RICKY REED

I studied the Ghanaian drums and bongo drumming.

I've always thought I haven't ever had much of a lucky break.

My career has been one long love letter to California as a whole, top to bottom.

Los Angeles is a huge, great diverse place, but I had to find the version that worked for me. I am lucky I did because I probably wouldn't be where I am had I not.

Big Pop songs are born of inspiration and spontaneity. The question becomes how do you create spontaneity when you're going into the studio five days a week?

I really enjoy the creative freedom that I get when I produce my own projects.

I can never think about, 'Is this going to sell? Is this going to work on radio?' I just have to get in the zone where I'm like, 'Do I love this, or do I not love this?' Essentially it all comes down to that.

I started off making music that made fun of pop; now I'm nominated for helping produce pop songs that aim to be as honest as possible.

When I started trying to produce records for other people, one of the first tracks I wrote and produced was sort of a 'Kelly Clarkson circa 2008,' kind of big-brassy, guitar-pop, rock song. I was like, 'I can do this. I can make pop songs.' It was bad.

Regardless of what amount of satire or sarcasm is heard in what I do, the reason it connects with people is because the fun and the wildness in it is sincere.

Who doesn't love classic Destiny's Child or Ace of Base? There's so much amazing music from that time period, so it makes sense that we're starting to hear that pop up in records.

Every collaboration with a new person is like when you take a bin of Legos and dump them on the floor. All of the pieces to work with are right there. A floor full of Legos is full of possibilities.

Don't do anyone else's version of a hit song - it's gonna sound terrible. You just have to do what you do well and crank it up to 11.

What I ended up learning was that I had to do what I do well, and do it really well and say, 'Maybe there is no pop music that sounds like this now, but I can make it so maybe tomorrow what I like can be what everybody likes.'

A lot of people from the Bay, especially musicians, feel like northern California is not the place where everything's poppin' off and not quite on the cutting edge artistically as New York or L.A. People from the Bay feel like they have something to prove, and I always love feeling like I have something to prove.

A lot of what we do in the studio on a day-to-day basis is you try to cast a line as far out as you can out into unknown waters and reel it back in, cut out stuff that isn't working, cut out stuff that isn't connecting to people.

I grew up playing in rock bands while I was listening to rap records. I like a lot of stuff.

I believe that I am one of the greats of this generation.

I'm trying to make pop records for the middle-class, lower-middle-class - pop for the 99 percent.

My music has evolved to reflect that multigendered, multiracial, multigenre music. Whether I realized it before or not, I'm most influenced by that rock and soul hybrid.

I think, because I didn't think of myself getting into writing and production since I was younger, I could get bored of it if I don't continue to pivot.

A lot of people say don't let bad vibes into the studio, but I love to. If you're having a bad day, write a song that feels like that.

Pitbull is, like, one of the most incredible humans. He's an amazing guy, and when we first connected on 'Fireball,' he said, 'I love it!' He recorded the verse in a day, we mixed it the next day, and it was on the radio in like two weeks after we made the initial track. That's just how he works. He's so hard working, kind, and really appreciative.

I have a short attention span. And when I'm in the middle of one thing, I'm then drawn to the next thing.

If you are stuck at a dead-end job, or you know your friends are bringing you down, the time to act is now. You don't know how much time you've got left.