{"id":48148,"date":"2025-10-02T15:02:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T15:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/02\/producer-mike-dean-on-working-with-the-weeknd-and-whats-next\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T15:02:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T15:02:00","slug":"producer-mike-dean-on-working-with-the-weeknd-and-whats-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/02\/producer-mike-dean-on-working-with-the-weeknd-and-whats-next\/","title":{"rendered":"Producer Mike Dean on Working With the Weeknd and What’s Next"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\tWhen I FaceTime with Mike Dean<\/a>, he tells me he\u2019s coming off the longest break from music of his career \u2014 a whopping three weeks. The prolific producer took time off after embarking on the After Hours Til Dawn <\/em>North American tour<\/a> with the Weeknd<\/a>, where he played 84 sets in 42 dates, both opening for the Toronto superstar and then playing during his set. But Dean is already back to the grind, mixing songs with A$AP Rocky the night before we speak. Was the session for Rocky\u2019s highly anticipated Don\u2019t Be Dumb<\/em> album<\/a>?<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter a short pause, Dean says, \u201cI dunno, man,\u201d and chuckles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWorking with some of music\u2019s biggest artists teaches one how to keep things close to the chest. The accomplished producer was born in Houston and befriended the late Pimp C in high school. He helped a young Selena Quintanilla<\/a> record her first song, and made his name as a producer with beats for UGK and other Rap-A-Lot Records artists, as well as acts like Tupac, Tha Dogg Pound, Nate Dogg, and Tech N9ne.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEventually, he began working with Kanye West<\/a>, mixing his first two albums and serving as a co-producer on five more projects. His keyboard and guitar playing, knack for arrangement, and post-production acumen implanted him into the nucleus of Kanye\u2019s classic formula, influencing further collaborations with a who\u2019s who of modern music: Beyonce, Jay-Z, Madonna, Frank Ocean, Justin Bieber, Travis Scott, as well as the Weeknd, whom he provided production for on the Toronto icon\u2019s smash Hurry Up Tomorrow <\/em>album<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThis year, Dean has been submitted for 10 Grammy categories for his work on Hurry Up Tomorrow<\/em>, including Album of the Year, well as Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Rap Song of the Year for \u201cTimeless\u201d (featuring Playboi Carti)<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019ve never won an Album of The Year, Record of the Year, or Song of the Year in my life, so hopefully this year with Abel, we fuckin\u2019 smash all those records,\u201d he tells Rolling Stone<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring our nearly hourlong talk, I get the sense that Dean is too at ease at age 60 to get broken up about Grammy snubs. Even with all his accomplishments \u2014 he\u2019s been nominated for 19 Grammys and won seven) \u2014 he was a down-to-earth presence throughout our conversation, polite and unassuming with a humorous tinge of self-deprecation. He played me a song from his upcoming 420-commemorating<\/a> 426 <\/em>instrumental album, and, of course, got some pulls from a bong midway through. It felt like I got him in his element, just chillin\u2019 out in between mixing sessions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tThat go-with-the-flow nature has carried him throughout his career, as he tells me he\u2019s made it a point not to compromise his sound or work with artists he doesn\u2019t care for just for platinum plaques and Grammy nominations. It turns out, those nods came to him anyway.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tDean in the studio with the Weeknd<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBrian Ziff<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tAlong with working on some \u201ctop secret\u201d music to close out 2025, Dean has his eye on next year, looking forward to the Grammys, dropping 426<\/em> most likely on April 24th of next year, and devising \u201csolo Mike Dean shows at small venues,\u201d where he plans to play music and jam in front of intimate audiences during the first six months of next year. And beyond that, he tells me he\u2019s ultimately vying to get \u201cfurther away from working with artists,\u201d making more synth music, instrumental projects, and compilation albums where artists jump on his beats.<\/p>\n

\n\tDean talked to Rolling Stone<\/em> about The Grammys, keeping the TV on during recording sessions, being divinely connected to music, and a whole lot more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDo you have an outlook on the Grammys? Any expectations from your 10 submissions?\u00a0<\/strong>
I try to have no expectations, so I\u2019m happy when I win, especially after I\u2019ve been through a lot of ups and downs with the Grammys. I\u2019ve won a lot and lost a lot of big ones. Whenever Travis didn\u2019t win on [Astroworld<\/em><\/a>] was a crazy one, but it\u2019s not really a popularity contest, I guess it\u2019s more about art and stuff.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tDo you feel like the Grammys are a sufficient annual record of the best music?\u00a0<\/strong>
I think it\u2019s a bucket list thing [that] every musician, artist, [and] producer has in their life. After Kanye, we had a big Grammy run. I\u2019ve had seven wins. It\u2019s like winning the Super Bowl of music. I\u2019ve never won an Album of the Year, Record of the Year, or Song of the Year in my life, so hopefully this year with Abel, we fuckin\u2019 smash all those records.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat did you do when you won your first Grammy?\u00a0<\/strong>
Oh man, we ran around like we won a ball game. I think it was College Dropout,<\/em> right?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, 20 years ago.\u00a0<\/strong>
Best Rap Album and Best Rap Song. Wow. I remember I got kicked out of the Grammys one time. Whenever Herbie Hancock beat Kanye\u2019s Graduation<\/em> for Album Of The Year, I started being a dick about it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tYou got kicked out, or did all of y\u2019all?<\/strong>
I did. I was just like, man, \u201cFuck this, blah, blah, blah,\u201d and then people started walking backstage, and I started walking backstage without a laminate, and they were like, \u201cNope.\u201d Yeah, it was pretty funny. I was pretty drugged up back then.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tYou spoke about your work with the Weeknd. How are you feeling about your output in the past year or so?\u00a0<\/strong>
I\u2019m great. I had the chance to open for him on his first four legs of the tour in the last year. We played 42 shows in 24 cities, and each day I played two shows. 84 shows, so it\u2019s been a busy summer. It\u2019s been great.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHow do you feel about playing in a stadium versus an arena from a sound quality aspect?<\/strong>
If you got the right sound guys, it\u2019s great. We have really good guys with Abel and then we have a lot of people that do quality control on the stuff, different producers that come out and give input. The trick with stadiums is getting all the seats to sound good. Because there\u2019s echoes and there\u2019s delays, and if they delay and time everything perfect, it sounds great. But if they screw it up, it starts sounding like what we call two shoes in a dryer. Just random. That\u2019s what we say about people with bad beats.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat are some of your lasting memories of working with the Weeknd on Hurry Up Tomorrow<\/em>?\u00a0<\/strong>
Whenever you actually sit down and write a song together, I\u2019ll just start playing chords on the synth and you\u2019ll start improvising and it\u2019ll turn into a song in two, three minutes. That\u2019s how \u201cThe Abyss\u201d started on this album. A few of the songs started like that. That\u2019s the magic. I\u2019ll hit a chord and he\u2019ll start singing and then that\u2019ll take me to the next chord and just follow each other around like that.<\/p>\n

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