Stephan Moccio is a Grammy and Academy Award-nominated composer, producer, pianist, arranger, conductor and recording artist.
He co-wrote and co-produced the two songs for Fifty Shades of Grey and its soundtrack: “Earned It” (The Weeknd) and “I Know You” (Skylar Grey). He also co-wrote Miley Cyrus’ single “Wrecking Ball” from her 2013 studio album Bangerz.
Last week he was honored by BMI for “Earned It.”
What does this honor mean to you?
It means the world because we’re being honored by fellow songwriters and for art that we’ve created from an emotional place. It means that the masses have excepted something that we have done. That’s kind of amazing when you think about it because there are so many songs that a song writer writes, and not all of them make it. When you actually do get one that cuts through, gets to radio, gets out there and millions and millions of people hear it worldwide, it’s an amazing feeling.
How was working on the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack?
Amazing, I wrote one called “I Know You” with Skylar Grey, and another one “Earned It” with The Weeknd, Jason Quenneville and Belly. That song “Earned It” happened to get us an Academy Award nomination too, and we had the honor of performing it at the Oscars.
What is it like writing the soundtrack for 50 Shades of Grey, did you read the book first? It’s a pretty polemic movie.
I did, it’s funny, I know people have got opinions on the film, there’s this heavy cloth of psychology, it’s really not about the sex as much as it’s about the psychology in that book, and the series of books. If you can understand that, the matters of the heart and the matters of the head, and how they can mess with you, then you get into a certain zone and you almost have to get there to write the kind of music that we did for the film anyhow, but I love it. I love going to that place, so it’s exciting.
