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Producer Series: STARGATE

Two Norwegians who moved to New York and spent fifteen years writing the biggest songs in American pop. Thirty-four tracks of Stargate.

Trondheim to the top of the Hot 100

Mikkel Storleer Eriksen and Tor Erik Hermansen met in Trondheim, Norway, worked in British pop through the late 1990s, and relocated to New York in 2006. What followed was one of the most commercially dominant runs any production team has had.

Their sound is instantly recognisable once you know it: a bright, slightly melancholy chord progression — usually minor, usually cycling — over a mid-tempo beat, with a chorus that arrives early and repeats. It is enormously effective and has been copied endlessly.

They are part of the broader Scandinavian pop tradition that runs from Denniz PoP and Cheiron through Max Martin, and which has quietly supplied a very large share of American pop for thirty years.

What to listen for

The Ne-Yo tracks are the foundation. "So Sick," "Sexy Love," "Because Of You" and "Closer" established both the artist and the producers, and Ne-Yo's own writing is inseparable from what they built underneath him.

The Rihanna catalogue is where they became unavoidable: "Don't Stop The Music" (built on Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'," itself borrowed from Manu Dibango), "What's My Name?" with Drake, and "Diamonds" — written by Sia in fourteen minutes, and one of the biggest records of the decade.

Jennifer Hudson's "Spotlight" is the best pure vocal showcase here, and Mariah Carey's "Bye Bye" the most emotional.

Sam Smith's "Too Good At Goodbyes" and "Dancing With A Stranger" with Normani are the later chapter, and Black Coffee and Usher's "LaLaLa" is the one that connects them to South African house.

Michael Jackson's "A Place With No Name" is the posthumous curiosity — built on America's "A Horse with No Name," of all things.

Go deeper

Ne-Yo's Because of You and Rihanna's Good Girl Gone Bad are the two albums where the partnership peaks.

For the Scandinavian pop machine: Max Martin is the towering figure — more number ones than anyone except Lennon and McCartney — and the Cheiron studio story is one of the great untold histories of modern pop.

And it is worth noticing what these producers have in common with Soulshock & Karlin: an outsider's ear for American R&B, learned from records rather than from a scene, which somehow produces something more distilled than the real thing.

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