Paramdeep Sokhy on music production, collaboration, and meeting Whitney Houston

When Paramdeep Sokhy dials into our call, he’s in the studio. “I was recording up until five minutes ago,” he says. “I just want to make music all the time.” Paramdeep started sound engineering as a teenager and later ran studios with his production partner in Tottenham. He was part of the evolving underground hip-hop and R&B scene for eight years, before being signed to EMI Records in 2009 and moving to the US. “I knew I wanted to do music since I was eight, but at that age, you don’t have any concept of the industry,” he says. “By proxy of being signed to a major label like EMI, you’re thrust into the music industry, and you realise it’s a rollercoaster with extreme highs and lows. EMI Records is the umbrella label and within that, there are producers like Rodney Jerkins and Timbaland who make huge records and have subsidiary labels. I was signed as part of a duo with producer Harmony Samuels through Rodney Jerkins.”

When Rodney signed Paramdeep and Harmony in England, he also signed eight American producers and put them together in a production camp. Within this crew, Paramdeep was the only person who could rap, which opened further opportunities for artistic collaboration. One of the producers signed to Rodney Jerkins was Dukebox.“I’m still friends with him, he’s the coolest guy in the world,” he says. “Dukebox has been producing Will Smith records since he was 16. Just like singers have writers, rappers have writers too, but we’re called ghostwriters because nobody wants to reveal this fact. I ghostwrote a couple of raps over some of Dukebox’s beats, which Will Smith loved but didn’t end up using. I was asked to write something including all of Will’s accolades, so I wrote this crazy verse with all his Oscar nominations, and I looked up his net worth. Will Smith heard it and said it was absolutely incredible, but he couldn’t do it. He’s got a particular type of image and he didn’t want to be perceived in this way. Ironically, years later, Will Smith made a song that was very similar which I always find funny because he ended up going that way anyhow.”

During his time with EMI Records, Paramdeep collaborated with multiple artists on various projects, including a song voiced by Lauren Evans. One day, Rodney told him to come into the studio: Chalice Recording Studio in North Hollywood. Two minutes after he arrived, Whitney Houston walked in. He played her their song and she liked it – she wanted to sing it. “This song was produced by Harmony Samuels, I played guitar on it and mixed it, someone else wrote it: we were all part of the song’s creation,” says Paramdeep. “The thing that sticks in my memory was how down-to-earth and humble Whitney was. She was a mega icon; I always say to people that if aliens came to planet earth and said ‘take us to your best singer’, Whitney would be up on the list. She was a solar system, galactic level singer. It was incredible to be around this kind of energy. When we finished the session, Whitney asked us all to pray. We stood in a circle, held hands and prayed with her, which was pretty amazing; this was really the biggest thing about the day. Unfortunately, Whitney passed away a year later, so we don’t know whether she took the song and sang it or not – we didn’t see her again. But she was an incredible person and it’s a mind-blowing experience that stays with you forever.”

When Universal Music Group took over EMI Records, Paramdeep chose to return to England and work in underground rap again. “Unless you are part of the top one or two per cent of the industry, you’re living an artist’s life. To be a great writer, you’ve got to have a creative mind. Working in the US was super intense, so I came back to the UK,” he says. Upon returning, a mutual friend introduced Paramdeep to British rapper Pak-Man. On 8 July 2022, Paramdeep’s album with Pak-Man Legendary Still went number one in the Hip-Hop and R&B charts, making it his first number one hit. “I’ve been working with Pak-Man for ten years,” says Paramdeep. “It’s very rare that you meet someone and make something that goes number one. I’ve made loads of songs with Pak – we’ve accumulated various songs that have hundreds and thousands of views that have got us to this place.

“Pak isn’t signed. He put all the promotional money up himself. He bought a van, had the van wrapped with his logo, and then went around the country for three days. Pak did pop-up shows, visited record stores, trainer shops, clubs. We actually went number one more from physical sales. It’s very hard to chart now unless you’re signed and have a massive push online. You have to stream songs off an album 120 times to make the equivalent of one sale. However, you could meet someone and say, ‘this is my CD, would you like to buy it?’ and that’s a one-time thing. His angle is very inspirational; he went round the streets selling his CD hand-to-hand and sold thousands of copies to get that number one. Going number one in the Hip-Hop charts is a bucket list thing for me – a crazy thing to do. Our whole collaboration stems from friendship. I’m working on his new album now, so we’re going to try and do it again.”

When asked if there are any misconceptions about music production that he’d like to bust, Paramdeep emphasises the importance of collaboration. “Nobody’s an island,” he says. “Anyone can buy a phone, mic, monitor, speaker, laptop, which means you essentially have a studio. We have access to Instagram, Spotify, Aggregate, DistroKid – distribution services are at our fingertips. There are a few outliers to this, but for the most part, this creates a false narrative that you can make incredible, long-lasting music all by yourself. You need community, you need teams to work in, you need other people. Most good music stems from love and friendship. If you trust people with your vision and your sound, you can make incredible art. With the way the world is set up now, I can make a song and immediately post it to DistroKid, and post the cover and a video snippet on Instagram. But I always say four ears are better than two.

“I guess too many cooks spoil the broth as well, so you’ve got to have balance. The music world is becoming very insular and there’s a misconception that because of technology and different available mediums, you can do this by yourself – when actually you probably can’t and shouldn’t. You need other people to help you with your vision. I have very few misconceptions anymore about the industry because I’ve been doing this for so long. However, if you’re on your way in, you’re flooded with misconceptions. I think being insular is something all young musicians need to think about staying away from. This is the great thing about Trinity Laban. It focuses on live music: on bands and live performance. It encourages you to play music with other people. I’m from the production world and I’m happy to get on with things myself. However, I did a session with my colleague Tony Briscoe the other day, where he was in the studio playing the piano. We made music together and it was just incredible bouncing ideas off a like mind. I think what we did together was better than what I would accomplish by myself in many ways.”

2024 marks Paramdeep’s third year teaching on the BA Music Performance and Industry course at Trinity Laban. When students reach Level 6 in the degree, they can choose a specialist subject, an elective. Paramdeep wrote the Hip-Hop elective for third-year students. “It’s me representing not just myself, but everything I’ve come from,” he says. “The streets of London, production, hip-hop music. I’m really grateful to Joe Townsend (Head of Popular Music) because he’s a free-thinking and very forward-facing person. I’m lucky to have him as a boss and he said that we need to integrate hip-hop into our popular music course. My dream is to represent everything that’s made me in an institution. So far, teaching that course has been amazing – it’s a smaller class and I get to really interact with students. This is the specialist subject that I love, and I get to represent me and all the people that I’ve come from.

“Trinity Laban is an incredible melting pot and what I really like is I’ve come in at the very early stages of the BA Music Performance Industry course. It’s great to help shape and mould something new. Joe, Reiss Beckles (Popular Music Coordinator), everyone who works here are extremely open to how to make the course better, how can we shape it. We have a great sense of team and it’s unique because everybody is incredibly talented. I’m in awe of all of them because they’re amazing at what they do. Doug Cartwright is an incredible guitarist, Lucy Potterton is an amazing vocal coach, Tony Briscoe is an incredible producer – we’ve got the best of the best. It’s wonderful to be able to work with a team of people to shape something that’s brand new in an institution which didn’t previously have pop music. We get to pioneer what that’s like for a conservatoire, and I think we’re doing great work because we’re hearing that we’re doing great work. Onwards and upwards.”