Roy Kerr aka MyRiot
Producer/ Mixer/ Writer/ Artist
Clients include: London Grammar, Aurora, Birdy, Walking on Cars, and Sir Paul McCartney
A musical polymath, it seems as if all Roy Kerr’s musical adventures find phenomenal success or set a pioneering path for others to follow. As one-half of production duo MyRiot alongside Tim Bran, the pair are firmly established as British production heavyweights with recent album productions for Aurora, Rae Morris, IDER, Walking on Cars and Halsey. Over a decade earlier Kerr helped ignite the explosive mash-up scene as The Freelance Hellraiser, while as part of another production duo, Kid Gloves, he combined underground dance with pop for an array of the world’s leading artists.
Kerr’s breakthrough was in 2001 as The Freelance Hellraiser when his bootleg mash-up of The Strokes and Christina Aguilera resulted in A Stroke of Genius, a track which quickly spread through a pre-YouTube world like a PC virus. Crashing servers and switchboards at radio stations worldwide, it was heralded as the precursor to a new genre-bending pop landscape. A point now made in university textbooks and broadsheet newspapers.
Overnight, Roy became the go-to man for an inspired remix, with Blur, Pink, Shakira and even Christina Aguilera herself all commissioning him.
2004 delivered the opportunity of a lifetime when Sir Paul McCartney invited Kerr to open for him during a 2 year US/European stadium tour, including that year’s headline Glastonbury slot. This led to the ambitious Twin Freaks project, in which McCartney and Kerr reworked classics from Sir Paul’s back catalogue, using the original master tapes. A kaleidoscopic and intricate collage of an album, it enjoys cult status among McCartney aficionados.
In 2006, Kerr’s debut album Waiting For Clearance was released on Sony. Working with friends Gary Lightbody, Jacknife Lee and Iain Archer of Snow Patrol ,the record was championed by Zane Lowe on Radio 1 and was often heard as the backdrop to TV sporting events and ad campaigns throughout ’06 and beyond.
Kerr joined forces with Freeform Five’s Anu Pillai in 2007 to form the writing and production duo Kid Gloves. Their very first session together delivered their first hit, Ladyhawke’s disco-thumping Paris Is Burning and they went on to write further tracks for her debut album on Modular. This was followed by writing and production on the first Little Boots album, including Symmetry and Not Now.
By 2009, Kid Gloves started to concentrate on creating their own club-orientated material, which culminated in them signing to A-Trak’s Fools Gold label, where they released the tracks Brand New Dance and Bare Knuckle. Their production work continued with VV Brown and Primary 1, as did their remixes for Santigold and Roisin Murphy.
2010 was another highly creative year for Kid Gloves. Their song Ghetto Baby – written with Lana Del Rey – was cut by Cheryl Versini-Fernandez and featured on her 2012 album A Million Lights, while other notable sessions included work with The Knocks and The Scissor Sisters.
In 2012, Kerr teamed up with fellow producer Tim Bran, and formed a production duo called ‘MyRiot.'(it’s anagram get it?!) Success came quickly when in the following year they were asked to produce London Grammar’s debut album ‘If You Wait.‘ One of the best-selling albums of 2013, which has sold well in excess of 1,000,000 copies and peaked at #2 on the UK album chart. The band would go on to win an Ivor Novello award for the track “Strong” and were also nominated for British Breakthrough Act at The BRIT Awards. Roy and Tim were themselves nominated for their production work at the Musical Producers Guild Awards in 2015.
Hits came swiftly, and the following year MyRiot saw huge chart success across Europe as the producers of Marlon Roudette’s second album “Electric Soul”, featuring the million-selling hit When The Beat Drops Out, which sold over 400,000 copies in the UK alone.
MyRiot’s growing reputation as songwriters was confirmed by the success of Halsey’s breakthrough debut album, ‘Badlands’, which features the song Control, co-written by them. They also co-wrote and produced four songs on multi-platinum selling UK artist James Morrison’s album, ‘Higher Than Here.‘ Other notable song writing achievements include two songs on the stunning Aurora debut album ‘Infections of a Different Kind,’ lead single from Dan Owen’s debut album ‘Hideaway‘ which was chosen in 2017 as the soundtrack to The Boot’s #7 campaign. Other production highlights over the last few years include the debut album from Irish band, Walking On Cars which charted in poll position in the Irish charts on release, the stunning Bloc Party album, ‘Hymns’ (a top 10 UK album entry), and the stunning UK songstress, Birdy’s album ‘Beautiful Lies’ which shot to #3 in the Album UK Charts and hit the iTunes Top 10 in no less than 25 countries.
In recent years MyRiot co-produced London Grammar’s number one selling sophomore album “Truth is a Beautiful Thing” as well as mix and additional production for Amy McDonald‘s number two album “Under Stars”. A formidable duo Tim and Roy have also co-produced Atlantic records’ songbird Rae Morris‘ long awaited second album, ‘Someone Out There’ including the stunning singles “Do It” and “Reborn.” The pair have also recently produced and mixed Scottish rocker KT Tunstall latest album, ‘Wax.’
Having recently signed to Kobalt Music Publishing Roy continues writing with Tim on a a whole host of amazing artists including Atlantic Records’s Singer/Songwriter Kwabs, international Brit Award winning artist Mika and Norwegian songbird Aurora. So successful was this collaboration, that the pair was asked to decamp to the legendary recording studio La Fabrique, in the winter of 2018, where the breathtaking beautiful ‘Infections of a Different Kind’ was birthed.
While MyRiot duties keep Roy busy, he has not abandoned his solo production work. in 2016 he produced the self-titled debut album Alice Jemima for the mighty Rob DaBanks label, Sunday Best and recently produced forthcoming single for new BMG signing, Jones as well as spending time in the studio with hotly tipped Universal Artist, Declan J Donovan. He continues to write with some of the freshest UK talent such as Deyyess Connie Constance, Azura Ryder, Grace Davies, Joy Crooks, Violet Skies and Teeks.
Over the last 12 months, MyRiot are as busy as ever, they have spent a hugely rewarding and creative time back in the studio with IDER working on tracks for the girls’ debut album for Glassnote, including the incredible singles ‘Mirror’ and ‘Wu Baby’ which was co-penned by Tim and Roy. We’re also delighted to mention that the follow up Walking on Cars album,’Colours,’ that the guys produced last year is tearing up the album and radio play charts throughout Europe with the record debuting at #2 in Ireland and #7 in Germany, with the first single ‘Coldest Water’ garnering massive European airplay.
Roy Kerr’s story to date has blended commercial success with musical innovation. Wherever the next chapter takes him, it’s sure to be a fascinating experience.
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