Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Interview of the Week: Harvey Mason Jr. - TV & Film Music Producer, Songwriter for Michael Jackson, Ariana Grande, Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber, Beyonce, Recording Academy Chairman of the Board & interim President/CEO, talking the 2021 GRAMMY Awards

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Interview of the Week: Harvey Mason Jr. - TV & Film Music Producer, Songwriter for Michael Jackson, Ariana Grande, Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber, Beyonce, Recording Academy Chairman of the Board & interim President/CEO, talking the 2021 GRAMMY Awards · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:04
Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's the show that she
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Speaker 1: Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me
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Speaker 1: on Money Making Conversations provide the consumer and business owner
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Speaker 1: access to celebrities, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and what I like to
0:55
Speaker 1: call industry decision makers. My next guest is truly an
0:58
Speaker 1: industry decision maker. His name is Harvey Mason, Jr. He
1:02
Speaker 1: probably serves as the Chairman of the Board of the
1:04
Speaker 1: Recording Academy also known as the Grammys, and he has
1:08
Speaker 1: also stepped in the role of Interim President CEO for
1:10
Speaker 1: the Recording of the Academy. Let's give a little background,
1:12
Speaker 1: Mr Harvard Hill. He's not only paying and produced songs
1:15
Speaker 1: for industry legends like Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson, When the Houston,
1:19
Speaker 1: Mariah Carey, but He's all in, Elton John, but also
1:21
Speaker 1: for today's superstars including Justin Beaver, Beyonce John, Legend Are
1:26
Speaker 1: the Grand Day, Justin timber Lake, and Chris Brown. In addition,
1:30
Speaker 1: he's compiled in the present list of film and TV credits,
1:32
Speaker 1: including writing and producing the music for Jesus Christ, Superstar Lives.
1:36
Speaker 1: It's just a few of them. I'm not gonna name
1:38
Speaker 1: at all, Jingle Jangle or Christmas Story, Christmas Journey, Zoe's
1:42
Speaker 1: Extraordinary Playlist, Shrek Straight out of Compton, All three Pitch
1:46
Speaker 1: Perfect Movies, The Grammy Awards of Music's Biggest Night, and
1:49
Speaker 1: the six or three Grammy Awards are Aaron on Sunday,
1:52
Speaker 1: March fourteenth, at a pm Eastern standard time on CBS.
1:55
Speaker 1: What can we expect? That's why I have them on
1:57
Speaker 1: the show talk a little bit about his life. How
2:00
Speaker 1: an extraordinary guy like him can be sitting in the
2:02
Speaker 1: background looking so good. Please whop into mindy making conversations.
2:06
Speaker 1: My man, Harry Mason Jr. How are you doing, sir?
2:09
Speaker 1: Doing well? Thank you so much for having me excited
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Speaker 1: to be here. This is great chairing the board Chairman
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Speaker 1: of the board of the Recording the Cavity. What does that?
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Speaker 1: What does that mean? Well, it means that some people
2:21
Speaker 1: that were the trustees of the Academy thought that I
2:23
Speaker 1: would be good to push the Academy forward into the
2:27
Speaker 1: next generation of what this academy looks like, and they
2:30
Speaker 1: voted for me, so we have forty four trustees. I
2:34
Speaker 1: ran as chair on the platform of change and improvement
2:36
Speaker 1: to the Academy, which I felt we needed a lot of. Uh.
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Speaker 1: You know, I've been a member of the Recording Academy
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Speaker 1: for probably I don't know, fifteen sixteen years, so I've
2:45
Speaker 1: seen a lot of the great things that it does,
2:47
Speaker 1: all the amazing programs and work that it does around
2:49
Speaker 1: the philanthropy and giving back to the music community, but
2:52
Speaker 1: also advocacy and fighting for the rights of creators and
2:55
Speaker 1: music people, and then education, making sure that we're getting
2:58
Speaker 1: instruments and hands of kids as the next generation of
3:01
Speaker 1: music makers, and continuing to expose people to music. So
3:04
Speaker 1: those are things I loved about the Academy. There are
3:06
Speaker 1: a few things that I thought we could do better,
3:08
Speaker 1: and so I ran for chair and they voted for me. Congradulations. Uh.
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Speaker 1: You know, my I have a little music background. In
3:13
Speaker 1: middle school, I was the first chair of clarinet, second
3:17
Speaker 1: share of tennis, saxophone, and uh. And I got to
3:20
Speaker 1: high school, you know, I got too cool for music,
3:24
Speaker 1: got too cool for the band, and I left the bank.
