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. 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.

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. 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. 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. 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.

Discography

Production and writing credits

Instrumental contributions

Awards and nominations Echo Awards Grammis Awards