How would you describe your primary job in the record-making process?

I started off in the business as a songwriter. I did lyrics and music for rap and gospel acts, primarily. I learned different jobs in the studio out of necessity, and I also taught myself to play. If a musician didn’t show up, I could put the track together anyway. That’s how I got into the role of the producer.

Did you know you wanted to make music early on?

I was doing art first. Eventually, my hobby became my profession, and my profession became my hobby. My first instrument was the drums, and that’s what started me with music. I met a lot of the older jazz musicians from the area, and helped them with their equipment at the shows. After a while, they would get me into the clubs and let me sit in on a song or two.

Who were some of your early influences?

I grew up with a wide variety of music. My mother used to sing opera, my grandmother grew up in the Motown era, and my father and uncles grew up listening to that music as well. I would hear all types of music, jazz, R&B, funk, opera, and classical music. So I have a love and appreciation for all types of music. I can’t say that it was one kind of music more than the other, but music in general inspired me.

Do you feel like that has informed the work you do as a producer?

I always had a fascination with how it was done. When I was younger, my mother and I would take drives and make up songs. At the time, I didn’t really think much of it, but it turned into something I naturally did and became a big part of my thought process.

What is the job of producing to you?

I kind of see it from the old school perspective. To me, a producer is someone who takes all the parts from the songwriters, arrangers, and musicians, and makes a finished product. With new technology, the job has significantly changed, but I still think of it that way.

Do you feel that you have to start with a good song that you believe in to get the job done?

Timeless material always starts with a good song. It’s one of the most difficult art forms to master. How many times can you say, “I love you,” and have it sound different in the song? In order to have a great track, it has to start with a great lyric and great music.

How did your company, Celebrity Status Entertainment, come to be?

Detroit was a very competitive town in terms of musicians, but there weren’t a lot of production companies. I had a dream of working with my friends and making records. Since I wasn’t as good of a musician as the other people I hung around with, I found my talent in songwriting and playing the role of the producer. I had enough musical knowledge to communicate with the musicians, but what I could really do was write songs. I wanted to be a part of the musical community; so originally, I built my own home studio, and it grew from there.

One of the big breakouts you had was with the Christina Aguilera single, Come On Over Baby. Tell us a little about that track.

That was our first number one single. The management team I was with at the time put together the bands for Christina, Destiny’s Child, and Nelly Furtado. I would go to the rehearsals and help them pick out musicians for the bands.

One day, the team went to one of Christina’s record release parties, and wanted me to write a Christmas song for her. I didn’t get a response for a while. When they decided to do a whole Christmas album, they were looking for one last song for it; out of the huge amount of tapes, they happened to pick that one song we wrote, but they didn’t know who the writers were! They were getting ready to do a nationwide search to find out who did the song, but it happened that one of the people on the project was a friend of mine. That turned into the beginning of a working relationship with Christina. Because of The Christmas Song, we were invited to take a shot at remixing a song.

Christina thought that the album version of Come On Over Baby was a little too young sounding. They recorded it when she was about 15 or 16 years old. It ended up being a complete rewrite, and the version we worked on became the video version and the one that everyone knows now. That was a very important record, not only because it was Christina Aguilera, but because it let us know that our production value stood up to the great music out there.

There are a lot of changes musical and lyrical changes in Come On Over Baby.What were some of the changes you felt it needed that it needed to be a #1 hit?

At the time, I don’t know if it was a matter of what we felt it needed. It was a great track to begin with -- otherwise it wouldn’t have been on the record in the first place. It was our personal take on what we would have done if we had originally done it.

It was supposed to be a remix like a DJ would, so how do you improve on something great and still make it where people want to hear the new version? How do you make the sequel better? At the time, that was our mentality. It was that era where there were a lot of great remix records coming out so we took the approach of how do you make a great song better as opposed to what it needed that it didn’t have.

It was a month of labor trying everything from live horns to synth and intricate drum programming. We used every technology available from live instruments to sequencing to see what we liked and what we didn’t like. There wasn’t anything that we didn’t try in the process. We cut the vocals and rewrote the lyrics. It totally became a different record when we were finished. It was like giving birth to a baby a second time.

Tell us a little about Shady Grady and the "All Wound Up" album that Celebrity Status Entertainment produced.