3:26
Speaker 1: Never too cool for the band. I thought I was
3:29
Speaker 1: hard after you, I thought. But you know the thing
3:31
Speaker 1: about it is that I would tell everybody music really
3:36
Speaker 1: focused me and really helped with my memorization. And so
3:39
Speaker 1: when you start talking about going into the community and
3:42
Speaker 1: and and having the children to understand the value of music,
3:45
Speaker 1: playing music, singing and understand it, really, I always tell
3:49
Speaker 1: there's a big asset. Can you tell everybody the contributions
3:52
Speaker 1: that not only just from being able to play the music,
3:54
Speaker 1: but from my life and from an educational standpoint, how
3:58
Speaker 1: music can really evolve a child is life. I guess
4:02
Speaker 1: that's a I mean, it's a good question. It's probably
4:05
Speaker 1: one that a scientist or or or psychiatrists could probably
4:09
Speaker 1: answer even better than I can. But I know personally
4:11
Speaker 1: what music does for me is similar to as you said,
4:14
Speaker 1: it helps you find balance, find a center. Absolutely, uh
4:20
Speaker 1: creates a sense of emotional connection or relatability to people.
4:26
Speaker 1: Like if you're writing a song, where you're listening to
4:28
Speaker 1: a song that's been composed, you see that other people
4:31
Speaker 1: have felt what you felt. You you see that other
4:33
Speaker 1: people have gone through things that you've gone through. So
4:35
Speaker 1: there's something there that's reassuring, that's something that's identifiable and
4:39
Speaker 1: relevant to a lot of different people's lives. So music
4:41
Speaker 1: can be served as, uh, something that can can heal
4:44
Speaker 1: and can help. And that's a little bit of what
4:47
Speaker 1: I love about being involved in the Academy is I
4:49
Speaker 1: try and use music in our platform with the Grammys
4:51
Speaker 1: to make sure we're doing good and we're doing good work.
4:54
Speaker 1: We're bringing people together, especially with our show this March.
4:57
Speaker 1: You know, this is gonna be the first time in
4:58
Speaker 1: a long time that maybe a lot of people have
5:00
Speaker 1: come together around music. So my hope is that it
5:03
Speaker 1: can be some medicine. It can be something that uh
5:06
Speaker 1: starts to heal. The last year has been a tough
5:08
Speaker 1: year for everyone, as you know, especially people in the
5:10
Speaker 1: music industry. So my hope is that music, as you
5:13
Speaker 1: said earlier, can be something of a positive and be
5:16
Speaker 1: something that's not just entertaining but also healing and improves
5:20
Speaker 1: the lives of people who who are fans of it
5:22
Speaker 1: and who love it. I have nothing but positive things
5:25
Speaker 1: about what happened in my life. How did you drag
5:28
Speaker 1: a tennis saxophone a mile to my junior high school,
5:31
Speaker 1: middle school and drag it back? And I would tell
5:35
Speaker 1: everybody that anybody who plays the trumpet is amazing to me,
5:39
Speaker 1: and anybody who plays the flute is amazing to me,
5:41
Speaker 1: because it's always all about the lips, all about the curvature.
5:45
Speaker 1: And I put that read on that clarinet, put that
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Speaker 1: read on it. I was good. I was good, squeeze
5:49
Speaker 1: real hall knew that the fingers working. I was I
5:52
Speaker 1: was your main But I respected the flute is and
5:55
Speaker 1: and and and the trumpet player. That was that's a skill.
5:58
Speaker 1: What's your what's your skill level from from our think
6:00
Speaker 1: gonna standpoint instrument standpoint, Well, I played piano and when
6:04
Speaker 1: I played drums and percussion, a little little bit of
6:07
Speaker 1: bass and a few other things. But my main insternce
6:09
Speaker 1: that I write and produce on this piano. Now, it's
6:13
Speaker 1: the interesting thing about it because I read off a
6:15
Speaker 1: lot of talent, you know when we would pop, you know,
6:18
Speaker 1: justin Bigger guy them in my car, you know, justin
6:20
Speaker 1: Timber that got him in my car. I got, you know, Beyonce.
6:23
Speaker 1: I'm from Houston. I by my background with Beyonce, uh
6:26
Speaker 1: nineteen two I introduced in my comedy club. Was one
6:29
Speaker 1: of the first people to recognize Destinity Town as a group.
6:32
Speaker 1: So we go way back personally, all those different talent
6:36
Speaker 1: levels that you how do you walk in the room
6:38
Speaker 1: and how do you create that relationship? You know, not
6:41
Speaker 1: to mention the legends of Michael Jackson and Arita Franklin
6:44
Speaker 1: and Elton John, but all these people on my playlists.
