Episode 8: Chris 'TEK' O'Ryan

In this episode of The Cockatoo, your host Adam Burke dives deep into the musical journey of Chris O'Ryan, better known as TEK - a highly respected sound engineer, mixer, and producer. Originally hailing from Melbourne and now based in Los Angeles, Tek's story is one of perseverance and talent. Since arriving in the US in 2002 as an unpaid intern, he has risen to become one of the world's foremost vocal producers.

Tek's impressive portfolio and work ethic earned him a Grammy for engineering Mary J Blige's Groundbreaking R&B album, Growing Pains, with six further Grammy nominations soon to follow. Boasting collaborations with music legends such as Justin Bieber, Alan Walker, Usher, Katy Perry, Ciara, David Guetta, Mariah Carey, Frank Ocean, Mary J. Blige, Ariana Grande, Rihanna, Jennifer Lopez, and Celine Dion, TEK shows no signs of slowing down. 

Interview Transcript

Adam Burke: Welcome to the Cockatoo, reporting on what Australians are up to in music in the United States. We publish from Hollywood, California, which is Tongva and Chumash country, and in these interviews we get into musical journeys . My name is Adam Burke, and today we are joined by Chris O'Ryan, who is known as Tek, a sound engineer, mixer, and producer originally from Melbourne and now living in Los Angeles.

Tek came out to the US in 2002, starting as an unpaid intern and is now one of the world's most respected vocal producers. Check out these names he's worked with, Justin Bieber, Alan Walker, Usher,  Katy Perry, Ciara, David Guetta, Mariah Carey, Frank Ocean, Mary J. Blige, Ariana Grande, Rihanna, J-Lo, and Celine Dion, among others. He's been nominated for six Grammys and won one. Let's find out how this former Melbournian managed to pull this off. Welcome, Tek.

Tek: Hi, how's it going, mate?

Adam: I'm good, I'm good. It's great to have you here. Let's just get into a little bit of background. Explain what you do for someone who doesn't really understand the behind the scenes of record producing.

Tek: Sure. Different artists know me for my different skill sets, but if I'm producing and creating a song from scratch, then I'll do that. I'll work with songwriters and we'll build up a song. We usually just start with something easy on guitar, some guitar chords, and then maybe write the song to that and then build it out into a full song. Then some other artists I'm known for my vocal production, which means that basically when you have a hit song that's being written and you need to record it on an artist, it's a special skill to get it recorded properly.

I'll take the song, I'll examine it, I'll learn it for a couple of days, I'll write harmonies and adlibs and sing them down on the track and then for the artist to sing. Then it's about capturing their performance and just getting the right vibe for the performance and everything. Those little details like timing things and stuff make a huge difference to how the record feels. Then, yes, putting it all together, comping the vocals, tuning the vocals, then mixing it and then so taking it from nothing to a finished song.

Then for some artists, I'll do more mixing where the song's already done, and they'll send me the vocals. I'll tune the vocals and mix the song. I'm known quite a bit for my vocal tuning, which I try to-- I get stuff tuned well and sounding great and sounding natural, but without it sounding tuned. It's not an auto-tune type sound, it's a natural vocal.

Adam:  That is a lot of skills that you've built up over decades back there behind the desk. Let's do a big rewind. 2002 is the year that you come out to the United States. You're in Melbourne before that. Tell us what you're up to in Melbourne in the beginning of the 2000s.

Tek: Sure, yes. I was in my band, which was with my girlfriend at the time. Funnily enough, our drummer was Gotye, "Wally" De Backer. We broke up. My girlfriend and I broke up and the band broke up, and then my friends, a couple of friends were over here in LA and they said, why don't you come out, so I sold my car and jumped on a plane.  

Adam:  At that point in time, you sold your car, you got a little bit of money from that. Do you remember how you went about getting a new life over in the United States logistically around about that time?

Tek: Yes, it was all trial and error. I sold my car for, I think $6,000, then bought a plane ticket. Then there was another $1,000. The Australian dollar was probably, I think, maybe half at the time or something really low. I sort of started with about $2,000 US dollars, and just living with four other people in one bedroom and my rent was maybe $150, $200 a month. It was just trial and error. I really didn't know much about the States. I went to the supermarket and had to take back a bunch of stuff embarrassingly at the register because I didn't realize that tax was added on after, unlike in Australia where it's included in the price.

 The internet wasn't that great 20 years ago. It was just really a lot of trial and error and finding out. Once I started working, trying to figure out how to do taxes, and whether I should get a business license and all this stuff, and incorporating. It was tough because I if I was in Australia, I would have had maybe an uncle who was an accountant or a family friend or something. There's always someone you can ask for things like this. There wasn't much of that and there wasn't Facebook. You just got to go work it out, I guess. I had plenty of free time if anything, so that's how I did it.

Adam: You're coming out to the United States cold. You don't really have, as you said, any connections. It's a big move. Can you recall the feeling that you had? What was the emotion? What was the thought, the analysis where you said, "I'm going to do this? I'm going to liquidate my Australian assets and just take a swing at this?"

