After finishing a stint as electronic music producer for the Broadway hit “Hamilton,” composer, producer, engineer and artist Will Wells has been busy of late, selected to compose the main theme for ESPN’s December 2019 Heisman Trophy Awards, as well as perform on the show and act as musical director.
Shortly after, Wells launched into writing sessions with “Hamilton” star Anthony Ramos as executive producer for their second album together, which will be released on Republic Records this summer. He describes how the partnership with Ramos started: “It’s opening night off-Broadway at the Public Theater, and I go up to Anthony and I say, ‘Hey man, obviously everybody in here is extremely talented and brilliant at what they do, but you have something special. I would love to collaborate with you in some sort of way.’”
At the heart of Wells’ toolkit is the Radial Engineering SW8 and SW8-USB interface and auto switcher. “I first heard about the SW8 back in my Imagine Dragons days,” says Wells. “Back then, almost everybody had the SW8 and swore by it. When Radial announced the SW8-USB, I said, ‘Oh man, this literally makes my life so much easier as a playback engineer for live shows.’ So I bought one. And literally, in less than five minutes I had switched out my entire system on a break in rehearsal. It was that fast and easy to incorporate the SW8-USB into my live rig.”
Over the course of his career, Wells has also worked with a range of artists that includes Quincy Jones, Barbara Streisand, Imagine Dragons, Logic, Wyclef Jean, DJ Premier, LMFAO, Pentatonix and more. A graduate of Berklee, he notes that the institution has played a significant role in his career. For example, he landed the gig with Imagine Dragons on a Berklee referral and, after that, spent several years with the band touring the world and playing packed arenas.
Wells’ rising professional profile mirrors his experience with and use of Radial products. “I almost feel like my introduction to Radial gear was the same as my introduction to the studio,” he says. “For me, Radial gear is a staple in any recording or live music environment. From the start, everywhere that I would go, I would always see and use these Radial products. So, it only made sense that I would join the company in an official artist capacity because Radial gear was already part of my toolkit.”
In addition to the SW8 and SW8-USB, Wells regularly uses Radial ProDI passive direct boxes, ProD2 stereo passive direct boxes and the Bassbone OD bass preamp.
Read the full interview with Will Wells here.