THE songwriting session was so fresh that the aroma of the evening’s chicken wings still lingered. But while Mr. Martin has lately been developing a more rock-influenced sound in songs like Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone,” Stargate has followed a lifelong love of the Michael Jackson-Prince school of R&B.“In Europe we’ve only been hearing the biggest American hits,” said Mr. Eriksen, the quieter of the two, who has a thin, blond goatee and moves in quick, precise jolts at the console, like a video-game virtuoso.
But he was impressed by their work, and on their first joint songwriting date they knocked out six songs, among them “So Sick,” which was No. “There’s a craft to any art form,” Mr. Hermansen responded. The two do not stake their reputations on hip-hop authenticity; Mr. Hermansen and Mr. Eriksen, who are both married and have young children, remain deliberately invisible and clean-cut. The three men remixed American hip-hop and R&B songs, sweetening them for European radio with layers of added melody. Many of the interviews featured here are exclusive to Stargate SG-1 Solutions. They grew up on Boney M. Those influences lend themselves to them making very melodic pop records, with great hooks and choruses. STARGATE Plug-IN VST AU VST3 / 32/64BIT MAC OSX & PC 100 INSTRUMENTS TOTAL Multi-Velocity Multi-Sampled ADSR, Glide, Pan Filter, Reverb, LFO (Pitch, Pan) Velocity AMP Size 1.79 GB (Instant Download) STARGATEVST Plug-in is an amazing collection of custom designed Synthesizer & Acoustic Instruments for music pro But I never had a problem with these guys. Scanning through it, Ne-Yo picked one midtempo track with sharp, resonant acoustic guitar — “That’s nasty!” he said — and sat down with a notepad, playing the track on a loop while Mr. Hermansen and Mr. Eriksen sat for an interview a few feet away.
1 record in the country for 10 weeks, but when we walk down the street no one knows who we are,” said Mr. Hermansen, who like his partner is 34, shiny of scalp and beanstalk thin. My Studio. Work was slow at first until a chance meeting with Ne-Yo (whose real name is Shaffer Smith) in a hallway at Sony Music Studios on West 54th Street. Even though it might remind you of something else you shouldn’t shy away from it. After some exploratory missions, they settled in New York in the spring of 2005. Then came Ne-Yo’s next hit, “Sexy Love,” then Rihanna, then Beyoncé. More than once, they said, visitors to their studio have misdirected their obeisances to the people they meet at the door: the two black British men who are Stargate’s managers.
And we’ll talk about projects — ‘O.K., we’ll come by your office tomorrow.’ Then we’ll be up there at 11 o’clock playing songs.”Their work carries on a tradition of Scandinavian bubble-gum artistry that stretches from Abba to Max Martin, the Swedish mastermind behind the late-’90s heyday of Britney Spears, ’N Sync et al. They grew up on Abba. With the press of a button, the room filled with sound: somber guitar arpeggios over a slow, sleek hip-hop beat, with layers of falsetto harmonies leading to a big, glittery, instantly memorable chorus. A laptop computer in their studio is set to Norwegian time, and they make it clear that the biggest draw of living in New York is the work. “I got it,” he announced, and sang his brand-new verse and a chorus. Beginning their recent studio date with Ne-Yo, they took their places behind the console, unloading discs and various devices from a backpack. When a photographer was about to snap their picture, Mr. Eriksen carefully moved an empty beer bottle so it wouldn’t appear in the shot. While labels and artists frequently wait weeks or even months for a new song from a top producer, a typical Stargate workday yields two, three, four or more.“A lot of American producers have a great difficulty with pop,” said Barry Weiss, president of Jive Records, who recently hired Mr. Hermansen and Mr. Eriksen to work with Usher, Chris Brown and Joe.
“Most pop, hip-hop and R&B producers,” said Mr. Rabhan, the manager, “are so distinctive that their music becomes instantly recognizable and overshadows the artist. We'd like to express our gratitude to the many gracious and talented members of the Stargate cast and crew who've shared their time and thoughts with fans and to the writers. “It’s perfect for Jennifer Hudson.”As three more songs that had been written in the last 24 hours blared from enormous speakers, the producers sat calmly, waiting to hear which superstars their songs would be pitched to. “You shouldn’t be afraid of that either. Soon they began to set their eyes on a studio in New York.“We knew that to make the records we really wanted to make, we had to go to America,” said Mr. Eriksen. Over a spare beat that would not be out of place in a vintage Run-D.M.C. Working in a modest room so crowded with recording gear that they spend much of their time toiling inches apart, Mr. Hermansen and Mr. Eriksen say they usually finish up by midnight or 1 a.m. — around the time many of their competitors might be beginning their own sessions.Life in a recording studio can be slow and numbingly repetitive, but on a recent afternoon Stargate was a blur of musical multitasking. “We’re like players who just got off the bench and started scoring,” Mr. Hermansen said. At a time when the music industry is starved for hits, Stargate has had repeated success with a relatively simple approach: sugary, lilting R&B in the Michael Jackson vein leavened with the kind of melody-rich European pop that paints everything in bright primary colors.More potential hits are in the works. We have a certain ...”“... musical language, so to speak,” said Mr. Eriksen, finishing his colleague’s sentence as if picking up a verse.