KC’s Dominique Sanders secures Grammy nominations for upright bass on Janelle Monaé’s Age of Pleasure
Courtesy Dominique Sanders
In 2018, Dominique Sanders moved from his hometown of Kansas City to LA to climb the ladder as a producer and bassist. Five years later, Sanders tracked bass lines for two major 2023 releases: hometown hero Janelle Monaé’s Age of Pleasure and Hozier’s Unreal Earth. Now, the Grammy-nominated Age of Pleasure is vying for two awards: Best Progressive R&B Album and the crowning jewel, Album of the Year.
The Pitch hopped on the phone with Sanders ahead of the Grammy Awards to discuss his contributions to the albums, his enduring KC roots on the West Coast, and more.
The Pitch: Could you tell us a bit about your musical upbringing?
Courtesy Dominique Sanders
Dominique Sanders: I started playing around on the piano when I was pretty young—around 5 or 6, maybe—but my main instrument is the upright bass. I started playing that when I was 13, in middle school at Liberty Middle School. Then, I played all the way through high school and went to college at UMKC for two years. After that, I played around Kansas City for a couple of years and then moved out to LA.
How did you start working on the production side of things?
I started in 2013. I just started doing stuff a little bit on my own. Then, I linked up with Tech N9NE, Seth Crew, and some of the artists on Strange Music. I was pretty much working with everyone that was on Strange Music around that time. That was the first bigger production stuff. And we had a production group with other producers from Kansas City, Leonard DStroy, and Conductor Williams—who is doing dope shit with Drake now.
How’d you start working with Janelle Monaé? Did you make that connection in KC or after you had moved?
Honestly, I met Janelle two and a half years ago, kind of randomly. I was working pretty heavily with an artist, Jidenna, who was signed to her. Basically, I have a ranch in LA, and he ended up moving super close. We did his album, he ended up being my neighbor, and we got super close. He’s been signed to Janelle since the beginning of his career, so his producers and everybody were close with Janelle, so I didn’t actually meet her until I came out to LA.
She had heard about me, but we never really officially met until I moved to LA. I was working with her artists, and then we went to South Africa right before COVID with Jadena, and then after that, we really started linking up. Everybody’s family here. If one person is working on a project, then everybody is working on it.
Courtesy Dominique Sanders
It was a big year for you. In addition to your work as a producer in 2023, you tracked upright bass lines for a couple of big releases: Janelle Monae’s Age of Pleasure and Hozier’s acclaimed Unreal Earth. Could you tell us more about your contributions to those albums?
Janelle was pretty simple. She was like, “I’m trying to do something energy-driven.” Specifically on the upright bass. That was Janelle’s thing.
With Hozier, I went to work with his producer, Jeff Gitty, with whom I work a lot. We did two tracks there, and Hozier was just cool. He was very open to ideas and collaboration and all that, you know? At that stage, everyone was still trying to figure out what the song would be. He was really cool and open to figuring out how to put the pieces together. I think his album turned out pretty dope.
What inspires you?
Courtesy Dominique Sanders
Honestly, everything. Every day, I produce music from all different kinds of genres. For me, it’s easy to get inspired. I’m not ever really doing the same thing, so every day is something different. I signed a deal with Dr. Luke a year and a half ago. Working with him and Prescription Songs, obviously we’re doing pop music because it’s Dr. Luke; we’re doing all genres of music, especially what I’m doing—from jazz to rap to Americana.
What have you been listening to lately?
I’ve been listening to Big Hit a lot. I think he’s dope. And I’ve been listening to another artist, Hether. Honestly, though, when I’m making the music, I’m not listening to much music.
What do you have in store for 2024?
I think it will be the biggest year I’ve had in music, financially. It’s going to be one of those years when I can kind of start to see the other side—like what’s after music. I’m in that space where everything’s cool. I can just set up.
There are a lot of really cool releases in all genres to come out in 2024. I’m hyped.
Any specific artists that you’re collaborating with?
SuecoTheChild, Terrace Martin, and DJ Quik. I am also working back with Chance the Rapper. There are some other people that I can’t really talk about yet, but it’s going to be good.
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Any final thoughts you want to share?
We love Kansas City, even if we’re not there. The cool thing about this year specifically is that a lot of the big things we’re doing are actually very Kansas City-centric. I’ve been working a lot with Brian Kennedy, who is from Kansas City and is one of the biggest producers in California. He did most of Rhianna’s albums—Disturbia and all of that shit. So, I’ve been working with Brian and J White a bunch. So, a lot of the biggest records are coming from people in Kansas City. The music industry is actually starting to pay attention to that a lot.
It’s people from Kansas City who always talk about Kansas City, right? People are like, “Damn, what’s going on? Why are the biggest records coming from people from Kansas City?” This year, for sure, that’s clicking into place a lot. People are starting to see it.
I also think it’s interesting—Kansas City, it’s a thing. I have a huge studio here in LA. We record a lot of shit here, and it’s like Kansas City studio. We’re trying to work with people from Kansas City and use as many people from there as we can. Everyone loves coming here, from Machine Gun Kelly to everybody. It’s like, “Yo, that’s the KC studio. We gotta pull up over there, they’re doing some crazy shit.”
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