MARTA SALOGNI
“When I went to the Music Producers Guild (MPG) Awards for the first time, I sneaked in without paying,” says Italian-born producer and engineer Marta Salogni in her East London studio. “I put on the best clothes I had – a suit from a charity shop – and dodged the bouncers to get in so I could see my heroes on stage. I dreamt that one day I might get an award too.”
Fast forward to 2020 and Salogni’s dream has come true – twice. She won the MPG’s Breakthrough Engineer award in 2018 and its Breakthrough Producer award in March of this year. These accolades come courtesy of her studio credits with some of the world’s most exciting, colourful and cutting-edge musical provocateurs. With the likes of Björk, Bon Iver, Holly Herndon and Daniel Avery, requesting her services, it’s unsurprising that the rest of the industry is starting to take notice, and extending warm invitations to Salogni so that she’s able to attend without fear of being uncovered and kicked out of the building.
“It can be a lonely job and sometimes you lose track as to whether anyone is listening beyond you and the artist you’re working with,” she says. “So it’s amazing to be recognised by my colleagues, peers, best friends, heroes and role models.”
INTO THE UNKNOWN
Salogni was entangled in music as a teenager in her native Italy. She cut her musical teeth at home before upping sticks and relocating to London in an effort to turn her passion for sound into a bona fide career. “There was an old
