Kasey Phillips Is Producing An Empire
Kasey Phillips is producing an empire of his own. The Trinidad-bred Los Angeles-based music producer spoke to In Search Of about his musical journey. Detailing how he got his start, Phillips spoke to his determination to take his company, Precision Productions, to heights that Trinidad and Tobago have never seen before.
Most recently, Kasey snagged some production credits on Ciara's Ci Ci EP, one of his biggest looks to date. These tracks included "How We Roll" ft. Chris Brown, "Type of Party," "Forever" ft. Lil Baby, "2 In Luv," and "Winning" ft. Big Freedia. And while this moment is a cause for celebration, understand, this is only the beginning for the musician.
In Search Of Magazine: Tell me about how we got here. What led you to become a producer?
Kasey Phillips: My dad is a producer. He doesn't do it as much anymore, but he's a well-known and renowned guitarist, producer, and arranger in Trinidad [named Kenny Phillips]. So, I was born into the studio and started crawling into the studio at a young age. Looking on, taking in everything. And whenever he would leave the studio, I would go and mess with stuff and break stuff. And in calling him to fix it, like, 'Hey, something stopped working. Can you help me fix this?' In that process, I started learning how to fix it myself. Fast-forward a few years later, he would break stuff and call me, and the table would turn. So I would just come in and fix something and go.
And that's how I got my start.
I did my first song at age 10. Yeah, I got an early start, built up producing in Trinidad, started Precision Productions, the brand and the company, and ran with that. I did an internship in 2010 in LA, the first time being in LA, under Dreyan Vidal, and learned a lot, because things here were done differently from how we did stuff at home.
So, it was just a different system from songwriting, bringing in songwriters, crafting songs, and doing beats. I Took that home and implemented it in the whole Trinidad and Tobago Soca structure, and that's when the company took off in Trinidad. We started winning awards, winning all the competitions.
What has that conversation been like from your father to son?
KP: Now, there's this thing you need to know about Caribbean parents: they won't tell you something directly. I've grown to know it and love it and learn it now. But they won't tell you something directly, but they'll tell everybody else (laughs). So many friends have told me, 'Yo, your father is really proud of you.' He would say it differently, but it would never really be...it could be a timing thing. We have yet to get a chance to sit down and talk about it.
But I see it as me just carrying on the legacy. He would've started me, my brother, and my sister, in music just being like, 'This is the goal. Trinidad, we just want to be successful here.' And for me to be able to branch out from a small island as a dot in the Caribbean to do this is unheard of. So, I could only imagine what he felt because I knew what I felt. Yeah. I mean, we will have that talk at some point.
Tell me about your work as a producer on Ciara's EP, Ci-Ci. How did that come about?
KP: I met Theron Thomas doing Soca —Theron and Timothy "A.I." Thomas from R. City. They liked one of my songs and said, 'Hey, we want to jump in and remix it.' So we would do Soca all the time for years. And I always would whisper in their ear, like, 'Yo, you know I could do Hip-Hop stuff and pop and R&B as well? Let me know whenever you have a little chance, a little opening.'
Then, the Ciara opportunity came. Theron is like, 'Hey, I'm the EP on this album for Ciara; send me stuff. This is the vibe, send stuff.' I was like, 'Oh, crap. Okay, cool.' So, I was in Trinidad at the time. I did beats with friends, got a bunch of stuff together, sent off a pack, and left Trinidad saying, 'I just need one song on this album, and it's going to change my life.' And now I have five on the EP. It's surreal now. I just woke up today and saw that we are number one for this week's Billboard R&B Digital Song sales chart.
What would you say is your favorite moment from that project?
KP: I would say at different moments. So on that album... well, EP now. On that EP, all the songs were done before it even got to me. Written and recorded. This was a whole different process. Even if the beats were just shells or skeletons, it was written and recorded. Ciara recorded everything, vocals were done. I think I just got back to LA, this was when I was in Trinidad with my son, and I sent the beats off, I knew nothing. This was two, three years ago.
Are there other artists that you're trying to work something out with?
KP: So, yeah. So Brandy, Alex Isley. I like Kaytranada's stuff. I like TroyBoi on the electronic side. So it's unique now. Of course, we have the mainstream artists who I love to work with. I mean, Kiana Ledé is great, Maeta, and Victoria Monét.
And now you're also a member of The Recording Academy. Walk me through how that happened and what your role entails.
KP: So this was in 2018, and we have an ongoing relationship. Back then... No, I could talk about it for back then, it was, well, I want to be correct, then it was World Music, which is now Global Music. I hope I'm getting this correct. Back then, it was the nomination committee for World Music. And to be honest, I just got the call; I just got the email. I didn't know anybody there at the time. We were making inroads of trying to figure out ways to get Soca more recognized with the Grammys. And with that, my name probably ended up on the radar. And I got a call like, 'Hey, we have this World Music board. It will be great to have you on the nomination committee. We think you'll be an asset.'
And I was in a room with about 13 to 15 people from all over the world. One guy was from Ireland, [somebody else] from Africa. But everybody was an expert in their field. I was one of the only Soca Caribbean representatives in the room. So it was interesting. I learned a lot about being on that and just how the music is chosen, what the process is like, what's the vetting process like, which was huge. [Do you] ever have little signs along your journey that tell ask, 'Hey, I think you're going in the right direction'? That was one of those.
What would you say is one major thing that you learned, that you're going to take with you to the next project that you're going to work on?
KP: Collaboration and opening doors. So Theron didn't have to open the door for me. So, in true fashion of paying it forward, it was only right that I opened the doors for some of my peers. So [Ciara's] "Type A Party" was also produced by Flo Beats from St. Lucia, "Forever" and "2 in Luv" [was also produced by] Jada from Trinidad. And it was fitting. I could do this by myself, but why? Why? So, for me, it's collaboration and opening doors. In everything that I do, the one thing that I want to prove is prove that we could do it from the Caribbean and that we have the talent and the capabilities to do it. And also pave the way and open doors so a young producer could be like, 'Oh wait, we could do that?' Because this seems so far, unreachable and untouchable for some people.
And 10 years ago, 15 years ago, if you asked me, 'You'd think you could ever produce a song for Ciara?' I'd be like, 'No. No.' So that's really what my MO is: to be like, we could do that. We must apply, push, and work hard, but it can be done. We don't have to stay in our little bubble in the Caribbean and do that forever; we could evolve past that. And that's all I try to do and achieve in this mission.
What else do you have coming?
KP: There's something coming. I can't say who, but I excited about it because I got to flex a little more Caribbean muscle on it in a different way. And this will also be a true test to see how much that works and what it might do, because it will also be different. So it'll be really special. I'm really excited to see what this one would do. But I'm waiting. I'm waiting to find out when, when the release date's going to happen, stuff like that. Yeah.
