Multi-platinum Fil-Canadian singer/songwriter August Rigo is not only a talented performer himself, but is currently one of the most sought out songwriters. He has worked with the likes of BTS, Chris Brown, Justin Bieber, Ginette Claudette, Kehlan, One Direction, Brian Puspos and many more. See August's full discography here.
Find out how he he is “Living for the Music,” in this MYX original series, presented by McDonald’s during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month honoring young AAPI leaders making history in the United States and globally. Watch the trailer below and FULL episode HERE on MYX. The show features artists August has worked with for years including GRAMMY award winning producers, The Stereotypes (Bruno Mars) and Andrew Garcia. Take a peak into new projects with artists like Brian Puspos and Destiny Rogers. Part 2 coming soon.
ABOUT AUGUST RIGO:
August Rigo became passionate about music when he watched Michael Jackson's performance of "Billie Jean" on Motown's 25th Anniversary TV Show. He taught himself to play keyboards and guitar while in his teens. He Co-wrote U Smile, "Stuck in the Moment" and "Kiss And Tell" for Justin Bieber, Solo for Iyaz and Outta this World for JLS. He is featured on Cheryl Cole's second album, Messy Little Raindrops, on the song Better To Lie. He is the executive producer of Musiq Soulchild's 2011 release of "musiqinthemagiq" and co-wrote "Anything,", "SayIDo," "Silver & Gold," "WaitingStill" and "BackToWhere."
In 2010, August secured a publishing deal with Sony/ATV as well as an admin society deal with BMI. He is also signed with Island Def Jam Records. In October 2011, August released his first single "Here Comes Trouble" featuring Busta Rhymes on Alpine Music Group/Island DefJam. He also released his promo mixtape "Too Big To Fail" online.
Rigo produced and featured on YouTube rapper D-Pryde's mixtapes "Once Again" (2012) and "Mars" (2011), as well as D-Pryde's first EP Canal&Richvale (2013) On September 18th, 2015, August Rigo released the Japanese version of his album "The Fall Out" on Manhattan Records in Japan."The Fall Out" was released independently on Rigo's label "Summerchild Records" in Canada on November 6th, 2015.[8] The album was nominated for a Juno Award for Best R&B/Soul Recording.
In February 2020, prior to the release of "Map Of The Soul: 7" album by BTS, Black Swan was pre-released single before the release of the said album. August Rigo and Vince Nantes co-wrote it, now, Black Swan, a b-side track from the album has now 104 #1's on iTunes surpassing the album's leading track "ON" with 93 #1's and surpassing Adele's "Hello" with 102 #1's and BTS is the 2nd Artist to achieved it.
Leanne & Naara collaborates with international music heavyweights August Rigo and Ricky Tillo in ‘Anticipation’
FOLLOWING the release of their debut album Daybreak under Warner Music Philippines, Leanne & Naara comes out with a brand new single titled “Anticipation” in a one-of-a-kind collaboration with Filipino-Canadian producer August Rigo and internationalguitarist Ricky Tillo.
Leanne & Naara is an indie-pop singer-songwriter duo based in Manila who was catapulted to mainstream recognition after their first single “Again” topped the Spotify charts in 2016.
In “Anticipation,” the duo gets playful with this beat-heavy soul/R&B track which they wrote in 2018 while being been influenced by Anderson Paak and Erykah Badu in the songwriting process.
“Anticipation” marks Leanne & Naara’s very first collaboration with August Rigo who is the internationally-acclaimed songwriter for One Direction (“Gotta Be You”), Chris Brown (“Back To Sleep”), Sean Kingston (“Party All Night [Sleep All Day]), and BTS (“Black Swan” and “On”) as well as the producer of Justin Bieber (“Stuck In The Moment,” “U Smile,” and “Kiss And Tell”), Jesse McCartney (“The Writer”), and Kehlani (“Keep On”) among many others.
“We’re always open to working with different producers but I guess the excitement reeled in when we found out that August also has Filipino blood. He’s got some really big names that he’s worked with under his belt but the funny thing is it never felt like it at all. He’s a straight up cool guy, and very easy to talk to. Off the bat we understood that he does it for the love, and that passion together with our openness made the process easy,” says Leanne.
“It is such a privilege to work with such a talented and hands-on producer like August. Brian Lotho, our debut album producer, has also worked with him before. We are very familiar with his excellent work with Justin Bieber, Chris Brown, BTS, and many other amazing artists,” Naara adds.
Leanne & Naara met extensively with Rigo to discuss the direction they wanted before working on the track. As they opted to produce the single organically while using real instruments and not going so heavy on electronic sound. Rigo’s harmonies made the chorus more melodious and provided the song a more cohesive flow with chords seamlessly bringing out an unmistakable R&B vibe. Ricky Tillo plays the acoustic guitar on the track whose solo was added as afinal touch that makes “Anticipation” extra fabulous.
“Leanne & Naara have really great voices which is what I look for first in an artist. Deeper than, that I heard progression and forward movement in listening to their previous projects which I really loved. I wanted to be a part of their evolution because I loved where they were going with the direction of their music,” says Rigo. “Working with Leanne & Narra had no hurdles at all. They sent me a couple of songs and they were all dope but I heard a vision for ‘Anticipation’ immediately. I sent them voice notes of me fiddling with the chords to show them the musical direction and they loved it so I went ahead and did some rough production. After I got their awesome vocals back I hit up my boy Ricky Tillo from Lady Gaga’s band to lay down some guitars which really rounded out the track and made the sonic complete. Now here we are.”
Stream “Anticipation” by Leanne & Naara now on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube.
