Author: Danny Kuperberg

From producing as well as songwriting for stellar hip hop names like Stormzy to Ghetts, Ben Oakland has made a big mark on the a substantial amount of the production and engineering. And he’s still very young.

With big soul and r&b influences, Danny and Ben’s piano and songwriting sessions have informed his creative work with some of the very top names in the UK hip hop genre – expanding through to r&b too.

Ben’s development and natural talent, not to mention incredible work ethic really is something to behold…

With close on 400,000 monthly Spotify listeners, Ben appears (enigmatically, under the radar, see image above!) on many great modern hip hop/modern soul recordings.

Ben Oakland will continue to make waves, of that I’ve no doubt. And Danny will certainly continue to help his songwriting and musical breadth go from strength to strength…

I’ve worked with Conrad for several years now and seen him grow as a producer and arranger. As well as setting the bar high in his varied and eclectic DJ sets, he has become an accomplished jazz pianist.

From initially jamming on just a few chords, his progress has been nothing short of inspiring. Both fluent and musical, he now incorporates innovative piano and basslines, Hammond organ & Fender Rhodes parts into genuinely authentic arrangements which really do set his music apart. Here are some examples on his Soundcloud page.

Sometimes our sessions are more like extended piano jams. He can seamlessly translate his new skills into innovative arrangements which also show off his extensive appreciation of soul, disco and funk.

The last 10 years have seen him play at London’s best clubs including Oval Space, Corsica studio & The Cause as well as the Jazz Cafe and

Conrad is also the resident for Eco-Disco, the world’s first plastic-free party. All of this, alongside with working for Jimpster’s renowned U.K deep house label Freerange Records, make him an even more well-rounded musician and authentic influencer.

I’ve been working with Elliot Schooling for over a year now, helping to develop his understanding of music theory, chord sequences and piano technique. It’s all part of a lifelong ambition to help my talented piano students prove to the world how musically creative dance music’s possibilities could be. Elliot is a case study – and his success proves it.

Appetite, the dance music collective and brand that he co-founded with compadre Liam Palmer, has already transformed the dance music scene with wildly successful events across the world.

Their promotion and branding is eye-catching, as is their social media presence, eg Instagram here.

Elliot has a prodigiously strong work ethic – and he’s applied it to both his playing skills as well as his own music. So proud of his progress; both his playing and his tracks have been transformed. Elliot’s natural musicality is really starting to shine through in his releases.You can hear some of his original work here on his Soundcloud page.

The day when Elliot plays live keyboards during his popular sets won’t be long. Maybe adding synth pads, basslines or melodies over the top of his own as well as others’ tracks? He’s doing it in the studio, so why not do it live?

Just because DJ/producers rarely play instruments live doesn’t mean it shouldn’t become something to reach for. It would make House music – and more broadly the EDM genre, an even more of a live and spontaneous experience than it is already.

Danny’s tried to build this into all his student teaching and music mentoring – helping dance music superstars The Shapeshifters, Glasgow Underground‘s Kevin McKay and Jamie Jones amongst many others along their musical paths.

Piano lessons aren’t just about learning scales and reading the dots.

They can transform any musician’s creativity, whether professional or complete beginner. Ultimately it’s a pathway to true self expression.

After all, what is the common denominator of every recording studio other than just a mixer, speakers and computer?

Keyboards and synths. And lots of them!

Whether triggering drums, bass, synth, choirs, samples or even a complete orchestra for that matter, becoming a good keys player is a fundamental for any serious modern dance music producer.

Most musicians can program half decent beats on an Akai MPC or sequence a standard EDM track on Logic, Ableton or Pro Tools. But how many can play their parts into the software with passion and soul?

I’m convinced that it will be those like Elliot Schooling, who can express themselves on keyboards both in the studio and at live events – in addition to programming and working the decks – who will be the most sought after dance music talents of all.

Wonderful privilege to participate in this authentic album project with these two ‘80s legends. I collaborated with them on the English Eccentrics album, providing the keyboards and some of the arrangement, but here’s the clincher. I didn’t even know I was! Suddenly I found lots of publicity with my name on it. ‘Keyboard wiz Danny Kuperberg contributes to the album featuring Suggs and Toyah. A pleasant surprise, for sure, but baffling! Then it hit me: the young guy who was dubbed a techno-wiz was actually a student in North London and I’d given him about ten lessons. Unbeknownst to me, I’d been collaborating with one of my heroes! Such is the music biz and it’s unexpected publicity jolts.

I do have wonderful memories of both ’It’s A Mystery’ (Toyah) and ’It Must Be Love’ (Madness), who I adore anyway. One of the main reasons I so wanted to play Camden’s The Dublin Castle, solo, just voice and keyboard, was because it was where they made their name. And of course, I’d hung out a lot in Camden Market weekends as a teenager. Still, the nostalgia feels great. The creative possibilities when you hear music like this, aged 11 on your Walkman (no vision), are limitless.

