BRENT KOLATALO
Former guitarist Brent Kolatalo learned all about production at Boston’s Berklee College of Music. Later interning at New York’s Avatar studios, the budding engineer dropped out of college having accepted an invitation to work alongside former Berklee alumnus Ken Lewis. With artists such as Jay-Z, Drake and Kendrick Lamar on Lewis’ roster, one of Kolatalo’s first productions was the Kayne West album The College Dropout, which led to a Grammy nomination that would set his career in motion as a go-to producer and mix engineer.
In 2011, Lewis and Kolatalo created the production team Katalyst, where the duo work with both established and unsigned artists looking to get a major label sound. Eight years later, they stand at the forefront of the recording industry working with internationally renowned artists such as Eminem, Bruno Mars, Lorde, Lady Gaga and Lana Del Ray. Kolatalo has worked on 19 number one albums and singles and is the man behind 16 Grammy nominated records. His boundless enthusiasm keeps him up to date with the latest technology in an ever-evolving industry.
Were you always inquisitive about what lies behind the making of a record, rather than listening as an ordinary consumer might?
Without a doubt. At the beginning I was a guitar player but I needed more than just that one aspect of music-making to my bow. I was interested in everything from the microphone to the reverbs being used and the vocal sound. It was all about how to get an emotional reaction out of the tools that the people around me were using. Studying older records would always send me down a rabbit hole, but it’s never-ending, I’m still learning things and often watch YouTube clips of
