Pop writing and production today is a team game, and the Monsters & Strangerz are one of the hottest teams around.
“We are in the service of the song at all times. We always say that the song is the most important person in the room. Every decision we make is about trying to make the song the best it can be. Do we make the song better, or do we make the song worse? It is not about us, it is about the song. It’s not about ego, it’s about creating the greatest song possible.”
It is not about us, it is about the song. It’s not about ego, it’s about creating the greatest song possible.
Speaking are Jordan and Stefan Johnson. Despite being two of the world’s most successful songwriters, their names may not mean much to most people, and it’s how they like it. “Being artists would stress us out too much. We’re already so worried about what people think about songs that we were involved in making that we don’t even know what we would do if a song was released under our name! We love our job, and being on our side of the glass, in service of the person on the other side, the artist.”
In sitting on their side of the glass, the Johnson brothers are, they stress, “producer/songwriters, not songwriter/producers. We come from a producer train of thought and we get our hands dirty in the songwriting. But we are primarily producers. It’s a constant struggle, because as a producer you want the production to be incredible, but as a songwriter you want to stay connected to the emotion of the song. You don’t want to take away from the feeling the song gives you, and be thinking, ‘Oh, gosh, the sonics of this beat are so amazing.’
“We don’t make decisions like: ‘Let’s add that synth sound because it is so incredible.’ If for some reason it distracts from the vocal melody, we scrap it, and you have to be OK with that. There definitely is a push and pull between sometimes doing too much in the production, and then needing to pull back again, and finding the middle ground where you get a production that you love, and yet the song still lives on top. What inspires us every day is the chase of writing huge songs. Songs that the masses love and enjoy. Is this a song that everybody is going to adore?”
Community Spirit
Jordan and Stefan Johnson are part of a collective called The Monsters & Strangerz, who have been making waves since 2010 with chart hits by the likes of Selena Gomez, Kylie Minoque and Chris Brown. The collective shot through to the super‑big‑time in 2018 with Zedd’s worldwide mega‑hit ‘The Middle’, and the brothers themselves have been involved in the writing and production of chart‑topping songs by Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Dua Lipa, Miley Cyrus, Maroon 5, Camila Cabello, Halsey, Ellie Goulding and many more. They have received two Grammy Award nominations, and in 2021, three BMI Pop Awards.
“Music was always a big part of our life,” explains Jordan. “Our dad plays drums, our mother piano and dances and sings. Curiosity about music was always big for us. When in high school we only listened to rap music, and were always looking out for the latest releases.”
Stefan adds: “Our stepdad also was a DJ in the ’80s, and he had turntables in the house. I think when I was 15 we went to the SAE Institute [School of Audio Engineering] in Miami on a whim because they had an open day. When I was 17 it was like, ‘Let’s go there.’ Jordan is a little older than me, and we both attended because we wanted to be in a place where things were done that we were passionate about.
“I got more into the technical side, Pro Tools, sound-shaping, engineering and recording, while Jordan got more into making music and composing tracks. After we left the SAE, I became an intern at a studio called Studio Center Miami, and worked my way up to become one of the main engineers. I arranged with the studio owner that Jordan could set up in a small studio in the attic, to make tracks. So I was doing sessions, and Jordan was making tracks upstairs.”
Jordan: “At this point we met Alexander Izquierdo, also known as Eskeerdo, who is a rapper and a topliner. Alex was a super good lyricist, and we started writing pop songs with him. Soon afterwards we also met Marcus Lomax and Clarence Coffee Jr, who called themselves the Strangerz, and who were also writing songs. There wasn’t a huge community writing pop songs in Miami at the time, and we were like: ‘Let’s link up together.’ So we became the Monsters & Strangerz, which is a collective of people who make music, sometimes together, sometimes separately.”
Going To California
Everyone in the Monsters & Strangerz, says Jordan, “really had fallen in love with writing songs. Production and making tracks is fun, but writing a good song is much more difficult. Anyone can write a song, but writing a great song that lots of people love is one of the hardest things to do. It became an everyday challenge for us, and learning what people like in songs, and how to improve. Of course, it’s subjective, but when you really start to craft songs that people like, you find that there are certain note choices and intervals that come back, and chasing that is exciting.”
