Andrew Dawson
Meet the Twin Cities-bred right-hand man to the rap stars. In high demand, the 25-year-old engineer is a finalist for two top Grammy Awards tonight .
Andrew Dawson will be sitting in the 18th row at the Grammy Awards tonight, hoping to hear "Kanye West" -- and his own name.
Without the Minnesota native's help, superstar rapper West might not have landed eight nominations and a front-row seat at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Dawson, a 1998 graduate of Hopkins High, was the engineer on West's "Late Registration" and "Gold Digger," finalists for album and record of the year, respectively. In fact, Dawson worked on more than 15 nominated recordings by West, R&B newcomer John Legend, pop divas Destiny's Child and rapper Common.
If West wins in either of those top categories, so does Dawson, but "I won't be getting anywhere near a microphone," he said by phone from Los Angeles. He might not even make it to the stage before the show goes to a commercial.
He does know he'll wear the same suit tonight that he wore to last year's Grammys.
"It's only been worn once; I might as well get some use out of it," he said, adding that he did buy a new shirt and tie.
Dawson, 25, is a behind-the-scenes guy. Turns the knobs on the mixing console. Does what he's told. Speaks up when spoken to. Shows up when asked.
The New York-based engineer had planned on two days of skateboarding in sunny Los Angeles before the Grammys, but instead he's been in the studio with West, recording a last-minute song for a movie opening this spring.
"I might be back in the studio Wednesday morning before the Grammys if I'm not done," he said Tuesday.
Don't ask him for details about the project -- being discreet is part of the deal.
Just five years out of the prestigious Berklee College of Music, Dawson doesn't fuss over his impressive résumé -- from Bob Dylan reissues and Coldplay in concert to several million-selling hip-hop CDs -- or the fact that he's accomplished so much so soon.
He's even nonchalant about how he got the gig as West's New York engineer halfway through the making of "The College Dropout," an album-of-the-year nominee (and winner for best rap album) last year.
Dawson was working at Sony Music Studios in New York, where West happened to be recording. "He'd gone through five or six engineers in about a month or two," Dawson said, "and he wanted to try me out. After that first day or two, we stuck and we just built up a relationship from there."
Last September, Dawson was with West before and after the rapper's infamous comment about President Bush during a televised Hurricane Katrina benefit.
"Afterward, he and Chris Rock and Puff Daddy came back to the studio," Dawson recalled. "They were goofing on him a little bit. Kanye said: 'I didn't know I was going to say that when I said it. I was in the moment.'"
Andrew always had "a calm determination," says his father, Greg Dawson of Minneapolis, a speech teacher at the Blake School. "He doesn't see any roadblocks. (His mother, Kathleen Foord, is an education professor at Minnesota State University, Mankato.)
At age 4 or 5, he started piano lessons and later taught himself saxophone and other instruments. In high school, he mixed sound at concerts in Minneapolis parks and, as a senior, got an internship at Oarfin Studios in downtown Minneapolis. There he observed how to make records and produced a fundraiser album -- for a friend paralyzed in a car accident -- featuring Hopkins High musicians, including his own band, Alpha Soma.
"He was a very driven guy, very focused and clean-cut," said Jeff Allen of the Plastic Constellations, one of the bands on that CD and now a national-label act. "When I heard what he's doing now, my jaw just about dropped off my face. He was not a guy I'd ever imagined would be working with Kanye West."
Dawson auditioned on piano for Boston-based Berklee but mostly studied producing and engineering and took math and physics classes at Harvard. Two classes short of his Berklee degree, he got a job testing audio equipment in Boston and then moved to New York City to become an assistant engineer at Sony Studios, setting up microphones for sessions by Aerosmith, Bruce Springsteen and Jennifer Lopez. Two years ago, he went freelance as an engineer and mixer.
"He is like a great studio musician, able to play all styles well and make the artist sound great," says Tony Drootin, director of audio operations at Sony Studios and now also Dawson's manager. "And Andrew has an addictive personality. He's an extremely fast learner as well as a workaholic."
Mostly, Dawson works in the studio at an hourly rate, with no royalties, or receives a per-song rate for mixing. Common once flew him to Los Angeles for two hours of recording but the paycheck also covered 14 hours of flying time.
Dawson and his wife, Karolina, a music-biz graphic artist, just bought a house in Hackensack, N.J., where he is building a studio in the basement. She's along for this week's Grammy ride, and her highlight already occurred late Monday night, when West invited the Dawsons to a private performance at which she met Tom Cruise.
By nature, Dawson is pretty much all business. He doesn't get autographs or pose for photos with his famous clients. He's not afraid to stand up to them, either. His dad recalls one visit by Andrew when West phoned, asking him to fly to Berlin for two days of recording. Dad was surprised when Andrew declined, telling West: "You know we're not going to get any work done."
Greg Dawson will watch the Grammys closely in hopes of spotting his son.
"I think last year I saw him under Queen Latifah's armpit," said Dad.
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