Studio Radicals features in-depth interviews with some of music’s most innovative minds.
The series spotlights composers, producers and engineers who are building distinctive sonic worlds and bringing a fresh approach to music production. Across eight episodes, we talk to them about their process, passions and inspiration. We also explore how music is made and what it takes to create a hit record.
In Episode 3, Kate travels to Los Angeles to meet with Ebonie Smith, a producer, engineer, musician and singer-songwriter who has worked with major hip-hop and R&B artists alongside crafting her own projects.
Ebonie grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, a place famed for its rich musical heritage, and later moved to New York to pursue a career in music. After years of honing her production and engineering skills, building her own studio and recording friends and contacts, she landed a job at Atlantic Records in Los Angeles, where she spent over a decade lending her skills to smash-hit theatre soundtracks, hip-hop and R&B albums.
Ebonie’s credits range from diamond and platinum selling records – including the Hamilton: An American Musical soundtrack and Cardi B’s Invasion of Privacy – to thought-provoking albums that explore the collective power of music.
In 2024, she worked with inspiring Black American women artists and activists, including Angela Davis and the late Roberta Flack, to create On Imagination, a poetry album featuring readings of works by June Jordan, Gwendolyn Bennett, Phillis Wheatley and Georgia Douglas Johnson. She also runs Gender Amplified, a non-profit organisation which aims to help more women and gender-expansive individuals into music production.
In Episode 3 of Studio Radicals, Ebonie talks with Kate Hutchinson about crafting music that can appeal across demographics and generations, recording with some of the greatest spoken word artists of our time and defying convention to find ‘the Ebonie Smith sound’…
Listen to the episode in full below or wherever you get your podcasts.
Studio Radicals is created by dCS Kate Hutchinson. Audio production, editing and sound design: Holly Fisher. Theme music: Anna Prior. Photography & Video: Sheva Kafai. Video editing: Jess Vincent. Logo & Identity Design: Sofia Bastos. With thanks to Zoe Miller.
