Author Topic: Article About Timbaland's Right Hand Man, Danja (Read 118 times)

Meho · « **on:** October 09, 2006, 05:38:23 AM »

As production partner to Timbaland, Danja has pounded out beats for the likes of Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado, The Game and Notorious B.I.G.'s Biggie Duets album. Currently working on music for Diddy, 50 Cent and Young Jeezy, it's unmistakable that Danja is a Player to Watch in 2006.

Starting from his early adolescence, Virginia Beach native Danja began playing the drums and keyboard in church.

While still a teenager Danja honed his interest in recording, graduating from cassettes and overdubs to make his early creations. He bought a six track shortly before finishing high school and soon found himself running with another Virginia local Teddy Riley.

"I did a song for Blackstreet on the last album they put out," Danja recalled.

In 2001 he had a chance meeting with Timbaland at a local music symposium. Danja would bump into his future partner again that evening at a gathering held at a mutual friend's house. Although Tim responded positively to his talent, even saying he'd be happy to pass the torch to Danja, nothing immediately came of their encounter. However, when Danja ran into Tim again 2 years later he didn't hesitate to play him some newly crafted music on his tour bus.

"I played it for him and he went crazy. After I played a few joints, he was like 'I still wanna work with you.' Around Christmas he flew me out to Miami to work with his artist John Doe," Danja recalled.

From that point on their partnership was solidified.

"He viewed me as an equal way before anything was out. He always said 'You are my partner', never treated me like a keyboard player or programmer. It's always been a partnership, and still is to this day," Danja told SOHH.

Now based in Miami, Danja says his creative process is fairly straight forward.

"The majority of the time I beat Tim to the studio, dig through my sound library (he doesn't use samples), my synthesizers and drum kits and see what triggers something. Sometimes I might hear something before I get to the studio and I'll hum it until I get there. Whatever weird sound I can find I start with. I work like I'm doing an album - this is an up, after the up I do a mid, after the mid I do a ballad, then another mid. I just keep working on different styles and different tempos," Danja describes.

Oftentimes Danja and Timbaland will work independently, then come back together to polish tracks. During their studio sessions with Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake both producers recorded at the same time, sometimes with three or four keyboards hooked up - often finishing whole tracks in around fifteen minutes.

"He got this thing where he'll do something so crazy he'll leave me stuck. He'll play it and after everyone goes nuts he'll put his headphones down like 'Your Turn,'" Danja describes. It was during one of these exchanges that the younger producer came up with current Timberlake hit "My Love."

"I put my headphones on and started doing my thing then, (he mimics the opening sounds of "My Love") Justin heard it through my headphones, took them off like 'What is that?' That's how that came about. Tim really tried me a little bit so I had to show him up," Danja explains. "It's real simple. I think we have a lot of fun and that's why it works so well. It's just a big vibe session."

After working a variety of off jobs, from construction to retail before finally catching a break, Danja's focus and determination has finally paid off.

"For anyone trying to get into it-definitely do not stop if it's something you believe in. I think I had everybody at one point say 'Why don't you do this or go to school or whatever else' but I believed in what I wanted to do," Danja said.

Danja's Play-o-graphy

Projects

Justin Timberlake

Diddy

Fantasia

Katherine McPhee

Keri Hilson - "She's a new artist on Interscope who is really dope. She did a lot of writing for a lot of people."

50 Cent

Gwen Stefani

Duran Duran

Bjork

Watchlist

Keri Hilson - "She's definitely someone to watch. I think you'll see lots of her in the future, there'll be an explosion of her."

Quote of Year

"Can I top what I did yesterday, today?"