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GC PRO SPOTLIGHT: Lester Mendez

We recently caught up with Lester Mendez, one of the busiest producers on the scene today. Over the last few years, Lester has penned and/or produced songs for the likes of Shakira, Jewel, Dido, Wyclef Jean and more. This year, the young producer will be working with an even larger list of high-profile artists, including Santana and others. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for this creative genius (who, as we found out, is also one of the nicest guys in the world).

GC Pro: Tell us a litle bit about how you got into the record business.

LM: I started as a musician, a piano player, a keyboard player. I started playing in church. I grew up in a Pentacostal church, and they started acquiring gear. They bought a Minimoog, and they had a Fender Rhodes.

GC Pro: Pretty progressive church!

LM: Yeah. So I started with that. Then I started taking piano lessons, and got a scholarship to go to U of M (University of Miami). Got into the jazz program, one of the top music schools. It was around that time, I think…I had a friend in high school, around my freshman year, and he was a DJ. He played me Kraftwerk; I think it was Trans Europe Express. And it just blew my mind. I’d never heard electronic music before. That definitely hooked me. So I stared getting into electronic music, but at the same time I was studying jazz and orchestration and arranging and theory and all that.

GC Pro: Seems that a lot of electronic musicians have a classical background, or a very deep musical understanding.

LM: Yeah. A lot of the kids today, they come at it from a DJ angle. But you know, I went to school and I studied music. I was more of a musician than a DJ. But the ones that start from a DJ background don’t really know music, and have to figure it out as they go, I guess.

GC Pro: Did that take you into programming and engineering from there?

LM: Well, then I started working in a studio. A friend of mine had a studio, a small little studio. I worked there for free. I’d bring my first keyboard, a DX-7, and then I had a Juno-106. I used to make records with those two keyboards. There was a big dance scene in Miami, underground Miami bass records and freestyle. He did a lot of that at that studio, and I would just kind of show up every day, and these producers would say, "Hey, I need a synth hook right here." So I would just sit there and wait for my moment to get to play or do something on these records.

That’s what really got me into it. I knew I wanted to make records. I loved it, loved that environment of being in a studio, manipulating sound, and working with effects and cues. I saw the potential of the studio as another instrument, you know? It became like another tool, more than just a place to record and capture. You can really manipulate and create sounds in the studio.

GC Pro: When did that lead you to working with bigger artists and in what capacity?

LM: I’d started cutting my teeth doing sessions. There’s a big Latin scene in Miami, and I started getting higher into playing keyboards and programming sounds and doing arrangements. So, my session playing led to arranging. I had produced a couple of dance records, but nothing really big, just underground stuff, to get my feet wet. But it wasn’t until I met Shakira…that was the big production opportunity I had.

GC Pro: What year was that?

LM: I met her in ’97. We’re always working together. Since then, I’ve just been into producing and writing.

GC Pro: You bring a whole combination of writing, producing arranging, engineering-

LM: I’m not so much of an engineer, actually. I know how to get sound on tape, and I understand the principles of signal routing and all that, but the more I produce…I’m not the engineer. I need to be objective and, uh…

GC Pro: See the big picture?

LM: Yeah. I’m not that fast of an engineer. It’s not really in my background. I come in and I write songs with an artist, and I produce those songs. Along the way, I’ll engineer a little bit, just to get the songwriting ideas down. Once the full production starts, I have an engineer with me.

GC Pro: Are you recording primarily to Pro Tools, or are you still using tape sometimes?

LM: On the Jewel record, we tracked the basic tracks to analog tape…the drums, bass and basic guitars. Then we transferred to Pro Tools. But now, it’s just so convenient to go straight to Pro Tools. The sound is so good with the HD and the converters. The sound is so much smoother, and there’s more depth with the new HD system. Unless you want that effect…really, that’s what analog is. It just creates an effect for certain sounds. If you want that sound, that’s the only reason to go to analog.

GC Pro: Is there any particular technology emerging now that you think is really exciting?

LM: The most innovative, obviously, is the software-based gear, whether it’s plug-ins, compressors, EQs, or the area of soft synths. It’s so exciting, sonically what you can do with things like Absynth and Reactor all the Native Instruments things.

GC Pro: Are you a fan of Spectrasonics?

LM: Yeah! And the automation you can do. It’s just wild. It’s the next frontier, really.

GC Pro: You travel with a portable rig with your Pro Tools HD rig, your favorite outboard gear, your favorite keyboard modules. If you had to name your top three things you don’t leave home without to do a session, what would they be?

LM: Definitely the HD, the 192s, with a Neve or a Vintech preamp. For keyboards, a coupe of workstations…a Triton, a JV-2080, and something like a Nord or a Virus. Mach 5, the sampler, I’m really into.

GC Pro: With the turmoil of the record industry, do you think people are going to need to diversify in the next few years?

LM: I think everything’s gonna get back to normal. I think things will stabilize. Music has to keep going. People still want to listen to music, probably more than ever now. I think people should just stick to what they’re doing and become better. Keep their dream of music going, and not get discouraged.

GC Pro: What gets you most excited when you’re working with an artist?

LM: The most inspiring thing is when you find the right artist, which lately seems to be hard to come across. An artist who is interesting, who’s doing something new and not following someone else’s sound. Just new and unique artists. There’s so much music inside of me that certain artists can get it out of you. When I come across a cool artist is when the music starts flowing.

GC Pro: Tell us about your last couple of projects.

LM: I worked on the last Jewel record. I did a song with Dido. I did a song with Wyclef Jean. I did some music for a film called Havana Nights, which is coming out on Valentine’s Day. I did a song with Mya for that. I’m getting ready to do some more work with Shakira and Santana this year.

GC Pro: Is that really exciting for you, the Santana project?

LM: Yeah! Totally. My earliest memory of music at the house was Santana. My father was a huge fan.

GC Pro: What are some of your other early influences?

LM: It’s funny. My dad listened to Latin music, like Latin instrumental music. He was really into it. He had a hi-fi system, and all this stuff that showcased panning (laughs). He was into those Escoval and quirky Latin records with the crazy panning. And at the same time, he was into Johnny Mathis and popular American music. On my mom’s side, she grew up with opera. That’s her favorite kind of music.

GC Pro: That’s quite a spectrum to be exposed to.

LM: Yeah, my dad blasting the percussion in the living room and my mom singing Puccini in the kitchen (laughs).

GC Pro: Do you have outside interests besides music, or does music consume your whole life?

LM: It’s been crazy, the last few years. I’ve had very little time to do anything else. I like watersports in Florida, and just hanging out on the beach. I try to just chill out that way. It’s hard, because when you’re on a project, you don’t have time to experiment, and there’s just so much gear coming out. When you get time off, I really look forward to mucking about and messing around with stuff. When I’m on a project, the artist is sitting around, and you can’t do that. You don’t have time to goof around, and there’s so much stuff to goof around with, all these plug-ins.

When I’m done with a project, I love my time alone, just messing around.

GC Pro: Any final thoughts?

LM: I just want to thank you guys, GC Pro, for being so supportive with gear and setups. Helping me troubleshoot my setup for this whole portable rig, which is quite involved.

GC Pro: Those are two 24-space shock racks that pretty much have the whole core of your studio.

LM: And they’re both ELCOed together, and there’s digital connections between both of them. Packing it up is very easy. There are just a couple of cables in each rack.

It’s another cool thing happening with technology: with Pro Tools, you can record anywhere. It’s so cool to just rent a house somewhere and bring the gear. Not having that pressure affecting performances. People are more chilled out. If you have a place with a cool environment and atmosphere, that makes up for any acoustical discrepancies you might run across.