Meet Willy Beaman | Music Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Willy Beaman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Willy, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I always took risks especially early on in my career. At the very start, I was at Berklee College of Music. My friend and classmate Claire wrote to me that she had been called back for an audition for Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball tour. I responded, “WHAT SHE HAD AUDITIONS!?” And Claire said yes, it was an open audition and she just happened to go and had been called back. She sent me the flyer, I messaged the point person and they said to just show up. When I had arrived, there were hundreds if not thousands of people from both New York and LA. There were musicians from every stage of their careers including a few famous touring keyboardists that I idolized. After a series of intense auditions, I ended up getting called back and basically offered the job after meeting Gaga and playing for her. It was absolutely mind blowing and I was scared for my life albeit happy and immensely grateful that I was being considered. That being said, when I went to the rehearsal, I got placed and moved around the stage a bunch until Gaga basically said it didn’t look right with two keyboardists (the other keyboardist Brockett has been with Gaga since that tour). So I got sent home, but the music director, Joe Wilson took my number down and said he call me for other things. I didn’t believe him, but lo and behold a few weeks later I got called for Kesha for a TV performance, then Kelly Rowland (who I did live shows with) and then Nicki Minaj and a bunch of others. That’s when I dropped out of Berklee and was on the road performing with top 40 artists.

Once I had established touring and made the connections, I really wanted to transition to producing (which is actually what I was studying at Berklee, not performance). I had been hired to play keyboards with Nico and Vinz. I had started making my own tracks and decided to just send them a few demos. They lost their minds. Next thing I know I was making music with them on the tour bus and producing a ton of different demos. They were one of the first people to put me on and we did a song called “hold it together” which features me as a producer that they still play on tour. I had met Babyface’s manager from another artist I toured with and I reached out to her and facilitated a session between me, Nico and Vinz and Babyface. That was truly an incredible experience and solidified myself as someone in the creative space. I’m forever grateful to them for taking a chance on me.

I then reached out to Greyson Chance’s mother who I knew from my touring days and said I really believed in her son as an artist. She said Greyson happened to be in LA working on new music after considering quitting it altogether. We did a few songs that became singles. On the tail end of that success, we spent a few years of working together and releasing music. He got signed and we created his album Portraits which to this day has gotten hundreds of millions of streams and was critically acclaimed.

The moral of the story is I absolutely had to push myself to reach out and take chances especially early on. With all my relationships I strive to be as kind and genuine as possible and people take notice of that. At the end of the day, music is a relationship business and also a risk business. You are constantly engaging with new people, throwing things at the wall and hoping it sticks, whether it’s reaching out about an opportunity or releasing content, or releasing music. If you’re sheepish, you’re not going to find success.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
In the dawn of AI generated things, and beat making becoming easier and easier, I find I’ve held value by being able to have in depth knowledge of everything musical, everything technical (like mixing, recording, mastering) and giving a little extra magic that makes songs stick out from the pack. I am currently working on a jazz album, a dance EP, a indie ep and a few rock songs. I love every style of music and can basically take an artist anywhere they want to go sonically at the highest level of authenticity. I’ve found I work best when doing many songs with an artist and developing a whole sonic landscape for them. When I sat down with Greyson Chance and made his album “Portraits,” his inspiration was Bon Iver and a few other more indie leaning artists. We were able to take some of those references and combine it with his Oklahoma upbringing and create this beautiful, grass-root acoustic sounding, yet blend it with a electric indie aesthetic that was really authentic to him.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Some of the best things to do in LA are outside. The hikes in Malibu are incredible. You can see views of the ocean as well as the city. There are also amazing parks and beaches not too far away. If I’m not outside, I currently live in West Hollywood, and I do really enjoy spending time at the local nightlife and restaurants. I’m a sucker for Catch. The people-watching is entertaining and the food and atmosphere is great. I also love Sugarfish. It’s so simple and so delicious.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My shoutout goes to Joe Wilson who was Music Directing for Lady Gaga for really pushing and believing in me early on. He just kept hiring me for artists he worked with even though I was new to the scene. Also a lot of love to Steve Styles who also mentored me and hired me for Demi Lovato and introduced me to Adam Blackstone who is another incredible music director. Also, to Jamal Moore who was like my older brother on tour, Hayden Maringer who was like my little brother on tour, Greg Clark who came in and we became great friends and brothers as well. And then to Chris Mann who has been a mentor and one of the first people I did production stuff with as well as Nico and Vinz who gave me my first big cut. Also thanks to Susan Markheim who was Chris Mann’s prior manager but really acted like my LA mom and helped me out (and connected me with Babyface with Nico and Vinz).

Website: https://www.willybeamanmusic.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/willybeamanmusic

Image Credits
Me with Nicki Minaj, Me with Demi Lovato, me with Nico and Vinz, me with Vinz in the studio, Nico and Vinz with babyface, me with Greyson Chance