RECORDING WEEK 2026: “I feel like all of the records that have become special to me are born out of great friendships,” says producer, songwriter and mixer, Oli Barton-Wood.
This year, Oli bagged the Music Producers’ Guild’s (MPG) Breakthrough Producer of the Year for 2026. Noted for his ability to blend technical know-how with buzzing creative energy, Oli has worked with Ezra Collective, Luvcat, The Zawose Queens and many more.
Regardless of genre, the emotional rapport he establishes with his collaborators is equally as crucial as his studio expertise.
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“It’s important to me when working with an artist that we have a connection, not just being their technical person but being part of their support network, building a relationship and understanding each other – it really informs every creative decision made.”
The MPG win came earlier in the year but Oli was unable to attend the event at London’s Troxy due to being on a trip to Vietnam. It was only when his phone started lighting up with calls and messages that he realised he’d been victorious.
“I never thought I’d win the MPG, which is why I booked the trip. I’d had this really busy year making Luvcat’s Vicious Delicious record and needed a break,” Oli explains. “I was asleep in the jungle when the awards happened and got all these calls at four in the morning.”
Does winning bring on new pressures and expectations? “I’m trying not to think about it too much,” he laughs. “I’m just trying to make good music and keep up with the projects I have going on. And pleasingly, most of my jobs come from people who have heard records I’ve worked on that they like.”
Oli’s studio ambitions first stemmed from playing in bands as a teenager, then he acquiring recording software so he could refine his own playing. He started out capturing the sound of his own emerging group before word spread of his affinity for the producer’s chair. Before long he began to work with others.
“I was putting every single penny I could gather into trying to build up my collection of gear, picking up microphones from Poundland, and using Audacity on my barely working PC,” OIi says.
“Initially this was for my own band but before I knew it, I’d started recording with other local bands in my parents’ spare room. I guess I had a bit of entrepreneurial spirit and I feel very fortunate to have caught the bug early on.”
Producer Jim Abbiss was also a key early influence for Oli. Having been behind favourite records from Bombay Bicycle Club and the Arctic Monkeys, Oli chose to follow in Jim’s footsteps and study the Music and Sound Recording (Tonmeister) degree at the University of Surrey.
“I was really excited to have got on the course, then when I was finishing my degree, Jim was the judge for the final year of portfolio recordings and he chose mine,” says Oli. “I managed to have a slightly nervous conversation with him after the formalities, we stayed in touch and a few years later he asked me to come and work with him on an album with Tom Odell.”
The record was Tom’s second, Wrong Crowd, and saw Oli heading to Rockfield Studios in Monmouth in Wales.
“The stars just aligned,” says Oli. “It was my first major label gig, so we worked in Wales, then we went to Abbey Road, then RAK, it was a full circle moment and something I’d dreamed of when I was younger.”
These days, Oli mixes out of The Premises Studios in Hackney with an additional writing space in Peckham. But when he was starting to navigate the industry, alongside engineering, he’d been striving to build his production portfolio. A pivotal moment was working with Mellah (artist Liam Ramsden).
“I’d worked with Liam’s band Black Manila and always loved his artist project,” says Oli. “We were experimenting with his solo work when he signed a small deal with Lucky Number. Off the back of that, he signed with Columbia and we worked on a couple of EPs together. He’s one of my absolute favourite musicians.”
Ever since, Oli has dedicated himself to building up an ongoing portfolio of projects with his time split between mixing, producing and songwriting sessions.
“Ultimately, I’m there to help in whatever capacity an artist needs me, which requires me to be flexible and keeps the work exciting,” he says. “I don’t think there’s any set way into the industry now. I came through the studio assistant path, but a lot of today’s young producers are just so insanely quick and talented on Logic or Ableton, they are making hits in their bedrooms in a few hours!
“I come from a technical background so I’m a producer that gets really involved in the sound sculpting element. I think having lots of strings to your bow in the studio is important, particularly as music tech gets more accessible and budgets fluctuate too.”
