We’ve had the pleasure of having the very special music producer Reda Haddioui known professionally as Redah. Some describe him as the “Swiss knife” of music production. He does it all, and at the highest level in Hollywood. Also a composer, songwriter and singer,his work speaks for itself as he has produced music for the Oscar-winning, Golden Globe-winning, and Grammy-nominated movie “Spiderman Into The Spider-Verse”. Today he shared with us his experience as a composer and producer for Universal’s Production Music library, another noteworthy.

Reda, you moved to Los Angeles less than four years ago, after graduating from Berklee College Of Music, and you are already composing for the world’s leading production music library. How did you get to become one of their producers/composers knowing how selective they are?

Moving to Los Angeles, I started working with Wally Gagel and Xandy Barry at WAX LTD, they are both multi-platinum producers, songwriters, and have believed in me since the day we met. I’ve worked really hard everyday on my music production skills to be able to match their standards, and eventually my it has paid off as I ended up working on some of the biggest projects they’ve had these last couple years. They were both producing and composing for Universal, and have introduced me to the Production Music team, which really liked my music. Since then, I have composed and produced several songs for their library. The songs did really well, as they’ve been used by major companies such as Fox Sports. With WAX LTD, we created the label “Audio Wax”, and our catalog is exclusively distributed by Universal Production Music. I’m proud to be a part of it, as one of their top ten labels with the most downloaded tracks worldwide.

Can you tell us more about the songs you produce? What is your approach to creating them?

The music I compose and produce for Universal is released as part of themed albums under our label “Audio Wax”. We receive song requests for themes such as “Motivational, Anthemic Rock, Indie Acoustic”. From there, we pick one and start composing and producing a compilation of songs. Each one of them is reviewed and has to be approved by Universal to be part of the album. The standards are pretty high when you are the world’s leading production music library. They are obviously extremely selective about the songs they approve to represent the brand’s reputation. It is as challenging as passionating. Once I have the theme, for example “Motivational”, I take a natural and instinctive approach to producing the music. For that specific theme, for example, I’d think about a moment in my life when I wasn’t at my best, then about the sound, melody, and rhythm that would have helped me to find motivation and feel better. Once I’m able to channel the emotion, chords, and melodies usually come naturally, then need to be arranged and structured to create dynamics in the composition and production. At the end, it still needs to feel like a proper song, with distinctive parts that help the song to build up until it reaches its climax.