6:49
Speaker 1: So it means that you have a sense from the
6:51
Speaker 1: type of music here that I have. So but each
6:54
Speaker 1: one of these people have a certain style that they
6:56
Speaker 1: want to bring to the table. They don't want to
6:58
Speaker 1: be a copycat. So how do you are you introduce
7:01
Speaker 1: yourself today to their talents? Each person is slightly different,
7:06
Speaker 1: but in general I try and enter with a sense
7:08
Speaker 1: of humility but also confidence because number one, I'm I'm
7:12
Speaker 1: highly respectful of people who create art. I think people
7:16
Speaker 1: who I've gotten a chance to work with their absolutely
7:18
Speaker 1: amazing and incredible talents and are very special for their talents.
7:22
Speaker 1: But I also know that, uh, they need collaboration and
7:26
Speaker 1: they look for people that can bring the best out
7:30
Speaker 1: of them. And as a producer and a songwriter, that's
7:32
Speaker 1: really been my goal throughout my career is to try
7:34
Speaker 1: and regardless of who I'm working working with and try
7:37
Speaker 1: and elevate or to try and make their performance be
7:40
Speaker 1: the best performance they've ever given, whether that's you know,
7:43
Speaker 1: Aretha Franklin or a new artist like Chris Brown that
7:45
Speaker 1: we started with when he was fourteen years old fifteen
7:47
Speaker 1: years old. So my goal is always to be humble,
7:51
Speaker 1: be respectful, appreciative of the opportunity to work with with
7:55
Speaker 1: new artists as well as legacy artists, but then also
7:57
Speaker 1: come with the confidence and a spirit of collaborate rations
8:00
Speaker 1: so that we can work together. Because what I do
8:02
Speaker 1: I feel is also special and what I can bring
8:04
Speaker 1: to the table hopefully can be helpful to them and
8:07
Speaker 1: their performance. So that's generally how I do it. Sometimes
8:10
Speaker 1: it's easier than others. You know, you're dealing with artists
8:13
Speaker 1: that are the legacy or the legend artists. They they've
8:16
Speaker 1: been doing it for a long time, sometimes thirty forty
8:19
Speaker 1: fifty years, and uh, they look at you as the
8:21
Speaker 1: new young kid who thinks he's hot stuff. And sometimes
8:25
Speaker 1: those are challenging, but it's really about breaking down, uh,
8:29
Speaker 1: those types of barriers and preconceptions and letting the people
8:32
Speaker 1: know that my interest is only having them shine. My
8:36
Speaker 1: interest is not about me shining. And that's the job
8:38
Speaker 1: of producer. You've got to make sure that they trust
8:40
Speaker 1: you and feel that your interests are aligned. And I
8:44
Speaker 1: guess that's why I've had a fairly long career. I've
8:46
Speaker 1: been able to gain the trust of artists and make
8:49
Speaker 1: sure artists feel like there's no agenda. It's not about
8:53
Speaker 1: Harvey trying to look good. It's about Michael or about
8:56
Speaker 1: Whitney or whoever I'm working with, making sure they give
8:58
Speaker 1: their best performance and their fans are saying, oh my gosh,
9:01
Speaker 1: where did this song come from? This artist that I
9:03
Speaker 1: love so much? Really, it's really interesting because you you
9:06
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier talents piano, So was it Is it easy
9:10
Speaker 1: to work with a talent like an Ellen John or
9:13
Speaker 1: John Legend who strength is at the piano or it
9:15
Speaker 1: doesn't matter. Working with any really talented person is pretty
9:20
Speaker 1: easy because it flows and they're contributing so much. I
9:24
Speaker 1: try and contribute what I can. And whether it's piano
9:27
Speaker 1: that's their main talent, or it's just a vocalist or
9:29
Speaker 1: a guitar player, it's as I said, it's collaboration. And
9:33
Speaker 1: great talent is generally in favor of strong collaboration. And
9:38
Speaker 1: I found in my experience that the Legends are all
9:41
Speaker 1: very open if you come with good ideas, and again
9:44
Speaker 1: you don't come with a personal agenda. And if your
9:47
Speaker 1: goal is to make them shine, whether that's John Legend,
9:50
Speaker 1: Elton John, whoever it is, they're going to be excited
9:52
Speaker 1: about the collaboration. I really want to if I can't
9:55
Speaker 1: get your head, because I'm a visual person, Harvey, and
9:58
Speaker 1: so when I when I see when I see how
10:00
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson, I just see movement. I see it justin
10:03
Speaker 1: timbo I see a movement, I see Aretha Frank and
10:05
Speaker 1: I just see our right there commanding the stage. Same
10:08
Speaker 1: thing with what do Houston right there commanding the state?
