Producer Catherine Marks Shares What It’s Like to Work With Kanye West
Written by SOURCE on November 28, 2018
Catherine Marks has worked with the biggest names in music, across all genres. So, of course she has a Kanye West story.
The producer, who has worked with everyone from Foals and Wolf Alice to Boy George and Kelly Rowland, said that a session with Kanye was as erratic as you might imagine. Marks said that her time with the famously mercurial rapper got off on the wrong foot with Kanye showing up at 3 a.m. for a session that was supposed to start at 11 a.m. the day before.
“He came in one night and we’d been waiting from 11 a.m. He rocked up at three the following morning,” she told the BBC. “We wanted him on a particular song, he sang on a different one… he was making up rhymes on the spot and saying things like ‘The one three takes ago was good.'”
Marks said that West wasn’t into doing too many takes.
“At the end he asked what I thought. I go ‘Well, would you be interested in doing it again?’ and he said ‘No’. So I told him ‘In that case it’s amazing’.
“Then I’m pretty sure he said ‘No, you’re amazing,'” she continued. “No one else in the room says they heard him say that.”
Marks added that producers who work with people at Kanye’s level need to get the take they want quickly or they won’t last.
“When you’re with someone like that if you’re not working quick, you’re going to get fired,” she said.
