“Wow, I’ve worked really hard,” Dr. Luke told me last year. “Maybe I deserve a couch.” Luke lost out on the Grammy for “Producer of the Year” last week, but it nevertheless seems like a fine time to add my article on him to the archives.

This piece ran in Rolling Stone last April; to report it, I had the pleasure of spending a couple of long nights sitting on the doctor’s studio couch, watching him work. I also interviewed collaborators, including the famously press-shy superstar producer Max Martin (for the second time in my career!). A section that got cut for space reasons:

Luke’s reluctant to pinpoint what he and Max do on individual songs, but he allows that Martin often starts with a melody while Luke tends to begin with the backing track. Sometimes they find that working separately, they’ve come up with two pieces that fit together. They’ve collaborated so often that many people assume Luke is Swedish. “I’m really upset I’ve set the record straight,” Luke says. “If you want to say that I’m from Sweden, that would be awesome.”

“Luke likes Sweden,” Martin says. “At least he says he does. It must be the girls–it’s definitely not the weather.”

You can read the whole thing here.

posted 23 February 2011 in Archives, Articles and tagged Dr. Luke, Katy Perry, Ke$ha, Max Martin, Rolling Stone. no comments yet