By FRED KRONER
fred@mahometnews.com
Grammy-winning producer and writer Nick Monson thought he had a pretty clear idea about his life’s path as a teen-ager.
He would go to college, play basketball and – at some point – join the coaching ranks.
“My identity when I was in Oakwood was very athletics-oriented,” Monson said, “and I think people associated me with that, probably to this day.
“I gave them good reason, though. I always had a ball in my hand and was very driven to be as good as I could be on the basketball court.”
As he approaches the 23rd-anniversary of his high school graduation in May, Monson can confirm that athletics played a pivotal part in his life.
Just not in the ways he would have imagined.
Monson never played a collegiate basketball game and – at least thus far – has never done any coaching after leaving his hometown.
There is no disappointment. The lessons he was taught in sports about working hard and staying the course helped him persevere in an industry he never dreamed about pursuing as a youngster.
Music has taken Monson to more than 30 countries – including Europe, South America, Africa and Russia – and enabled him to work with renowned artists such as Lady Gaga, Selena Gomez, Nick Jonas, Britney Spears and Kelly Clarkson, among others.
And last month, he was part of winning his first Grammy in the category of best compilation soundtrack for visual media for “A Star is Born,” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.
Monson liked the music on the album, but wasn’t convinced it was the favorite.
“I didn’t think we would win because it came out about a year ago, so I thought maybe it would go to a more recent release,” he said. “All the soundtracks that we were up against were fantastic, so I was surprised.”
He has, he said, “the best job in the world. I’m really lucky.”
It has been a long and arduous journey from Oakwood – a rural Illinois community of about 1,500 residents – to his current home in Los Angeles, which is the country’s second-largest city and is pushing 4 million inhabitants.
***
Mahomet’s Matt Millis put things in perspective when he talked to his high school buddy a few days after the Grammy presentation.
“I told Nick that (Grammy) pales in comparison to your All-County basketball certificate,” Millis said.
The comment was good for a laugh, yet reinforces a pertinent point. Both required a significant investment in hard work.
Another high school friend, Monticello’s Justin Shaw, spoke to Monson shortly after Millis reached him.
The conversation wasn’t focused on the latest achievement in the musical career of Monson, a 1997 Oakwood High School graduate.
“I congratulated him,” Shaw said, “but Nick is always Nick. He wanted to talk about my kids.”
Those children, a 5-year-old son and a 3-year-old daughter, are familiar with Monson’s work.
“To hear my kids want to listen to ‘Home’ (sung by Nick Jonas in Ferdinand the Bull) is pretty cool,” Shaw said.
‘Home’ was co-written by Monson and Justin Tranter.
Monson’s childhood chums didn’t envision this career path for him when they were youngsters.
“We played ball together from first grade,” Millis said. “He was never into music until late in high school.
“I never would have predicted he’d have a Grammy.”
Shaw agreed, though in retrospect he said there were some foreshadowing moments.
“We were seniors the first time I saw him pick up a guitar,” Shaw said. “We were all plunking around on it.
“Something like 30 days later, he was playing a rift from the band Rush.
“He obviously had a gift. Nick was good at anything he did.”
***
If they were all in a room together now, Monson would likely correct his friends Millis and Shaw.
He would tell them he wasn’t naturally good, but was willing to dedicate the time and the effort to always become better.
It was his background in sports that set the stage for reaching the huge arenas that would follow.
“I can’t overstate how important my time in sports and the lessons I learned from sports have been to my career in music,” Monson said. “Any talent I had in basketball was a result of a whole lot of practice, some of the time when I didn’t want to.
“It’s dealing with adversity, learning how to win – and lose – how to be a member of a team, whether you’re the MVP or the sixth man, and how important both those positions are, the value of practice time by yourself to work on your weaknesses.”
On the court, Monson is remembered as a three-point marksman who used his perimeter prowess to eclipse the 1,000-point mark in his varsity basketball career. He still holds Oakwood’s career record for three-pointers with 163.
“Players like that make a coach look good,” said Tim Lee, Oakwood’s current principal and Monson’s basketball coach his senior season.
Monson hit many big shots for the Comets, but few stand out more than the one he made in December, 1996, to snatch a victory from Armstrong-Potomac in a Leader Classic game at St. Joseph.
Oakwood trailed in the final seconds and didn’t have the ball. Monson stole the inbounds pass and fired up a buzzer-beating three-pointer to create pandemonium as the Comets celebrated an unlikely victory.
“I remember everything about it, including running around the gym like a crazy person afterwards and feeling the adrenaline of hitting a shot like that,” Monson said. “It definitely reinforced the idea of never giving up.”
It was what Monson did when there were no fans in the stands, however, that enabled him to achieve success.
