大象传媒

London-born Harmony Samuels wrote and produced six songs on Ariana Grande's platinum-selling debut album Yours Truly, including her first hit single, The Way.

Alongside Ariana, the list of artists he has worked with includes such stellar names as Janet Jackson, Destiny鈥檚 Child, Brandy and former American Idolwinners Jordin Sparks and Fantasia.

In this programme, Harmony tells how his career began in a modest home in Tottenham in London and broke out to the big time, in Los Angeles.

He shows us his studios in Los Angeles. We sit in on one of his songwriting sessions, and he shows us some of the trophies he鈥檚 won since moving to LA in 2009.

A self-taught multi-instrumentalist, Harmony started playing the drums in the church his family attended in south London when he was three years old. Despite growing up in a family that loved music (his father is a seasoned percussionist with an enormous, diverse record collection), having music as a profession was frowned upon. 鈥淢y parents hated the idea,鈥� he says. He ended up leaving the family home to pursue his dream of becoming a music producer, moving to Tottenham where he set up his first studio.

Recorded in London and at Harmony鈥檚 studios in Los Angeles, A Career in Music is the story of Nigerian immigrants coming to Britain and working extremely hard to give their children opportunities they didn鈥檛 have, only for those children to take those opportunities in a completely different direction to that which their parents intended.

Contributors include Harmony鈥檚 parents Matthew and Esther Samuels, singer-songwriter Nathan Sykes (formerly of The Wanted), legendary record producer Rodney 鈥楧arkchild鈥� Jerkins, saxophonist YolanDa Brown and MOBO-winning rapper Chip (formerly Chipmunk).

Produced by George Luke.
A Cast Iron Radio production for 大象传媒 Radio 4