“Bass” Hit

When Kevin Kadish ’93 first met Epic Records CEO L.A. Reid in summer 2014, the famed executive wore an ear-to-ear grin and wouldn’t stop shaking his hand.

It was with good reason: Kadish had collaborated with an unknown young songwriter to produce what would become the company’s first No. 1 single in seven years.

“All About That Bass,” co-written and performed by the now-famous Meghan Trainor, became a runaway hit—and is the lead single on Trainor’s first full-length album, “Title,” dropping today.

“When we wrote ‘All About That Bass,’ we didn’t think anyone would ever hear it,” says Kadish, who produced, co-wrote and mixed much of the new album. Within a day of Trainor showing up to meet him for the first time at his Nashville home studio in summer 2013, they had written the single about being comfortable with having a big “booty.” (“But I can shake it, shake it like I’m supposed to do.”)

Check out the ballad “What If I,” says Kadish. “I’m very proud of the arrangement and construction of the song. It was out of a real situation for Meghan, and I just really enjoy it.”

“Bass” went on to spend eight weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 list and net more than 460 million views on YouTube. It’s up for Grammys for “Record of the Year” and “Song of the Year” on the Feb. 8 show.

While he can’t exactly explain its popularity—“Maybe we struck a chord, and it’s just the right time for a song that’s honest,” he surmises—it’s easy to hear what makes “Bass” and second single “Lips Are Movin’” sound different from everything else on the radio: the 1950s throwback influences.

Growing up in Owings Mills, Md., Kadish was raised on the music of that era. “My mom was a huge Elvis Presley fan,” he says, and his parents constantly played their 45s of him, The Playmates and more. The music stuck with Kadish, but he never got a chance to write or produce those songs until he met Trainor, who grew up with much of the same music.

“We have really strong chemistry writing,” he says. “It’s sort of like we share a musical brain.”

He’d wanted to be a musician since seventh grade, when he saw a student playing a guitar in the middle of a crowd, spurring him to sign up for his first guitar class. Kadish, who also plays bass, keyboard and drums, attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston for two years before transferring to the University of Maryland. He joined a band, playing locally at places like Paragon bar on Route 1, and created his own major, music management, through the Individual Studies Program.

After graduating, he worked for two years at Capitol EMI Music and Associated labels (CEMA Distribution), now EMI Music Distribution, where he did artist development (working on promotions with record stores and the like) before downsizing pushed him to pursue music full time, playing solo and with his band Stereolife. While there were high points, like playing at Nissan Pavilion with the Dave Matthews Band, he also faced disappointment after signing a development deal with Republic/Universal Records, which dropped him when the company went through a corporate merger.

In 2000, he started a new chapter in his musical career when producer Matt Serletic offered him a job as a staff songwriter. Kadish wrote two songs for Willie Nelson during his first week in Los Angeles, and since then, he’s worked with artists as varied as Stacie Orrico, O.A.R. and Jason Mraz. (He was nominated in 2005 for a Grammy for Mraz’s album “Mr. A-Z.”).

He spent time on each coast for several years before he settled in Nashville in 2006, with his wife, Brandon Jane, half of the country duo Coldwater Jane.

Though Kadish had a steady track record in the industry, the overwhelming success of “All About That Bass” has opened new doors. Many more artists are reaching out to work with him, he recently signed a global administration deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing, and he’s in talks to start a publishing company and a record label imprint of his own.

“It’s exciting because this business is so feast or famine,” he says. “It’s nice to feast for a while.”