Universal Audio’s Apollo Creators series finds the American audio brand visiting world-class music-makers in the studio to unpack their creative process.
While previous episodes have featured Grammy-winning producer Daniel Nigro and Benson Boone collaborator Imad Royal, the latest edition in the series features none other than Jim-E Stack, one of 2025’s fastest-rising producers and songwriters.
Stack’s had an incredible year, working with Lorde on Virgin and Bon Iver on SABLE, fABLE, and the San Francisco-born musician looks like he could be a safe bet for Producer of the Year at the next Grammy Awards.
Though he’s broken through in a big way in 2025, Stack’s been around for a minute, having previously collaborated with the likes of Charli XCX, Caroline Polachek and HAIM, and released multiple solo projects that explore a luminous alt-pop sound.
In the latest episode of Apollo Creators, embedded above, Stack digs into his recent collaborations with Lorde and Bon Iver, shedding light on the sampling techniques that shaped the distinctive sound of Justin Vernon’s latest album.
Stack singles out the Ensoniq ASR-10, a vintage sampling keyboard from the ‘90s, as particularly instrumental in the making of the project. “Drums that I did on the Bon Iver album, we would just whip this out,” Stack recalls. “There’s a way that it samples and chops stuff and a quality to it, there’s a real colour through using real samplers like this.”
Stack goes on to describe the influence of pioneering artists like J Dilla and Burial on his approach to sampling, praising the sonic “imperfections” that contributed to their sound.
“Stuff was a little choppy-sounding or not quite right, that was always exciting and fun to me. That’s naturally what I pick out,” Stack says. “The more broken take on a vocal recording or the not-mic’d-quite-right guitar sound, that stuff has always hit a special place for me – it always feels more authentic and human.”
Speaking about Lorde’s Virgin, Stack talks about the importance of minimalism in the project’s production: “She talked a lot about blank space, openness and room to breathe – pulling away everything that didn’t need to be there and leaving only load-bearing pieces.”
Lorde’s first full-length release since 2021’s Solar Power, Virgin draws on more of an electronic sound palette than its predecessor, returning to the stripped-back synth-pop sound that's characteristic of her early work.
“There was this completeness that we felt when the vocals came up,” Stack recalls. “That was what sealed the deal, more than adding a crazy synth or turning the drums right up – when the vocals came front and centre, when Ella was front and centre, that’s when everything started to feel really complete and finished.”
Later in the video, Stack reveals that he’s just as susceptible to GAS (Gear Acqusition Syndrome) as the rest of us, admitting that he came away from sessions at Vernon’s April Base studio with a lust for some vintage Neve 1073s. Ultimately, however, he acknowledges that stuffing your studio with mountains of gear can often prove more of a distraction than anything else.
“Sometimes we can trick ourselves into thinking we need this, that or the other thing,” Stack says, “but you can make the best album ever with just a laptop and plugins. You don’t need anything else.
“For me, I know that creating an environment where ideas can happen and there aren’t too many workarounds, and not too many things can break, that’s when the best stuff happens.”
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