A Conversation with: Will Henderson

ACCLAIMED PRODUCER & SONGWRITER WHO’S WORKED WITH THE LIKES OF POP HEAVYWEIGHTS CHAII, NIKO WALTERS & FOLEY, WILL HENDERSON IS NOW BURSTING ONTO THE ELECTRONIC SCENE WITH HIS NEW ARTIST PROJECT SWEATR ALONGSIDE HIS EXPLOSIVE DEBUT SINGLE ‘EVERY TIME’ - A COLLABORATION WITH FELLOW KIWI TEENS.

WE’D LOVE TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR MUSICAL JOURNEY SO FAR FROM WHEN YOU FIRST STARTED GETTING INTO PRODUCING!

I grew up learning classical piano, that was my background which was very helpful for theory! Then from there I naturally wanted to go to Auckland University and do music. I was looking at doing a conjoint between pop music and composition, but I just ended up doing the pop music stuff (laughs) which was really good for me to be introduced to the industry and collaborating and things like that. That’s where I first found music production. One of the classes each semester was music production and we just got to jump into Logic and Pro Tools and I loved that. That’s what I thrived off each semester.

Actually before I got into uni, when I was learning classical piano, my parents got me a music workstation, it’s called a Roland RS-70. I think it was a bit of an investment at the time and they weren’t sure if I would enjoy it, but I basically loved that and I spent most of my time on it. I’ve actually got it set up in my studio now! It was awesome because it was one of my first experiences arranging and composing in a way. Such a great gift from Mum and Dad. They first got me into production I suppose in that sense.

AWESOME! AND TAKING A BIT OF A THROWBACK TO SOME INCREDIBLE TRACKS YOU’VE PRODUCED, WE’RE OBSESSED WITH CHAII’S ‘WOW (LOOK AT ME)’! WHAT WAS THE WRITING & PRODUCTION PROCESS LIKE FOR THAT TRACK?

We actually wrote this one at SongHubs 2020 and there was Mona (CHAII), Kings, James Milne (aka Lawrence Arabia) and myself. I was the producer, CHAII was the artist and the other two were songwriting, but everyone in the room was a producer as well so it was a super creative environment and day - it was very exciting.

So we jumped in and I think one of the first things CHAII said was that she wanted something distorted, dirty, gritty and high energy. One of the first sounds I brought up was a distorted 808 bass and she loved that, so kept that in there, and between that and Lawrence Arabia putting on these beautiful harmonic minor almost Arabian sounding guitar scales, it turned into this really great day in SongHubs.

YEAH, I GUESS YOU NEVER KNOW WHO YOU’RE GOING TO GET GROUPED WITH SO YOU MUST HAVE BEEN STOKED COMING OUT WITH SUCH AN AMAZING RECORD!

Thank you! Yeah it was such a fun day actually and it was the first day of SongHubs as well (laughs) so it was good day one. Kings is the man at being the ideas man - he’s got melodies, he’s got lyrics, he’s got production ideas. He’s real talent so having that team was awesome.

AND I SAW ON SPOTIFY IT’S ALMOST HAD 200K STREAMS WHICH IS SUCH A CRAZY ACHIEVEMENT TOO! 

Yeah that’s cool! And it’s had a bunch of syncs as well - it got an Apple sync for the new iPhone 12 Pro, and a UFC sync, and it got on a Netflix movie. A bunch of cool stuff which is real buzzy (laughs). It’s done really well. 

MASSIVE! AND ANOTHER ONE WE WANTED TO TOUCH ON IS ‘CLOSE MY EYES’ BY NIKO WALTERS, WHICH YOU CO-PRODUCED WITH RENOWNED WRITER AND PRODUCER DUO AMBIAN & SLEO. WE LOVE IT, IT’S SUCH A STUNNING SONG! WHAT WAS YOUR MAIN HIGHLIGHT WORKING ON THAT TRACK?

Cheers! This was very early on with Niko, we actually wrote the track in 2019, and it was our second day in the studio together. What we discovered on the first day is that we write quite well together if we have a drone through the whole song. So there’s a couple of drones happening throughout that song which is a beautiful textured pad with some atmospheric piano stuff going on, and then he put down this guitar lick and we processed that so it sounded mechanical or computerised. Between those two textures we pretty much wrote the whole song. It’s a very emotive track full of textures, and it was a very fun, creative day. 

AWESOME, HE’S DEFINITELY BLOWN UP A LOT SINCE THEN AND WE KEEP SEEING AMBIAN & SLEO POPPING UP TOO WHICH IS SO COOL! NEXT UP WE’VE GOT A BIT OF A GEEKY QUESTION - WHAT ARE YOUR GO-TO TOOLS WHEN IT COMES TO PRODUCTION? FEEL FREE TO GO INTO DETAIL FOR ALL THE PRODUCERS OUT THERE!

So I use Logic as my choice of DAW for production, and I’m a big synth lover so I generally am attracted to keys sounds and synth sounds first and foremost. My synth choice would be Serum, as well as my 808s actually. My vocal plugin of choice would be the CLA Vocals - a lot of producers will know that (laughs). CLA vocals sounded like a bit of a cheat for a long time but I think now it’s just accepted that it’s such a damn good plugin that everyone can use it and everyone has access to it so why not use it!

My creative plugin of choice would be ShaperBox by CableGuys - it does so much so I’ll just leave it there (laughs). My reverb plugin of choice is Valhalla VintageVerb. And the last thing I’ll put on is a delay effect specifically for vocals - it’s a ¼ delay with a sample delay, so one side is a few milliseconds delayed so it sounds nice and wide, and then HPF all the way down to 600Hz. And that on vocals makes it sound nice!