Oliver Som, a talented mixing engineer and sometime producer who has worked with such international names as Robbie Williams and James Blunt sought Danny’s help with piano and keyboard playing techniques in order to aid his work. He works closely with celebrated producer Guy Chambers. This has fed into all of their musical ambition and creativity.

Trevor Horn; absolute studio and musical hero of mine. It was a real pleasure to meet him and discover that I have a near neighbour (and great sound engineer) friend in common who he had worked with. 

Trevor’s recording studio Sarm West is where some of the greatest music, certainly of the eighties and nineties was produced. For example, it is where the stars gathered for Band Aid to record Do They Know Its Christmas. He produced ABC, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, The Art Of Noise, Seal and many many more. His own Buggles classic Video Killed The Radio Star was the first video to be played on MTV.

The year was 1996. It was in a Gospel Oak terrace, not far from Hampstead Heath in North London. Britpop was in full force, where me and a flatmate would be mastering, mixing or generally tweaking our ’kit’ or cool studio gear that we’d covet. Vaguely, these days we’d be known as Gear Sluts (www.gearslutz.com) on account of us doing anything to get, swap, buy or barter for synths, drum machines, samplers, mixing desks, not to mention microphones. Even our floppy disk sample library (orchestral sounds, bass and vocal samples etc) were in demand and advertised in Sound On Sound. (See my Bernard Butler / Suede post #3 Danny’s Brush With…). The samples would be loaded onto my Akai S900. These days, the equivalent are just plugins installed into one’s DAW.

It was here that I met Steve Diggle, The Buzzcocks’ (www.buzzcocks.com) lead guitarist who wanted to remaster their Live In Paris album with my flatmate. Pete Shelley, who sadly passed away, was the lead singer and main songwriter and their hit was ’Ever Fallen In Love With Someone You Shouldn’t Have Fallen In Love With’.

Anyway, we hit it off immediately with our similar music tastes. They were really a seminal punk band. They helped define the punk ethos too, plus they put Birmingham on the musical map.

Steve Diggle: what a talented guy and guitarist, not to mention great musical taste. We smoked and drank a lot well into the night. I was mildly surprised to learn that he didn’t have the passion for punk style music that I’d anticipated. He was heavily into classical electronic music. This is complex music with Karlheinz Stockhausen, Edgard Varese (musique concrete) and Pierre Boulez amongst those brilliant mid 20th century composers. The Buzzcocks experienced some pretty cool and funny escapades which Diggle enjoyed telling me about.

Cast your minds back to Summer 1986. It’s the control room of the legendary Spaceward Studios in Cambridge www.spaceward.co.uk. I’d just turned seventeen and I was up there to record audio overdubs for my Mum’s animation film ‘Snow Magic’ for which I had composed the soundtrack. She knew Gary Lucas, one of the key producers and founders of the studio itself.
I was a very brief intern there, but oh my G-d, what a place, what an atmosphere, what talent everywhere I looked. Just being there had a big impact on me. It was a creative hub – and these people were both serious and talented yet seemed to maintain a matey confidence that was just beyond cool for my teenage mind. I’d been in studios before. Through my parents’ encouragement for my passion, I had already developed my own decent studio next to my mother’s animation editing room. I had a Fostex 1/4in A8 reel to reel multitrack and new Akai S900 sampler. I’d recorded a few local bands at my studio, but what I was witnessing was the real deal – on quite another level.
Everyone from The Stranglers to Iron Maiden to Teardrop Explodes to assorted new wave acts that I worshipped seemed to be drifting in and out, full of cool easy breezy banter. These were rock titans, of that there was no debate. Even the likes of Gary Numan and The Damned had been in recently and recorded there. Right in front of me were bona fide artists (and not the usual blaggers) recording exciting vocal and backing vocal overdubs, instrumental takes and creatively arranged parts, not to mention the original live takes. Was I wide-eyed? Yes. Did I want to let on? NO! As an Assistant Tape Op, I was hardly noticed anyway. Here’s a great anecdote from that period:

I wasn’t at the session, but the producer and assistant producer/sound engineer Gary Lucas had told me that there was a worrying issue festering. Apparently while Julian Cope was recording World Shut Your Mouth, he’d been smoking so much dope that the vents started emanating the sweet smell of refined marijuana which permeated all the grounds around the studio complex.
The studio manager and staff began to worry about the ramifications and possible imminent police presence!
While I was there I had the laborious task of shooting 100Hz, 1kHz and 10kHz sine wave signals through each of the 24 tracks into the giant reel to reel multitrack machine. It’s called calibrating and basically ensures that what you hear in playback is as close as possible to the audio going in being recorded live. This slowly spooling tape was two inches wide compared to the measly and hissy 1/4in tape in my home studio. It was basically like lasagne compared to my spaghetti.
I only ended up interning for four visits, mainly because I was London-based and it was a shlep. Plus I had A-levels to think about in the Autumn. My brief job title? Assistant Tape Operator. Only four visits, but what a creative revelation…