Greg Kurstin
Kurstin in 2017
Background information
Born	Gregory Allen Kurstin (1969-05-14)May 14, 1969 (age 56) Los Angeles,California, U.S.
Occupations	Record producer multi-instrumentalist songwriter
Instruments	Keyboards guitar bass drums vocals
Works	Production discography
Member of	The Bird and the Bee
Formerly of	Geggy Tah
Website	gregkurstin.com

Gregory Allen Kurstin (born May 14, 1969) is an American record producer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter. He has won nineGrammy Awards, includingProducer of the Year, Non-Classical in 2017 and 2018,^[1][2][3] and contributed to five songs that peaked atop theBillboardHot 100.^[2]

Kurstin worked closely with English singerAdele on her albums25 (2015) and30 (2021). He co-wrote and produced the former album's record-breaking lead single "Hello", as well as latter's lead single "Easy on Me,"^[4] which entered the US Hot 100 five hours after its release, and broke all-time records onSpotify with 24 million plays within 24.^[5] Among others, he has worked withKylie Minogue,Sia,Kelly Clarkson,Halsey,Jonas Brothers,Kendrick Lamar,Maren Morris,Beyoncé,Dido,Gorillaz,the Shins,Beck,Paul McCartney,Pink,Lily Allen,Harry Styles,Miley Cyrus,Liam Gallagher,Foo Fighters,PinkPantheress andWolf Alice. He often plays guitar, bass, keyboards and drums, as well as engineers and programs his musical productions.^[2][6]

Kurstin began his career as a jazz pianist and later co-foundedGeggy Tah. He worked with singerInara George to form the indie pop duothe Bird and the Bee in 2004.^[7]

Kurstin was born inLos Angeles,California. He isJewish.^[8] He started playing piano at age five. Soon after, he picked up guitar and bass. Kurstin joined his first band at the age of 11, and at 12 co-wrote "Crunchy Water", the B-side to classmateDweezil Zappa's "My Mother Is a Space Cadet".^[9]

In high school, Kurstin focused on jazz piano. After graduation, he moved to New York to study withCharles Mingus' pianistJaki Byard atThe New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music.^[9] In addition to coursework, as a student Kurstin played with prominent jazz artists includingBobby Hutcherson,George Coleman, andCharles McPherson.^[10] He returned to Los Angeles to finish his degree, and graduated from theCalifornia Institute of the Arts with a BFA in 1992.^[9]

In a 2013 interview, Kurstin said that his education in jazz had played a vital role in his pop success. "It's still something I carry over into my pop music work. It's really important to me that the notes I'm choosing strike the right emotional chord."^[11][12]

Kurstin continued to perform with Hutcherson, Coleman, McPherson and others following his graduation. In 1994, he formed Geggy Tah with Tommy Jordan, whom he had met at an LAjam. A friend passed a demo they recorded on toDavid Byrne, who signed them to his label,Luaka Bop. "They incorporate so many disparate elements into their sound that one senses a new sensibility afoot", Byrne said in 1997.^[13]

Geggy Tah released their debut albumGrand Opening in 1994; Kurstin played bass, clavinet, guitar, organ, piano, synthesizers and drums, and was credited as a songwriter, producer, programmer, and backup vocalist. In 1996 the band releasedSacred Cow. It included the song "Whoever You Are", which became a hit in 2001, after it was used in a television spot forMercedes-Benz. As the song ascended the charts, Geggy Tah released their final album,Into the Oh.^[14][15][16]

In addition to playing with Geggy Tah, Kurstin did session work, one-offs and tours with artists includingBeck,Ben Harper,Jon Hassell^[17] and theRed Hot Chili Peppers. In 2001, he released an album under the name Action Figure Party on theVerve-affiliated labelBlue Thumb Records. Mostly instrumental and in a jazz-funk vein, the album featured guestsFlea,Sean Lennon,Soul Coughing's Yuval Gabay as well as musicians who performed with Beck, Air,Gil-Scott Heron andGarbage.^[18][19]

