Vocal Yokels: Mr. Fantastic On Seducing Charice, California Connecting
MIDWOOD, BROOKLYN: How do you resist a music powerhouse with the effervescent name of Mr. Fantastic? You don’t. Peter Habib and Adam Nierow prove that personality, persistence and pop vocal prowess pay off (say THAT five times fast), representing with infectious energy from the word “Go”.
Formed in 2006, this Brooklyn-based duo shows us how they’ve continued to get it done, even as the music landscape shifts on a weekly basis.
Q: What neighborhood are you in? And more importantly, is there good pizza around?
A: We work out of our studio in Midwood, Brooklyn. Q (or B) train to Avenue M stop. We happen to be a short walk to the mind-blowing Di Fara, the now-famous pizza joint considered by many to be the best in NYC. SonicScoop interviewee Jason Jordan swears by it! If we need to record something in Manhattan, we grab a slice and zip over to Midtown Sound owned by our friend John White, a great recording facility close to Penn Station.
(l-r) Peter and Adam will park it where they please!
Q: I think I’ve eaten there! Is that the guy who grows his own tomatoes? OK, tell me more about Mr. Fantastic.
A: Mr. Fantastic is a pop songwriting/production team made up of two guys: Peter Habib and Adam Nierow. We met at the University of Virginia where we were both members of the Academical Village People (AVP), an all-male pop a cappella group there. As such, vocal production has become a signature stamp for us.
We’re self-contained, meaning we can write, arrange, produce, mix, remix, etc… between the two of us. At the same time, we love collaborating with outside writers, artists, and producers, and adapt accordingly to whatever the situation dictates. We always learn something new from every collaborator, and it keeps things fresh! In addition to working with recording artists, we also compose for TV, film, and other media.
Q: What was a recent TV/film project where your vocal mastery proved especially useful? How did it help you get the gig – how did you ‘solve the problem’ with the vocal production?
A: During one of our trips to LA, we met with some folks from Killer Tracks, the production music division of Universal Music Publishing Group. About 90% of what they do is instrumental-based.
We played them some of our production music cues geared for TV/film use, and we also played them some recent artist records we had done. They liked our work, particularly the vocal stuff. So I stayed in touch, and a few months later they had this “vocal” project called Teen TV. We were hired to write/produce/mix a couple of youthful urban-leaning pop songs with female vocals — somewhere between High School Musical and Rihanna — geared for sync use. So it was fairly specific, having to keep the lyrics simple, and the production contemporary and “young club.”
Regarding the vocal production, like we do with many of our songs, first we arrange/map out all the background vocal parts via MIDI in ProTools. For this particular project, we hired one of our favorite pop singers, Long Island-based Mandy Ventrice. She’s versatile and fast in the studio, and she nailed it. You can hear one of the songs “We’re Getting Away” at this link: this link.
Q: Very sharp – sounds like you had a game plan! Tell us about your latest high-profile project.
A: We recently had the pleasure of working with Charice, David Foster’s “next one.” You might’ve seen her on Oprah. Look out for Charice’s debut album on Warner Bros. later this year. She’s a phenomenal talent! And it was a real thrill for us to have Mr. Foster’s support in the studio while we were producing her vocals. It’s nice when legends are so cool! You can see a clip here of Charice singing our song “Breathe You Out” (a collaboration with our friends The Orange Factory) on NBC’s “Skate for the Heart” special:
Q: Switching gears: Do you feel like there’s more production work like this out there for NYC producers now? What’s your key to getting a client like Charice, and having her call you back for the next project?
A: That’s a tough one. Many of our NY-based colleagues have been moving to LA, and we’ve been having to make frequent trips out there over the last couple of years. The upside to this is that there’s now less competition here! However, I’d say that at the moment, it’s easier to get more pop production work in LA. Getting a client like Charice takes a lot of networking, patience, timing, and luck. And the right song of course! We had sent over a handful of songs that weren’t quite right before landing “Breathe You Out.” And then after that one, we were fortunate enough to land a second song called “Reset” — strategically waiting to play it for everyone in the studio definitely helped. We really appreciate the A&R Jaymes Foster, manager Marc Johnston, and David Foster taking a chance on up-and-coming writer-producers like us.
I’d also like to emphasize the importance of collaborating. A shout-out to our awesome collaborating partners on these songs: The Orange Factory and Obi and Josh (part of DEEKAY team), respectively.
Q: Fair enough. In light of all that, tell SonicScoop why NYC rules, even if it’s a challenging environment to work in.
A: There’s nothing like being in NYC where there seems to be something new around every corner. Where else can you see a dude salsa dancing with a doll on the subway platform? And “keeping it real” is definitely a city hallmark. The challenge has been the closing of landmark studios like Sony Music and The Hit Factory, and just not as many pop projects happening around here these days. Wherever we are though, we’re 100% Brooklyn at heart. – David Weiss