SWEET! SO WE’RE LOVING YOUR LATEST TRACK “EVERY TIME” - YOUR DEBUT SINGLE UNDER YOUR ARTIST NAME SWEATR IN COLLABORATION WITH FELLOW KIWIARTIST TEENS! CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE MEANING OF THIS TRACK AND THE INSPIRATION BEHIND IT?

Another fun day! It was quite similar to the process for CHAII’s song - we started with a big 808 hit and started with the chorus which is a big instrumental “let’s have a good time” chorus (laughs), and it was all around that big distorted 808 hit and the vocal chants. I just had this random idea to chat into the microphone, and I wasn’t even really saying anything, but it came out sounding like “every time I let you I just ..” and that ended up being the hook. From that, Christina (teens) had the idea of a relationship or friendship that is quite toxic and is like a leach in your life. So with the dirtiness of the sound of the song and the lyrics, it led to this theme of an unhealthy relationship with someone being horrible and them wanting to be your friend again and this unhealthy cycle. The production came together very quickly too which was fun. 

COOL! DO YOU HAVE MORE MUSIC FOR SWEATR ON THE WAY SOON? AND IF SO, WHAT CAN WE EXPECT FROM IT?

Yes I do! I can’t wait to share it actually. Initially, I was looking at releasing an EP as my first release but then I thought singles are gonna be more fun to release because then you can focus on one song at a time. I definitely have some more songs in the pipeline. I would say they’re typically higher energy than what I would do for an artist I’d work with, probably because I’m more a producer artist rather than just an artist. I’d say an artist says what they want to say with the lyrics they use, but lyrics are not my strength and the production is and that’s what I want to get across. So there’ll be more upbeat songs.

LOVE THAT! WHO WOULD YOU SAY ARE YOUR BIGGEST INSPIRATIONS IN MUSIC?

So I grew up loving The Prodigy, Pendulum, Bomfunk MC’s - again, high energy synth focused bands. The funny thing is I remember sitting in the car with my brother listening to Bomfunk MC’s album, the one with Freestyler on it, and I was probably like 6 or 7 I guess and I asked my brother “man, how do they make these sounds?” and he said “oh they probably use a synthesiser” (laughs). And that was literally the first time I had heard the word “synthesiser” and I was like “woah I need to get a synthesiser, I need to know what these are” (laughs). In my mind they were like these big computer rooms (laughs).

Now I love Louis the Child, Charli XCX, Justin Bieber, Sofi Tukker and The Knocks. And then electronic inspiration would be DJ Snake, Jack Ü, Diplo, BAYNK, So Below - the last two being kiwi artists, some good kiwi electronic music there.

YES SO GOOD! WHO ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVOURITE NZ ARTISTS RIGHT NOW AND ARE THERE ANY SONGS IN PARTICULAR THAT YOU ESPECIALLY LOVE & CONNECT WITH?

I’m loving BAYNK - his 2021 releases are insane! I’m loving ‘Touch Me’ as well as ‘Esther’ - both of those songs are unreal. He’s such a tasty electronic producer, it’s so nice.

As I mentioned, So Below - I’m loving the whole ‘Left Behind’ album with my favourite song being ‘Us’. So good and high quality. And her dark, mysterious, brooding vibe is so good for it. And then obviously Foley for just good summer tunes, and CHAII for the gym (laughs).

YES, SOME INCREDIBLE ARTISTS! ANOTHER NZ RELATED QUESTION, WHAT DO YOU LOVE MOST ABOUT LIVING IN NEW ZEALAND? DO YOU HAVE ANY FAVOURITE PLACES TO TRAVEL TO OR LOCAL SPOTS TO VISIT?

I just love a good camp (laughs). I don’t do it enough but just chucking the tent in the car and going from spot to spot, I love that. I’m the camper that doesn’t stay in one spot - I’ll be happy to set up the tent for one night, pack down in the morning, set up in another location .. I love that stuff aye. Also love a good hike up a track or mountain, and then swimming in the ocean is amazing. It’s such a great feeling after swimming and your body just gets cleansed from all the salt water.

Plus, Lake Tekapo is also unbelievably beautiful! When the ice melts off the mountain and turns the lake this magic blue, it’s really cool.

DEFINITELY ONE OF OUR FAVE PLACES TOO! WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BIGGEST LESSONS YOU’VE LEARNT IN YOUR CAREER SO FAR, AND WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR OTHER ARTISTS & PRODUCERS OUT THERE?

This more a life lesson, but because music is one of those things that can be so up and down and so emotionally draining because it’s who you are for a lot of us, a lesson I’m still trying to learn is that my music isn’t who I am. So the success or the lack of success doesn’t determine who I am or my value as a person. So that’s the biggest lesson that I keep having to remind myself with. When you put your heart into something, it’s hard not to get discouraged if it doesn’t do well.

YEAH THAT’S A HUGE LESSON THAT’S FOR SURE AN ONGOING PROCESS. LASTLY, A QUESTION THAT WE ASK EVERYONE AT THE END, IF YOU COULD SAY ONE THING TO EVERY PERSON IN THE WORLD, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

This one’s funny because there’s a lot of different people in a lot of different shoes (laughs). But mine would be don’t take life too seriously, it’s good to laugh, which is a bit of a reflection of who I am.

THANKS SO MUCH WILL! MAKE SURE TO KEEP UP WITH HIM ON INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK, SPOTIFY & APPLE MUSIC.