Joel Little (born 13 February 1983) is a New Zealand record producer, musician and Grammy Award-winning songwriter.^[1][2] He is best known for his work as a writer and producer with artists Lorde, Taylor Swift, Broods, Sam Smith, Imagine Dragons, Ellie Goulding, Khalid, Elliphant, Jarryd James, Shawn Mendes, Marina Diamandis, Amy Shark, Goodnight Nurse, Noah Kahan, Years & Years, the Jonas Brothers, and Niall Horan.

Career

Little trained at the Music and Audio Institute of New Zealand (MAINZ) in Auckland, and began his career as singer and guitarist of the pop punk band Goodnight Nurse. The band released two studio albums, Always and Never (2006) and Keep Me on Your Side (2008) both of which peaked at number five on the New Zealand top 40 albums chart. Over the two albums, the band had five singles in the New Zealand top-40 from 2004 to 2008.^[3]

Goodnight Nurse guitarist Sam McCarthy and Little produced and also co-wrote the majority of the debut album released by McCarthy's new group, Kids of 88.^[4] The album, Sugarpills was released in 2010 and debuted at number two in the New Zealand album chart.^[5] It featured three hit singles, "My House", "Just a Little Bit" and "Downtown" co-written by Little. "Just a Little Bit" went on to win Single of the Year at the 2010 New Zealand Music Awards.^[6]

In 2011, Little set up his own production studio, Golden Age, in Morningside, Auckland.^[7]

In 2012, Little co-wrote and produced, recorded and mixed The Love Club EP by Lorde at Golden Age.^[8] Singles "Royals" and "Tennis Court" both charted at number one in New Zealand in 2013,^[9] with the EP achieving gold certification in New Zealand and Platinum certification in Australia.^[10][11] Little also co-wrote, produced, mixed, engineered and played the instruments on the debut Lorde album, Pure Heroine, which was released worldwide on 30 September 2013.^[12]

In early September 2013, Little and co-writer Lorde were shortlisted for "Royals" in the 2013 Silver Scroll Award, which honours outstanding achievement in songwriting of original New Zealand pop music.^[13] They went on to win this award,^[14] at a ceremony on 16 October.^[1][2] He also won a Grammy Award on 26 January 2014, alongside Lorde, winning Song of the Year for "Royals".

Little produced Auckland-based pop duo Broods' single, "Bridges", subsequent EP, Broods, and their 2014 album, Evergreen.^[15]

In 2019, Little co-wrote and co-produced four songs with American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift for her seventh studio album Lover, including "Me!", "You Need to Calm Down", "The Man", and "Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince". Little and Swift also co-wrote and co-produced a fifth track, "Only the Young" which was left off the album. The track was released in 2020 in conjunction with Miss Americana, a documentary on Swift's life and career; Little appeared in the documentary.^[16]

As of 2014^[update] Little is based in Los Angeles.^[17]

Discography

With Goodnight Nurse

• Always and Never (2006) Festival Mushroom Records
• Keep Me on Your Side (2008) Warner Music New Zealand

Production and writing credits