“I was left-handed, so my dad tied it behind my back to practice right-handed dribbling,” Monson said. “By the same token, for a few years I practiced guitar scales for six hours a day.
“I subscribe to the whole 10,000 hours thing (the number of hours it takes to master a task), and literally the same way I made myself a good three-point shooter, I did the same thing with music.
“I wouldn’t have known how to do that without sports.”
***
Monson didn’t spend his class time at Oakwood scribbling song lyrics on the side of his assignments. Nor was he a member of any musical groups.
“I was a late starter when it comes to music,” Monson said. “I wasn’t in any bands or writing any songs as a kid in Oakwood or anything like that.”
He nonetheless developed a fervent interest.
“By far, my main focus and how I spent the majority of my time was centered around basketball,” Monson said. “Music was always in the background though.
“I always had a deep connection to music. My parents (Mark and Ellen Monson) had a great vinyl collection filled with classic rock and soul, and I was obsessed with MTV as a very small child.
“My grandmother (Janice Lane) plays piano so I tinkered around on that. I didn’t actually start playing an instrument until I was 16 when my grandparents (Farrell and Janice Lane) got me an acoustic guitar. I was really hooked after that.”
He had no lack of influences, and derived inspiration both from those he lived around – and with – as well as people he watched on television.
“I remember when Yo! MTV Raps first showed up in the Midwest and my mind was blown,” Monson said, “and the same for when grunge came around with the 120 Minutes show that came on at midnight that played all the alternative videos.
“I wasn’t really deep into music when I lived in Oakwood, but I absolutely had a lot of encouragement to follow my dreams, most importantly from my parents.”
To this day, Monson remembers one point of emphasis.
“In order to achieve big dreams, you have to work harder than anybody else,” he recalled. “As far as parents go, I have been blessed beyond measure.”
Other persons from the Oakwood community made a significant impact in his life.
“I had a lot of coaches that encouraged me in a lot of different ways and taught me lessons that I could apply to later life,” Monson said, “most importantly my high school coach Ray Wittmann, and family friends Bill and Justin Wells.
“They taught me more than they know.”
***
In the fall of 1997, Monson enrolled at Illinois College, in Jacksonville, where he had been recruited for basketball.
“I was really planning on going to the next level of basketball, and to tell you the truth there wasn’t much of a plan beyond that,” Monson said. “I’m sure people assumed I would go into coaching after my playing days were over, myself included.”
He didn’t stay long at Illinois College. He left after one semester and didn’t play in any games, but was fitted for a uniform.
“I actually went to Illinois College with full intentions on playing basketball,” Monson said, “but personally I found that when I didn’t have my buddies that I had been passing to since I was 8 years old, the game wasn’t really as fun anymore.
“Plus, I had been bitten by the music bug at that point. At that time, school wasn’t a good fit for me as I didn’t really know what I wanted to do career-wise.”
He remembers looking through an issue of The Rolling Stone when one of the back-of-the-magazine advertisements caught his attention.
“I saw an ad in the back of a Rolling Stone magazine for a school in Ohio that taught audio engineering called The Recording Workshop,” Monson said. “I didn’t really know what audio engineering was.
“My only experience with the term was from my cousin Doug (Gherna), who worked as a live mixing engineer for Bonnie Raitt for years. I knew I loved music and by that time I was getting good at guitar, so I decided to give that route a try.”
His family helped to make the venture possible.
“Kudos to my parents for being supportive and sending me to that school,” Monson said. “It was an outside-the-box move for sure.
“I attended the school and loved it. It was really an intensive program, so a lot to absorb, but I did my best. I moved to Chicago afterwards to try and get a job as a recording engineer at a recording studio.”
***
Monson wasn’t an overnight success. He had to pay his dues and work his way methodically up the ladder.
“There have been so many breaks every step of the way to get my foot in the door in the music industry, big and small,” he said.
He landed an internship in Chicago. It was far from a glamorous beginning, but Monson soon began his climb.
“I worked as many hours and as hard as I could doing drudge work,” he said, “and got hired by R. Kelly who was one of the top artists in the world at the time and was very demanding time-wise.
“I excelled in that environment.”
When he went to work, Monson didn’t arrive empty-handed.
“I always brought my guitar, just in case his guitar player wasn’t around, maybe I might get the opportunity to play in a session, which I did,” he said.
That led to an awakening.
“I discovered I had a much better and more natural ear for the creative side versus the technical side,” Monson said, “so I began to try writing music compositions myself.”
That decision proved to be a major stepping stone that found Monson relocating to the West Coast.
