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You may remember Paul Epworth as the guy who took home four Grammys earlier this year for his production work on Adele’s hit album 21. But what you may not realize is that Epworth, the producer de jour, is actually the guy behind a lot of your favorite albums, including those by Florence and the Machine and Cee Lo Green.
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Epworth, who hails from London, got his start on the other side of the musical spectrum, as singer and guitarist for rock band Lomax. After two years in the band, from 2002 to 2004, Epworth began to get attention as a remixer under the name Phones. The producer remixed a huge number of tracks by artists like Bloc Party and Interpol, and released Sharpen The Knives/Worryin via French label Kitsuné in 2006.
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Epworth’s first real production was on The Futureheads‘ 2004 self-titled album, followed by Bloc Party 2005 breakout album Silent Alarm. The producer worked on a huge number of albums, mostly those of British rock bands like Maximo Park, White Rose Movement and The Rakes.
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In 2007, Epworth began doing more songwriting as well as production, co-writing numbers on albums by Kate Nash and Friendly Fires. This co-writing began to get more attention in 2009 when Epworth worked on Florence and the Machine’s debut album Lungs. Epworth co-wrote single “Rabbit Heart (Raise Up)” from the disc.
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Florence & The Machine – Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)

Florence And The Machine | Myspace Video
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The producer’s real breakout, of course, has been his work with Adele. As well as producing 21, Epworth co-wrote and produced “Rolling In the Deep,” which is maybe the most ubiquitous song of the past three years. This track secured Epworth the 2011 Grammy for Song of the Year and Record of the Year along with Adele, and he also took home statues for Producer of the Year and Album of the Year. Adele has said of the producer, “We just clicked. Paul had some funny ideas about getting me into character. Like he’d say, ‘pretend you’re a monkey’ or something, but it worked. In our first seven hours we wrote “Rolling In The Deep“ and “He Won’t Go.”
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Now Epworth is producing the upcoming debut from Azealia Banks, who is expected to be one of the breakout artists of 2012. Epworth says on his website, “A lot of the stuff that I’ve done over the last year or so has been about finding that purity of sound and not embellishing it with weird shit. So the songs transcends everything else and has the chance to stand the test of time. That’s such a great thing, to make a pop record that everyone can relate to, a timeless classic. But there’s room for weird shit too! I want to explore every possibility in music.”
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