“Our early influences were producers like Timbaland and Polow da Don,” continues Jordan. “They were the people who inspired us when we got into making music. I still remember when Justin Timberlake’s album FutureSex/LoveSounds came out [2006]: the sounds were so new and different. That was our first inspiration. But when we started falling in love with writing songs rather than making tracks, we started looking at people like Max Martin and Quincy Jones, at the entire composition, ie. melody, lyrics and chords, as opposed to just focusing on the beats.”
As the Monsters & Strangerz cut their teeth in Miami, trips to LA to make new connections and get work at a higher level became more frequent. They had very little money, and splitting a hotel room was a lot cheaper for a “community of five”, as Jordan calls them. By 2011, they judged that the time was ripe for all of them to move to LA. The collective ended up renting a studio and developed regular collaborations with a variety of songwriters.
“When we arrived in LA, we could split the costs of renting a studio between five people,” says Stefan. “It made it much easier. All five of us were like family, the closest of friends. Over time things have evolved, and by now Coffee has moved to London, where he’s crushing it with Dua Lipa, and Eskeerdo has moved back to Miami, where he is doing his thing. Marcus is still in LA working on lots of good projects. We also teamed up with an amazing producer called German [Oliver Peterhof], and work regularly with the likes of Jon Bellion, Ian Kirkpatrick, Jason Evigan and Andrew Watt.”
Making A Killing
Splitting songwriting royalties between five people could get more complicated than splitting rent, but so far, it’s worked out OK. Jordan: “We call our agreement ‘you eat what you kill’,” says Jordan. “If you work on something, you get your share, if you don’t, you don’t. So whoever works on a particular track gets to reap the benefits. The Monsters & Strangerz is a group of friends, and not really a business. We have the foundation of being like a family, but we operate as individuals as well.”
From 2011 to 2018, the Monsters & Strangerz “were doing great and working hard on songs by Maroon 5, Nick Jonas, Chris Brown and so on”. Then came Zedd’s monster hit ‘The Middle’, which they co‑wrote with Zedd, Sarah Aarons, Kyle and Michael Trewartha (aka electronic music duo Grey) and Marcus ‘MarcLo’ Lomax of the Strangerz. The song was co‑produced by Zedd, Grey and the Monsters & Strangerz, and took several months to make.
“‘The Middle’ was our breakthrough hit, absolutely,” says Jordan. “Until then, we’d worked on songs that did well, but were medium charters. ‘The Middle’ was a big, worldwide song, and we had always been chasing that. Our hunger and drive was to have a number one, and with this song we finally achieved it. The original version, which was a bit more organic and less electronic, could have been released, but then the DJs [Zedd and Grey] put their own stamp on it. Similar to how when a singer cuts a song they make it their own, for the DJs the sonics is their voice.”
Any DAW Will Do
Stefan and Jordan Johnson, and other members of the Monsters & Strangerz, do most of their writing and producing at their three studios, located in a house in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles. Jordan explains, “We have built studios in the garage, in the guest room, and the master bedroom, and the third guest bedroom is an office. In all rooms we have PMC speakers with a sub and Yamaha NS10s, and for the vocal chain we use different mics, going into a Neve 1073 or an API mic pre, and then a Tube‑Tech CL‑1B compressor.”
...the Monsters & Strangerz do most of their writing and producing at their three studios, located in a house in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles... In all rooms we have PMC speakers with a sub and Yamaha NS10s, and for the vocal chain we use different mics, going into a Neve 1073 or an API mic pre, and then a Tube‑Tech CL‑1B compressor.
Stefan: “We also have various keyboards, like Junos, Mellotrons, Moogs, and we monitor through the Dangerous Remote System. Every room runs a Pro Tools system, with new plug‑ins added all the time, because every time someone sends us a session, and we don’t have a plug‑in in it, we just get it. We also have a rig with Ableton, because Jordan prefers working with that when writing. But we always end up in Pro Tools.”
“I love getting stuff started in Ableton, because it’s very quick for writing,” agrees Jordan. “MIDI and programming are not that easy in Pro Tools. In addition to our hardware synths we also use VSTs like Native Instruments Kontakt and Razor, Spectrasonics Omnisphere, U‑he Zebra, Xfer Serum, and so on. We often use one‑shot audio samples that we spread across a keyboard and manipulate. I use the Ableton stock plug‑ins a lot for that.
“Once I have the foundation for a track, we’ll transfer it to Pro Tools, because working with audio is much easier in it. Vocals are not as easy to do in Ableton, for example. I love finishing in Pro Tools, but also, I’m not that precious about it any more. We have friends who crush it in Cubase, like Ian Kirkpatrick, Zedd and Cirkut, and friends who crush it in Ableton, and Jon Bellion is in Logic, and we know people who are finishing in FL Studio. You can get things done in any DAW.”
