Jaycen Joshua, the magician who makes Latin music sound like ‘hip hop’ | Culture

The headlines are not entirely accurate. The artists with more Latin Grammy nominations this year They are Alejandro Sanz Y Rosalia. But the person with the most nominations has never put on a microphone. His name is Jaycen Joshua is one of the fashion sound mixers in the United States, which has been mixing hip hop, soul and pop hits for 15 years. For about two years, Latin music has been looking for him to give his successes the sound aspect he has created for years like clients like Beyoncé or Justin Bieber.

Joshua receives EL PAÍS in Sphere Studios, north of Los Angeles, in a room where a pin is heard falling and where it mixes at least one recording a day. Work with a Solid State Logic SL4000G + analog table. He says it gives a special warmth to the sound. Without going into technical details about the equipment or soundproofing, he says: "If someone asks you what is the best possible study, it is this one." Throughout the room there are dolls and motifs of Star wars. In a corner, next to a bottle of Dom Perignon, there is a vinyl copy of Evil want dedicated by Rosalia.

That is one of his nine Latin Grammy nominations, which are delivered on November 14 in Las Vegas. Jaycen Joshua is on three of the disc nominated albums of the year (Lifetime from Luis Fonsi, Evil want from Rosalia and Fantasy by Sebastián Yatra), four of the recording candidates of the year (Want better from Juanes and Alessia Cara, Silver from Juanes and Lalo Ebratt, Aute Cuture from Rosalia and Coward from Ximena Sardaña) and two nominations for best sound engineering, for Evil want, again, and by Montanerby Ricardo Montaner. Only two years ago I had never worked with Latin music. He didn't know who Montaner was when he was commissioned for the job.

Jaycen Joshua was born 40 years ago in a family in the music industry in Los Angeles. He says that when he decided that engineering and music mixing was his passion, he quit his job and started from scratch as an assistant to one of the greats, engineer Dave Pensado. He received orders and brought food to customers. "I think when you start at something, you have to start from the bottom." He was taking over jobs until in 2008, he put his signature on the mix of Single ladies, from Beyoncé. "It was literally my first job alone."

“I believe that the secret ingredient that I give to Latin music is the aggressiveness of American hip hop,” explains Joshua. "I give a depth to the percussion that is not normally found in Latin music." The recipe that musicians look for in Joshua is a bright and metallic sound that hits the face like hip hop. He makes that gesture of putting his hand to his face when he describes it. He says he gets a sound expensive, expensive, luxurious.

"With me the voice sounds expensive, the music sounds expensive and the rhythm section is very aggressive." Trying to define the adjective expensive, Joshua explains that it is that “when you hear the album it has a lot of detail. The best way to describe it is that all frequencies are adequately represented. But when the beat strikes you, it goes for a party car, you know? It is very youthful. ”

That is something that was not often heard in Latin music until it was devoured by urban music, at least on the radio. “Those who knew were the kids, the ones who cheat, the kids bad bunnies. I have the ability to make those recordings sound very commercial, in the sense that they sound to put them on the radio. That when you put it think, this sounds like a success. That's all I think about. I think of him hit, more than the artist or the producer ”.

Joshua's first contact with Latin music came through Colombian producers Andrés Torres and Mauricio Rengifo. He was contacted to mix a recording of himself. “I said, I don't know, why should I do this? And they told me, seriously, together we will sound perfect. The Latin culture is so warm and grateful that you cannot refuse. I told them to send it to me. ” He mixed it, it worked. Then they collaborated again. “The third recording they sent me was Little. And everything changed. And when I say everything, I mean my life. I have made many very great recordings with very great artists, such as Beyoncé or Bieber, but that recording opened for me an entire genre that I didn't know I was in love with. If it weren't for them, I would never have entered Latin music. ”

Joshua says that in the past there have been "times when the United States has liked Latin music." La Bamba in Los Lobos version, Macarena from Los Del Río, Conga from Miami Sound Machine or Crazy life from Ricky Martin. “But there is literally a song that made the United States not only like a moment, but be influenced by it. And that is Little. It is like Jesus Christ. There is a before and after. Everyone should give a part of his money to Luis Fonsi. Because it has literally helped everyone. He has elevated the entire culture of Latin music, alone, with just one song. ”

When the producers or the artists send a finished recording to Joshua to give it the final touch, they seek “an opinion”. “They don't look for me for technical reasons. There are many engineers, but there are only a handful that really are a safety net. It's like having philosophical conversations with geniuses every day. For example, Rosalia calls you and says this is my job, my body and my soul. I listen to him and tell him what seems right and wrong in the recording. And I give it back just as I think it should sound. She sends it to me with notes saying, well, but change this and this. It is a philosophical tug of war about that work of art. ”

In 2018, Juanes manager Rebeca León went to see Jaycen Joshua to ask her to listen to a young woman from Barcelona named Rosalía who had recorded a record herself with producer Pablo Díaz Reixa, The Guincho. “Rebecca told me I know you're busy, but please listen to this artist. He wants to work with you. I was passionate with her". Joshua listened to four songs. One of them was Badly. “Rosalia was on FaceTime from Spain. I told them, listen to me both. Your life will change forever. I don't think you understand. Next year by these dates you will be a legend. Rosalia said: ‘Really?’. I told him, look, this is the biggest thing I've heard since I worked. ”

“I told him that my life had changed. I did it for free. And I said, I'll see you next year, when you're lined up. ” Joshua counts as a privilege to have been part of the explosion of the inventor of the flamenco-trap. “Meeting Rosalia is probably the most special moment of my career, long. It's very rare when a unicorn enters your house, and you don't even know it's a unicorn yet. ” Joshua has been nominated for a Grammy seven times for records like Loudfrom Rihanna, Lemonade Y I am ... Sasha Fierce, from Beyoncé, or Teenage Dreamfrom Katy Perry. He has a grammy for the disk Growing Painsby Mary J. Blige. That is the sound formation of the man that the Latin world now seeks to mix Ricardo Montaner.

Joshua has no doubt that trap, reggaeton and urban music are going to become the center of Latin music for how he is hitting in the United States. The absence of nominations in the Latin Grammy cannot be explained this year for bad bunny. “The kids have taken control. They have brought down power and have taken control, and now they are making influential records. All my respect for Ricky Martin or Gloria Estefan, but many of us don't identify with that sound. But when they see Rosalia and Bad Bunny, these kids are reflected. When that happens, it becomes a movement, like hip hop in the United States. At least half of the Latin music that will be sold in the next five years will be influenced by hip hop. ”