10:11
Speaker 1: From a Do you look at music from a visual
10:14
Speaker 1: standpoint or is it all audio? It's a unique question. Uh,
10:20
Speaker 1: I don't really tend to study them, not as cerebral
10:24
Speaker 1: as maybe you're thinking about it. I try and go
10:27
Speaker 1: off of emotion and feeling, and I also try and
10:30
Speaker 1: pay attention and really close attention to the person I'm
10:32
Speaker 1: working with or working for. As you said a couple
10:35
Speaker 1: of names. If I'm doing ah, you know, a Beyonce song,
10:39
Speaker 1: it's gonna be very different from a song that I
10:40
Speaker 1: might do for a wreatha. So you have to be
10:43
Speaker 1: cognizant of who their audience is and what that artist
10:46
Speaker 1: has done in the past. So for me, it's not visual,
10:49
Speaker 1: it's not thinking about concerts um and it's not just
10:53
Speaker 1: or or you're not just hearing it. It's really a
10:55
Speaker 1: combination of everything put together. And I'm thinking of it
10:58
Speaker 1: more from the standpoint of who is the artist, who
11:01
Speaker 1: is their audience, what is their history, what have they
11:03
Speaker 1: talked about in the past, what are they going through
11:05
Speaker 1: in their life now and trying to weave all that
11:07
Speaker 1: into a song. And that's a lot. And when I
11:10
Speaker 1: when I look at the Grammys, which has always been like,
11:14
Speaker 1: because I mentioned earlier the Recording Academy and do you
11:16
Speaker 1: have the Grammys? How did the two names become associated
11:19
Speaker 1: with each other? Well, they are one and the same.
11:22
Speaker 1: The Recording Academy UH is sometimes referred to as the Grammys.
11:27
Speaker 1: The Recording Academy is the overall not for profit organization
11:30
Speaker 1: five O one to see three corporation that is built
11:34
Speaker 1: to host the Grammys and the hosting the Grammys that
11:38
Speaker 1: is a television show on CBS. We receive income from
11:41
Speaker 1: the television show and that money goes directly back into
11:44
Speaker 1: the music community. That's why we're not for profits. So
11:47
Speaker 1: our objective and our mission is to serve our members.
11:49
Speaker 1: We have over twenty thousand members who are professional music
11:52
Speaker 1: creators from you know everything, producers, engineers, songwriters, managers, some lawyers.
11:58
Speaker 1: So those are our members. We put on the Grammy
12:01
Speaker 1: show through the Academy. We received income and then that
12:04
Speaker 1: goes back out. I talked a little bit about music cares,
12:07
Speaker 1: you know, during COVID this year, we had so many
12:09
Speaker 1: music people lose their income, lose their ability to even
12:12
Speaker 1: make an income. So Music Care is because of some
12:14
Speaker 1: of the money that we brought in over the years
12:15
Speaker 1: from our TV show along with fundraising efforts, we've been
12:19
Speaker 1: able to give out over twenty two million dollars to
12:22
Speaker 1: people who needed help during COVID and that effort continues,
12:25
Speaker 1: and that's just one of the things we do through
12:27
Speaker 1: the Academy and through our not not for profit organization.
12:29
Speaker 1: The other we talked about was advocacy, So having the
12:33
Speaker 1: ability and the resources to be in Washington, d C.
12:36
Speaker 1: Actually on the ground they're talking to lawmakers making sure
12:39
Speaker 1: that music people are taking into consideration for legislation is
12:42
Speaker 1: something that we do and we're very very passionate about
12:45
Speaker 1: and we spend a lot of time and energy making
12:47
Speaker 1: sure that we're doing that. So this year that the
12:49
Speaker 1: Care Is Act, the Hits Act, these are all acts
12:51
Speaker 1: that give some relief to our country. But now thanks
12:54
Speaker 1: to the Recording Academy and other people, musicians and people
12:58
Speaker 1: who make and create music are in it in these
13:00
Speaker 1: relief packages. So something that we do during these times
13:03
Speaker 1: and all fall under the Recording Academy umbrella. That's that's
13:07
Speaker 1: really amazing. That's really a blessing as well, because during
13:10
Speaker 1: the COVID nineteen live events basically shut down, it was
13:13
Speaker 1: shut down. They still haven't recovered yet and and maybe
13:16
Speaker 1: this summer or maybe in the far we can start
13:18
Speaker 1: getting back there. But you're a writer, you're producer, you're
13:21
Speaker 1: so there's a term out there called mailbox money, which
13:24
Speaker 1: means that you're making money while you sleep. That had
13:27
Speaker 1: to be a blessing concertainty that the catastrophe that was
13:32
Speaker 1: going on in the in the live event side to
13:35
Speaker 1: be a writer still receiving some formal income. Am I
13:38
Speaker 1: correctness saying that you're partially correct? Actually we love mailbox money.
