For anyone who’s tuned into the World Music Show over the years, there are two things you know about me, about the two artists I have such affection for–one is David Byrne, the other is Elvis Costello.
When it comes to Elvis, in the early years of the show, there’s only a handful of songs I could technically play on the show–his duet with Jimmy Cliff, then his other duet later on with La Marisoul for the most part.
Well, in the past few years, that’s changed quite a bit with his release of “Hey Clockface,” which featured some remakes in French, his duet with Iggy Pop on “No Flag” sung also in French and the reworking of Costello’s masterpiece (one of many) of “This Year’s Model,” called “Spanish Model.”
With that release, I now have an entire album of songs–by Elvis, featuring the Attractions on which I can pull tracks from.
And it’s because of that release, and the recent amazing output of Elvis with “Look Now,” “Hey Clockface,” and “A Boy Named If,” that my eye caught the producer of those albums (as well as “Spanish Model”), Sebastian Krys.
As someone who grew up reading liner notes to find out who played what on tracks, who produced the albums and who literally spent hours reading that, and just listening–really listening to albums with headphones on, over and over again, you can say I like to gain some deep knowledge.
In Krys, I found a like-minded lover of music–a fan who also spent countless hours watching the records revolve.
In wanting to take a chance–because honestly, why the hell not, what could I lose, I reached out via Twitter to see if he’d be interested in talking with me–and he was gracious enough to agree.
First, a bit of background on Sebastian Krys.
According to his biography on his new company Rebeleon Entertainment, which is a music entertainment company that will concentrate on developing artists, producers, songwriters, and engineers, Krys has a long list of achievements and artists he’s worked with.
He’s a 12 time Latin Grammy and 6 time Grammy award winning producer and engineer. Including 2 for Latin Grammy Producer of the Year (2015 & 2007). In 2019, he was given the BMI Champion award and in 2018, was honored at the Education through Music Los Angeles gala with the Shining Star award. Krys, was also the first person inducted into Full Sail University’s Hall of Fame.
His production credits ranges from Alternative (Elvis Costello, Lori Meyers, Los Rabanes, Marlango & Kinky), to Pop (JLo, Shakira, Marc Anthony, Alejandro Sanz, Belanova, and Enrique Iglesias), to singer-songwriters Gianmarco, Obie Bermudez, and Tommy Torres, to trailblazing artists like Carlos Vives and La Santa Cecilia.
Within the two chunks of our interview, which I broke up to make it easier to digest, we talk about his history in music, what drew him to it and about our mutual love for the bands Fishbone, Los Lobos and of course, Elvis (added in as well is our love for a certain sub shop in L.A.).
We had a fascinating conversation. The first half revolves around his work, early career and what Latin music means in the vast scheme of things. The second half is all Elvis.
Enjoy!