“My biggest break that got me my first publishing deal and brought me to Los Angeles was when my friend Paul Blair, who had produced Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’ album, brought me on to the Born This Way Ball to help produce the ‘Artpop’ album,” Monson said.
“I went from not even having my passport to going to 31 countries that year (2012 and into 2013). I ended up producing and co-writing nine songs that made it on that album, which brought me to Los Angeles to sign with Warner Chappell music publishing.”
That is where he remains today.
When Monson pauses to reflect, he admits it’s still mind-boggling.
“I have kind of a unique experience in that I went from interning and really not knowing much about record-making at all, to all of a sudden working on records that millions of people would hear,” Monson said.
Though he doesn’t return home as often as he would like, Monson takes pride in his roots and “everything that that means as far as work ethic, humility, the drive and how to treat people,” he said.
“There are not many here in L.A. doing what I do that have that type of background, and I’m proud of it.”
***
Making connections and networking were the keys to Monson’s rise to prominence.
“One of my friends who I worked with at Chicago Trax had an opportunity at a small record label to produce, and I jumped at the chance,” Monson said. “I learned a lot and got paid to do it, which was a blessing.
“There I began collaborating with dance producer Dino Zisis, which brought about the batch of instrumentals that Paul (Blair) heard via his manager, which brought me on to Lady Gaga.”
And now?
“I’ve done over 100 songs with her over the years,” Monson said. “After the success of the ‘Artpop’ album, I was able to come to Los Angeles, sign my pub deal, and make records every day.”
He is equally comfortable, he said, writing in the quiet of his own work space at home or collaborating with a group.
“I work well both ways,” Monson said. “One of my strengths is my adaptability. I can work in a group and play whatever role I need to play or sit in front of my computer by myself for 12 hours and create.
“At the end of the day, in my experience, music is very much a team sport, the number of people that have to sign off before a record comes out is crazy. It truly takes a village and thankfully I’ve been able to figure out how to fit into a lot of crazy pressure-filled scenarios.”
Monson has been on two tours with Lady Gaga. He appreciates the opportunity to work with her.
“She writes her own lyrics and melodies,” Monson said. “She’s a genius and is the best at writing for herself. Typically, we’ll sit down at a keyboard and pick a sound, play a chord progression and build it until it sounds like a song.
“She may have some kind of pre-conceived notion of what she wants to talk about lyrically, sometimes not. Her ideas come really quickly and as a producer/musician, I need to be ready to stop on a dime and also execute those ideas just as quickly.”
Whichever entertainer Monson is working with, he views it as an opportunity to grow.
“Every artist is unique and has something to express,” he said. “I’ve learned something from every one of them.”
***
Monson is married to Skyler Stonestreet, who is a singer and songwriter. Her credits include music that has been on Grey’s Anatomy.
“I work every day writing and producing songs in my home studio here in L.A.,” Monson said. “I’m blessed that I’m able to work on projects that I love and with people who I consider friends.
“My wife is an accomplished songwriter, so we work together very frequently, which is the best. Producing music from Point A of an idea to Point Z, where it comes out to the world, is very time consuming and you really have to stick to it and get as much material out there as possible.”
As an established veteran in the music industry, Monson said, “my job as a composer is to first make sure a great song gets written. My job as a music producer is to make sure that song is presented in the best light possible, which includes a lot of things: choosing a studio, personnel, making sure the artist gives the best performance they can, and delivering a final product to the label.”
If Monson is in the news again any time soon, it will be for his contributions in music, not for something basketball-related.
“I think the last time I played any kind of basketball was a few years ago,” Monson said. “There was a basketball hoop in the live room at The Record Plant (a famous L.A. studio).
“Shooting is like riding a bike really, but I don’t think anyone will be looking to me to break a press anytime soon.”
Music is an arena where he is surrounded by people who are leaders and all-stars.
“I’m blessed to work and collaborate with the most talented people, people way more creative than I am,” Monson said. “I’ve found if I make sure I’m the least talented person in the room, I’m in good shape.”
Childhood friend Justin Shaw regards Monson as an exemplary example of the ability to be patient.
“What impresses me is how long he toiled away at it,” Shaw said. “He spent years doing this without anyone ever knowing his name.
“His story is incredible wherever you come from, let alone the middle of the Midwest.”
The folks back home still remember, and while Monson has made an impact on the music industry globally, it’s the legacy he leaves behind in Vermilion County that will be most significant locally.
“When you grow up in a microscopic town, it’s hard to envision yourself doing great things,” Matt Millis said. “To see someone do it is really inspiring and makes it seem more attainable.
“We had Darrin Fletcher (who made his major league baseball debut in 1989 and eventually became an all-star) and we pointed to that. I imagine people will talk about Nick Monson like that.”
