Greenbelter Gets a Grammy Nod

There are obvious places to look for art in Greenbelt; the New Deal Café, the Community Center or Roosevelt Center, but would you ever expect a home studio of Grammy-nominee status?

Fourteen-year resident James McKinney will be heading out to Los Angeles this week for five days worth of performances, conferences and networking with music industry greats all leading up to Sunday night’s 53rd Grammy Award Ceremony, where he is not only a guest, but a nominee.

McKinney is nominated for Best Urban Alternative Performance for the song “Orion” performed by Carolyn Malachi. Malachi is a Washington, D.C., native and one of McKinney’s artists. The track “Orion” was produced and co-written by McKinney and is his second Grammy nomination, the first being for “Lovin You” by Wayna featuring Kokayi.

McKinney said he is excited and nervous for this year’s Grammys because they’re up against some big artists with huge record labels behind them.

“If it were a popularity contest, Cee Lo Green would win, but because it’s a peer award, our chances are very good,” McKinney said.

McKinney said he spent about 50 to 150 hours working on the Grammy-nominated track, “Orion.”

“When we were doing the whole record, we had a plan. You know with every song you record, you want it to be recognized and I hope that everything I do will be worthy,” he said. “I know Carolyn, even before we started working together, wanted to go after a Grammy nomination.”

McKinney’s love of music began when he was 14, then later in college his band got a record deal. After the deal fell through, he got a job to save money to build a home studio. Now McKinney also has Night Flight Studios locally and Eusonia Studios in New York.

He said in hindsight, he had wished he bought one of the homes in Greenbelt Homes, Inc. because he thinks it would be the perfect place to build a studio, just add some sound proofing and a futon.

“I just go and try to have a lot of fun,” he said of the Grammys.

He has attended the Grammys for five years now, twice as a nominee. This year, he will also hand out the first two awards, which are technical awards, to Roger Linn, who invented drum machines, and to the software designer Wave.

One good thing about attending the Grammys as a nominee, “my seats get better every year. Last year, I was on the floor in the 19th row sitting in front of Imogen Heap! I had better seats than her and she won [Best Engineered Album, Nonclassical for “Ellipse”].”

The 53rd annual Grammy Awards will air Sunday night on CBS at 8 p.m.