Dallas Austin and Rick Sheppard
The zioshow website publishes an interesting article on Dallas Austin, (co writer and co producer of songs like “Secret”, “Don’t Stop” and the recently discovered “Your Honesty”) and his collaborator Rick Sheppard, in which they explain “very” technically how they produce records. Here’s a part of the article that can be read in full here.
Rick Sheppard has been with producer Dallas Austin and DARP Productions for 16 years now as chief engineer and programmer. He had met Austin in 1987 while working with Peabo Bryson. Sheppard and Austin’s first big success came with Boys To Men and later with the youngsters of Another Bad Creation a.k.a. ABC that eventually led to work with TLC.
Austin and Sheppard have since done records with Madonna, Michael Jackson, Kelis and Pink on Arista, Anastacia on Epic Records, and currently they are now working on a solo project for Gwen Stefani of No Doubt on Interscope, the Latina sensation Shakira, and a new album with Janet Jackson. Jackson will perform one of the album’s songs at the 2004 Super Bowl. “We’ve been really fortunate since the Boys To Men project to just be able to keep on working constantly with great artists. Being together so long, Austin and I are like brothers. Most of the people around us have been with us for years so we’re all family,” says Sheppard.