Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeff Villanueva.
Hi Jeff, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
In the 20+ years that I have been working in the music industry, I have been able to establish myself as amongst the elite go-to recording engineers in the music industry. My success in the industry did not come overnight and my success is a testament to my strong work ethic, raw ability, and my ability to adapt in an ever-changing industry.
Although I did not come from a long line of musicians, I began playing the trumpet and bass guitar at an early age throughout school bands. It was in high school that I was selected to attend a seminar put on by VH1 and The Grammy Foundation called “Keeping Grammys In the Schools” where I was first introduced to the idea of pursuing a career in recording engineering and the many different careers in the music industry that takes place behind the scenes. Shortly thereafter, I hesitated no time and enrolled at Full Sail University where I graduated and obtained my degree in Recording Arts and Sciences.
After graduating, I landed an internship at Transcontinental Studios, famed for their development of acts such as Back Street Boys, N Sync, Britney Spears, and many more. After a period of time, I began to quickly move up the ranks, and with much success I had gained from working on many of the Transcontinental releases to developing unsigned talent for major record labels, I decided to venture out on my own to Co Own and manage Next Level Recording Studios. I later went on to sell my business after a chance meeting with super-producer Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins where I introduced myself to Rodney as his new Engineer. What seemed like a very bold move at the time later led me to become his right-hand man for four and half years.
During my time working with Rodney, I had the opportunity to travel and work in some of the best recording studios in the world from London to LA with the biggest Pop artist. It was in this time that Rodney had groomed me to be one of the best by challenging me every day which would lead me to win 3 out of my 4 Grammys to date for Beyonce’s hit single “De Ja Vu” Ft Jay, Mary J Blige’s “Enough Crying” for BreakThrough Album and Mariah Carey “Emancipation of Mimi” album.
Always in pursuit of a challenge, I was interested in diversifying my credits and taking on different genres of music. After leaving Darkchild Entertainment I went to go work for a Music Production Duo called The Runners under DJ Khaled and the We the Best Music Imprint. With all that I had learned up to this point in time thru my experiences, I think this was the most challenging because I was part of a team that was just starting out and with no prior history. I quickly took on this challenge by sonically helping them perfect their sound and contributing my experiences to create a catalog of hits that would help be the push for “Dirty South Music in Hip Hop with athematic such as “Every day I’m Hustling” for Ric Ross, “I’m So Hood for DJ Khaled, “Go Hard” ft. Kayne West and T Pain, and a little record called “All I Do Is Win”. The success of these hits helped us to crossover where I was able to contribute on records such as Rihanna “Cheers to The Freaking Weekend”, Meek Mill “All Eyes on Me” Ft. Niki Minaj, Chris Brown, and Usher “Daddy’s Home” where I was able to earn my forth Grammy to date for my role on “The Usher vs Usher Raymond” Album.
Today I am again proving myself all over again alongside a talented group of engineers at TYFY Studios under the direction of owner and Head Dan Fontana. Here I have creatively contributed to high-profile shows for the biggest entertainment companies in the world. We are well versed in music and audio creation for theme parks, cruise ships, television, film, gaming and advertising.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Definitely not at all a smooth road. I think having a career in any form of the entertainment industry is difficult because there is no clear and direct path to be successful like most traditional careers where after earning a degree, you go and get a job in your career field. In the music industry, I feel a lot has to do with being at the right place at the right time. Now when you do get that shot, you have only one chance to make a first good impression. So how do you get that chance? You have to position yourself around like-minded people who share the same creative ideas and interests. This is the difficult part cause in the beginning, you will have to give up a lot of freedom when it comes to your personal time and needs. Most of your friends and family will not understand this and will begin to question your passion because you’re making little to no money in the beginning. In fact, it personally took me about 3-4 years of internship after internship before I could actually say 100% of my income was from making music and engineering. That’s the first step the mental aspect of it.
Once you do finally make it and you’re doing what you love comes the physical aspect of staying on top. The long hours of continuing to better your craft and understanding the latest technology to constantly proving yourself because a lot of times our business can be very subjective.
In the end, I would not have changed it for anything in the world. The gratification to hear or seeing something you’ve creatively worked on being enjoyed by a random stranger at a stoplight singing to your song or family experiencing a fireworks spectacular you helped produce while they’re on vacation never gets old and is the thing that drives me and I’m constantly chasing.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I think the thing I’m most proud of is where my passion for audio and music has taken me. Sure before entering into this field, I had dreams of winning a Grammy and I’ve now won four, but never in a million years did I imagine myself being able to travel the world and working in and out of the best studios to touring yet alone doing sound for TV/Film, video games and now theme parks.
I’m most proud of these experiences because I’ve never really planned out my career to be so diverse. I always just imagined myself to be working just on the record company side of things and because I was very open-minded, it allowed me to keep evolving and in this industry, if you don’t evolve, you eventually become a dinosaur because no matter what you’ve accomplished Grammy wins and all your only as good as our last project.
What’s next?
My future plans are just getting started. As I embark on the next 20 years of my career, I’m calling this my 2.0 and coming aboard TYFY studios is helping me to fuel this and is opening new opportunities for me every day. Since joining TYFY, I almost feel like I’m learning to do what I’ve done for the past 20 years all over again because of technology in theme park attractions nowadays and the demand from guests wanting more of an immersive ride experience. It’s helping me think of sound in a whole different way. I’m excited to see and hear really what the future has in store for me. Stay Tuned!
Contact Info:
- Email: Jeff@jeffvillanueva.com
- Website: www.jeffvillanueva.com
- Instagram: @supajeffvillanueva
- Facebook: Jeff Supa Jeff villanueva
