Dallas Austin

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Dallas Austin (born December 29 1970 in Columbus, Georgia) is an American songwriter, record producer, guitarist, and keyboardist.

[edit] Career

Dallas Austin was a member of Highland Place Mobsters for Laface Records in the early nineties before embarking in as a full time producer. He has crafted songs for a number of R&B and pop chart artists, including Texas (band), Boyz II Men,JC Chasez, Monica, Madonna, Janet Jackson, For Real, Aretha Franklin, Stacie Orrico, Another Bad Creation, and Brand New Heavies. Austin's most notable works are his many hits for LaFace act TLC, including "Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg", "What about Your Friends", "Creep", "Silly Ho" and "Unpretty." He has a son, Tron, with TLC member Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas.

Austin has tried his hand at remixing for other artists, most notably "They Don't Care About Us" for Michael Jackson and "The Power of Good-Bye" for Madonna. In more recent times, Austin's work has returned him to the charts, writing and producing the successful "Trick Me" for Kelis as well as "Left Outside Alone" and "Sick and Tired" for Anastacia.

In addition to American artists, Austin has produced songs for overseas artists. In 1999 Austin and Japanese pop singer Amuro Namie began a professional relationship which revitalised her career. Most of Amuro's hits since that year have been produced by Austin. Since their collaboration began, Amuro's hits now have an almost exclusive R&B flavor. Sales numbers and Oricon rankings demonstrate the large impact Austin has had on the Japanese pop scene as well as the American one.

Austin is known for socially conscious productions such as TLC's "Unpretty" and "Damaged", and more recently "Ugly" for UK act Sugababes. For the Sugababes, Austin produced several other tracks on their number-one album Taller in More Ways, including the single "Push the Button", which spent three weeks at the top of the UK charts. He is also responsible for producing Gwen Stefani's single "Cool" from her "Love. Angel. Music. Baby." album.

Other credits of Austin's include the number-two single "Hit 'Em Up Style" recorded by Blu Cantrell, "Don't Let Me Get Me" and "Just like a Pill" by P!nk, and the hit "Secret" by Madonna.

Austin also formed Rowdy Records in 1992 and was the executive producer of the film Drumline (2002) for 20th Century Fox. He also served as the film's musical director. Austin is currently working with Warner Bros. studios on another music-driven film, and he also contributed to the re-release of Mariah Carey's The Emancipation of Mimi.