A Career in Music with Harmony Samuels

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’s Child, Brandy and former American Idol winners 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’s 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. “My parents hated the idea,” 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’s 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’t have, only for those children to take those opportunities in a completely different direction to that which their parents intended. Contributors include Harmony’s parents Matthew and Esther Samuels, singer-songwriter Nathan Sykes (formerly of The Wanted), legendary record producer Rodney ‘Darkchild’ Jerkins, saxophonist YolanDa Brown and MOBO-winning rapper Chip (formerly Chipmunk). Produced by George Luke. A Cast Iron Radio production for BBC Radio 4