Interview With R&B Producer Carlos 'Los DaMystro' McKinney

Singersroom interviews R&B producer Carlos 'Los DaMystro' McKinney.

Budding music producers take note, Carlos 'Los DaMystro' McKinney has a background in Jazz and Classical music by playing piano since the age of 3.

When one hears the name Los DaMystro, it may not ring as familiar as recording artists like Usher, Electrik Red, The-Dream or Mariah Carey. But, when hits like “Falsetto,” “Trading Places” and “Bed,” are mentioned, the picture becomes clearer and results in what some have deemed a “go to” hitmaker. Born to a renowned jazz family, Carlos McKinney, aka Los DaMystro, is no rookie to music. In fact, the former ‘New York Undercover’ (FOX) composer has been honing his craft since the age of three.

Singersroom: Tell me about your musical roots…

Carlos “Los DaMystro” McKinney: I come from a large musical family, one of the biggest jazz families out of Detroit. My uncle is one of the greatest piano players in the world. I have an uncle that played trombone, another uncle that’s a bassist, another uncle’s a drummer and they all played with very renowned jazz musicians from Sonny Rollins and Elvin Jones to Dizzie Gillespie…the list goes on and on.

I started playing the piano at 3-years-old and from there I studied classical music and Jazz for years. I started playing in my first band when I was eleven years old, which was my uncle’s band. They had to sneak me in the back door of cabarets and clubs because I was under age. So I started off real young, playing piano in live music bands. Then I got into production. The way I actually started production was I had gotten a little four track recorder and I started reproducing music for singers who wanted to sing in talent shows or community shows or whatever. I started reproducing different music for them to sing over, kind of like a karaoke band track. And that’s kind of how I started production.

Read more of the interview here