When Mellah signed a deal, Oli also secured a music publishing deal with Domino and the pair invested in building their own studio. Their Peckham base includes their main writing room and features plenty of music toys, drum kit and Oli’s mic collection too.
“I do plenty of writing there but I like to record in other spaces where the budget allows,” Oli says of his studio preferences. “If I’m working on a band record, I try to go to a studio to get a bigger drum sound and better separation, I prefer recording live as much as possible. My favourite studios in London are RAK, The Premises and Baltic, but working in residential studios is always great too, you’re able to totally zone in and tap out of normal life routines.”
Oli’s musical CV is one bursting with exciting records, artists and studio projects although the role he takes on differs depending on the artist’s needs. He worked with Nilufer Yanya as a co-writer and producer on her Miss Universe debut album from 2019 while also mixing Maisha, a band signed to Brownswood, and their 2020 record, Open the Gates.
Elsewhere, Oli produced and mixed Luvcat’s highly acclaimed Vicious Delicious album from 2025 while also working with Los Bitchos, Laura Misch and Jordan Rakei among many others.
“Ezra Collective are always a fun band to work with,” Oli says. “A lot of the work we’ve done has been at Livingstone in North London, they’re amazing, often frenetic long days, chopping up parts, looping sounds and piecing songs together.”
God Gave Me Feet for Dancing is one of the group’s most popular moments taken from their 2024 album, Dance, No One’s Watching. Oli was asked to work on the session while packing down the Lemon Lounge stage at We Out Here Festival, a sound system project he helps run.
“I was working at Lemon Lounge when I took this call and they asked me to get to the studio within a few hours,” he says. “They were supposed to be collaborating with some huge American hip-hop artists, so I went straight to Livingstone. The collaboration didn’t materialise so the band ended up jamming, and we worked on the track that became God Gave Me Feet for Dancing. Those kinds of sessions are always my favourites due to the high levels of energy and musicianship.”
Another big project was Porridge Radio’s debut album Every Bad. A record that was Mercury Prize nominated in 2020.
“The basis of the tracks had been recorded with someone else,” says Oli. “I got hold of the files with the singer Dana [Margolin] and we set about injecting life into them. That was a really fun process, bringing in new character in the mix process and helping them realise their vision for it. To get the Mercury nod was amazing too.”
The music of The Zawose Queens is an ongoing project for Oli, a Tanzanian musical duo he discovered while in East Africa providing music production workshops as part of a British Council-backed initiative.
“I spent some time there as a kid and always had this affinity with Tanzanian music,” OIi says. “I went with fellow UK producer Tom Excell and while we visited, we connected with Pendo Zawose and her niece Leah Zawose from the Wagogo tribe.
“We started putting a record together with them. It turns out Pendo’s father, Dr. Hukwe Zawose, had been signed to Real World, Peter Gabriel’s label. The Real World team were really keen to continue working with the family, we connected them with a booking agent and for the last four years they’ve been touring extensively throughout Europe – we’ve almost finished a second record with them which I can’t wait for people to hear.”
Alongside studio work and Lemon Lounge, Oli is also busying himself developing a new studio complex in South London. In collaboration with Mallah, the pair are looking for a property where they can run a number of production and rehearsal rooms with a recording studio.
“This doesn’t really exist in South London,” he says. “North of the river, there are all these great places that can offer this kind of community as well as functional music space. We want to build an educational side into it too and create learning opportunities for kids who want to pursue production or those young adults who might not be able to afford to work in traditional studios.
“Our aim is to support the next generation and give back too. I’ve just started mentoring as part of Fraser T Smith’s ‘Future Producer Academy’ as well as past work with BRIT School and Abbey Road Equalise. It’s something I’m really passionate about and can’t wait to work on a similar project at our own studio.”
Find out more about Oli’s work over at his official website.