13:43
Speaker 1: But the thing is, and what's happened as of the
13:45
Speaker 1: last few years, a mailbox money has continued to decrease,
13:48
Speaker 1: and it's almost deteriorating because of the way legislation plays
13:52
Speaker 1: out and allowing streaming companies to continue to use our
13:56
Speaker 1: intellectual property in our art at such a low pay rate.
13:58
Speaker 1: So we are barely anetizing songs at this point as
14:02
Speaker 1: far as a songwriter has concerned. Now, if you're an
14:04
Speaker 1: artist or your record company, there's some good royalties that
14:07
Speaker 1: can still be generating and you're still getting that mailbox
14:09
Speaker 1: money you're talking about. But as a producer and a songwriter,
14:13
Speaker 1: those numbers are you know, they're a little bit in flux.
14:16
Speaker 1: And that's one of the things the Academy has been
14:17
Speaker 1: doing is making sure that we're advocating in DC, makeing
14:20
Speaker 1: sure we're jumping up and down talking about creators and
14:23
Speaker 1: the creator's rights and what should they be paid and
14:26
Speaker 1: how can they monetize what they you know, sweat and
14:30
Speaker 1: bleed for, which is our music. In our craft, we
14:33
Speaker 1: make these songs. They don't just come out of thin air.
14:35
Speaker 1: Actually they do come out of thin air, but they
14:37
Speaker 1: don't just magically appear. We work, and we we studied,
14:41
Speaker 1: we practice, We perfect our craft sometimes for twenty thirty
14:44
Speaker 1: years in order to make music and make songs, and
14:47
Speaker 1: then sometimes it goes onto different platforms and there's not
14:50
Speaker 1: a compensation for that. So the mailbox money is getting scary,
14:54
Speaker 1: it's getting more and more scarce um And it's not
14:57
Speaker 1: the fault of the streaming companies. We believe this. Dreaming
15:00
Speaker 1: companies are great partners. They're exposing so much amazing music
15:04
Speaker 1: to the general population and to consumers, and it's giving
15:07
Speaker 1: the consumers a chance to choose and be exposed to
15:09
Speaker 1: so many different types of music they might never hurt,
15:11
Speaker 1: might not have ever heard before. But we have to
15:14
Speaker 1: figure out some equitable way to make sure that people
15:17
Speaker 1: who create this art and spend the time making the
15:20
Speaker 1: music that we all love and enjoy, continue to be
15:23
Speaker 1: able to make the mailbox money. Otherwise people are gonna
15:26
Speaker 1: have to get other jobs and other sources of income,
15:28
Speaker 1: and it will decrease the number of people that are
15:30
Speaker 1: really making the great art that we all appreciate. It's
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Speaker 1: the app for free auto dot ai. That's O T
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Speaker 1: T E R dot Ai. The Grammy Awards is the
17:32
Speaker 1: money maker is music. Biggest night is the six or
17:35
Speaker 1: thirty Grammy Awards is Aaron on Sunday, March fourteen, a
17:39
Speaker 1: p m. Or CBS. What can we expect? You can
17:42
Speaker 1: expect an amazing show, and you can expect great performances.
17:46
Speaker 1: Nothing like you've seen during COVID. You know, we're doing
17:49
Speaker 1: things very differently. This is not a virtual show, Okay.
17:52
Speaker 1: This is not people sending in videos of them performing
17:55
Speaker 1: either at their house or at some different location. These
17:57
Speaker 1: are people that are performing on the ground, the stage
18:00
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles. Uh, you'll see live awards. You won't
18:05
Speaker 1: see a large audience, unfortunately. But I'm really excited. You're
18:08
Speaker 1: gonna see a beautiful set, beautiful staging and set decoration. Uh.
18:12
Speaker 1: And I think it's gonna be, as I said earlier,
18:14
Speaker 1: a bit of an opportunity to come together and celebrate
18:17
Speaker 1: music as much as celebrating fields. Maybe slightly awkward, right,
18:21
Speaker 1: now because there is so much hardship and so many
18:23
Speaker 1: things happening that put us at at unrest and in
18:27
Speaker 1: a in a state of uncertainty. But I think this
18:30
Speaker 1: will be a time for some rebirth. And that's a
18:32
Speaker 1: little bit of the theme of some of our our
18:34
Speaker 1: elements of this show and are coming together and feeling
18:38
Speaker 1: good around music. We know the thing about it, I
18:40
Speaker 1: want to say celebrations. I want to stick with that, Harvey,
18:43
Speaker 1: because you know we've been locked down. Uh you know,
18:45
Speaker 1: my wife, she's still not comfortable going out to a restaurant.