Team Tactics
As is common these days in pop music, the songs Jordan and Stefan Johnson write and produce involve teams of writers and producers. “Because neither of us sings,” explains Stefan, “we always need a vocalist. We respect that art so much. The voice is what sells the songs, because that is what your ear is listening to. So we always need a vocalist in the room. Lyrics are not our strong suit either, so we also like to have someone in the room who is good at that, and who can help direct magic of the song.
Stefan Johnson: "Because neither of us sings, we always need a vocalist. We respect that art so much. The voice is what sells the songs..."
“When we still lived in Miami, we used to make beats that topliners would then write to. We don’t do that any more. We now write with other writers in the room. We usually get people who are strictly topliners, but sometimes we work with other producers, like Andrew Watt or Jon Bellion. We may collect certain audio samples or synth sounds before a session that suggest a mood, and then as the song evolves, we’ll create some kind of musical world, and a base track, with a riff, chords, basic drums and so on. But we’ll also help develop melodies and, as the lyrics unfold, everybody is throwing out ideas.”
Jordan explains: “What we normally do is schedule one or two weeks of songwriting with a few people at our studio, and our goal is to create a couple of songs in those two weeks that we are super‑inspired by, and that we think we can make incredible. We will run through four or five ideas in a day, looking for the one that makes us feel something and where our instincts are pulling us to want to finish it. We’re basically chasing magic.”
Stefan: “We tear ideas down, or we go with them. We’re chasing a feeling of greatness. We’re chasing something that makes our ears go, ‘Oh my God, this is so good!’ and then you push it as much as you can. Sometimes we’ll go through seven or more ideas before we even write a song. Sometimes it’s the first idea. Sometimes we have a whole day without finding something we like. That’s why we like to book several days with people, so you have your best chance to write something great.”
Halsey 'Graveyard'
The Johnson brothers illustrate their process using ‘Graveyard’ by Halsey as an example. Released in the autumn of 2019, the song went double‑platinum in the US, Australia and Canada, and was a number 1 on the US dance charts. Starting with an acoustic guitar it turns into an electro‑pop track with pulsating synths and hip‑hop‑influenced rhythms. The credited songwriters are Halsey, Jon Bellion, Amy Allen, Louis Bell, Mark ‘Oji’ Williams and Jordan and Stefan Johnson. Production credits, meanwhile, are shared between Jon Bellion, Ojivolta, Louis Bell and the Monsters & Strangerz.
Download this Monsters & Strangerz Pro Tools session screenshot for detailed larger view: 
monsters-strangerz-graveyard-protools-screenshot.jpg.zip
“There were five of us in the room when we wrote that song,” says Stefan, “Jon, Amy, Mark from Ojivolta, Jordan and I. We’ve known Jon for a long time and he is one of the most talented guys we know, but at the time he had his own artist career going, so we had not been writing together. Then at the end of 2018 he came to LA and said he was interested in writing with us again, so we booked sessions for the beginning of January of 2019, after the Christmas break. It was the first time we wrote together for four or five years, and ‘Graveyard’ was literally the first song we did on the first day back together.
“The song idea started with the acoustic guitar played by Amy, which we recorded using our Neumann U87. I think Jon immediately came up with the pre melody. We tried to redo the acoustic guitar later on, but for some reason that original demo guitar just had the right feel, and we kept it. We redid the rest of the guitars in the song, because there’s so much going on by that stage, it was easier to replay.”
Jordan continues: “So we had the guitar riff, and the beginning of the vocals, and then we needed a new section, and we came up with the synth arpeggio, quite spontaneously. It wasn’t thought out. It was a quick jam session with Amy playing guitar and then Mark pulled up the synth sound and I think Jon played the idea. It was magic that happened really quickly, and once we caught that, we all agreed that we had something really cool, the bed of something that had the spirit, and we carried on trying to flesh it out. The drums were added after the song was written.”
Over The Line
Once the writing process is completed, the Johnson brothers continue to work in their studio to develop and finalise the production. According to Stefan, Jordan and he tend to finish the production of the songs they’re involved in writing. “In 90 percent of the cases we’re the last people to touch the song. We can be busy with the sonics and production for days, weeks, sometimes months! Finishing can take forever. It’s one of the hardest things, so hard that we learned early on that if you can be a finisher, you’ll work forever!”
