Ricci Antonio Riccardi (born 1980) is a UK based music producer, songwriter and drummer who has most recently made his name working with Nadine Coyle of Girls Aloud on her debut solo album ‘Insatiable’. Ricci produced and played drums on five tracks from the album including the first single ‘Insatiable’ (Coyle/Chambers). He co-wrote ‘Chained’ (Riccardi/Owen/Coyle) – with his long term co-writer Gareth Owen and other tracks he has produced for the album include ‘Man Out of You’ (Coyle/Child), ‘Raw’ (Coyle/Chambers) and ‘Red Light’ (Coyle/Booker/Riccardi).
His musical style is heavily influenced by an American sound and has been described as R&B, rock and pop, with elements of electro.
Early Career edit
Ricci grew up in Swanage on the south coast of the UK. His mother is an air stewardess and his father a musician – a big influence on Ricci and his younger brother, John-Louis Riccardi, a top UK session guitar player also appearing on Nadine Coyle’s new album.
Ricci spent his early years studying drums under ex-BBC big band drummer Paul Brodie. It was through Paul that he started to appreciate an American sound in music and in 2000 Ricci and his brother moved to Los Angeles to study music for a year.
Whilst in Los Angeles Ricci got his teeth into song writing, penning the first songs for what was to become the band ‘Riccardi’. Having spent a year playing and recording drums for various projects Ricci also took an interest in music production and in 2001 he returned to England with his brother where they finished writing and recording the debut album ‘Friday State of Mind’ for their band ‘Riccardi’. Other members of the group were guitar player Simon Johnson and bass player Simon Inchley.
During the time spent promoting the album the band began to work with other artists, including backing Fame Academy finalist Alistair Griffin. It was during this project that Ricci met his long term managers Steve and Drew Lyall of the tour management company, Twin Entertainment UK.
In 2007 ‘Riccardi’ disbanded and Ricci began to embark on the road of song writing and production again and in 2008 he began a new project called R.I.K with flash game designer Luke Whittaker (State of Play Games) The project was based around a cartoon rockstar that used free flash gaming on the internet to promote a single. The project received over 700,000 plays worldwide within the first two weeks. Also in this period Ricci secured his first release co writing the song ‘The Letting Go’ for the Sony BMG band - ‘The Mercury Men’.
In late 2008 Ricci began to MD and play drums for UK R&B star Jamelia. It was during this time on the road that Ricci and the Lyall twinsTwin Entertainment UK began to work closely together eventually pushing Ricci as an artist himself with a lead single called ‘Essex Girl’ inspired by his wife Jessica Riccardi-Rees.
Present Day edit
In April 2009 Ricci started his production company SupaNova Ltd with his long-term co-writer Gareth Owen. After a writing session Ricci would produce the songs in his bedroom and send them to Steve and Drew who after years of tour managing Girls Aloud had began to tour manage Nadine Coyle. The TwinsTwin Entertainment UK played Ricci’s music to her in the car at which point Nadine asked to record the song ‘Chained’ (Riccardi/Owen/Coyle), for her upcoming album. Ricci took his mobile recording gear to Nadine’s house and recorded ‘Chained’ in her living room. Those vocals eventually made the final cut for Nadine’s new album ‘Insatiable’.
Nadine loved the sound of Ricci’s production so when she returned to LA she began to send Ricci other songs to produce, including her first single ‘Insatiable’ co-written by Nadine and Guy Chambers of Robbie Williams fame. Other songs Ricci has produced on the album are ‘Man Out of You’ - (Nadine Coyle/Desmond Child) ‘Raw’ - (Nadine Coyle/Guy Chambers) ‘Red Light’ - (Nadine Coyle/Steve Booker/Ricci Riccardi) ‘Chained’ (Ricci Riccardi/Gareth Owen/Nadine Coyle).
Ricci has since become MD and drummer for Nadine and is now in the process of putting together a band with SteveTwin Entertainment UK and Nadine for live shows and touring.