Jacob Hellner

Jacob Hellner (born 19 March 1961) is a Swedish record producer, songwriter and composer. As a producer, he has worked with acts in the metal, rock, pop, hip hop and electronic genres. Hellner is best known for his extensive collaboration with German metal band Rammstein, which saw him produce every album released by the band from Herzeleid (1995) to Paris (2017), and assisting in the production of albums from Rammstein members' side projects Emigrate and Lindemann. He is currently a member of the project Bright & Black and was previously part of the Swedish production duo BomKrash together with Carl-Michael Herlöfsson.

Career
Hellner began his musical career in 1986 and first worked at a San Francisco-based studio in the United States. Prior to entering the music business, he worked as a teacher in computer technology and programs. Hellner returned to Sweden in the late 1980s and started producing Swedish pop and hip hop acts. His international breakthrough came with the release of rap metal band Clawfinger's debut album, Deaf Dumb Blind, in 1993. The album's recognition led to an offer from the German label Motor Music to produce one of their bands, Rammstein. Hellner was not immediately convinced to accept the offer after hearing the band's first demo, but changed his mind after seeing them perform live in Hamburg. Upon meeting each other, Hellner and the band members learned that they were inspired by many of the same artists, including Pantera, Metallica, The Prodigy, Ministry and Depeche Mode.

Rammstein's debut album, Herzeleid, was recorded in Stockholm at Polar Studios and Hellner's own studio BomKrash in the spring of 1995. The studio sessions proved to be a struggle due to the cultural differences and language barriers, but Dutch engineer Ronald Prent was brought in by Hellner to serve as a middleman between the band and the producer. Herzeleid faced a slow reception, but received a major popularity boost internationally in 1997 when two songs from the album were picked by director David Lynch for the soundtrack to his movie Lost Highway. Despite the tensions during the making of their debut album, Rammstein asked Hellner to produce their second album and the following studio sessions in Malta proved to be a more relaxing process than their first collaboration. Sehnsucht was released in 1997 and became a major international success, spearheaded by the singles "Engel" and "Du Hast", the latter being nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 1999.

During the making of Rammstein's third album, Mutter, conflicts within the band were at an all-time high and Hellner later stated that listening to the mastered album was one of the most satisfying moments of his career. In 2006, Rammstein were nominated for a second Grammy Award for their single "Mein Teil" off their 2004 album Reise, Reise. During Rammstein's hiatus in 2006, Hellner co-produced the band's lead guitarist Richard Z. Kruspe's side project Emigrate and their debut album. In 2007, Hellner produced the Finnish symphonic metal band Apocalyptica's album Worlds Collide, a collaboration he later called one of the highlights of his career. Hellner was an executive producer on Dead by April's album Incomparable in 2011. He contributed post-production on Till Lindemann's side-project Lindemann's debut album in 2015 and produced the Entombed-spinoff band Entombed A.D. the following year.

In 2017, Hellner and Rammstein parted ways after the release of the live album Paris, which had been in production for five years, and ended a partnership that had spanned a twenty three-year period and included six studio albums, three live albums and one greatest hits album. Hellner stated that the split was amicable and later attended the release party for the band's seventh studio album. Mixing engineer Ronald Prent, who worked on Rammstein's first three albums, later praised Hellner's role as a producer and his contribution to the band: "The band has great ideas, great riffs, and Till writes amazing lyrics and controls the German language like no other… but Jacob was the common denominator that brought it together into a song". In 2018, Hellner composed the soundtrack for the Swedish television series Moscow Noir. During that same year, he formed the metal and classical project Bright & Black, featuring conductor Kristjan Järvi, the Baltic Sea Philharmonic and Eicca Toppinen of Apocalyptica. In a 2020 interview with Loudwire, Hellner stated that he had moved away from producing records due to dissatisfaction with the state of the music business and instead pursued other avenues of creativity. In 2024, Bright & Black released their debut album, featuring contributions from Tomas Haake and Dick Lövgren of Meshugga, Opeth guitarist Fredrik Åkesson, Watain frontman Erik Danielsson and ex-Entombed member Nico Elgstrand.

Awards and nominations
Echo Awards Grammis Awards