“When I started I didn't really know what a producer was. I just thought artists would produce themselves, because that's what I would have done”: Adele, Stormzy and Kae Tempest collaborator Fraser T Smith on the shifting definition of a ‘producer’

What exactly is a producer? In a musical sense, the term is applied to everything from solo electronic artists and hip-hop beatmakers through to those behind the mixing desks of top-end studio facilities – via whatever it is that Rick Rubin actually does.

“When I started my career I didn't really know what a producer was,” Fraser T Smith admits. “It sounds weird, but in those days there was no YouTube, and you couldn't Google 'what is a producer?' I just thought artists would produce themselves, because that's what I would have done.”