He is 21 years old, and has produced Billie Eilish and Dua Lipa. Dmitry Fedorov’s next big recording artist is transgender – Forbes

Born in russia Dmitry Fedorov has big dreams, including moving to the United States one day. But at 21, the London-based producer has already achieved incredible feats.

Fedorov produced “Carpool Karaoke” segments for James Corden’s “The Late Late Show” on CBS, starting with one in December. with pop star Billie Eilish. He product Eilish again when she sang “Yesterday” from The Beatles for the In Memoriam segment for the broadcast of the Oscars this year, accompanied by her brother Finneas O’Connell on the piano. Fedorov also produced the video for the spring 2020 global Calvin Klein Jeans and Calvin Klein Underwear advertising campaign with Maluma, Lil Nas X, SZA, Justin Bieber, Kendall Jenner and transgender actress and model Hunter Schafer.

And let’s not forget the clip he produced for Dua Lipa. “Don’t start now”, released last November, has been viewed over 238 million times.

Did I mention that Fedorov is 21 years old? So how did it get so far, so fast?

“I started studying at Oxford,” Fedorov told me in a telephone interview. He entered university as part of a program for foreign students and studied media law. “It was actually my tutor who worked with the many production companies” who introduced him to his relationships, said Fedorov.

One led to the Dua Lipa video, another to Carpool Karaoke.

“We actually experimented a bit,” he said, to get out of the song in the SUV format and personalize it. “We tried to create moments of flashback, for example by taking the audience home … the family, private subjects.”

In the finished video, Eilish took Corden to her childhood home to show her where she and her brother recorded her hit album.

Fedorov later heard of him and quickly found himself in great demand, much to his surprise.

“I just dreamed of actually working in production, legally,” he said. “And that’s how it all started, like an accident.”

the video campaign for Calvin Klein is no accident. With cinematography by Bardia Zeinali, it’s visually to the next level: a mixture of surrealism, fantasy, self-confidence and superstar attitude provided by great talents.

Fedorov said he and Zeinali fought to have someone LGBTQ in the video, and eventually offered the role to trans actress and model Hunter schafer, of HBO “Euphoria”.

“There was a kind of doubt on the part of the leaders,” he said. “But I tried to convince them that this is what will really help, because I thought it would change the way this advertising campaign was perceived by the public.

“The most important aspect here,” he continued, “is that I don’t want to dwell on what makes someone different in the social sense … I want to focus on the art, attitudes, personal styles, stories and unique narratives that will reach the widest audience. “

“I’m really very proud that we were able to really do the whole brand campaign, the mainstream print advertising campaign with a trans person, without some sort of” Oh, it’s a trans person. And that is why you should look at this person. “No,” it’s a person. “”

While working on several new projects, Fedorov revealed that he and Warner Records have entered into a recording agreement with a transgender artist whom he cannot name. All he would tell me is that she uses her pronouns and that her first release is scheduled for September.

At the time of our conversation, he was following global guidelines for social distancing in the event of a coronavirus pandemic while staying with his family. Fedorov said he identifies as gay, but life in Russia can make it very difficult to be LGBTQ.

“There are many strict rules, such as legal regulations which sometimes make it a prohibited area,” he said. “Gender identification, LGBTQ issues and all that. It is sometimes really, really difficult to do some sort of independent research on what it is, being, for example, transgender or for example, being gay or lesbian or queer or something else. “

Fedorov sees his identity as part of a trip and asked for help along the way. “I’m really trying to solve this problem with my psychologist. So I’m on my way to identify myself. But for the moment, I identify myself as gay. “

Hearing this, I again pressed Fedorov to tell me more about his new artist. He repeated the restrictions imposed on him by his contract with the record company, but gave in a little.

“This person is very exceptional, I would say. The problem is, and I can say in fact, this is something really exciting for me, because even with all the progress we know in the world, it still seems impossible for most executives in the industry that a transgender artist succeeds in music. But the people I work with at Warner Records are eager to take new steps and, therefore, change the way performers are seen by the public. “

Fedorov believes that the old methods of “conditioning” artists into “idols” serve as obstacles to the discovery of new talents, like his last discovery. “It is actually a bit of my dream to put completely new concepts in front of the general public and to show that these barriers are absolutely artificial,” he said. “I trust this particular person. I really think it will change the way a successful musical artist is perceived in the general state of mind. “