SONGWRITER / TOPLINER


SONGWRITING Credits (Spotify)


YCONN (a.k.a James Grover) has been focussed on writing toplines for the dance/pop market for 2+ years, writing with many singers/co-writers ...either in-person or over zoom. With 30+ cuts in this time, across most of the reputable dance labels, his releases have hit well over 15 million streams so far; this number will be rapidly increasing.

He has written with/for: PS1 (Columbia/Sony), PBH & Jack (Defected, Heldeep), Far Out (Ophelia), Dualities (Loudkult), Hannah Boleyn (Ultra), Cally Rhodes (Perfect Havoc), Henry Dell (Loudkult, ChillYourMind), SONDR (Ultra), Ninski (Soave, Before Eight), Keepin It Heale (Selected, Soave), Movada (Spinnin', TYM/Warner) and many more.


He also currently has songs on hold with well-known DJ-producers such as Lumix!, Sub Focus, Quintino, YVES V, John Gibbons, Danny Avila, and more. Also he has placed library tracks with EMI, Sony/ATV, BMG, and Peer Music and has had songs synced on MTV, BBC, Channel 4, ITV and many international TV shows around the globe.

In general, YCONN has been writing songs across most commercial/pop genres for over 10 years, with a catalog of 200+ finished demos plus hundreds more in rougher forms. He has a great mind for strong hooks, is fully capable as a world class lyricist (including rap), and has a great ear for melody with a deep intuition for melodic math.

Also he is an expert guitarist, able to write catchy riffs easily and with a broad knowledge of chords and harmony across genres from classical and jazz through to modern chart music. All around, YCONN is surely one of the most versatile songwriters working today.


Toplines available for established DJs (please enquire by email). Required minimum label advance of at least £1000, or equivalent as a non-recoupable "vocalist + vocal producer fee".


Always happy to take sessions with great singers/artists who are serious about focussing on bigger dance or pop cuts.


Songwriting consultant services also available at £100/hour (zoom or in-person, London based), with no publishing % taken on any rewrite ideas. Fee may be waived in lieu of becoming an official cowriter on some songs, by mutual agreement.





MUSIC PRODUCER / COMPOSER


PRODUCTION CREDITS (spotify)


Since 2016, James Grover has been based in London and focussed on creating original songs with real hit potential. In 2018 he created the YCONN name and began to focus on producing dance-pop for his own artist project and for other upcoming artists/collaborators, while continuing to produce other genres on the side such as electronic pop, acoustic/organic pop, indie, and occasionally hip-hop/trap. His full productions have been signed to labels such as EMI, BMG and Loudkult, played at primetime on the BBC's flagship radio station, and synced on TV shows around the world, and used by companies such as Amazon & Google. Also he has contributed ghost production work to major releases by global artists (which unfortunately cannot be discussed due to NDAs).


In 2019 he completed a Masters Degree ("distinction" grade) in Commercial Music Production from Tileyard Education / University of Wales TSD. While here at Tileyard (home to Joel Corry, Goodboys, MNEK, Sigala, The Prodigy, Sub Focus, Ella Eyre etc), he made the contacts that would allow him to find ever-growing success within the dance and pop sections of the music business.


Previously, James started out as In-House Producer at Peak Studios, Bradford UK, in 2011 after 7+ years of hobbyist production for local bands and artists. Here he founded a company called ProTracks Production Ltd, which was for a time the world's leading producer of karaoke versions and ringtones, employing up to 10 full-time producers. While building this company, he personally reproduced thousands of pop hits and hence developed an encyclopaedic knowledge of pop production and arrangement techniques, along with a lightning fast workflow and total mastery of electronic production within Pro Tools.


Full Productions from £500-1000 for beat only, or £2000 inc mix + vocal prod + rewriting as necessary on the topline. Note that any additional writing will require publishing % too.


Lower rates available for budget jobs where production will be originated by junior producers and based heavily on your choice of reference track, with only finalising by YCONN. Guaranteed to the same quality, but less originality and no rewriting offered.





VOCAL PRODUCER & VOCAL EDITOR


VOCAL PRODUCTION CREDITS (spotify PLAYLIST)


Known as the best vocal producer around by most singers that he's worked with, YCONN / James Grover's most notable credit as a vocal producer is for editing all 150 tracks of Little Mix's vocals on their hit song 'Heartbreak Anthem' with David Guetta & Galantis (and James actually also performed all the gang vocals on the track, by overdubbing many additional layers of his voice too). This song was written and co-produced at Tileyard London by SONDR (YK Koi & Lorenzo Cosi), for whom James has been the go-to vocal producer for around 3 years. Many more big songs with major artist are similarly in the works.


As Co-Founder and Head of Voice Production for vocal synthesis company Emvoice (emvoiceapp.com), when combined with his industry experience of working on vocals for global hit songs... James is quite possibly the world's leading authority on vocal editing.


In fact, the development process for the Emvoice software required 3+ years deep editing (down to the individual phoneme level) across hundreds of hours of vocal recordings, and hence James is capable of understanding lyrics just by looking at the audio waveforms. Furthermore, he has developed many proprietary techniques for editing vocals that allow even average singers to sound world-class once vocal production has been completed.


Vocal Production rate is currently £1500 (major) / £500 (indie).