Tek: I was just in a great position being 21, having no obligations, and I thought, "I'll just try it and see." Then after I was here, I was like, "I really want to make this work. All my friends went back after a year and I stayed on. I know that's just the-- You have that opportunity when you're young and I just took a swing just because I could really, and I thought, "Worst case, I could always come back home to Australia," but I didn't want to after I got in it a little bit.

Adam: You've made it to the US and you've worked, you've got roommates, and doing all the things that you do when you're on a low budget trying to transition, but let's get into the hustle. You're here, tell us about those early days  what you were doing to get yourself into the music industry in the United States.

Tek: Sure. That's the beauty about LA is that there's a lot of musicians here, the industry's here, like you can walk around your apartment complex and find someone who works in the business. That's what happened. There was the guys from B2K, which was this early R&B boy band. They have a song called Bump, Bump, Bump. They were living in the same apartment complex, and they were just starting to find their feet, and starting to do pretty well. I think they were on their first album, and just work, like talking to those producers. I just started playing guitar for their studio sessions. Nothing was paid at the time.

I'd already been on Pro Tools and engineered a little bit back home in Australia. Then I started engineering for them. I just had to basically do it for free for about six months before I could even ask for any money. It was tough because I would be there from about 2:00 PM to 2:00 AM as I had to catch the bus back, I had to go over the hill, so it had to take the long way. It took about two hours to get home. Sometimes I'd leave the studio at 2:00 or 3:00 and get home at 4:00 or 5:00, and then have to be back there at twelve o'clock or 1:00 or something.

It got hectic at times. I remember doing 36 hours straight and then having 12 hours off, then did another 24 hours, this was for tour prep.  If I was back home, I probably would have said, "Screw this," but I didn't have any other options, and it was like the people that I first worked with kept me working pretty hard. I was like, "Screw it, I just got to do this. What else am I going to do?" It was a really good learning curve. I met great producers working there, and they became producers, who I worked with later, and who I won my Grammy with, and so it was definitely worth it.

Adam: The artist was B2K. Was there a specific studio that you guys were all working in that was this connection point?

Tek: Yes, it was their studio in Beverly Hills. Sounded very fancy, but it wasn't that fancy. It was behind a rug shop. It was half of the rug shop. We just did everything there. We didn't have much gear. If we did live drums or anything, I had to rent a bunch of mics and compressors and stuff. It was mainly vocals, and dealing with Pro Tools back then was pretty tough. It wasn't as advanced as it is now, but we just made it work.

Adam: In the intro, I mentioned a lot of huge names, and there's virtually a conversation I'm sure about every one of them  in how it went, and how you landed the gig, and the rest, but let's get to a breakthrough. What artist would you say was the first moment that you thought, "Yes, okay, this is it. I'm really starting to achieve what I hoped to do when I moved out here."

Tek:  Just seeing my credit on an album was huge for me, on a CD, and that would have been B2K. I don't know if there was one breakthrough moment, or just things that kept spurring me on, small successes along the way, seeing my name on a CD. It was all about word of mouth back then, so I'd get a lot of calls, and then people would hire me for this and that. After a few years, when I was in with Tricky Stewart, and we were doing, Usher, and Mary J. Blige, and Mariah, and stuff, that was obviously wow moments, working in Mariah's apartment, her penthouse in New York, and getting flown around places.

I remember talking to someone who got flown to New York, and I was like, "Wow, can you imagine being flown across the country for work." Then in a couple of years, that was me. Winning the Grammy, obviously, was a big help. That just elevates your status. I think it was small wins along the way that just kept me pushing harder.

Adam: Let's talk about that Mariah Carey moment, and that work that you did. How do you go from B2K, back of the rug shop, Beverly Hills, into Mariah Carey's living room?

Tek: Tricky Stewart was working with B2K because you're making an album, you have all these different producers come through, and producers and writers, and that's how I met a lot of great producers, writers, but they would come through, and then they like my work ethic, so Tricky, when he expanded, he had Umbrella for Rihanna, that was his song that kicked off, and he moved up another level. Then he was like, "I'm getting the band back together," so he called me, he called all these best people that he knows that he can rely on, so I was pretty much engineering from him. Just consistent, good work, I'd say.

I just had a really unbreakable work ethic. Made sure I was always punctual, I was always worked hard, I always backed up my files. Back then we didn't really have online backup and stuff, so nothing ever got leaked or lost on my time. Reliability is part of it, but I think that it's not that hard to succeed in a way if you do the right things. If people need reliability, they need good talent. I feel like I've seen more people sabotage their careers with bad things rather than when they can just work hard, and it's easier to do the right thing, to work hard and be good at what you do.

As a producer like Tricky needed someone, if you're going in with an artist, that artists only have very limited time in the studio. Sometimes they need to record, and they need to get out. You can't have them sitting around for days on end, and you're trying to get things ready, and so making sure everything's ready, and right, and prepared for them, and that the session can go well. Then the artist records, and leaves happy, producer's happy, everyone's happy, and they just rinse and repeat basically.

Adam:  Let's talk about your Grammy. What year was it, and what was it for?

