Meet The Maltese Producer Who’s Worked With James Arthur, Bastille And More
Maltese artists have been making waves beyond our shores in recent years… but even when they’re not taking centre-stage, this small island’s creatives have found themselves in the room with some big artists :eyes:
Chris Vella is one such case, with the young videographer and music producer working with massive artists like James Arthur and Bastille to mention a few.
“It all started in 2021,” Vella tells Lovin Malta of how it came to be. “It hadn’t been too long after my return to the UK due to Covid. I was looking for some work as I had just gone freelance. A friend of mine who was also playing keys for James Arthur passed over the word that I’m a videographer as well as a music producer and engineer. Then I received a message from James saying he’s in need of someone capturing part of the writing process as promo for his next album at the time (It All Makes Sense In The End).”
The rest was history – Vella ended up visiting James’ house a couple of times, filming his studio session and eventually even recording some vocals for a few acoustic versions of his songs. By the end, he had recorded the vocals for James’ song with Sigala, then even an acoustic version of September.
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“I found it so inspiring watching James work as he really is a fantastic singer and the level of quality that he as well as his fellow songwriters and producers would work at was very high,” Vella said of his unique opportunity. “It was a dream watching them work.”
As luck would have it, the studio where Jacks works was co-owned by Bastille’s Dan and successful producer Mark Crew. One day, Vella received a text message from Dan himself saying he needed an engineer for a writing session he had with Lost Frequencies, and just like that, he ended up re-recording vocals for Dan’s new song with Alok and potentially even having his guitar playing feature in the Lost Frequencies track.
“Watching Dan write was so insightful, he has a great ear for melodies and ideas that have that ‘ear worm’ effect,” Vella remarked. “Very catchy and memorable. Overall was a lovely experience working with these two artists and I can’t wait for more opportunities like this.”
“Right now, I’m mainly working with a lot of local Maltese artists and have plenty of music in the pipeline that should drop throughout the next year,” Vella said, looking ahead at 2025 and beyond. “So stay tuned for those!”
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