the record and it makes my job easier as an engineer, I’m playing both sides and he’s great.

For the “It Don’t Go” record, that was part of some beats that I shot him in an email because he wanted at least one or two more for his project, and that was the one he chose. So as far as creative input, lyrically that was all him and CES Cru.

I have to ask, how did you get into music production, did it start off as a hobby or did you do it on the side?

I think it’s one of those things where a lot of producers would tell you that they started off as a rapper first, and I would say that that’s pretty much the case for my story. I think I was like in 8^th or 9^th grade. I always loved hip hop and I wanted to be apart of it somehow and obviously at that time I didn’t know how I wanted to be apart of it. I put one foot forward and the only way I knew how to do it was rap. As I started doing it more and more, I realized that that whole scene and the front of everything wasn’t for me, and that I’d rather be behind the scene and contribute creatively with the music and song writing because I do both of those.

So, I would just rather make other people sound good or do whatever I can. I got this software called E-DJ and it was basically a software of precomposed instrument loops and drums, and it was a software that basically allowed you to piece everything together. It was basically like cheating but it was like your composition at the end of the day because of the way you sequenced it. I took that and then went to Ethos Studio and bought an EPG 1000 and did that for a while. Now, I’m on reason and I’ve never really looked back. So, that’s pretty much how I got into it.

So what’s next on your plan, any projects you’re working on? Anyone you want to reach out to that you want to work with?

Man, I would just love to work with Tech. Out of all the things that I really want to do, I’m a big fan of his, just from an artist perspective, as well as a lyricist perspective. That dude is amazing. I’m actually in the process of working on a project with Kap Kallous. He has his next project coming out in October or November and that’s hands down the best music besides my own song writing stuff. That’s speaking from a non biased perspective. I think that he really did it on that album.

• What did you think of the production behind “It Don’t Go” and “Outta My Brain”?
• Have you pre ordered See You On The Other Side?

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