When it comes to taste-making hip-hop, alternative pop and R&B, Jeff Bhasker has practically created a whole genre unto himself. You can hear the Los Angeles-based producer/songwriter’s quietly explosive sound in his groundbreaking work on Kanye West’s “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” collaborations with Alicia Keys (“Girl on Fire”) and chart-topping work with fun. and Nate Ruess (“We Are Young,” P!nk’s “Just Give Me a Reason”).
The A-list collaborators and Grammy Award wins are a long way from Bhasker’s off-the-radar roots: He was born in Socorro, N.M.; graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston; then worked as a keyboardist-for-hire, doing wedding gigs in Boston and playing with jam band Lettuce in New York. After expanding into production and songwriting with indie R&B singer Goapele, he landed his first major-label placement in another unlikely place: the title track to rapper the Game’s 2005 album, “The Documentary.” But his real break was working on West’s experimental 2008 album, “808s & Heartbreak,” which quickly helped lead to an ever-expanding list of diverse collaborators, including Bruno Mars, Beyonce and Taylor Swift.
Related
Given this winding path to success — and the ever-increasing presence of Bhasker’s fingerprints — it’s no surprise that he’s ready to reinvent himself again. “I’m kind of searching, [and] evolving my sound,” he says. “It’s interesting to hear all these sounds now that have the seeds of what me and Kanye proliferated — all these spooky, organic, however-you-want-to-call-them songs.”
In the meantime, Bhasker spoke with Billboard about his collaborations with P!nk, Keys, Swift and West; his work on Natalia Kills’ upcoming album, due in September on Cherrytree; and his own alt-pop pet project under the musical alias Billy Kraven.
“Just Give Me a Reason” has become one of the biggest hits for P!nk as well as yourself. How were you two initially paired?
Through [RCA Music Group CEO] Peter Edge. He was one of the first people that believed in my sound. And P!nk had wanted to work with Nate [Ruess] as well. We got together and hammered it out in one day, almost in an improvisational way: I played some chords, Nate started singing, and [P!nk] started typing down lyrics, and we put the song together from there. It was an unusually collaborative and spontaneous song.
Do you prefer writing songs from scratch or producing those that other people have written?
All of the above. When the songs are in different stages you have to help them in different ways. I want to understand what they’re trying to do and trying to say. I wrote “Sleeping With a Broken Heart” — it was like a complete song — before I laid it down with Alicia. [Jay Z’s] “Run This Town” was like, “Let’s come up with each verse,” and I just happened to come up with this one verse. Or if the song is just amazing, like “We Are Young,” which was largely written, or Taylor Swift’s “Lucky One,” which was a fully formed song, then it’s like, “OK, great, it’s done — let’s record.”
“Yeezus” is West’s first solo album in six years that you weren’t involved in. What’s your take on the music?
It’s amazing. I think what came out was a fresh sound that was really challenging, innovative and exciting. It’s harder to listen to, but that’s why you’ll still be listening to it in 10, 20 years — not whatever else came out today. I love Wale, but I don’t think that’s the music people are going to say, “That’s what defined this year.” That’s what Kanye does — over and over again.
Given your high profile these days, you must be fielding all sorts of requests from artists big and small. What makes you say yes?
I’d like to develop an artist from the earlier stage, when you just have raw talent and help guide them and allow them to develop faster or more wholly. That’s the most interesting thing to me: when someone has a concept and I can help refine and guide it. Natalia Kills is an artist I’m working with. I’ve known her for so long that we collaborate really well. I encouraged her to write more songs on her own, not to just write to tracks, and she did some of her best writing on this album.
You’ve also been spending time on your own music, under the name Billy Kraven. Many of the songs on your mixtape, Born on the Fourth of July, sound like they might have been originally intended for other artists. Were they?
Some of the songs are 3 or 4 years old. They’re all [from] an era when most of my big records and my music started being exposed, so it’s all in that vein. I love all that music — that’s why I wanted it to come out. It deals with a lot of different, difficult subject matter that is missing from today’s music. It’s cool to just put it out there and let people hear it.