Biography
Winans has been best known for his hugely impressive list of production credits which includes Mary J. Blige, Whitney Houston, R.Kelly, Jennifer Lopez, The Notorious B.I.G. and P.Diddy to name but a few. His story began in his grandmother's kitchen. 'I was constantly banging on the pots and pans with wire hangers,' explains Mario with a laugh. 'As far as I was concerned, I was playing the drums.' His fascination with percussion continued throughout his childhood, nurtured by his world-renown Winans gospel family, and during his teens he also learned to play piano, drums and keyboards. Mario's turning point as a producer came when his mother, the famous gospel singer, Vickie Winans, brought home a room full of recording equipment. 'I just taught myself how to operate every machine in there. And from then on, I was making beats constantly.'
Only one week after graduating from high school, Mario produced an entire gospel album for a local group. A trip to Atlanta resulted in a meeting with producer Dallas Austin who, impressed with the young man's production, signed him as an in-house producer. Work with R. Kelly soon followed and Mario quickly developed his reputation as a top-notch producer and songwriter.Mario never gave much consideration to becoming a recording artist but following a conversation with P Diddy, who had been a great admirer of his work, Winans signed to Bad Boy as an artist in his own right. The culmination of a decade's long journey is the Mario Winans' Bad Boy debut, Hurt No More. This is soul music that bridges the gap between the hard-edged flavour of modern day R&B music and the honest, vulnerable passion in the music of years gone by. Vulnerability is a key theme on Hurt No More. Mario brings an earnest, sincere approach to his music that hasn't been heard in years. 'This record is about relationships, pure and simple. We all have hearts. Sometimes we have to look deeper into what we're saying and doing to the people we care about. At the bottom of these fights, it's usually always something deeper.'
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