Lakota alumni win Grammy awards


LIBERTY TWP. — It’s not easy to win a Grammy, Brent Kolatalo, a Lakota alum from 2000 said.

So, when he and his production partner Ken Lewis, a 1988 Lakota graduate, were nominated for three Grammy awards this year, they knew it would be a tough competition. It’s been five years since their last nomination.

“You are just hopeful, and you never know which way the Grammy’s are going to go, because it’s all music industry voting,” Kolatalo said.

Eminem’s album, “Recovery,” was named Rap Album of the Year, and both Lakota graduates were awarded Grammy plaques for their work on the albums. For Lewis, who has been nominated 23 times and won seven times, the award is validation of all they two have accomplished. Kolatalo was nominated nine times and won three times.

Their ultimate goal, Lewis said, is to earn Grammy statues, but they need to win in a category targeted at producers and engineers.

“I’d say we’ve been really fortunate to get on the albums that we’ve got on, and have gotten as many nominations we’ve gotten already,” Lewis said.

Their work, he said, stands out to artists.

“I think it’s a the fact that were really good at doing a lot of different things at a very high level. A guy like Kanye (West) can call us, and basically throw any kind of crazy thing at us, and we’re going to deliver. And, there’s not many people out there that can do that.”

The two have earned many nominations from West albums, Lewis said. “I’m one of the few people that he goes to for a very wide range of stuff,” he said.

On this winning album, Lewis said he sang in three songs and worked on instrumental arrangements.

Lewis and Kolatalo met through their mutual guitar tutor Jeff Martin from West Chester Twp. Kolatalo said he has been interested in music since he was young.

Kolatalo attended Berkley School of Music in Boston — Lewis’s alma mater. He interned for Lewis, and the two formed a production partnership where they produce, mix and engineer albums in New York.

“It just feels like we’ve always had this unspoken common goal and common bond with what we wanted to do and the level that we wanted to be at and how we wanted to get there,” Lewis said. “It’s rare to find anybody like that. I think having known him since he was 16, 17 years old, and having watched him develop, and grabbing him when the time was right and pulling him here and eventually having him work up to the point where he is my production partner — I don’t know if it’s the Midwest work ethic or the long history together. Whatever it was, it seems to be doing really well for us.”

Kolatalo said he loves the work.

“It’s just being creative every day,” he said. “There’s nothing better than that. Every day you go to work and you’re working on something different.”

The two hope to be back next year with Kanye West’s newest album.

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