Greg Wells

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Greg Wells
Birth nameWilliam Gregory Wells
Occupation(s)
  • Record producer
  • audio engineer
  • songwriter
  • multi-instrumentalist
Years active1998–present
Spouse(s)
(m. 2013)

William Gregory Wells (born September 21, 1968) is a Canadian record producer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and audio engineer. He has worked with

MIKA, Twenty One Pilots, Aerosmith, Elton John, and the Count Basie Orchestra. Throughout his career, Wells has contributed to projects which have sold cumulatively 130 million units.[2]

A classically trained multi-instrumentalist, Wells is featured as a drummer in Modern Drummer,[3] as a pianist in Keyboard, as a synth programmer in Electronic Musician, as a songwriter in American Songwriter and Billboard, and as a producer, mix engineer, and music maker on the cover of Mix with Ryan Tedder in the May 2017 edition.

Awards

Wells received the Pensado Giant Award at the 2017 Pensado Awards for achievements in the field of record-making.

Michael Buble's album Higher.[5] In June 2015, Wells was awarded an honorary degree from his alma mater Humber College, a music school in Toronto. Wells was nominated as producer of the year in 2000 and 2019 at the Canadian Juno Awards.[6]

Year Nominee / work Award Result
2008[7] "Love Today"
Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording
Nominated
2011[7] Teenage Dream Grammy Award for Album of the Year Nominated
2019[7]
The Greatest Showman: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media Won
2022[7] In The Heights: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media Nominated
2022[7] Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album Nominated
2023[7] Michael Bublé: Higher Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album Won

Early life

Wells grew up in the town of

Royal Conservatory of Music.[11] At age 15, Wells was awarded the top prize out of all categories in the Peterborough Kiwanis Music Festival, the Founders Award, and represented Peterborough twice at the Kiwanis Music Provincial Finals for the province of Ontario. At age 17, he attended the Humber College Jazz Music Program in Toronto as a piano major.[2]

Career

After moving from Peterborough to Toronto at age 17, Wells worked as a live and studio musician with Canadian musicians Rob McConnell and Kim Mitchell.[12] He joined Kim Mitchell's band at age 19. Wells recorded keyboards and backing vocals on Mitchell's Rockland, toured Canada several times with the band, and won the award for Best Keyboardist at the 1990 Toronto Music Awards.

Wells was awarded a

1993 Grammy Awards
where she won Best Pop Female Vocal.

His first recorded song as a songwriter was with

Life In Cartoon Motion
.

In 2007, Wells produced both Timbaland's and OneRepublic's version of the song, "Apologize". The song ranked number 50 on the list of the Billboard Hot 100's All-Time Top Songs list from the chart's first 50 years. It stayed at number one for eight consecutive weeks on the Billboard Pop 100 chart, and spent 25 consecutive weeks in the top 10. It was ranked number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 Songs of the Decade.[14]

The biggest selling worldwide album of 2018

The Greatest Showman: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
was produced and mixed by Wells.

Wells has designed best selling music software, creating the "El Rey" compressor plugin with Acustica Audio and Studio DMI,[16] and a signature series of plugins with Waves Audio.[17]

Wells,

Assala Nasri and Tamer Hosny live at the opening ceremonies in Abu Dhabi.[18]

Wells produced the

Golden Globe nominated song "Beautiful Ghosts" performed by Taylor Swift for the 2019 film Cats, an adaptation of the 1981 musical of the same name.[19] The song is co-produced with Cats creator Andrew Lloyd Webber
, and written by Taylor Swift and Lloyd Webber.

Wells received a Grammy nomination for co-producing and mixing all songs for Lin-Manuel Miranda's 2021 movie and soundtrack album In the Heights,[20] directed by Jon M. Chu. Wells worked on a second film with Alex Lacamoire and Miranda, the animated hit movie musical Vivo (film) directed by Kirk DeMicco.[21] Wells also worked on a third film for Lin-Manuel Miranda's directorial debut, mixing the songs in the musical film Tick, Tick... Boom!.[22]

Personal life

Wells is married to Swedish songwriter Nina Woodford. He has six children. He works out of his studio in Los Angeles.[2]

Credits

References

  1. ^ "Greg Wells on ASCAP".
  2. ^ a b c d "Meet the London, Ont.-born music producer who's worked with Michael Bublé, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Quincy Jones and John Legend (To name a few)". Toronto Star. March 25, 2022.
  3. ^ a b "Features: Greg Wells". Modern Drummer, Stephen Belans, July 2016.
  4. ^ "Fourth annual Pensado awards honor Greg Wells". Mix Online
  5. ^ "Grammys 2023: Winners List". The New York Times. February 5, 2023.
  6. ISSN 0006-2510
    .
  7. ^ a b c d e f "Greg Wells". GRAMMY.com. Retrieved November 26, 2019.
  8. ^ "Musician returns to church that seeded career" Archived August 19, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. Peterborough Examiner, By Jessica Nyznik, March 7, 2016
  9. ^ "Peterborough’s music pedigree a secret no more". My Kawartha, Dec 12, 2014 by Paul Rellinger.
  10. ^ a b "Producer Extraordinaire Greg Wells: Pop Passions, Musical Obsessions and the Greatest Showman". January 28, 2019.
  11. ^ "Alumnus Greg Wells Wins Grammy Award | the Royal Conservatory of Music".
  12. ISSN 0006-2510
    .
  13. .
  14. ^ "Apologize OneRepublic Inside the Track #4 - Videos - Mix with the Masters". March 2, 2017.
  15. ^ "The Greatest Showman soundtrack named best-selling album of 2018". March 13, 2019.
  16. ^ "El Rey - Acustica Audio".
  17. ^ "Greg Wells Signature Series | Bundles". Waves. Retrieved September 28, 2022.
  18. ^ "Special Olympics World Games Abu Dhabi 2019 Launches Official Pop Anthem Produced by Grammy Award Winner, Greg Wells". March 11, 2019.
  19. ^ ""Beautiful Ghosts" (From The Motion Picture Cats) by Taylor Swift". Tidal. Retrieved December 2, 2019.
  20. ^ "Greg Wells". grammy.com. Retrieved December 22, 2022.
  21. ^ "Jaxsta".
  22. ^ "THE tick, tick...BOOM! SOUNDTRACK FROM THE NETFLIX FILM DIRECTED BY LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA OUT TODAY!". November 12, 2021.
  23. ^ ""Billboard Chart Beat"". Billboard. Archived from the original on May 9, 2007.

External links