Since Alissia started importing bass covers on YouTube 13 years in the past, she’s gone from a Berklee Faculty grad to a Grammy-nominated producer for Mary J. Blige, Anderson .Paak and Bootsy Collins, to call just some. Her aim has remained the identical all through: “There’s at all times extra to be taught,” she tells Selection. “It’s that starvation for information that has introduced me to some unbelievable locations and other people.”
Born in Switzerland, and a brief resident of Italy and America, the 33 year-old is nominated for non-classical producer of the 12 months on the 2025 Grammys. The nomination acknowledges her for her half in songs like BJ the Chicago Child’s “Honey” (that includes Chlöe) and “Spend the Evening” (that includes Coco Jones), and Jamila Wooden’s “Bugs,” amongst others.
Alissia’s model is clearly rooted in funk and jazz soul. She’s turn into the go-to for artists trying so as to add a particular model — traditional but progressive — of bass and groove to their music. She’s solely the ninth girl within the present’s 65-year historical past to contend for the award, and this 12 months she’s up in opposition to Dan Nigro, Mustard, Ian Fitchuck and D’Mile in a class the place a girl has by no means received.
“It’s already been extremely rewarding as a result of this nomination is a lot greater than me,” she affirms. “I’ve at all times had a tremendous assist system. Bootsy, from the start, was positively a mentor, and never simply that, he would introduce me as his protégé.”
And there’s extra: Prince and the late Quincy Jones all reached out to her through social media after seeing her efficiency movies on-line. Alissia credit American keyboardist Greg Phillinganes, who famously labored as a session musician for Michael Jackson and numerous others, for making the official introduction between herself and Jones.
“I grew up enamored by [Jones’] string preparations, and after I lastly did get to fulfill him in individual for the primary time, I didn’t put together something – I nearly knew we’d hit it off,” she says, including, “the primary query he requested me was ‘What’s your signal?’”
She continues, “All through all of his years within the business, previous all of the accolades and all the things — Quincy was nonetheless sincere about what music meant to him. He was a music lover. And it translated as a result of he was so open to encouraging the following era.”
A self-proclaimed “music nerd,” Alissia started her profession as an artist, and fronted her personal band. She produced and launched her personal EP – although she winces on the point out of it at present – composed totally of funk music impressed by Motown’s best hits and dubbed “Again to the Funkture.” It’s been wiped from streaming providers however can nonetheless be discovered on different folks’s channels throughout YouTube.
“I hadn’t lived sufficient musically to signal to a label,” she says. “They needed to manage what I wore, who I labored with, and what model of music I used to be making. I wasn’t prepared. I simply needed to make music and I didn’t wish to waste my time doing the rest and definitely didn’t wish to launch something that I felt wasn’t my finest.”
Good issues come to those that wait, and Alissia resides proof. In 2025, she is going to launch a debut album with a protracted record of options she fastidiously avoids spoiling.
“I’ve been making among the most unbelievable music I’ve ever made,” she says. “I’m not singing on it myself, however there’s actually surprises in retailer.”
