Wells grew up in the town of Peterborough, Ontario,[3] Canada, the son of United Church of Canada Reverend Dr. Bill Wells.[5] At age 11, he was in a wheelchair unable to walk for two years with Perthes' disease. Wells attended Adam Scott CVI,[6] learned to play several instruments,[7] and joined many musical ensembles in his hometown from the local orchestra to bar bands to being a church organist/choir director, as well as DJing dances and presenting a weekly radio show on Trent University Radio CFFF-FM.[7] He studied classical piano, drums, pipe organ, orchestral percussion and music theory at Toronto's Royal Conservatory of Music.[8] At age 15, Wells was awarded the top prize out of all categories in the Peterborough Kiwanis Music Festival, the Founders Award, and represented Peterborough twice at the Kiwanis Music Provincial Finals for the province of Ontario. At age 17, he attended the Humber College Jazz Music Program in Toronto as a piano major.[3]
Career
After moving from Peterborough to Toronto at age 17, Wells worked as a live and studio musician with Canadian musicians Rob McConnell and Kim Mitchell.[9] He joined Kim Mitchell's band at age 19. Wells recorded keyboards and backing vocals on Mitchell's Rockland, toured Canada several times with the band, and won the award for Best Keyboardist at the 1990 Toronto Music Awards.
Wells was awarded a Canada Council arts grant to study in California with Clare Fischer, composer and string arranger for Prince. He traveled to Los Angeles at age 21 with the intention of returning to Canada, but Fischer began recommending Wells as a pianist. Wells joined k.d. lang's band soon afterward,[10] performing with her on the 1993 Grammy Awards where she won Best Pop Female Vocal.
In 2007, Wells produced both Timbaland's and OneRepublic's version of the song, "Apologize". The song ranked number 50 on the list of the Billboard Hot 100's All-Time Top Songs list from the chart's first 50 years. It stayed at number one for eight consecutive weeks on the Billboard Pop 100 chart, and spent 25 consecutive weeks in the top 10. It was ranked number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 Songs of the Decade.[11]
Wells has designed best selling music software, creating the "El Rey" compressor plugin with Acustica Audio and Studio DMI,[13] and a signature series of plugins with Waves Audio.[14]
Wells received a Grammy nomination for co-producing and mixing all songs for Lin-Manuel Miranda's 2021 movie and soundtrack album In the Heights,[17] directed by Jon M. Chu. Wells worked on a second film with Alex Lacamoire and Miranda, the animated hit movie musical Vivo (film) directed by Kirk DeMicco.[18] Wells also worked on a third film for Lin-Manuel Miranda's directorial debut, mixing the songs in the musical film Tick, Tick... Boom!.[19]
Wells is the music producer, mix engineer, and multi-instrumentalist for both Wicked films and soundtrack albums.[20]
Personal life
Wells is married to Swedish songwriter Nina Woodford. He has six children. He works out of his studio in Los Angeles.[3]
Credits
Wicked - Wells is music producer for all songs in both films and soundtrack albums, mix engineer and rhythm section multi-instrumentalist playing drums, keyboards, bass and guitars.
Adele – 21, the best-selling album of the 21st century, co-wrote the song "One and Only"
The Greatest Showman: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack – Wells won a 2019 Grammy Award for producing and mixing this number 1 album on iTunes in 77 countries, number 1 in the UK album sales chart for 28 weeks, number 1 in the US album sales chart for three weeks, with the single "This Is Me" winning a 2018 Golden Globe and nominated/performed on the 2018 Academy Awards. The album is the best-selling worldwide album of 2018.
Mika – produced, mixed, and played electric guitar, drums, piano and bass guitar on Mika's chart-topping debut single "Grace Kelly" from the album Life in Cartoon Motion which stayed at number 1 for seven weeks in the UK.
Wells received the Pensado Giant Award at the 2017 Pensado Awards for achievements in the field of record-making.[22] He has been nominated for a Grammy six times, won a Grammy in 2019 for his production and mixing on The Greatest Showman film and soundtrack album, and in 2023 won a 2nd Grammy for Michael Buble's album Higher.[23] In June 2015, Wells was awarded an honorary degree from his alma mater Humber College, a music school in Toronto. Wells was nominated as producer of the year in 2000 and 2019 at the Canadian Juno Awards.[24]
