![]() ![]() But it was crazy to go into a studio with people who are at the top of their game, and they literally couldn’t play a note. “They can program beats, which is fine – it is what it is. “A lot of producers don’t play,” he says. It was there that he realized he had an edge up on other writers, producers and engineers: Koz could actually play instruments. It was a good lesson.” He started writing ad jingles, and then bought a ticket to Sweden to start working in that country’s competitive music industry.Ĭlick on the image to play The Flints video “Different Drum” If you don’t ooze that stuff, don’t do it. After watching Arcade Fire’s Win Butler perform in Japan, Kozmeniuk realized that he wasn’t cut out for that role. Kozmeniuk’s career began with a band called Boy, who were signed to Maple Music in 2004 and placed on all the right bills: opening for Broken Social Scene, The Dears, and other era-defining acts. “It can help you,” he says, “but I’ve also seen it completely tangle you up – more often than not. I was, like, how does nobody see this?” The Flints have released a series of singles and EPs, and aren’t signed to a label. “ have it all: amazing singers, virtuoso musicians, cool as f-,” he says. Koz’s latest project is with The Flints, identical twin brothers from Manchester, a Phoenix-esque pop act. Of course there are people who love music and are doing great stuff, but as a system, it’s made people almost hate music.” “I don’t know if people at labels even like music. It’s clear to me that people listening don’t care, and the people making it don’t care,” says the 41-year-old musician. It all, he says, “contributes to why people don’t care about music now. That’s before we even start talking about the potential effects of artificial intelligence (AI) on the music industry. He’s talking about the demands placed on artists, songwriters, and producers in the age of streaming metrics and social media, about the compulsion to endlessly produce “content” for a system that’s increasingly becoming pay-to-play: boosted posts, streaming bots, etc. “I watch it wrap its tentacles around people, and the way they think they have to work. ![]() “I feel like an outsider in the pop-industrial complex, this machine that is so screwed up,” says the Whitehorse-born producer, in his Toronto home. Koz has seen the inside of the star-maker machine. In 2022, he earned the SOCAN Award for Songwriter of the Year – Producer. His credits include songs recorded and released by Nicki Minaj (“Up in Flames”) and The Game, featuring Kanye West and Common (“Jesus Piece”). He’s worked extensively with star producer Boi-1da. He also worked on Kendrick Lamar’s “The Blacker the Berry,” from the landmark 2016 album To Pimp a Butterfly. Stephen “Koz” Kozmeniuk has made some of the biggest pop hits of the last decade, particularly via his extensive work with Dermot Kennedy and Dua Lipa – his work with the latter was nominated for three Grammy Awards in 2021. ![]()
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