“Where I’m from, I don’t have a lot of options. It’s either you do sports, music or jail,” says music producer Brandon Beal.
Before getting his start in music, the 32-year-old Beal was playing American football for college at his hometown in Texas in the US. Then he incurred a football injury and became depressed.
His brother Teron – a singer-songwriter who has written for Michael Jackson, Jennifer Lopez and Kelly Rowland – inspired him to get into the music business.
“When my brother was making music, I was focused on football. Then I got the injury and he saw the sad state that I was in. He said I have talent for music so he urged me to come to New York and get to work,” said Beal during an interview in Kuala Lumpur recently.
Beal was only 20 when the injury happened. He went to New York and Teron showed him the way in the music business. “But he wanted me to be independent. It’s not like he was bringing me around to introduce me as his baby brother. He said he can put in a good word with the right people but he won’t do anything else from there. So there I was, having to put a brave front to introduce myself to people like (famous record porducer) Jimmy Iovine.”
Beal has collaborated with the likes of Snoop Dogg, Stacie Orrico and Flo Rida. Currently, he is based in Copenhagen, Denmark where he has produced some of Europe’s biggest club hits.
In 2014, he released the viral hit Twerk It Like Miley, which currently has 95 million views on YouTube. “It was something that just happened. We create parties in the studio with the smoke machine and club lights. So we were feeling the vibe and then the beat for the song just came!”
He was inspired by how singer Miley Cyrus made twerking a well-known dance move throughout the world.
“I know twerking has been around for decades! I can pull a song from the 1990s and it’s about twerking. Miley just made it popular. I noticed that because I’m based in Europe and when people see the word ‘twerk’, people think of Miley.”
Beal was excited to talk about his collaboration with Malaysia trio De Fam for their new single With You. “I heard their music and thought it was really cool. It’s nice to see a girl group like that in Asia. For someone like me who is looking to build a base here, getting the chance to work with talented people like De Fam is really exciting.”
