Inside The Credits 043: Dave Hamelin
Dave Hamelin: From Bandman To Orchestrator
Still, one of the most lasting albums of 2024 is 070 Shake’s masterpiece, Petrichor. I wrote about it in my piece at the end of last year ranking the year’s best producers:
Shake’s third official studio album Petrichor (is) as underrated an album as exists this year, highlighted by orchestral arrangements chronicling a melancholy rage cycling through the confusion of love’s desire. It's easily Shake’s opus thus far. The most impressive part of the album is how much storytelling the sounds on it provide. The instrumental sequencing marks the shifts in emotion and action like if Beethoven and Steven Sondheim collaborated on a rock/synth-pop/hip-hop opera.
Dave Hamelin was my number ten ranked producer of 2024 due to his proficiency in executive producing the album while also being credited on every song. His path to being Shake’s go-to orchestrator is one I’m starting to find is quite common within the producer-sphere: start a band, find success, either quit the band or make the band less of your main output, then become a producer extraordinaire with a one or a few sonic muses. The most immediate parallel is Jack Antonoff, but if you read back through my ITC’s you will find the same is true about Lianne La Havas’ producer Matt Hales.
Hamelin’s beginning is distinct because of the type of music he began his career making and where he ended up. His early 2000s band, The Stills, recorded three alternative rock albums within the reign of bands like The Strokes, Of Montreal, and Modest Mouse. Their sound feels impossible to not compare to their peers, yet still stands on its own in terms of verve. Their first of the three albums, Logic Will Break Your Heart, is where, to me, they exude the most ear grabbing tones. On this project, Hamelin has a central role playing drums, guitar, and keyboard even though he is never credited officially as any track’s producer. The sound of the band still feels tied to more dingy yet potent live shows rather than having gravitated to a more studio polished sound. The production thrives particularly in that area between the soft-loud sounds of the 90s and the cacophony of angst that the early 2000s urged forward. It feels like it would have been particularly exciting to hear them in one of their first smaller venue shows and be a hipster to their rise.
Hamelin’s first producer credited project would come in 2012 after the end of The Stills as he formed a new band Eight and a Half with Stills keyboardist Liam O'Neil and Broken Social Scene drummer Justin Peroff. He would produce the entirety of their debut self-titled album. The sonic shift from The Stills to Eight and a Half is significant. Hamelin would feature much more experimental electronic sounds that feel like distinct precursors to his work with 070 Shake. Synths and 808s entered his sphere as the melancholy laced within his sound ventured to a pulsating mid-sized venue/club rather than his early 2000s dusty venue/bar.
The most significant proficiency Hamelin showed in both groups though is with his drums. In alternative rock, he featured glass shattering cymbal sequences above slick pocket present kicks and snares. Then, as he went more electronic, he would maneuver those cymbals into multilayered rhythms with a variety of grimy noises.
Hamelin’s next chapter would mark his foray into producing for other artists alongside former Broken Social Scene frontman Kevin Drew. He co-produced Drew's second solo record, Darlings in 2014, co-produced Andy Kim's It's Decided in 2015, and co-produced the Tragically Hip's album Man Machine Poem in 2016. All of the album’s would take Hamelin back to his more alternative rock roots, which seems natural given them being his first attempts at making sounds for others. Hamelin’s big shift though would come in 2018 after an aha moment producing for Brooklyn alternative rapper Leikeli47. He arranged two tracks, “Acrylic” and “Tic Boom,” on her album Acrylic. The pulsating piano, drum kicks, and even vibrating synths show Hamelin for the first time unleashing some more stank face inducing swagger. It showed his range had no bounds and that he was ready to work on something truly inventive.
Enter 070 Shake. Though Hamelin would not be at the sole helm of her 2020 debut Modus Vivendi (the album was also heavily produced by Mike Dean), he would be credited as a producer on 9 of the 14 tracks. What Shake gave Hamelin was an artist who wanted his whole toolbox in order to flourish——see the emotional solo synth on “Come Around,” the desert guitar and gliding rhythm on “Morrow,” the winding electric guitar plucks on “Divorce,” the danceable hip hop groove on “Rocketship,” the ethereal cloud on “Microdosing,” the alternative rock undertone of “Nice To Have,” the building anticipation of “Under The Moon,” the anthemic knock of “Terminal B,” and the cathartic release of “Flight 319.” Hamelin was able to finally fully unload all the tones inside him.
For the rest of 2020 through 2022, Hamelin would develop his expansion more via his work for Leikeli47 (again), Nnena, CL, Ink, and King Princess. It’s impossible to deny that when Hamelin started producing for women his sound reached its most immaculate heights. Then it was time to lock back in with Shake and executive produce with her for the first time on her second album You Can’t Kill Me.
Now…You Can’t Kill Me is a really good album, undeniably. But it’s not nearly as great as what Petrichor would eventually deliver. The album is filled with more darkness than epiphany and more sinking into sounds rather than the full level of orchestration that would come. The two standout tracks would feature Shake doing her own take on Jersey club with the reverberating “Cocoon” and her most classic alt rock song still in “Wine & Spirits” (thanks Dave). The duo had to feel each other out, go away for a bit, and then come back to compose their opus.
From the back half of 2022 through the front half of 2023, Hamelin had credits for King Princess (again), Lola Young, Absolutely, Zara Larsson, and (maybe most importantly) Beyoncé. During this time it felt like Hamelin really honed his skills in terms of immaculate sequencing. On Cowboy Carter, he was at least partially responsible for what could be the most impactful transition on the back half of the album from “II Hand II Heaven” to “Tyrant.” When he got back to Shake for Petrichor he was working at his full capacity.
Hamelin, like many producers before him, had to develop multiple skills and sounds as well as find his musical soulmate before his best work could come to fruition. It’s always tough to follow up your best, so I’d be looking out now for Hamelin to connect with a new artist to channel some new sonic energy through next.
Playlists ITC 043 Dave Hamelin