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Jared Lee Gosselin works with Nick Small on a new song at Plymouth Rock Studio. Gosselin, a Grosse Pointe native, has spent the last 20 years in Los Angeles producing music for artists like Macy Gray and Young Jeezy as well as working on movie soundtracks and other projects.
Photo by Patricia O’Blenes
At right, music producer/engineer Jared Lee Gosselin discusses a track with singer/songwriter/producer Nick Small, left, as the two work on music at Plymouth Rock Studio.
From left, music producer/engineer Jared Lee Gosselin and singer/songwriter/producer Nick Small recently began working together in the studio.
GROSSE POINTE FARMS — Even as a child, Jared Lee Gosselin had an ear for music. He can still remember his first records — Run-DMC’s “Raising Hell” and Public Enemy’s “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back.”
He’s gone from listening to music legends to working with them. Gosselin, who grew up in Detroit and Grosse Pointe Park, is now a Grammy Award-winning producer who has worked with artists such as Macy Gray, Corinne Bailey Rae, India.Arie, Kane Brown, Swae Lee and Neon Trees, to name just a few.
After 20 years of living and working in Los Angeles, Gosselin is back in metro Detroit, living in Grosse Pointe Farms not far from the home of his younger sister, Ariel Gosselin, and his mom, who lives in Grosse Pointe Park. He came home to start a record label, create a musical collective and nurture new talent.
“I just like to be inspired by things, and I like to create,” said Gosselin, 42. “If I’m inspired by things, I’m happy.”
At age 5, Gosselin made his first attempt at spinning vinyl on his mother’s record player. His parents weren’t musical — his dad worked in quality control for the auto industry and his mom was a hair stylist — but a great-uncle was said to be a famous banjo player, according to a family historian. Gosselin set off on a different musical path.
“When I was little, I wanted to be like Jam Master Jay — DJ and scratch records,” Gosselin said.
As a youth, Gosselin played saxophone and guitar in church. He was also in bands in high school. A graduate of Grosse Pointe North High School’s Class of 1999, Gosselin was more focused on a career in the musical industry than the classroom. By 16, he was engineering in the studio and DJing shows. Enrolled part-time as a high school senior in the Recording Institute of Detroit, he met and started working with legendary Motown songwriters Barrett Strong (“Money [That’s What I Want]”) and Robert Bateman (“Please Mr. Postman”). Strong gave him the nickname “Magic Man” for his technical prowess.
“You learn more from experience,” Gosselin said. “I’ve been blessed to learn from great people over the years.”
He started working with some of Detroit’s most prominent hip-hop artists, including Proof, Obie Trice and D12, and operating his own recording studios. Ariel Gosselin said their dad built a recording studio for her brother in the basement of his home in New Baltimore.
“This has always been his passion, and he’s really good at it,” Ariel Gosselin said. “I remember him being able to pick up any instrument and play it.”
Ariel Gosselin, who’s more than five years younger than her brother, recalls being just a teenager when her big brother was getting her into shows that were typically only open to adults or those of legal drinking age. She wasn’t drinking — she was just there to dance and have fun — and she remembers the rappers being protective of her.
“I was the younger sister, hanging out with these big rap stars,” Ariel Gosselin said. “I was like everybody’s little sister.”
On a recent October afternoon, Gosselin was behind the controls at Plymouth Rock Recording Co. in Plymouth, working on a track with Nick Small, of Plymouth, the studio’s manager and a music producer who’s now recording his own material with the band Dusk Harmonic.
“We’ve worked with a lot of engineers here, and very rarely have I met someone who’s that multitalented,” Small said. “It lends itself to creating something that’s fresh.”
One of Gosselin’s greatest strengths is his ability to enhance a track without overwhelming it or rendering it cold. The humanity of the song and its emotional hook continues to shine through.
“It’s all about making great art,” Gosselin said. “And knowing when to quit.”
Small said Gosselin is able to bring the best out of an artist and a song. He also brings unique insight into the music because he’s written songs himself.
“Not all audio mixing engineers are also producers,” Small said. “He understands music at a very fundamental level. That’s rare to find somebody who can make a song as well as mix a song.”
Gosselin won his first Grammy Award in 2013 for the Beto Cuevas album, “Transformación.” He’s worked in a wide range of genres — including dance, R&B, rock and soul — and said he “never wanted to be pigeonholed.”
“It’s been amazing,” Ariel Gosselin said of having her brother back in town. “I’m so proud of him. He’s like a Detroit legend. I’m so happy he’s back home.”
Jared Gosselin and his wife, singer/songwriter Rama Duke, have a 9-year-old daughter together; mom and daughter were in Greece at press time, where Duke was doing a musical. Ariel Gosselin has a son around the same age, and the cousins are looking forward to spending more time together. Her son is already a regular at his uncle’s house.
“My son is obsessed with going to his house and dancing to his music,” Ariel Gosselin said.
Local audiences will be able to get a chance to hear Gosselin DJ during a rare intimate show from an artist who has played Coachella and South by Southwest when Gosselin spins during a fundraiser for his sister, Ariel, who has mounting medical bills as she battles cancer. The fundraiser will take place Oct. 27 at Ye Olde Tap Room, 14915 Charlevoix Ave. — at Alter Road — in Detroit. Gosselin is one of several DJs on the bill that evening; the music will start at 8 p.m. There’s a $10 cover charge, and all money raised from that charge will go toward Ariel Gosselin. For more information about the fundraiser, call Ye Olde Tap Room at (313) 824-1030.
