STRAIGHT OUTTA PACOIMA

From band member to session player to songwriter to producer to label exec: It’s a trajectory one associates with an earlier era of the music biz. But Mike Elizondo is cool with being old-school.

After all, the Warner Bros. SVP of A&R and staff producer was brought into the corporate fold by two venerable record guys, WB chairman Rob Cavallo and ex-prexy Lenny Waronker (who has since returned to the label). And he insists that virtually everything in his stunningly diverse CV springs from his earliest immersion in music.

Elizondo has co-penned tunes with Eminem, P!nk, Jay-Z, Carrie Underwood, Gwen Stefani, Kris Allen, 50 Cent, The Game, Sheryl Crow, Eve, Eric Clapton, Shelby Lynne and many others; produced recordings by (to name a few) Avenged Sevenfold, Switchfoot, Regina Spektor, Fiona Apple, Busta Rhymes and Keith Urban; and lent his formidable musician’s chops to projects by Christina Aguilera, Snoop Dogg, Rickie Lee Jones, Eve, Nelly Furtado...well, suffice to say we’d run out of space if we trotted out all of his credits.

He’s most recently worked on Urban’s new disc, the WB debut of soul-pop belter Eli “Paper Boy” Reed and the freshman effort by his first signing, teen-sibling quartet Echosmith.

Not bad for a kid from the San Fernando Valley neighborhood of Pacoima, a musician’s son who dove into his dad’s diverse record collection with scholarly focus. After trying various instruments, he settled on the bass at 13. “It picked me,” he reflects. “I think your instrument finds you according to your temperament.” He notes that numerous prominent producers—including Larry Klein, Don Was and Randy Jackson—started out on bass. “There’s this common thread: to be the glue, to figure out where support is needed and help everyone else shine,” Elizondo says.

As a member of the rock band Budahat, he got a crash course in studio recording during the band’s brief tenure on Atlantic (they were inked by Craig Kallman); though their album was never released, word spread quickly about Elizondo’s bass skills. Soon he was summoned to sessions by such eminent producers as T Bone Burnett, Matt Wallace and Matthew Wilder.

“I just love being a part of creating music, so being in a studio was just a high,” he recalls. Careful not to be a nuisance, he observed and asked questions. Though he didn’t yet picture himself as a producer, he adds, such experiences “planted the seed.”

Hooking up with hip-hop wizard Dr. Dre was arguably the pivotal moment in Elizondo’s extraordinary ascent. Referred by a high-school friend, he arrived with his bass at the impresario’s studio in 1996; a bit later, he found himself adding guitar and keyboard parts to Dre’s projects as well.

“Before meeting Dre, I hadn’t considered myself a hip-hop fan,” confesses Elizondo. “But he’s incredibly musical and nurturing, and there’s a liveness to his process that allowed for a certain spark.” No slouch at assessing talent, the good Dr. eventually solicited Elizondo’s input as a writer.

His first writing credits appeared on Eminem’s 2000 monster, The Marshall Mathers LP (including the unavoidable smash “The Real Slim Shady”).

“That was my introduction to songwriting and publishing—an album that went on to sell 30 million,” Elizondo marvels. “I’ll be the first to tell you it was just good fortune.” But the opportunity also came from having spent a long time listening and, as he puts it, “being in tune with what Dre was looking for.”

Touring as Rickie Lee Jones’ bassist, meanwhile, afforded him an intro to producer Jon Brion, who sought a fresh recruit to rework Fiona Apple’s Extraordinary Machine album. Elizondo’s helming of the reboot resulted in a Grammy nod for Best Pop Vocal Album in 2006. It also put him on the map as a producer. Maroon 5’s #1-selling sophomore disc came next, then the highly regarded big-label bow by Rilo Kiley, Under the Blacklight. 2008 saw Elizondo snag a Producer of the Year Grammy nom. He and Switchfoot shared a Best Rock or Rap Gospel Album Grammy victory in 2009 for the band’s Hello Hurricane.

“I don’t have a process,” he says of his record-making approach. “I try to listen first and then react, not just apply what I do.” He also prides himself on his flexibility. “If the artist needs someone to help arrange the music and direct them sonically, I can be that guy,” he explains. “If they need a songwriting collaborator, I can be that guy. And everywhere in between.”

In addition to his natural understanding and inclinations as a musician, he adds, he brings an ability to read people: “What are their insecurities? What are their strengths? Are they going in the wrong direction? I don’t play games to create tension—I’m a straight shooter and I say what I think.”

2009 also saw Elizondo join the stable of über-manager Steve Moir (whose clients also include Cavallo, Brendan O’Brien and other production heavyweights), who encouraged him to expand his rock portfolio. Accompanying Avenged Sevenfold into the studio, he oversaw their first #1 album, Nightmare. While that disc was in progress, Cavallo and Waronker recruited Elizondo for Warner. He admits that an office gig—even one that often allows him to be in the studio 24/7, as needed—has been “an adjustment.”

“I’m a perfectionist of sorts. I jumped in thinking I had to learn it all, and it just smacked me across the face,” he recalls of his first days at WB. “But I took it as a learning opportunity—and a chance to work with the different departments when I finish a record, answering questions and getting people excited about the project.”

“Of course,” he says, “when I’m in the studio I’m not an executive at all.”