Inside The Elev3n's Creative House Recording Studio

The Morales brothers are an American producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist team that go by The Elev3n. From being mentored by Darkchild straight out of university to pulling all-night studio sessions with Celine Dion, the brothers’ journey has led them to starting up Creative House studio in L.A. Headliner takes a look inside.

“I guess you could say music is our birthright,” considers Matt Morales, thinking back to his upbringing alongside his brother, James, who together would go on to form The Elev3n.

“Our father has always been a gigging Latin percussionist and our mother is an incredible singer, so music was instilled in us since we were babies,” he reflects. 

“At home is where we really developed our passion for music – through osmosis from our parents. We were musicians first – I play trumpet and a little bit of keys – and my brother is an incredible multi-instrumentalist who plays drums, saxophone and piano. 

"That laid the foundations in terms of our love for music and wanting to find out more, like, ‘How do you do this? How is this even made?’”

Despite their fascination with their father’s reel-to-reel tape machine and the music-making process, it didn't occur to the brothers to pursue music production as a profession until later in life, when James, followed by Matt, attended Berklee College of Music on a scholarship to study Music Production & Engineering and Music Business. 

Their experiences proved invaluable, and would see them embark on a production career working with artists including Celine Dion, J.Lo, JoJo and Meghan Trainor.

“One of the amazing things about working with your brother is that we are there to serve the music and the artist’s vision,” he shares. 

“The biggest thing is that everyone leaves their ego outside the door: we come in as collaborators, and we're here to make the best possible version of whatever song we're working on that day. Because we have that understanding, we've grown so much making music together, which is rare, and I feel like not a lot of people can say that they were able to do that.”

During his time at university, James caught the attention of a producer named Rodney Jerkins (you’ll know him as Darkchild) – well known for his work with artists including Destiny’s Child, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Mary J. Blige, Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, Beyoncé, Brandy and Monica, Britney Spears, and many more.

“James was thrown in at probably the highest level, because back then Rodney was killing it! James heard early versions of huge pop songs from being in the studio with Rodney, like Déjà Vu for Beyoncé and Telephone for Lady Gaga. 

"There's nothing more valuable than being in the room and seeing how these records are made. Not a lot of people understand the process of what it takes and what goes into a song from start to finish, so it was really important for him to have that exposure and bring that into The Elev3n and what we do every day.”

The Elev3n was formed in 2011, with David Rodriguez and Dre Garcia completing the team (although it consists of just the Morales brothers now), which Matt likens to being in a band:

“When we're vibing out, it's literally everyone just picking up a sound and adding it to the mix. All of a sudden within 20 or 30 minutes, you have probably way more instrumentation that you need, but a fully fleshed out idea. We've been fortunate to be in the room with so many incredible artists,” he enthuses, pointing out that working with a young Meghan Trainor was a particular highlight.

“Megan became like a little sister to us – we have 30 plus songs with her. When we first started working with her, she was 18 years old, still living in Nantucket. Those were some incredible sessions because she was so young, and you saw the drive and the talent that she had; she's so versatile, and is definitely one of the greatest producers, artists and songwriters we've worked with.”

Another career highlight so far was working with Celine Dion:

“Being in the studio with her was probably one of the top three moments of our career,” he beams. 

“She's such an amazing person, she's so funny – she's a goofball. You would never expect it! A lot of the time with artists, you send them the song, they record it and then send you the files back. But Celine always likes to work with the producers that make the song, so we had to fly out to Vegas and stay at the Palms,” he grins, shrugging his shoulders.

“We were in the studio till the wee hours of the night with Celine Dion. It was really cool because you learn that every artist is human. I’ll never forget, there was one moment in the studio where she was going through some takes and there was some second guessing on her part, and she was like, ‘I don't know if I can really nail this one part’. I'm just like, ‘Holy crap. Celine Dion is saying ‘I don't know about this one part’. 

"At that point, like every great producer, you have to rally the team sometimes. I went on the talkback and I was like, ‘You're Celine Dion, you can do this’, and she was like [here he adopts an impressively decent impression of the Canadian songstress], ‘Oh my god, I'm Celine Dion. Yes, I can do this!’ – and she nailed the next take. 

"I always remember that moment because it just goes to show, no matter who you are and how big you are, we all have vulnerable moments. We're all not perfect all the time, so it's just working through that. That's one of the biggest processes in the creative world: how you work through the hiccups and the road bumps and navigate to the finish line.”

The Morales’ went on to open Creative House studio in L.A, which is built to host creatives that require sound stages, recording or broadcast facilities. 

One artist that has been welcomed through the studio’s doors a number of times is Jennifer Lopez – Creative House remixed her Cardi B / DJ Khaled collab, Dinero, and Stevie Mackey’s holiday album, The Most Wonderful Time, which J.Lo features on alongside JoJo.

Creative House is a modern production space, all natural light and exposed wooden ceiling beams, and its kit is just as impressive – having recently invested in a Focusrite Red 16Line 64-in/64-out Pro Tools HD and dual Thunderbolt 3 audio interface and a Focusrite RedNet MP8R eight channel remote controlled mic pre.

“We want Creative House to be a limitless place – no matter what you want to do, if you want to host a podcast, live stream, or have a recording session, you can do it here. When we discovered RedNet’s Dante capabilities and the way you can route things, you can really build a super customisable set up with the hardware and software,” Morales explains. 

“So we said, ‘Let's go for it’, and I'm so glad that we did that because of the nature of our business and all the different things we do. It's such a workhorse – the Focusrite hardware is perfect for what we do.

“Usually we're working with vocalists on the music side of things so it's pretty easy using one or two channels, but with this setup we can probably do an orchestra in our space – not a big one, because it's not that big!” he points out. 

“But what's great is we are all able to jam out as a band and have all the musicians that we have coming into our sessions easily plug in. It's really great in terms of being able to have as many routing options as possible and get super clean recordings.”

RedNet Control software has also been hugely beneficial for Creative House, allowing them to easily adapt to different tasks.

“It's so customisable and robust,” he nods, “so we’ve got that set up for routing and live streaming – we do a lot of Zoom sessions too, and a lot of people were using an audio bridge for that. The way we've been able to do it, we have different mixes going to Zoom, the control room, and different mixes in the live room going out to the vocalist. So it's really cool that it can all be handled in the RedNet control software. 

"Also the RedNet MP8R is a great eight-channel mic pre – you’ve got only one cable: Ethernet, boom! Right into the 16Line. They’re super clean and everything just sounds great; I can't think of anything else that would have made sense for us. We also just got the ISA One mic pre,” he adds, “and we've been having fun running bass through that as well. 

"We're always tinkering and tweaking with kit; it's always fun to get new toys, right?”