Jordan explains: “Writing is fast, because you want to keep everybody inspired, but once Stefan and I are alone with the song, we can spend ages, because you really get into the nitty‑gritty, whether the setting on a plug‑in should be 1.5 or 1.7. We get involved in the smallest details and we care about every single one. I use a lot of stock Ableton plug‑ins to get this job done. I also really like the iZotope Alloy 2, which has a really useful Transient setting on it, and the Output Thermal and Portal, and XLN Audio RC20 plug‑ins.”
Stefan: “We do this in a small bubble, just the two of us, so we don’t drive everyone crazy! We focus on one or two songs at a time without being distracted by people coming in and out. That really helps to get the songs over the finish line. When working in Pro Tools, we are creatures of habit. I learned using all the Waves stuff, and have used every Waves plug‑in known to man, from Neve to SSL to API to the Renaissance plug‑ins. We also have all the UAD stuff, because we constantly get sessions in with it. Plus I often use iZotope Ozone, and the Xfer OTT compressor. It’s funny, some songs call for tons of plug‑ins, and some others for very few.
“In the case of ‘Graveyard’ we were doing the production for a couple of weeks and got the song to a point where it felt amazing. The song got to Halsey’s team, and they loved it. Halsey flipped the concept of the lyrics and rewrote a bunch of the words, and then cut her vocals with Louis Bell. Lou was also instrumental in putting the final touches on this song. He invited us over to his place to do this. It was a great process.”
Make It Better
The involvement of Louis Bell and Halsey took the number of co‑writers on the song to seven, while the production was handled by five of these seven. Much has been made of the fact that pop songs today tend to be written and produced by several people, and that record companies and managements these days also chip in with feedback. It’s led to accusations of formulaic songs written by committee. However, for the Johnson brothers, the input of many people maximises quality and objectivity. “You work with people whose opinion you trust,” insists Jordan. “That’s the number‑one thing. It’s really important to know that your ideas are not always right, and your first opinion on a song that’s being written may not be right, especially in something as subjective as music. So if someone else really believes in a song, or an idea, and I don’t yet, I need to trust him or her enough to be able to take myself out of my own reservations, and go with this. Everyone has different perspectives, and you trust that process, and in the end you always make all the decisions together.”
“We also don’t mind getting notes from labels or managers,” admits Stefan. “Some songwriters and producers are not so open to this, but because we’re always serving the song, if I get notes, I like to try them. There’s no ego involved in writing songs. Did a suggestion from someone from outside make the song better? If so, great, and we keep the suggestion. If not, we explain why we don’t think it works.”
“I love getting comments that may make the song better,” agrees Jordan. “All we’re after is the best version of the song we’re working on. It’s the same with the pressures of the marketplace. We’re not listening to a song thinking, ‘Will this work on TikTok?’ We’re listening to, ‘Do we like it or do we not like it?’ It really is that simple. Of course you think about the marketplace, but we don’t let it dictate every decision we make. All we’re after at any point in time is to make the best song ever.”
Maroon 5: ‘Memories’
Download this Monsters & Strangerz Maroon 5 Pro Tools session screenshot for detailed larger view: monsters-strangerz-maroon5-protools-screenshot.jpg.zip
Released in the second half of 2019, ‘Memories’ is one of Maroon 5’s biggest hits. It went six times platinum in the US, Australia and Canada, and platinum in the UK, and at the time of writing had 745 million streams on YouTube. The song was co‑written by Adam Levine, Jonathan Bellion, Jacob Kasher Hindlin, Michael Pollack, Vincent Ford and Jordan and Stefan Johnson, and was produced by Levine and the Monsters & Strangerz.
Stefan recalls: “We go on writing trips a couple of times a year. We often work with Jon Bellion and Michael Pollack, and Jon lives in Long island and Pollack is from there. So in March 2019 we went to Long Island, and rented a house and set up a studio in the basement, with our computer and two sets of speakers and a microphone, and Jordan has his computer for all the sounds.
“We got to the studio and Pollack comes in and says, ‘I have this concept. I just drove here from my parents’ place and memories came flooding in.’ So we’re like, ‘That sounds good, but let’s start something from scratch.’ Two hours later we have a song that sucks, and somebody says, ‘What about that concept about memories?’”
