July 20, 2009

Andrew "Drew Money" Thielk: Producer/Engineer for Lil' Wayne

This RA grad is receiving attention and acclaim for his hard-hitting, old school sound.

Andrew "Drew Money" Thielk When we last spoke with Andrew "Drew Money" Thielk, the Full Sail Recording Arts graduate had quite a lot on his plate as an engineer/programmer with BMI award-winning producer Bigg D, contributing to projects with some of the biggest names in music while operating out of some of Miami’s most prominent recording studios. But in just under a year, things have picked up for Andrew even more.

Under the production moniker of Drew Money, Andrew has worked on two GRAMMY®-nominated projects – Shaggy’s Intoxication ("Best Reggae Album") and Jay-Z’s American Gangster ("Best Rap Album"), which featured Drew's drum programming on the Lil’ Wayne collaboration “Hello Brooklyn 2.0” – and has been spotlighted in both Billboard and Rolling Stone for his work on Lil’ Wayne’s latest single, “Fix My Hat.”

Featuring old school 808 drum sounds and loud guitars reminiscent of Licensed To Ill-era Beastie Boys, “Fix My Hat” has been one of the biggest projects that Andrew has worked on yet. “I got a call from Lil’ Wayne’s manager and he said that they loved the track, and that it was a potential single,” Andrew says. “That was a pretty exciting phone call to get. Lil’ Wayne is definitely one of the hottest names in the game right now.

“I’m still making the transition from being an engineer/programmer to being my own producer,” he continues, adding that he still does occasionally work with Bigg D. “But ‘Fix My Hat’ has definitely opened a few more doors for me. I made some tracks that Missy Elliott really likes, and I've been working closely with her A&R and songwriters. [Bay Area rapper] E-40 also reached out to me, and I’ve been listening to his music forever. He’s definitely a legend, and I’m going to be flying out to the Bay soon to work with him.”

Andrew has also begun exploring other outlets for music outside of the world of rap, including reworking music for Will Ferrell’s Land of the Lost and scoring music for documentaries. “Doing music for documentaries is a little bit more about capturing the emotion of the scene, as opposed to working on hip hop tracks, where it’s more about making something that’s going to bang in the clubs and have a catchy hook,” he says. “It takes a little more time and a little more thought goes into it.”

Having that kind of diversity in his musical output has been key to Andrew’s career. “I wouldn’t say that I have a ‘sound’ as of yet,” he says. “I definitely like the old school type of big beats, but I really like to do all types of stuff. I could do an acoustic guitar-based song first, and then the next one will be more of a hip hop track like ‘Fix My Hat.’ I’m really interested in branching out more into pop songs, and not just rap. It takes a lot more to turn a hot beat into a good song, and I feel that’s what separates real producers from beat-makers.

“I’ve wanted to do this since I was 17. When I went to Full Sail, I didn’t go to parties, and I never really went out,” he says. “I’d go to school and stay in the labs, and when I came home I’d be working on a track, always working on some music. It’s been almost ten years of grinding and hard work and catching a break every once in a while. And now it’s finally starting to pay off.”