Check The Credits: The Messengers Speak on Producing For Justin Bieber, Pitbull & More

Working on Michael Bolton’s One World, One Love Album

Nasri: We went to do a meeting with someone at Universal, who had heard a few songs. She suggested working with Michael Bolton and we were like “huh?” We sent some stuff to him and he called me saying he wanted to work with us. We set a session and Michael realized that we were a full blown team that could play just about every instrument and write pretty much all styles of music and for him he needed that. That was the first project we did where we had the time to sit with the artist and that was what was special about that. We really got to vibe with him and he was just such an experienced performer and songwriter and ping-pong player [laughs]. He was absolutely the most professional that we’ve ever worked with and the most gracious and kind. He was just a wonderful guy. He’s a legend, but at the same time he was wanting to do our ideas. He was moldable and just cool. Sometimes albums don’t become as successful, but it’s not just because of the music. There are a lot of things that make something successful. It’s not really in our control. There are a lot steps you have to take.

Adam: We would have liked for that album to be seen more like the real comeback step that he was taking. It was his first original music album in almost ten years, so it was kind of a big deal.