Tek: I won it in 2008, and it was for Mary J. Blige's album, Growing Pains. Another one that I did with Tricky Stewart. It was a great album. I think Tricky branched out a little bit, and did something a little different, and songs are still played from that album to this day. My daughter just did a dance recital to one of the songs from that album. I was lucky enough that Grammy rules differ from category to category.

I've recorded and engineered some songs that have won Grammys, like Where Are U Now for Justin Bieber and Skrillex. That song won the Grammy, but I didn't get a trophy because that I guess the trophy in that category is awarded to the producers or the songwriters, or whatever it is, and it's different for each category, but Mary J. Blige's album was nominated for Best Contemporary R&B Album. Sometimes big names win just because they're familiar, but I think this was a deserved win, because the album was pretty cool, a bit different for the time, and because I engineered most of it, yes, then I got a trophy

Adam: Tell us about the night.

Tek: I didn't go that night because I didn't even realize that I was nominated until after.

Adam: The email bounced?

Tek: I got the trophy. I don't know, I got the trophy. I was still new to the Recording Academy. I wasn't a member. I didn't know how it all worked, but I got the trophy in the mail, and I was like, "Hey," and took a photo, and I think we were living in an apartment that, one of those tiny little shoebox apartments where you can see every part of the apartment from one point, so took some photos in there, like we're living high life, but it was funny, but I have gone a few times since.

The Grammys is fun. It's kind of a long day. It's a lot of work, to be honest. Not complaining, it's super fun, but you got to get your dresses and tuxes, and then you got to get there super early, and then wait in the limo line. Then the red carpet takes forever. By the time you get into the actual hall, you haven't eaten in like five hours, everyone's starving, and angry, and grumpy. Then the show starts, and you've got another three hours, but it does. I know, I can't complain. It's a super duper fun night.

Adam: It's always more glamorous on TV than in the true reality.

Tek: Yes, I guess that's what it is. It looks just like that on TV, like it's nothing, but when we did it in Las Vegas last time, a couple of years ago, that was really fun because it was in the hotel, so you just walk from your hotel room straight down to the red carpet, and then obviously the after party is in Vegas where lots of fun.

Adam: Right. Vegas is convenient like that. Grammy's a point of departure. It awards are funny things, aren't they, how the entertainment industry works. Was there any distinct advancement, change, anything that happened to your career after that moment?

Tek: No, it's not like I won a Grammy and then the phone starts ringing. I think it's just adds to your narrative about-- It legitimizes you obviously and makes things easier, so it definitely is a great help. I didn't receive, obviously, the publicity, being an engineer, if I was an artist or anything, you get all that publicity, and that's a huge deal, but as an engineer, it just legitimizes you, which was nice after I'd been grinding pretty hard for about six years at that point, so it was a very welcome boost.

Adam: Let's talk a little bit about the industry as a whole. The industry was in a certain state where you came out and you managed to work your way into it. Do you think for Australians in your position in 2024, things are easier, harder, more open, more closed? How does it look to you if you have a perspective on that?

Tek: Yes, I was thinking about this the other day, it's good and bad. I feel like if I had social media back then, I would have embraced it and really worked it, like I would have been doing posts every day about the studio and everything like that. At the same time, I also would have had a lot more competition. Being here in LA without that reach meant that there was a much smaller network then. Of course, we were coming off the back of Napster piracy, all that, which decimated the industry.

For years after that, record companies were still like, "Oh, we're broke, we're broke," even though they weren't and started to make money, but they still played that line. It was tough and you had to just work within that, but today, I think overall it's better because talent just shines these days. You can get your music out to the world and people gravitate towards real talent and they can see it and it's easy to make an impression.

Back in the day, all this money in the music industry went to just a small handful of artists, whereas today it's much more dispersed across indie artists

Adam: If you could go back in time to 2002 and say something to 2002 Tek, a little advice, would there be anything that you'd tell him?

Tek: Buy Bitcoin, but no. No, nothing really. I think I don't really have any regrets. I worked hard. When you're that age, you don't need that much sleep. You can work all day, all night.

Adam: You did what you could.

Tek: Yes, I didn't do any-- I've always worked really ethically as well. Make sure I treat every song like it was a career defining song, no matter what it is. It always had to be perfect. They have perfections like that. No, I'd say, "Good job, dude. You did all right."

Adam: Absolutely

Tek: Corny as that sounds.

Adam: It's really great to speak to you, Tek. You are one of Australia's behind the scenes superstars, no doubt about it. It is so hard to get in the room with…We haven't even listed a fraction of the people that you've worked with, and you've gotten to the top of the industry, just working your butt off, doing it the right way. Congratulations on that. I think you have so much further to go as well, and it's just been a real pleasure to talk to you and just get a little bit of your story.

Tek: Cheers, mate. Thanks very much for having me on. I super appreciate it.

Adam: Absolute pleasure. We've been talking with Chris O'Ryan, producer, mixer, engineer, vocal tuning legend here in Los Angeles for The Cockatoo. The Cockatoo is a publication of the Australian Music Alliance. We are all under the Pitchhiker Foundation, a 501(c)(3). Feel free to support us. Tell people to listen to these stories. Check out what we do online. Thank you very much, and we'll catch you on the next edition.