18:48
Speaker 1: She we have not been at a restaurant since COVID lockdown,
18:51
Speaker 1: and and and and and and so you know, she
18:54
Speaker 1: goes out to the store. We're wearing masks. There's a
18:56
Speaker 1: there's a there's a life of not being comfortable, life
18:59
Speaker 1: not being normal. To see an amazing show like the
19:03
Speaker 1: Grammys somewhat returned into his live performance format because all
19:07
Speaker 1: we've seen is these zoom type set ups, you know,
19:10
Speaker 1: virtual somewhere the train station, but Nora and there's not
19:13
Speaker 1: nowhere in the facility as a unified show. I think
19:16
Speaker 1: it's really important. How did you guys get to that
19:18
Speaker 1: point of production? To say this is the type of
19:21
Speaker 1: show we're gonna do. We're not going to do the
19:23
Speaker 1: traditional remote performances, and they just packaged together. Well, it's
19:28
Speaker 1: something we always hoped for, you know. Originally when this started,
19:31
Speaker 1: we said, well, we'll just keep our fingers crossed and
19:34
Speaker 1: hopefully we can have our show as normal. But as
19:36
Speaker 1: we got closer and closer to January, we knew we
19:38
Speaker 1: weren't gonna be able to do the big Staples Center
19:41
Speaker 1: with seventeen thousand people. So we changed and pivoted and
19:44
Speaker 1: made an adjustment to what we thought was the expect
19:46
Speaker 1: the best thing, which was bringing the artists together and
19:50
Speaker 1: have being a show that they actually came to l
19:52
Speaker 1: A and performed. Uh. And we've got a great new
19:55
Speaker 1: director this year, executive produce Service Show, Ben Winston's executive
20:00
Speaker 1: discern He's had an incredible vision for this show. You know,
20:03
Speaker 1: we had our our last executive director, or rather executive producer,
20:08
Speaker 1: Kennerlik for the last I think board the shows that
20:12
Speaker 1: did amazing work for us over the years. But having
20:15
Speaker 1: a different um producer has really brought a different look
20:18
Speaker 1: to the show and a different kind of energy and
20:20
Speaker 1: a different approach to it. So I have to say
20:22
Speaker 1: that a lot of what's happening on March fourteenth is
20:25
Speaker 1: because of Ben Winston and his vision and his plan
20:28
Speaker 1: for doing something original and different. Well, you know, the
20:31
Speaker 1: Grammy serves several purposes for me when I get to
20:34
Speaker 1: see live entertained, but also artists who win, you can
20:38
Speaker 1: see their record sales or digit sal digital sales or
20:42
Speaker 1: whatever term they're using that that you know, you just
20:44
Speaker 1: do use the word album. They don't make albums technically anymore.
20:47
Speaker 1: They're streaming numbers. There's streaming numbers can go off. So
20:52
Speaker 1: being a nominee and being a winner and being a
20:55
Speaker 1: live performer are really also a presenter can all the
20:58
Speaker 1: major blessings as far as being a part of the
21:00
Speaker 1: GRAMM Awards. Correct. Yes, it's a great platform for the
21:04
Speaker 1: creators and for artists songwriters, and as you said, being
21:08
Speaker 1: exposed on the show can have huge benefits for record
21:11
Speaker 1: labels or for the companies that put out this music,
21:13
Speaker 1: and for the artists themselves. But for us, it's an
21:16
Speaker 1: opportunity to showcase a lot of different great music. It's
21:19
Speaker 1: an opportunity to celebrate excellence and shine a light on
21:22
Speaker 1: the people that our voters felt had outstanding projects this year,
21:26
Speaker 1: and it's also a chance for us, and I hate
21:28
Speaker 1: to be crass about it, but it's a chance for
21:30
Speaker 1: the Academy to generate some income so that we can
21:32
Speaker 1: do the programs that we're so passionate about, and we
21:35
Speaker 1: can't give back to the music community the infrastructure set
21:38
Speaker 1: up at the Academy, and it's one thing that happens.
21:41
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of people are critical about the
21:43
Speaker 1: awards or who gets nominations, who gets to win, Why
21:45
Speaker 1: didn't this person get nominated? And I respect and totally
21:48
Speaker 1: understand that I've been snuggled myself at the time when
21:50
Speaker 1: I thought I should have gotten nominated and didn't. But
21:53
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, I tend to look
21:55
Speaker 1: at it from a perspective of this show is incredible,
21:58
Speaker 1: it's amazing, it's so important, But it's also a vehicle
22:01
Speaker 1: that allows us as an academy to generate income so
22:04
Speaker 1: that we can do the really really important work that
22:06
Speaker 1: we do in the industry, to be helpful and to
22:08
Speaker 1: to stand up programs that change and affect the future
22:11
Speaker 1: of our business and hopefully the future generation of music
22:14
Speaker 1: makers that are coming into into this community. It's amazing
22:19
Speaker 1: my conversation I'm having with you because I'm exposing you.