Kurstin signed a worldwide publishing deal with EMI (now Sony/ATV) in 2002. While he had consistently written songs since the age of 12, he intensified his efforts, working "day and night, pumping out songs". In addition to writing on his own, he collaborated with songwriters and artists including Sia, whom he met through Beck in 2003.^[20][21]

In 2004, Kurstin was introduced to singerInara George by a mutual friend, Mike Andrews. Then producing George's solo debut, Andrews hired Kurstin as a pianist for the album. Kurstin and George clicked musically in the studio and together they formedthe bird and the bee. Shortly thereafter, they were signed byBlue Note Records chairmanBruce Lundvall.^[22] Described byEntertainment Weekly as "space-age pop that cunningly combines bossa nova languidity withBeach Boys-style lushness", they have since released four albums and an EP. Kurstin was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album for the Bird and the Bee's 2015 release,Recreational Love.^[23][24][25]

After working on tracks with artists includingPeaches,All Saints, Pink, theFlaming Lips, andKylie Minogue, Kurstin was introduced to Lily Allen. Along with other musicians, co-writers, producers and engineers, he worked on her 2006 debut,Alright, Still, which went on to achieve platinum status. For her second albumIt's Not Me, It's You, Allen worked exclusively with Kurstin; he co-wrote every song and played all of the instruments on the record, which he also engineered and produced. The album's first single, "The Fear", spent four weeks at number 1 in the UK, and the album hit number 5 in the US and charted in the top 10 in eight other countries. With Allen, Kurstin won three Ivor Novello Awards for his work on the double-platinumIt's Not Me, It's You. Based in part on the album's success, as well as his work on a bird and the bee record, Kurstin was nominated for his first Producer of the Year Grammy in 2010.^[26]

Kurstin's first commercially available collaboration with Sia was "Death by Chocolate", released on her 2008 albumSome People Have Real Problems. In 2010, he produced Sia's fifth album,We Are Born. It reached number 2 in Australia and number 37 in the US. It won ARIA Music Awards for Best Pop Album and Best Independent Release.^[27]

In 2012, Kurstin earned his first number 1 song in the United States and two Grammy Award nominations for Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)", which he co-wrote and produced. He reunited with Clarkson in 2013 (onWrapped in Red) and in 2015 (onPiece by Piece). "I think what makes him stand out as a producer is his skill as a musician", Clarkson said. "He can play anything phenomenally. His abilities as a musician give him an advantage, because he doesn't have to rely on anyone else to interpret his vision."^[28]In 2012 Kurstin produced and wrote or co-wrote five songs for the Grammy-nominated Pink albumThe Truth About Love, including its first single, "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)". The album was Pink's first number 1 in the United States; it charted in the Top 10 in 31 countries, and as of 2016 had been certified seven-times platinum. Later in 2012, he began production on Tegan & Sara'sHeartthrob and worked closely with the Shins'James Mercer onPort of Morrow, which debuted at number 3 on theBillboard 200.^[29]

In addition to Clarkson, in 2013 and 2014 Kurstin wrote and produced songs which appeared on albums byLana Del Rey,Foster the People,Ellie Goulding,Lykke Li,Katy Perry, andCharli XCX. He co-wrote and produced Ellie Goulding's "Burn", which was the number 1 single in the UK for three consecutive weeks, teamed again with Allen, and collaborated with Sia on1000 Forms of Fear. Her most successful album to date,1000 Forms of Fear debuted at number one on the USBillboard 200 and charted at number 1 in Australia and Canada and reached the top five charts in Denmark, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.1000 Forms of Fear earned threeARIA Music Awards. Kurstin was nominated for aRecord of the Year Grammy for the album's lead single, "Chandelier", and once again nominated as Producer of the Year.^[30]

Kurstin scored the 2014 adaptation of the filmAnnie and served as the soundtrack's executive producer. With Sia, he created new arrangements for theBroadway musical's original tracks and co-wrote several new songs for the film, including "Opportunity", for which he received a Golden Globe nomination.^[31][32]

Kurstin began working with Beck on his follow up to the Grammy-winningMorning Phase in 2015. He co-wrote and produced "Dreams", the first single from the albumColors.^[33]

