Today’s episode of Behind The Beat centers around producer Charlie Heat, specifically his work with Florida’s own Denzel Curry. With their collaboration “Aloha” still going off, we had a chance to connect with Heat at his home studio in LA. With a Calgary Flames banner held high, presumably to represent the fire he seeks to make, Heat proceeds to walk us through his creative process.
Revealing his musical background, which found him playing both piano and drums in college, Heat explains that it was the love of discovering new music that first brought him into the game. Before long, his name was picking up steam thanks to songs like Lil Uzi Vert’s “Uzi,” which helped spark the distorted 808 wave. A wave that has since led him to drop “Aloha” with one of the best young lyricists in the game. “Denzel my boy in real life, my friend,” explains Heat. “In the industry there ain’t really a lot of friends...I hold him to a standard of being cool. That’ how we rap. Everytime we link up we have something special.”
“I’ve seen some things with him freestyling in studio, he out of control,” praises Heat. “He fire. We did ‘Sumo,’ then next time we started ‘Aloha,’ then next time we did ‘Wish.’ We got a lot of stuff that’s unfinished.” He eventually queues up the session, which looks to have been crafted in Logic Pro. “First thing I did was I got this horn player, my boy Kev, I sent it over to him,” reveals Heat. “He replayed it, juiced it up, and first sent over the solo.” As soon as he heard that, Heat knew it was on. “He put the chords in behind it. The next part I added, I thought this thing gotta bang off rip...I pitched it down for the intro.”
“I did the 808 kick & clap on the MPC,” continues Heat. “Simple stuff. A little warmer, got the job done. Hats I might have done on FL.” And like that, it all came together to make a genuine banger. If you haven’t heard the finished song yet, check it out here. Be sure to show some love to Charlie Heat in the comments, and keep an eye out for more episodes of Behind The Beat.