Producer Ryan Hadlock Scores Another Grammy Nod for His Work With Zach Bryan

Ryan Hadlock has become one of today's most in demand artist-oriented producers/songwriter/mixers, and with his recent work producing and mixing Zach Bryan's "Something In The Orange" he is again involved in a GRAMMY® nominated record.

Bryan is up for the 2023 GRAMMY® for Best Country Solo Performance for the crossover hit. The song spent 10+ weeks as the #1 country song globally on Spotify, peaking at Spotify US #3 and captured the #12 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, and has 300M streams to date and is showing no sign of slowing down.

Hadlock's diverse array of credits includes working with artists such as The Lumineers, Vance Joy, Brandi Carlile, Metric, The Strumbellas, Stephen Malkmus, The Afghan Whigs, The Gossip, Blonde Redhead, and more. Hadlock's first GRAMMY® recognized project was The Lumineers self-titled album nominated in the categories of Best New Artist and Best Americana Album.

The band's single "Ho Hey," a billion-streamer, spent 14 weeks in the top ten Billboard Hot 100 and had Hot 100 Airplay for 62 weeks proving to be one of the longest chart runs ever. Hadlock's second GRAMMY® nominated album came on Brandi Carlile's breakthrough 2016 release, The Firewatcher's Daughter.

He also worked with multi-format hit folk/pop songwriter Vance Joy producing Dream Your Life Away which earned the artist an Aria award in 2015. In 2014, Hadlock produced the Juno Award winning Best Roots & Traditional Album of the Year for The Strumbellas' We Still Move On Dance Floors.

Hadlock's organic production process, left-of-center pop sensibility, and multi-format success has made him a sought after producer, in part because he brings out the best in the musicians he works with, and in part because many of his records prove to be hits.

Hadlock travels the world to work with various artists, though his Pacific Northwest Bear Creek Studio remains his home base and creative haven. He grew up on the Bear Creek property, just outside of Seattle, which was developed into a studio by his parents in 1978. As a teenager, he assisted in sessions with producers Dave Stewart, Gill Norton, and Terry Date.

He worked recording artists such as Heart, The Deftones, Soundgarden and the Foo Fighters. Brandi Carlile loved the studio so much that she named an album she recorded there Bear Creek. Bear Creek came into its own as a residential studio in the late '80s, right as Seattle's grunge movement exploded.

Soundgarden was the first band to reside at the studio for six weeks when they recorded Badmotorfinger. "Despite its quaint and rustic aesthetic, Bear Creek is very much a modern recording facility," Billboard wrote. "Its studio comes equipped with preamps, digital recording gear, vintage microphones and instruments."

That vintage vibe, but with a modern twist, is also descriptive of Hadlock's success. His organic production process, left-of-center pop sensibility, and multi-format success has brought focus and edge to emerging artists, and to legacy acts. Hadlock's resume includes diverse artists from multiple genres for both indie and major labels. Whether it is refining an established artist's sound, as he did with now superstar Brandi Carlile, or crafting a unique crossover hit, as he did with Zach Bryan, Hadlock seeks to be an innovative producer and to inspire quality songcraft.

"You ultimately work for the artist," Hadlock says. "But even above the artist, you have a responsibility to capture the power of a great song. That's what I seek to do with my work - make a recording that serves the song as well as it serves the artist."

To post a comment, you must register and login.