Alison Stewart: This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. We are a quarter-way through the 21st century and in those 25 years, only three women have been nominated for the Grammy for Non-Classical Producer of the Year. The first was my next guest, Lauren Christy. You have her to thank for this track.

[MUSIC - Avril Lavigne: Complicated]

Chill out, what you yelling for?

Lay back, it's all been done before

And if you could only let it be

You would see

I like you the way you are

When we're driving in your car

And you're talking to me, one on one

But you've become

Somebody else 'round everyone else

You're watching your back like you can't relax

You're trying to be cool

You look like a fool to me

Tell me

Why do you have to go and make things so complicated?

I see the way you're acting like you're somebody else

Alison Stewart: That's Avril Lavigne. It was produced by the trio The Matrix, which included Lauren. The album earned the group several Grammy nominations including Producer of the Year and Song of the Year. The Matrix went on to work with Shakira, Rihanna, Jason Mraz, Korn and many other artists. Lauren Christy, just on her own, has written with Enrique Iglesias, Bebe Rexha and many more. She also started out as a recording artist and continues to release music herself.

For another installment of our Women's History Month series, Equalizers: Women in Music Production, I am joined now by Lauren Christy. Lauren, it is a pleasure to meet you.

Lauren Christy: Hi Alison, thank you for having me.

Alison Stewart: How did you discover that you had a knack for production?

Lauren Christy: I started off writing songs when I was 12 years old, and I got a publishing deal when I was 18. The first thing they did was bought me a four-track recording studio because it's expensive to go into studio. They just bought me a home studio and I set it up in my bedroom, and pretty soon I moved on to an eight-track. I would just do all my own demos and that's when my production skills started.

Alison Stewart: Before The Matrix, you were a solo recording artist yourself. You earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song, The Color of the Night from the movie of the same name. Do you mind if we play a little bit of it?

Lauren Christy: Of course, please.

Alison Stewart: Let's listen.

[MUSIC - Lauren Christy: The Color of the Night]

I need to know the way you feel

I'll give you everything I am

And everything I want to be

I'll put it in your hands

If you could open up to me oh

Can't we ever get beyond this wall

'cause all I want is just once

To see you in the light

But you hide behind

The color of the night

Alison Stewart: Lauren, it's interesting. Every interview I watched of you, there's some section where you sing a part of it, a part of your production that you've done, and your voice is great.

Lauren Christy: Oh, thank you.

Alison Stewart: How do you find your voice as an artist helpful to you in terms of writing and producing?

Lauren Christy: Listen, I went through it as an artist. It's a difficult life. It's just so competitive, and back in the day, when I was doing it, you only got a couple of shots at radio, and then literally it didn't work. Records shelved. I feel like I can be really compassionate to all the artists I get to work with because I've been behind the curtain for 25 years after I put my career on hold. I can just understand what they're going through. I feel like a big part of production is just making people feel confident and making them feel like a million bucks.

Alison Stewart: I speak with music producer Lauren Christy, who has worked with artists like Dua Lipa, Kelly Clarkson, Ricky Martin, Jason Derulo. It's another installment of our March series, Equalizers: Women in Music Production. The Matrix's big break came with Avril Lavigne's album Let's Go. Did you know when you were working on it that you had something special in your hands?

Lauren Christy: I did. It was such an amazing summer. She came out and we did two songs. She went back to New York where she'd been signed, and LA Reid and Josh Sarubin, who was her A&R man, they immediately heard the songs, one of them being Complicated, and said, "Go back for the whole summer." That summer of 2001, Avril came, and for three months, we just wrote all the songs. Sk8er Boi, Falling Down, all these different songs that ended up on the record. I'm With You.

It was just an amazing time. I remember roundabout when we wrote Sk8er Boi, thinking, "Wow, these songs seem special to me." I'm a Christian and I kept feeling things being given to me, and Avril felt the same way. Just words would appear in our head and we were like, "Wow, that means something. That life's like this. You fall and you crawl and you take what you get and you turn it into honesty. Promise me I'm never going to find you fake it." That was literally given to me. I didn't come up with that.

It just dropped into my head. I think we did realize-- My manager at the time said that I'm With You was a really nice album track and we needed to try harder, but it ended up being a number one song, thank God.

Alison Stewart: It sounds like faith really means something to you in your music production.

Lauren Christy: It does.

Alison Stewart: Can you tell us a little more about that?

Lauren Christy: I didn't become a Christian until I was 42. I was just out there just trying to do it on my own. Then I had a fabulous calling from God, which really changed my life. Now it just makes everything so much easier because before, I really thought it was my talent and I had to really prepare to be clever that day. Now I just walk into sessions literally on a wing and a prayer.

Alison Stewart: With an open heart, it sounds like.

Lauren Christy: Literally, yes. It very much has changed my life.

Alison Stewart: I want to play Sk8er Boi for our listeners. What is something that you like about this track, something that you like about the production of this song?

