Matthew Hennessy
VSOP Productions
Matthew Hennessy has spent the last 10 years of his life striving to bring hits to life in various dimly lit studio control rooms across the country. Working with artists as different as DMX to Disturbed, or George Clinton to Kanye West, Matt strives to bring the best out of everyone. Spending his childhood playing and studying music very intensely, focused mainly on jazz, but later picking up guitar and playing with many local bands, he got a job moping floors in a Villa Park recording studio called Metropolis. It was here that Hennessy discovered his real passion for the music industry, in recording and production. Spending a few months at Metropolis was great, but Matt eventually decided to depart Chicago for Boston where he attended Berklee College of Music, studying Jazz, as well as music as a whole. After a year at Berklee Matt found that he missed being in the studio and began to focus his life around that as much as possible. Working to become a Staff Engineer at a fixture Hip Hop studio in Boston, Matt finally found his nitch. In the next year he worked with Guru from Gang star, the Wu-Tang Clan and LL Cool J, plus many other crews, but he began to miss Chicago more than ever. Within 3 months Matt found he was being offered a position at R. Kelly's famous studio - The Chocolate Factory. Working there for 2 years Matt got to work with many great artists like Jay-Z, Twista, Kanye West, DMX, Ludacris, Cam-Ron, Anthoney Hamilton, Mary J. Blige, Young Buck, J-Lo, as well as movies like Minority Report.
The next step for Hennessy was to embark on a freelance career. After finding work at a studio on the south side of Chicago he found he was working unknowingly for Chicago rock band, Disturbed. After going on tour with them, as well as Taproot and Chevelle, to record their live record he balanced it out by recording for Top Hip Hop Producer No-ID on his pet project, K. Fox's Def Jam debut. He followed that up by mixing tracks for Keith Sweat as well a Chicago Idol White Boy. In 2003 he also began mixing for Maurice Joshua, and eventually worked on a remix for Beyoncee Knowles that won a Grammy for Remix of the Year. Since then he has done many mixes for Destinys Child, Curtis Mayfield, Omarion and Janet Jackson.
In the start of 2004 Matt banded together with is brother Jon to start VSOP Productions, which is just putting out its first project now, and they are constantly looking for the hottest, freshest Hip Hop and R and B talent the Chi has to offer. Hennessy continues to challenge himself by taking on Chief Engineering duties at Alien Soundscapes on the south side of Chicago, mixing tracks for Public Announcement, American Idol - Jennifer Hudson, Chicago's own Do or Die, Ric Jilla, Bump J and The Goon Squad, 3 Piece, and an extended stay with George Clinton and Parliment Funkadellic.
So while you are reading this Matt is doing what he does best, sitting behind the desk at a Chicago studio pushing to turn out the hits, or sitting behind a keyboard with his brother setting up the hits of tomorrow.