No Myth, No Manifesto. Just the Music. John Blanda – The Producer Who Still Wants Music to Surprise Him
Обновлено: 21 час назад
OCTOBER 5, 2026, LOS ANGELES, ASHOT POGHOSYAN, YEREVAN ONLINE Mag.
I ask John Blanda to introduce himself.
“My name is John Blanda, and I’m a music producer in L.A. From Minnesota originally.”
I ask him to make it more interesting.
“Oh man, I don’t know. I don’t know.”
Then he tells me about the piano. Classical music first, then jazz, then bands. He went to Berklee College of Music for three semesters, dropped out, and returned to Minnesota. Later he moved to Los Angeles. He has been there eight years.
“And then, yeah, here we are.”
He gives me no grand account of leaving school or moving west. He tells me what happened and moves on.
He grew up in St. Paul and calls his childhood pretty normal. In high school he got into jazz and began making beats on a MacBook, first in GarageBand, then in Logic. He produced mixtapes for classmates and found his way into the city’s music scene. Before music became his living, he was making it for people he knew.
When I ask how he started, he says, “It just kind of flowed that way.”
I ask what a producer does.
“Making the instrumental music that singers sing over.”
That is the whole explanation. When he talks about a particular record, he has more to say.
He has just finished an album with Isaiah BÆRD for ¿Téo?. He calls both men his friends. When I ask which project is his favorite, he chooses that one.
They spent a year and a half on it.
Some songs can be finished in a few days, he says. Others take much longer. It depends on the song. He does not take me through the album session by session. He tells me he is proud of what they made.
At the time we speak, he expects the record to come out the following spring. He is also working on an album for the Spanish singer Judeline, whom he praises, and on music with several other artists.
I ask what makes a song successful.
He begins with money. He earns his living through music and is grateful that he can. Financial success counts. Then he adds his own test.
“And if you’re proud of the song, I’d say that’s pretty successful.”
Later, I ask again. I am not sure what I expect him to add.
“Depends who you ask. Depends who you ask.”
He says he has not had a song achieve “uber success.” He makes no attempt to dress that up.
“I’ve gotten to work on music that I’m very proud of, which means something.”
He likes the people he meets through the work. He likes trying out ideas with them. When I ask what excites him most, he mentions continuing to develop his craft. There is still plenty he wants to learn.
Bill Evans is one of his favorite pianists. Mr. Carmack inspired him when he began producing. Right now he is listening to Brazilian music from the 1970s, especially the classic MPB records.
“Lots of people,” he says of his influences. “Lots of random people all over the place.”
Finding new artists takes more effort. He dislikes searching through the internet. He hears music on streaming services and follows word of mouth. For a collaboration, he looks for good singing and good writing. He wants to like the work and get along with the person making it.
I ask about the hardest part of the job.
“Schedule.”
The hours keep changing. There is travel. An afternoon’s work can run into the night, and a routine is hard to establish.
I ask about artificial intelligence. He brings up streaming, too, and the changes the industry has undergone in recent years. He stops short of offering an explanation of the business.
“I’m not very well versed on the nature of the industry too much.”
Social media matters to artists, he says. Getting noticed there is difficult.
“There’s a lot of noise in the industry right now and on social media.”
He admits he is not especially good at it. He sounds surer when he talks about making a record with his friends.
What would he tell a young singer?
“Oh man, I don’t know.”
Then he says to keep going. To follow what they care about.
The advice is spare. He has kept making music through leaving school, returning home, and moving away again. It has not required him to stay on the same course.
By now I hear his “I don’t know” differently.
I ask about his dream project.
“I hope to be surprised by it one day.”
He gives me no famous name or description of a record he intends to make. He returns to the album with ¿Téo? and Isaiah BÆRD. That is the closest he has come to a dream project. He is grateful for it. He hopes for more.
I do not ask him to make his introduction more interesting again.