Lauren Christy: I just love how it's so full-on from the first moment. I love Corky James who played all the guitars on the Avril Lavigne record. It was just amazing. My ex-husband Graham Edwards, I just remember us sitting at my house with Avril, and we just said, "Let's just do something that's really fun," and just Graham started playing that [unintelligible 00:07:05] and I said, "How about we start a song off with, 'He was a boy, she was a girl. Can I make it any more obvious?' Let's just do something really dumb," The whole song played out with Avril being a skater girl.

It's really my story of me being a ballet dancer and my parents not wanting me to marry a musician because they would consider musicians to be punks, my parents. It's that aggressiveness of the guitars and a super pop song put with that aggressiveness of the guitars.

Alison Stewart: Let's listen to Sk8er Boi.

[MUSIC - Avril Lavigne: Sk8er Boi]

He was a boy, she was a girl

Can I make it any more obvious?

He was a punk, she did ballet

What more can I say?

He wanted her

She'd never tell secretly she wanted him as well

But all of her friends stuck up their nose

They had a problem with his baggy clothes

He was a skater boy

She said see you later boy

He wasn't good enough for her

She had a pretty face but her head was up in space

She needed to come back down to earth

Alison Stewart: I'm speaking with music producer Lauren Christy. It's part of our March series, our Women's History Month March series, Equalizer: Women in Music Production. Lauren, what makes a good producer and what makes a good songwriter, and is there overlap there?

Lauren Christy: I do think that a lot of songwriters today who are just working as songwriters actually are crossing over into being the producers, because that's when it started out for me, is I knew what I wanted the groove to sound like, the sonic bed of the track. If you've got the groove right, you can build on that. I just think songwriters just have an overall taste of where it's got to rise. It's got to rise here, so we need the drum fills right here. I think songwriters are producers.

I teach a master class on songwriting and production, and I really try and talk to songwriters about, "Please become a producer while you're young." I even do a free giveaway to one person on my masterclass. I pull a name out of a hat and I send them a recording studio and a video of how to set it all up and start recording your own songs. It's so important to be a producer today with the way things are with streaming and how it doesn't really pay songwriters. There's people who I just admire so much as producers, like Circuit, Benny Blanco. They just have a vibe. Julian Bonetta, who did all the Sabrina Carpenter stuff. Linda Perry. I'm sure you've spoken to her.

Alison Stewart: We're talking to her next week.

Lauren Christy: She's awesome. I think having great sonic taste. Rick Rubin, I hear, who's one of my heroes. He just has good taste. He doesn't work the board, he doesn't play an instrument, but it's worked out very well for all the artists he works with, having his good taste around them.

Alison Stewart: The Matrix. You're part of The Matrix. It was a trio, you and two men.

Lauren Christy: Yes.

Alison Stewart: When you were working with artists, did you find your gender led you to be singled out either for the good or for the bad?

Lauren Christy: I always feel because I was with two guys in a team, I never felt that thing of being put down as a woman. I'm very much involved in all the vocals and comping and tuning the vocals. That meant I had to sit with Jonathan from Korn, just me and him doing his vocals. I never got anything but respect. I've never found it to be that anyone would diminish me for being a woman. I think that is probably because I had two great guys around me as a team. It's been a good experience for me.

Alison Stewart: You're releasing an album later this year called Their Hits My Way, featuring your take on songs that you wrote and you produced. What have you discovered revisiting these songs?2

Lauren Christy: First of all, I want people to know that I'm not trying to be a pop star at my age. I just really felt that I wanted to do something for my future grandkids so they can see that if you're a creator, you should keep doing it. Just because I made my last record in-- what was it? 1997, I'm like, "Look, I'm this age, and I'm releasing a new album in 2025." I wanted to just do reimagined versions of the song, so you could hear them pare down and say, "A good song can be done in many different ways."

I love to sing. To this day, if someone says to me, "Would you like to get up and sing?" I'm always like, "Yes." I very rarely say no to anything because it was my first love, was singing. That's what made me become a producer, because how do I get this done?

Alison Stewart: For this series, we're asking all our guests a few questions that we're going to stitch together at the end of the series. Here are the three questions. Your favorite album, a song you wish you produced, and a woman in music that you admire.

Lauren Christy: The first question was, what?

Alison Stewart: Your favorite album.

Lauren Christy: Oh, my God, that's such a hard one. My favorite album. It's got to be Joni Mitchell Blue. Was that the name of the album?

Alison Stewart: That works. A song you wish you produced?

Lauren Christy: I Took a Pill in Ibiza to Show Avicii I was Cool. I just think that song's amazing. I can't remember who sang it, but it's amazing.

Alison Stewart: A woman in music you admire.

Lauren Christy: Stevie Nicks. Incredible.

Alison Stewart: My guest has been music producer Lauren Christy. Lauren, thank you so much for being with us. We really appreciate it.

Lauren Christy: Thank you so much. If anyone wants to come to my masterclass, hit me up at lauren@laurenchristy.com.

Alison Stewart: Sounds good. We're going to go out on Coming Undone, which was originally released by Korn, this time by Lauren Christy.

[MUSIC - Lauren Christy: Coming Undone]

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