22:21
Speaker 1: I'm talking to Harvey Mason j and you. He's the
22:23
Speaker 1: chairman of the Board of the Recording of the Academy
22:25
Speaker 1: and the interim President and CEO, also known as the Grammys,
22:29
Speaker 1: which will be are airing on March fourteen on CBS
22:32
Speaker 1: and a p M eased to Standard time. Well, I
22:33
Speaker 1: don't get back to you because you're a special catman.
22:36
Speaker 1: I mentioned the songs that you pinned, but the television
22:39
Speaker 1: and film side, I gotta let people know who you are. Man,
22:43
Speaker 1: I'm saying, I want them to google. You. Have realized
22:45
Speaker 1: that you are truly a gifted guy because a lot
22:48
Speaker 1: of people can be good at one thing. Because to me,
22:49
Speaker 1: what you're doing is like watching the Lebron James play
22:52
Speaker 1: football and basketball. Because you know, I'm saying comparison, I'll
22:57
Speaker 1: take it. You got to and please do. He was
22:59
Speaker 1: chairman A little come on now, you big your big
23:01
Speaker 1: boss and so and I just see that because you know,
23:04
Speaker 1: want to see straight out of comfortent all three pitch
23:06
Speaker 1: perfect moves which I loved, you know, Jingo Django one
23:10
Speaker 1: of my favorite. The problem that the first film since
23:13
Speaker 1: The Wiz from a Black Christmas Uh musical, which was amazing.
23:18
Speaker 1: Good friend of mine, David Tabo and his wife I
23:21
Speaker 1: interviewed Don't Want to Show and I and and and
23:23
Speaker 1: it trended a lot on Netflix. When you start looking
23:27
Speaker 1: at it, looking at these types of productions, because you know,
23:29
Speaker 1: straight out of the company was wrapped, Jingo Django was
23:32
Speaker 1: a was a Christmas. Yeah, Zoe's extraordinary. That's a that's
23:35
Speaker 1: a dramatic when they just sing on television, how do
23:39
Speaker 1: you That's That's what I'm saying. How did you start
23:41
Speaker 1: balancing all that? Those are different genure, just like it
23:44
Speaker 1: is with the artists, but this is even more because
23:47
Speaker 1: it's different songs that play off on different moments that
23:50
Speaker 1: in and our cues talk to us about first television
23:53
Speaker 1: then film. Well, the television side, you know, your timelines
23:58
Speaker 1: are very tight. Things are done quickly. It's week to
24:00
Speaker 1: week and so every day you're doing something different, it's
24:03
Speaker 1: by the end of the week it's approved and into
24:05
Speaker 1: the show. So it's being nimble, it's being creative, it's
24:09
Speaker 1: problem solving really quickly. Uh. And I think it's a
24:12
Speaker 1: lot of different genres of music. As you mentioned, you know,
24:14
Speaker 1: we've done it's always extraordinary playlist for two years. I
24:17
Speaker 1: think last season we did seventy or eighties songs for that,
24:21
Speaker 1: and we're doing another show for Apple TV where we're
24:24
Speaker 1: doing twenty or thirty songs. Uh and doing those series.
24:27
Speaker 1: It's a lot of work and it's quick paced. As
24:30
Speaker 1: far as the film side, you know, we're doing a
24:32
Speaker 1: movie right now called Respect. It's the biopic about Arita
24:35
Speaker 1: Franklin starring Jennifer Hudson. I'm very excited about. And the
24:39
Speaker 1: difference with film the TV is you have more time
24:42
Speaker 1: you're I've been working on that film for two years.
24:44
Speaker 1: So it's really about fine tuning, perfecting everything that you're doing.
24:49
Speaker 1: Every piece of music, every note is looked at and
24:52
Speaker 1: re looked at by the producer, of the director of
24:55
Speaker 1: the studio, the music team. So it's a lot of
24:58
Speaker 1: inspection of almost everything you're doing. That is a major difference,
25:02
Speaker 1: But the similarities are you're trying to use music to
25:06
Speaker 1: tell a story. You're trying to use music as a
25:08
Speaker 1: character in the show or the film, and you're trying
25:11
Speaker 1: to evolve the story plot generally with the song or
25:14
Speaker 1: with lyrics. So I've been very fortunate to be able
25:17
Speaker 1: to work across different genres and with different types of
25:20
Speaker 1: artists throughout my career and record making, but as well
25:22
Speaker 1: in film and TV. Because it's all music, you know,
25:24
Speaker 1: stuff that I loved. I love classic, I love rock,
25:27
Speaker 1: I love rap, R and B pop, country. We do
25:31
Speaker 1: it all because for me, it's all just a different
25:33
Speaker 1: expression of different emotions through different genres. So I've been
25:37
Speaker 1: very fortunate to get a chance to work with a
25:39
Speaker 1: really wide variety of people in genres. Cool. Now, before
25:43
Speaker 1: we go, I want to ask you about this always
25:45
Speaker 1: with the Grammys, I know how powerful with the gram
25:46
Speaker 1: mus is because people use nominations as party they created.
