"Luis Resto - a true keyboard genius -whose extensive collection of electronic gear adorns/clutters the main room at 54 Sound.... Prematurely grey hair aside, he also looks just like he did as a teenager when, in 1980, Was (Not Was) hired him for his first recording session (he was paid triple scale - 3 x $0.00). From his humble demeanor, you’d never know that he is one of the most quietly successful songwriters and producers in the world." - Don Was
It had to be one of the most genuine moments in Academy Awards history.
This year’s Oscar for Best Song was presented by no less than that one-time Caucus Club torch singer, Barbra Streisand. Ms. Megastar read the impressive list of nominees: songwriter Paul Simon; "Burn It Blue" from Frida; U2, for the flag-waving "Hands That Built America" from Gangs Of New York; a show-stopper in the blockbuster musical Chicago; and, oh yeah, that rapper Eminem and "Lose Yourself," from the little Motor City movie 8 Mile.
Then Streisand opened the envelope. Her eyes widened. The trademark nose twitched. She unleashed a startled "Whoooo!" and blurted, "The Oscar goes to ... Eminem!"
The weirdness was just beginning. Instead of His Emineminence, the man accepting the statuette was a slender, bespectacled guy with flowing black curls, emerging from a sea of black Armani formality in a dark gray Richard Tyler tailcoat, beads and a star-spangled blue shirt over a throwback Pistons jersey. Who was this guy?
Oscar’s fashion Gestapo was merciless. "Doug Henning’s basketball playing brother," one cynic jabbed. "A poor man’s Yanni," sniped another.
"I thought the best was from US magazine: ’That Cher certainly knows how to reinvent herself,’" says Detroit keyboardist-composer Luis Resto, the object of Hollywood’s derision. "They called it everything, but I think innocence is bliss, man, because I just got a kick out of it. I thought it was a hoot."
He who hoots last, hoots best. After more than two decades of searching for his creative element while playing behind everybody from Was (Not Was) and Patti Smith to Tom Jones and Anita Baker, Resto, at 41, is howling all the way to the credit union. A collaboration with the biggest rap star on Earth led to co-production honors on three tracks on the 8 Mile soundtrack and co-writing credits for eight songs, including the single "Lose Yourself," which spent twelve weeks at No. 1. "That was my biggest thing so far," Resto says innocently.
And now he can forever attach the title "Academy Award-winning songwriter" to his name. Yet he refuses to lose himself in the music or the moment. My gig with Marshall (Mathers, the name on his driver’s license, never Eminem or Slim Shady) is kind of as tech geek." Resto says modestly, "knowing how to work all the machines. Sometimes my name has been "The Mad Scientist’ because I’m always looking for bleeps and bloops."
It’s a role he comes by honestly, says Don Was, the Grammy Award-winning producer and Oak Park native who added Resto to the late, outlandish party/fusion band Was (Not Was) when the keyboardist was still in his teens.
"Luis is the first person I met who made the synthesizer his primary instrument," Was says from his Los Angeles home. "He’s a great piano player but that’s a secondary occupation. When he came in, the screws on his Oberheim weren’t even fastened down because he’d go in there and mess around with the internal stuff. He knew how to fix it, how to play with the circuit board and get different sounds out of it. His arrangement ideas were as a synthesist.
"At the time it made him a radical, and now he should be seen as one of the founding fathers of a whole genre of music. And he can play anything; he played violin on ’Wheel Me Out.’ I think he’s a total genius."
Born in Ann Arbor as the first-generation son of Puerto Rican parents, Resto credits his guitar-playing brother, Mario, for fueling his interest in music, and two summers at the Interlochen Center for the Arts for cementing his passion for keyboards. While composing and recording his own music, Resto co-founded an ad agency, Monster Music, to support his wife, Colleen, and children Kyle and Olivia.
Two years ago Joel Martin, the veteran Detroit producer and studio owner who’s now his manager, called Resto to ask if he’d like to assist Eminem with some session work.
"I’ve worked with a lot of people, but I’ve never heard anyone who’s as good a writer as Marshall," Resto says. "the way he can set up a word picture and present it is riveting. And he’s got all these melodies in his head that continually amaze me. I’ll be listening to ideas he has or I’ll just be improvising, waiting for something to come out that intrigues him. That’s kind of the flow of my day: writing, geeking, writing, geeking. That’s what I do."
And two points he’d like to clarify about his Oscar appearance: One, because no one in the Eminem camp expected "Lose Yourself" to win (Mathers was asleep at home during the ceremony), Luis attended primarily to give Tito, the oldest of his three brothers, a thrill as his guest. He’s a plastic surgeon in Vegas," Resto says. "He was like a little kid in a candy store, walking around and looking at all the actors."
Two, the outfit wasn’t his; Don Was dressed him for success. "I was ready with a very flamboyant red suit from Thailand," Resto says. "But Don went into his closet and said, ’You can’t get lost in the shuffle; you’re a musician.’ So he started pulling out pieces, and every one had a story. The jacket was given to him by (Bon Jovi guitarist) Richie Sambora. The shirt was a present from Ringo Starr. Then he took out the Pistons jersey and goes, ’Man, if you guys win and you’re in that jersey, Detroit will love you forever."
Nuance by Muscular Teeth.