Inside Track: Julian Bunetta

Taking the decision to follow his instincts has elevated Julian Bunetta to the top rank of contemporary songwriters and producers.

“For a lot of my career, I tended to follow the rules of what you should and shouldn’t do. You set up your busses this way, you find one reverb space, you never have too much on the master bus, and so on. But at a certain point, I threw that rulebook out. Now I’m just splatter‑painting on the canvas. I’m not comparing myself to Picasso, but if I want to, I put the nose on the forehead, because it’s fun. I’m constantly trying to experiment and trying new things. I like to mess stuff up and see what happens and stumble on happy accidents. The only way you can do that is by trying something you haven’t tried before.”

A few years ago, Julian Bunetta also decided throw out the rule book with his career. This led directly to him having writing, engineering, multiple instrument, mixing and production credits on one of last year’s biggest hits, Teddy Swims’ ‘Lose Control’, and now on Sabrina Carpenter’s huge hit ‘Espresso’.

Stop Chasing

The moment that divided his career into a before and an after phase came in 2019. “I’d had a lot of success working with One Direction from 2012 to 2015, and then global hits with Niall Horan and Rudimental. In 2018, I moved from Calabasas near Los Angeles to Nashville, and had three or four number ones with Thomas Rhett and country. Then, in 2019, when my daughter was born, I had to figure out again how to work. I used to be in the studio until 3am, and all of a sudden it was clear I couldn’t do that if I wanted to spend time with my family. And then, obviously, the pandemic hit.

“I didn’t do much Zoom writing, it just isn’t for me. Instead I went back and learned my favourite old songs on the piano — by Babyface, Diane Warren, and so on. I dug into synthesis and how to actually work these plug‑ins that I have. I’m not a gearhead, and I normally just turn some knobs, and either I get a cool sound or I hit the next patch. I wanted to go back to the fundamentals of what I was doing, and why. I wanted to reframe how I worked, and also who I worked with.

Julian Bunetta: "In the songwriting community in LA, you’re working with a different artist every day or every two days, because the more people you work with, the more of your songs are cut."

“I didn’t want to chase things as much any more. In the songwriting community in LA, you’re working with a different artist every day or every two days, because the more people you work with, the more of your songs are cut. But that never worked for me. When someone’s really, really famous, you don’t get as much time in the studio with them. I decided I wanted to do less speed dating, less writing with different people every day. I had done that since I was 19.

“Instead, there was just a slowing down. I wanted to work with friends that I trusted and loved. The thing that I love the most is sitting in a studio with them and hashing out lyrics and hashing out a production and musing over what we should do on the next song. All my success came from working with people I spent a lot of time with, where I really understood who they are, and got their vision. I wanted to work more with new artists, because I found that some of my most enjoyable times were when creating music with artists who were game to do anything, who want to try new stuff, who are hungry.”

A Family Affair

As the sons of well‑known drummer and producer Peter Bunetta (known for his work with the Temptations, Donna Summer, and many other legends), Bunetta junior and his brother Damon grew up among the stars. The brothers and their father later founded a publishing business called Big Family (now under the umbrella of Hipgnosis Songs), which continues to provide the framework for Julian’s career.

“My mission statement during the pandemic became: ‘Who do I really want to work with?’ I said to Damon, who is also my manager, that I wanted to work with people who are interested in working with me, because of the way I like to work. So we set out on a journey to find new people to work with, and help them with their creative process. We found a few artists that I really enjoy working with, and I decided to dedicate all my abilities and focus on them, and not spread myself thin any more.

“Teddy Swims was one of the up‑and‑coming artists we found. I started working with Teddy in 2020. ‘Lose Control’ was written at a songwriting camp in Palm...