Jason Quenneville

Jason "DaHeala" Quenneville
Background information
Birth name	Jason Quenneville
Occupation(s)	Record producer songwriter engineer
Years active	2003–present
Labels	Universal Publishing/SAL&CO

Jason Quenneville (born February 23, 1982), professionally known as Daheala (/da-he-la), is a record producer and songwriter from Canada.^[1] He has produced significantly for artists such as The Weeknd, Belly, Massari among others.^[2] He collaborates and co-produce with Ben Billions, Danny Boy Styles, Illangelo and Doc McKinney.

Early life and career

Born in Toronto Canada, Quenneville moved to Gatineau when he was two, and grew up in a bilingual household. At the age of 13, he learned how to DJ at a youth center which lead to him learning how to use FL Studio 3 (formerly Fruity Loops). Without any formal training, he started using production software for sampling and programming. His first production work was at the age of 23, when he worked on a mixtape (Death Before Dishonor) for Belly.^[2]

While Daheala is known lush soundscapes in his productions, he often focuses on the sonics and musical feel. He currently uses Ableton Live to make beats, but his versatility often entails switching between numerous DAW’s. Daheala was influenced by producers such as Dr. Dre, Burial, and Rick Rubin.^[2]

DaHeala produced 9 of the 12 tracks on The Weeknd's album Kiss Land (2013).^[3] After further work for The Weeknd's contribution to The Hunger Games – Catch Fire OST on "Devil May Cry", Quenneville was selected as the primary producer on Rick Ross's track "In Vein" with fellow producers Metro Boomin and Rick Rubin off the #1 Billboard 200 album "Mastermind (Rick Ross album)".

DaHeala has continued to operate as The Weeknd's in-house producer. His current credits include The Weeknd's two smash hits; the platinum single “Often” and “Earned It”, the 4 times platinum hit single from the Fifty Shades of Grey Soundtrack.^[2]

Quenneville's close collaboration with The Weeknd lead to executive producing the critically acclaimed "Beauty Behind the Madness" album. Beauty Behind the Madness not only debuted at #1 overall, but also remained there for 3 consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 chart and held the #1 album position in 70 countries.^[4] In addition, BBTM garnished the American Music Award for Favorite Soul/R&B Album in 2015, while also winning the 'Outstanding Album' at the 47th annual NAACP Image Awards. Beauty Behind the Madness won the Grammy Award for Best Urban Contemporary Album at the 58th Grammy Awards pre-telecast.

In 2016, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 88th Academy Awards for co-writing song "Earned It" from Fifty Shades of Grey; the nomination is shared with The Weeknd, Belly, and Stephan Moccio.^[5]

Feature artists on "Beauty Behind the Madness", include Lana Del Rey, Labrinth and Ed Sheeran.^[6] He is managed by SAL&CO.^[7]

Discography

References

External links

Wikinews has related news: 'Earned It' earns The Weeknd his first Grammy