Shady Grady is a keyboard player and like an uncle to me. He’s one of the great musicians that I’ve had the chance to meet over the years. He was in the process of tracking some of the songs that he’d accumulated over the past 20 years playing with others. After playing with a lot of different people, he was trying a solo venture. His brother, Jeffery Lewis, was the one who brought me on the project and asked me to produce this smooth jazz record.

He was sequencing everything, but I wanted to do it from a more traditional standpoint, what’s considered the old school way now. I wanted to produce it the way a Quincy [Jones] or David Foster or someone of that caliber where it’s not about the sequences. It’s about the interaction between musicians, great players, great arrangers, and putting that stuff together. It was an opportunity to function as a producer and not just sit behind a computer. We started by taking the sequences he had, and rerecording everything with live audio.

As we got closer to finishing the record, we were so pleased with it, but we didn’t have an avenue for where it was going to go. At that point, Celebrity Status Entertainment evolved from a production company to a label. With digital distribution and with the help of friends, we were able to put it out ourselves. I’ve always been a big fan of independent labels. We wanted to give people an opportunity to check it out and were not looking for superstardom or fame; we just want to give people the option of good music. If you find it and enjoy it, please purchase it.

You’ve been expanding outside of just the music world. What have you learned in that transition?

I’ve been doing a lot more film and television lately. I co-wrote the theme for MTV’s "Yo Mama". I was also co-wrote the theme in the latest "Power Rangers Mystic Force" this past season. Like my musical influences, I’ve also tried to diversify my talents in other areas outside of just records.

The one that I’ve found is that a great melody is a great melody no matter where you go. I’ve been fortunate to start with a great lyric and melody, and that translates whether you go to record or television. A lot of musicians can play different sounds, but when you understand great melody, it can really take you a lot further than different genres or classifications of playing. The transition from record to film and television hasn’t really been that difficult, because at the end of the day it comes down the first basic rule to have a great lyric and melody.

How did you find iZotope software, and how have you been using it?

I’m a tech nerd. I like to find new products. When I’m in the music stores in the city, everybody knows me because I’m always there asking what’s new. Some people hang out at the movies or book store, but I’ll go to just hang out at Guitar Center to find out what the new stuff is they’re bringing in. I’m always a big supporter of more independent, smaller companies. I feel that when you are smaller company, you’re able to put a labor of love into the work. I just stumbled across iZotope through a Trash video. I downloaded the video and kept watching it over and over. I called the store, but they didn’t have it yet, so I kept calling. I started by downloading Vinyl from your website.

I was doing a song with a friend, and we wanted some cool record noises and to give it a cool vintage feel. We pulled up Vinyl, and it immediately gave us what we were looking for – we didn’t need to dial anything in. It instantly worked, and in my world, that’s a major thing along with being stable and intuitive.

Once I got my hands on the Trash demo, that was it. I had to have every single product you guys made. I went out and bought Trash, Spectron and Ozone 3 right away and haven’t stopped using them since. More recently, I’ve started using pHATmatik PRO and Radius. Radius is an incredible time and pitch algorithm. I’ve been stuck on Pitch ‘n Time for so long that I was skeptical – it has had the best sounding algorithm, but after using Radius, I can’t stop telling people to buy it. The Radius algorithm is absolutely incredible – I can’t believe it. I can actually say that Radius dethroned Pitch ‘n Time. After years of using it, I haven’t gone back to it. Radius is a very impressive product with a great attention to detail and handling of transients. The other companies don’t handle the transients well, and you guys just nailed it.

I can’t think of a project that I’ve worked on where I haven’t used an iZotope plug-in. Whenever I’m doing drums or bass, I immediately pull up Trash when I want to mess up some drums or distort a bass or to get different effects on the vocals. I’ll pull up a preset and just go.

What are some of the current projects you’re working on? Any last thoughts?

I’m producing another jazz record on an artist named Russ Miller which we’re also doing independently.

I just like to make great music and songs. I think when you do that, people who love music will find it. I just love it when people find music they love and support it. Hopefully by mixing real musicianship with cutting edge technology, we’ll be able to continue to inspire listeners through music.

To learn more about Chaka's projects, visit Celebrity Status Entertainment.