Post-Production-Only rate is 50% of that (inc. editing + vocal mix).





MIX & MASTERING ENGINEER


MIXING CREDITS (spotify)


YCONN / James Grover was trained directly by the world's #2 most successful mix engineer, Manny Marroquin (who mixes for The Weeknd, Imagine Dragons, Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars, Charlie Puth, Selena Gomez and many many more). This exclusive "Mix With The Masters" training event was conducted in-person for a whole week in a world class studio in 2019. Since this training, James now uses the exact same mixing methodology and hence is capable of delivering world class mixes. Indeed he is currently looking to take on more work of this type, with the ability to match the quality of more-highly-credited engineers at a lower price point.


Also, since 2019 he has completed hundreds of vocal mixes for dance tracks / DJs, and is becoming a respected authority on vocal mixing techniques, recently being approached to teach his own masterclass to degree level production students for ThinkspaceEducation.com


Additionally James is a widely respected mastering engineer among the band scene of North England (where he previously served as in-house engineer at Peak Studios, Bradford UK). He has mastered records for platinum selling band Embrace, and for recently successful bands including Marsicans, Allusinlove, Talkboy, and many more, and is the go-to mastering engineer for indie labels such as ComePlayWithMe and Clue Records.


Previously, he founded a company called ProTracks Production Ltd, which was for a time the world's leading producer of karaoke versions and ringtones, employing up to 10 full-time producers. During this time, James would complete the final mix and master for each track before sending to the clients... it was this experience of mixing literally 5000+ pieces of music that really refined his ear to the point where he began professionally mastering for bands, artists and other professional producers.


Mix rate is £500/song or £100/hour (demo mixes available as hourly).

Mastering is £50 per song, with discounts for over 5 songs.





ARTIST PROJECT : YCONN


YCONN on spotify)


"Infectious ... club-ready banger" - Wonderland ('Blocked Me' premiere)


"Dance-pop masterpiece" - Music Crowns ('Blocked Me' review)


YCONN is James Grover's artist project, releasing original deep house leaning pop dance singles in collaboration with various dance labels (Loudkult, Gloamed, etc), and scoring a Spotify editorial playlist placement ('Friday Cratediggers') with his very first single, "Blocked Me".


Also the music video for "Blocked Me" stars internationally known comedian Matt Lucas alongside the cowriter and vocalist on the track, Henry Dell.


His releases are catchy, upbeat dance pop with a dark edge & focus on originality. Current-sounding, exciting electronics, interesting chords/progressions, and classic house rhythms layered with guitars and other real instruments.


The toplines in YCONN's songs have been crafted from the ground up in close collaboration with each singer, favouring 'real world' lyrical topics and a witty conversational manner, and with stand-out melodies designed to be instantly memorable.





A&R + management : signal records


SIGNALrecords.co.uk


James Grover (a.k.a YCONN) runs his own boutique artist/writer development company, Signal Records / MGMT, which is currently developing artists such as Henry Dell, Ally Thorn and Lauren St James.


The company is co-managed by friend Marcus Jonsson who handles marketing/branding, legal matters, and business outreach/pitching, managing a small team of dedicated song pluggers who together have thousands of contacts across the industry. This leaves James to handle all A&R duties ie anything directly involving musical quality/vision/direction. The idea of the company is simple yet ambitious... to find raw talent and to build that into an artist/writer capable of creating global hits.


For talent submissions, please visit the link above Send a small selection of your best work, and if it shows real promise, we'll be in touch. If you need a guaranteed response with detailed feedback, A&R consulting rates are £100/hour (zoom or in-person...London only).


Additionally, James is a part-time A&R for two independent publishers:


Unified-Songs.com --- Dance publisher, representing writers like Bright Sparks, Bertie Scott, Tribbs, and with cuts like Tiesto, Oliver Heldens, Laidback Luke and many many more.


JAMmusicPublishing.com --- New music library founded by sync industry veteran Jay Mistry (JMConsultancy.biz, ex BMG,Jinglepunks). JAM represents over 5000 tracks in the UK market from very well-known US libraries like Burnett and PostHaste, and is developing it's own artist label, signing an eclectic and exciting mix of new and old artists and albums across the whole spectrum of music.


This complementary set of experiences which James has makes his company Signal Records a name to watch out for in the near future.





MUSIC TECHNOLOGY VENTURES


emvoiceapp.com


James Grover (a.k.a YCONN) is Co-Founder and Head of Voice Production for vocal synthesis company Emvoice (emvoiceapp.com), which is the world's most realistic 'robot singer'. Emvoice also has created the world's best sounding lead vocoder voice "Thomas", as heard on singles by globally renowned DJs such as Don Diablo and Galantis.


Additionally James is working on the following ideas to be launched eventually under the Signal Records umbrella:


- an A&R tool / submissions and music file management platform to take over from Submit Hub, Disco, Soundcloud, and Dropbox


- an innovative chord-player software (and eventually hardware)


- a game-changing artist management app


- various innovative audio processing plugins with must-have time-saving functionality.


- A.I. song generation capable of actual "hit" level results.


If you are a skilled coder or other like-minded entrepreneur who is interested in building music tech software, please get in touch. Desperately looking for a CTO to get some of these ideas into action.