Kurstin co-wrote and produced three songs onAdele's 2015 album,25, including its first single, "Hello". In an interview withRolling Stone, Adele said: "This song was a massive breakthrough for me with my writing because it'd been pretty slow up to this point, and I felt after I worked with Greg [Kurstin] on this, it all poured right out of me." Kurstin also played bass, guitar, drums, piano and keyboards on "Hello", which reached number one in 28 countries. It was the first record to exceed 1 million in digital sales over a 7-day period. As of February 2016, the album has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.^[34][35][36]

Kurstin's fourth album with Sia,This Is Acting, was released in January 2016.^[37]

In February 2017, he won four Grammy Awards. He won Record of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year for his work on Adele's25. He won Producer of the Year (Non-Classical) in recognition of his work with Adele, Tegan and Sara, Sia and Ellie Goulding.^[38]

In March 2017, the BBC reported that Kurstin was working withPaul McCartney on a new studio album.^[39] Kurstin co-produced the song "Love" onKendrick Lamar's albumDamn, released in March 2017.^[40] On June 1, 2017, a single byLiam Gallagher entitled "Wall of Glass" was released, which was certified platinum in the UK.^[41] It was one of four Kurstin-produced tracks included on Gallagher's debut albumAs You Were, three of which were co-written with Gallagher.

Kurstin produced the Foo Fighters albumConcrete and Gold, which released on September 15, 2017. In an interview withMusic Week,Dave Grohl said: "If you want to survive you have to kind of push a little bit. I just imagined the sound moving outwards. Not necessarily alternative instrumentation and shit like that, just sonically to push it out. Greg is a fucking genius. He's a brilliant producer and he has this sonic intuition that I have never seen in anybody else."^[42] DuringHanukkah of 2020, Kurstin and Grohlreleased previously-recorded covers of songs by Jewish artists, one per night.^[43] This continued in 2021^[44] and 2022.^[8]

In 2017, Kurstin launched No Expectations, a publishing joint venture with Sony/ATV. The first songwriters signed to No Expectations wereJesse Shatkin and Wendy Wang.^[45]

In 2017, Kurstin produced tracks onCHVRCHES third album,Love Is Dead. The album was released on May 28, 2018, onVirgin EMI Records and Goodbye Records.

Kurstin produced thePaul McCartney albumEgypt Station, recorded over a two-year period at studios in Los Angeles and Sussex, England, and mixed atAbbey Road Studios. The album was released in September 2018.^[46]

In 2018 and 2019, Kurstin reunited with Liam Gallagher to co-write and produce four tracks for his second solo albumWhy Me? Why Not., including its lead single "Shockwave". The album was released in September 2019.^[47]

Kurstin also co-produced Maren Morris' second albumGirl, which won the CMA Album of the Year award in 2019.^[48]

He wrote and produced three songs on Halsey's album,Manic, released in January 2020.^[49]

On April 16, 2021, the second albumThe Battle at Gardens Gate byGreta Van Fleet was released with Kurstin producing.^[50]

In May 2021, Kurstin won theASCAP Golden Note Award, given to songwriters, composers and artists who have achieved extraordinary career milestones. Beck presented him with the award.^[3]

Kurstin also co-produced theTwenty One Pilots song "Saturday" off their albumScaled and Icy.^[51]

Kurstin and Adele reunited to co-write "Easy on Me," the first single from Adele's 2021 album,30. Kurstin also produced the track, which hit #1 on theBillboard Hot 100 on October 27, 2021. "Easy on Me" was Kurstin's fourth #1 hit on the Hot 100.^[52]

In September 2022, Kurstin performed at the tribute concerts forTaylor Hawkins atWembley Stadium in London and at theKia Forum in Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, he played withThem Crooked Vultures and, with Rufus Taylor and Justin Hawkins, members ofCoattail Riders.^[53] He played with Dave Grohl andRush's Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson in London.^[54]

In 2023, Kurstin co-produced theGorillaz albumCracker Island. He also produced and wroteJaded, which appeared on theMiley Cyrus albumEndless Summer Vacation.^[55]

• Official website
• the bird and the bee

• 1969 births
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• 20th-century American musicians
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