CLOSE-UP REDAH (Reda Haddioui) Music Producer & Composer at WAX LTD

Redah, please tell us about your background, how did you get into music?

I was born in Casablanca, Morocco, and grew up with two sisters playing music and singing. I never really took it seriously until high school. I started posting videos playing guitar and singing American hit songs on social media platforms when I was twelve.

My peers at school and family really liked it, which pushed me to keep doing it until it became my addiction. At first, the sound quality was pretty bad as I was comparing my recordings to top cover bands videos. Since then, I kept trying to improve my sound and productions to match their level. That was certainly my first step into the music production world.

After graduating from high school, I moved to Paris to study Architecture as I have always been drawing, painting; and also because studying music wasn’t really an option for my parents.

After moving to Paris, my apartment quickly became a home studio where I was playing, recording, and producing music every night after school with artists I would discover online or at music shows. After a few months releasing several cover songs singing featuring other local artists, I’ve had my songs played on a few radios in France, Morocco, and Spain.

Eventually, I have been contacted by several French music TV shows to participate in their programs. All of these events made me and my parents understand that music was more than a hobby to me. I’ve been able to convince them to let me apply for music schools, and soon after, I have been accepted and given the scholarship to study at Berklee College Of Music, a day I’ll never forget.

I majored in Music Production & Engineering, graduated with honors in 2016, and moved straight to Los Angeles to live my dream: produce and create music at the highest level.

It has definitely been tough as I had to leave the ones I love the most, but nothing else makes me happier than being in the studio making records.

Could you tell us about WAX LTD?

WAX LTD is a multi-platinum production and songwriting team founded by Wally Gagel and Xandy Barry. It is also a world-class recording facility, and record label with millions of streams worldwide from artists including Zella Day, Blondfire, Family Of The Year, Miley Cyrus, Best Coast, Redlight King, Rihanna, Britney Spears, Muse, The Rolling Stones and many more.

In January 2019, we formed the label AUDIO WAX, a label under Universal Production Music. It is part of the top 10 Universal Production Music labels with the highest amount of downloads worldwide. I’m today proud of being part of such a successful team producing and composing records at the highest level.

You have a key role at WAX LTD, with outstanding achievements in less than four years working in Los Angeles. How did you get this opportunity?

Moving to Los Angeles, I started looking for work as a music producer in several recording studios and ended up meeting Wally and Xandy at WAX LTD studios. I started working with them and eventually proved through my hard work that I had something to bring to the table on bigger projects.

I had briefly worked in other recording studios in LA before, but I didn’t stick to it as I was only given audio engineering tasks in which I didn’t have any creative input. It wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to be a part of the creative process as a music producer and WAX LTD understood that. The team knew how to challenge me to higher my standards and get me to succeed in producing big projects.

Could you tell us more about your most successful productions?

The most successful production I’ve done is probably the song “To The End” that I produced with the team for the movie “Spider-Man Into The Spider-Verse”. The song is introducing one of the main characters (Gwen), and the movie did really well winning a Golden Globe, an Oscar, and was nominated for a Grammy.

I knew it would be a successful movie, but had never imagined a few years ago that I would be a part of such a big project in such a short amount of time.

The song I’ve produced for Adaline, featured in Season 3, Episode 6 of “Wynonna Earp”, created a buzz and has been massively shared on social media. The show’s fans made it the most memorable songs of the season, which I didn’t expect at all.

The song “Something Good” I produced for the band “Modern Monet” has been synced by Wells Fargo for their “Rose Parade”.

The song “Chasing The Light”, one of the songs I composed and produced for Universal’s Production library has been one of the top AUDIO WAX downloads, used by major companies such as FOX SPORTS.

The latest one would be the song “Simplicity” I produced for the band “Fake Life”. It recently won the “Best Producer / Best Production” category at the Hollywood Music In Media Awards.

What are you now looking forward to? Any exciting projects?

A few years ago, I didn’t understand how some of my music producer friends could be so busy. I used to take it personally assuming they didn’t want to hang out or collaborate with me. Today I understand better, realizing the insane amount it takes when producing music at the highest level.

I’m looking forward to finishing my ongoing projects, and to keep collaborating with recording artists and songwriters. With WAX LTD, we’re working on some promising records that we’re very excited about such as the upcoming “Creeper” album under Warner UK. With Universal and AUDIO WAX, we’re planning on releasing dozens of albums per year for film and TV.

It is a massive amount of work ahead but I’m very excited and looking forward to it! This lifestyle, although very intense, is what keeps the smile on my face each day.






Pierre Zarokian

About the Author: Pierre Zarokian is the CEO of Submit Express, an SEO Company, and Reputation Stars, a Reputation Management company. Zarokian also writes for Search Engine Journal publication and has spoken at many industry trade shows.