Jordan takes up the story. “Pollack was sitting at the Fender Rhodes and was feeling nostalgic, and started playing the chords, and the melody of Pachelbel’s Canon came out, and we had the idea of using this. Initially we tried to use Pachelbel’s actual melody, but it just felt way too busy. As usually happens with a process like that, we started chipping away at anything that bothers us, so that what we’re listening to feels effortless, and nothing sticks out or feels wrong. Jon’s best friend’s father had passed away a few days before, so he suggested to make it even more serious, and about the memories we have of someone after losing them.”
“Once we had the chords, the concept and the melody, it felt amazing,” says Stefan. “It’s that miracle that happens when two or more parts in a composition collide and make it more than the sum of the parts.
“All credit to Michael Pollack for that one, because he had the first feeling and his instincts helped us get the song over the finish line.”
“The original keyboard sound is of a Rhodes and two synths from a Kontakt patch,” explains Jordan. “I changed the sound a little bit after the initial bounce during writing, and later I could never get it to sound the same, so just like with Amy Allen’s acoustic guitar intro in ‘Graveyard’, the original demo sound is still in there. We did end up blending it with some live instruments.”
Stefan adds: “Going further down the production process, with Maroon 5 every member of the band comes in and plays on each record. We did this with Noah ‘Mailbox’, Maroon 5’s engineer, at EastWest Studios. PJ Morton came in and played Rhodes and Wurlitzer, Jesse Carmichael and James Valentine added guitars, Mickey Madden added bass in the chorus and the second verse, and so on.
“We added tons of stuff, you always record more than you need. Yet it’s a simple song and there was a risk of taking away from its soul and essence. We had multiple drum tracks, with the drums coming in in the second verse in classic ballad fashion, but none of them worked. We were unsure what to do, and we have to give props to Adam, because we sent him a version with and without drums, and he called us the next day at 9am and said: ‘When the second verse starts, all that needs to happen with the drums is just a floor hat.’ I was like, ‘That’s it?’ And he said, ‘Trust me, just put that in and put some reverb on it.’ And he was right.”
Dua Lipa: ‘Break My Heart’
‘Break My Heart’ is the third single from Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia album. It reached the top 10 in dozens of countries, went platinum in the UK and the US, and had more than 400 million views on YouTube at the time of writing. The song was written by Dua Lipa, Andrew Watt, Ali Tamposi and Stefan and Jordan Johnson; Andrew Farriss and Michael Hutchence are also credited, because of a similarity between the guitar riff and that of INXS’s 1987 song ‘Need You Tonight’. The production is credited to Andrew Watt and the Monsters & Strangerz.
Stefan: “The bass and the groove came first with that song, and we then wrote the pre‑chorus and the chords. She was into this disco‑like uptempo thing that was at the same time futuristic and nostalgic, and was really going for an album that would sound cohesive. Thank goodness she turned down our idea! We love it when an artist has a clear vision, and knows exactly what they’re chasing in terms of feel and sound and vibe.
“One of the best things about working with Andrew, who is one of the greatest producers on the planet, is that he bounces around the room playing live bass, live guitar, live keyboards and even live drums. At the end of the day Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers came in to replay the live drums. We then take all that and add computer and synth elements, ie. manipulate everything in a modern way, and this results in an awesome blend of the live and the synthetic.
“The basic tracks for that song were all recorded in one day, including all of Dua’s vocals — lead vocals, ad libs, and harmonies. Then Jordan and I worked for a week on the sonics, and added new drum elements, like kick samples, because we wanted it to sound new. After that we went back to Andrew’s house to add some finishing touches. The song was mixed by Spike Stent, and we were still working on it and sending him new stems after he had mixed it.”
“We were torturing Spike for months!” laughs Jordan. “It was like, ‘Here are entirely new drum stems with six new drum samples, can you please add them in?’ He was very gracious about it. I think we did 20 versions, and he just rolled with it. Amazing. At the end we decided to put real strings on, which took the song to a new level.
“There’s a filter on the backing tracks in the beginning with all the low end and top end removed, and when the verse starts, more low end comes in, but there’s even less top end, until eventually all frequencies come back in. That was done with the Ableton EQ8. The idea is that the beginning sounds like you’re in the bathroom of a club, hearing the music come through the door. Our aim was to make sure that when the chorus comes in for the first time, the riff feels new again, even though you’ve heard it over and over, because all of a sudden there are all these frequencies that you have not heard before. Especially the guitar suddenly has this bright sparkle that makes it feel new.”