Vancouver partners co-produced latest Minaj ballads
A former University of Alberta student has left his mark on Nicki Minaj’s latest album, The Pinkprint.
Vinay Vyas and his songwriting partner Justin Davey, who call themselves TODAY, co-produced two of her ballads, Grand Piano and Bed of Lies featuring Skylar Grey.
Both songs were inspired by Minaj’s ex-boyfriend and their 12-year relationship.
She first performed Bed of Lies at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Glasgow two months ago. The tune is currently No. 80 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.
“It was a combined effort from a group of us,” says Vyas. “Justin and I happened to be in the right place and the right time for this one. (Writer/producer) Kane Beatz played it for us and we loved it right off the bat. So we started working on it — we put a little vocal chop in the verses. It sounds like ‘Oo oo oo oo.’
“Then there were a couple of trips to L.A. to finalize it, and then the track almost didn’t make the album. It got scrapped twice, redone, so it was like a marathon. (Another producer) Alex da Kid jumped on board at the end and he did the bridge. So it was the result of a bunch of minds. “We call it a Frankenstein effort.” This piecemeal approach to songwriting is common in today’s music business, especially in the pop and urban genres.
Vyas dropped out of the University of Alberta’s neuroscience program in 2010 to focus on music and later partnered with Davey.
In 2013, they co-wrote two tracks, Go Kindergarten and ... My Aunt, for Andy Samberg’s hip-hop/comedy trio, The Lonely Island.
TODAY’s second song for Minaj, Grand Piano, didn’t require nearly as much surgery as Bed of Lies. The Canadian duo and Kane Beatz recorded the track with the 32-year-old rapper/singer and The Mad Violinist.
“Nicki was going through this very personal struggle. You can tell she just split up with her boyfriend, and she just channelled all of that into this song,” says Vyas.
“This is the type of song that gives you goosebumps. It’s her favourite song on the album. I think the world is going to see her in a whole new light. It’s probably my favourite song we’ve done in 2014.”
Minaj’s tunes are TODAY’s highest profile to date, and cap off a year that also saw the duo co-write a track, S.T.O.P. featuring One Republic frontman Ryan Tedder, for French DJ/producer David Guetta’s sixth album, Listen.
“This was the total opposite experience from Nicki Minaj’s Bed of Lies, where we came in after the song was written and worked on it,” says Vyas. “In this case, we were the very first step.”