25:50
Speaker 1: So they've been nominated by a Grammy for a Grammy,
25:53
Speaker 1: they're gonna mention it is part of their credit. How
25:55
Speaker 1: does one get in that nomination process? Is it? Is
25:58
Speaker 1: it a board somewhere? Is it a cent of a
26:02
Speaker 1: music experts? How does one get nominated for a Grammy Award? Sure?
26:07
Speaker 1: The good thing is our our Grammy rules and voting
26:11
Speaker 1: is published online. Everything is very public and you can
26:13
Speaker 1: you can google it and find these rules out much
26:15
Speaker 1: better than I'll describe it too. But again, we have
26:19
Speaker 1: a voting membership. We have membership with the Academy's twenty
26:22
Speaker 1: thousand or still members, and then we have twelve thousand
26:24
Speaker 1: of those members are what we call voting members, and
26:27
Speaker 1: the voting members. In order to get that distinction, you
26:29
Speaker 1: have to be a creator. You have to be a songwriter,
26:31
Speaker 1: a producer, engineer, artist, somebody who's actually involved in the
26:35
Speaker 1: creation of the music. If you are deemed that by
26:39
Speaker 1: the Academy, you are called a voting member. Those twelve
26:42
Speaker 1: thousand voting members take all the submissions anybody who makes
26:45
Speaker 1: music and submit through the label or through a member,
26:48
Speaker 1: or or submit a song or a record or project.
26:51
Speaker 1: All those come in. This year we had twenty two
26:53
Speaker 1: thousand submissions. It's the most submissions we've ever had. The
26:56
Speaker 1: twelve thousand voters look through all the submissions and vote
27:00
Speaker 1: on their favorites. The favorites are narrowed down. Then we
27:03
Speaker 1: have a group of nominations committee Review that goes and
27:07
Speaker 1: they take they take every song and they listen to
27:09
Speaker 1: the top twenty or so songs. And generally the nomination
27:13
Speaker 1: Review Committee is made up of experts in each genre.
27:16
Speaker 1: So each different genre has a specific committee that reviews,
27:19
Speaker 1: the voters choices. So if you're talking about folk music,
27:23
Speaker 1: you have fifteen or twenty folk music experts listening to
27:27
Speaker 1: the finalist voted on by the voting membership. At that point,
27:31
Speaker 1: the committee will establish who the five or eight nominations
27:35
Speaker 1: go to, because in some categories there's five. In the
27:37
Speaker 1: general field, there's eight. Once those nominations are determined, then
27:42
Speaker 1: those names go back out to the voting body, and
27:44
Speaker 1: the voting body decides who the winner is. So it's
27:48
Speaker 1: a combination, to answer your question even more simply, of
27:51
Speaker 1: the general voting body of twelve tho voters, the nomination
27:54
Speaker 1: review committee, and then finally again the voting body determines
27:58
Speaker 1: who the winners are. Awesome. Speaking to Harvard Mason Jr.
28:01
Speaker 1: I know I said that comparison with Lebron James because
28:04
Speaker 1: he did not play football. I'm gonna give you even
28:06
Speaker 1: better with my good friend Dion Sanders, because he was
28:09
Speaker 1: talented and a Hall of Famer and football and he
28:12
Speaker 1: played in the World Series and baseball. And that's what
28:15
Speaker 1: you're doing. You're not the only a talented writer, but
28:18
Speaker 1: the producer. You're doing television, doing film, you're doing individual
28:21
Speaker 1: orders crossing all genres. You truly are superstar behind the
28:25
Speaker 1: mic and as well as sitting down at the piano Harvard.
28:27
Speaker 1: Thank you for allowing me to ask my courtions about
28:30
Speaker 1: the Grammars. Let my audience here from a from a
28:33
Speaker 1: very strong success story and hopefully started googling you and
28:36
Speaker 1: uh and start following on social media because you truly
28:39
Speaker 1: are started. Thank you for coming on Money Making Conversations.
28:42
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, great to be here. Appreciate you.
28:43
Speaker 1: How to name alright there, don't forget. The Grammys is Sunday,
28:47
Speaker 1: March fourteen on CBS A p M. Again, I like,
28:52
Speaker 1: I think everybody who listens to Money Making Conversation from here.
28:54
Speaker 1: Any more interviews about money making Conversations, please go to
28:57
Speaker 1: money Making Conversations dot com. I'm with Sean McDonald, I
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