Robert Conley

Robert Conley (dp13) is an American songwriter, record producer, engineer, mixer, and music publisher.

Throughout his career, he has worked across all genres of music and has collaborated, programmed, mixed, produced, and written with many artists, including KISS, Destiny's Child, Carlos Santana, Justin Timberlake, Josh Groban, Celine Dion, Ricky Martin, Darren Hayes, Jessica Mauboy, Okenyo, Tina Arena, The Delta Riggs, The Walking Who, Ilan Kidron, Grinspoon, Georgi Kay, Thelma Plum, Lisa Mitchell, Bluejuice and more.

Robert Conley was born on March 13, 1973, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, United States.

He grew up in Harrison, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio, the eldest of three boys.

When he was in the tenth grade, his father bought him an Ensoniq VFX SD II, and he began to create his own sequences and songs.

Conley graduated from William Henry Harrison High School in 1991 and briefly went to the University of Dayton before dropping out to make music.

Conley moved to Chicago, Illinois, in 1992 and started an 'industrial' band called 'Darius Pogue' (the inspiration behind the 'dp' and 'dp13' aliases).

The band played shows in and around Chicago.

He then moved to Phoenix in 1997, where he started an electronica band called 'Specificus' with Matt Kelly (aka K. Roxwell, aka MK Ultra), making music influenced by The Chemical Brothers, The Crystal Method, Aphex Twin, and Squarepusher.

Conley and Kelly moved to Hollywood to pursue a career in engineering and programming in 1999.

They both worked at the 'Tone King' recording studio, where the KISS-Alive III album was mixed.

While working on the KISS album, the studio was visited by producer Walter Afanasieff and songwriter Robi 'Draco' Rosa, who were working on some new music for Ricky Martin.

Conley's boss gave him the job of being a programmer and engineer for Afanasieff and Rosa for the day.

Afanasieff was so impressed with Conley that he hired him on the spot and moved him to San Rafael, CA, to work in his world-class recording studio, 'Wally World'.

Ricky Martin's She Bangs was the first song they worked on together.

During his time with Afanasieff, Robert Conley worked with many artists, one of whom was Darren Hayes.

After working on the Spin album together, Hayes invited Conley's band 'Specificus' to support him on his Too Close for Comfort world tour.

Upon returning from the tour, Conley and Hayes got together in San Francisco to work on Hayes' second solo album, The Tension and the Spark.

The album was mixed by Mark Stent, and when it was completed, Conley and Hayes moved to the UK to promote the album, which was well received.

After 18 months in the UK, Robert Conley returned to the US, moving to Phoenix, Arizona.

While here, he reconnected with Matt Kelly and worked on some new tracks for 'Specificus'.

He also teamed up with Australian songwriter and producer Vince Pizzinga to form another electronica duo, which they named The Beautiful Left.

Conley also started on some new tracks, which would become the central theme to Darren Hayes' album This Delicate Thing We've Made.

In May 2007, Conley signed with Sony/ATV Music Publishing in Australia and moved to Sydney.

He has worked as songwriter and producer for several up-and-coming Australian acts, including Axle Whitehead.

Conley was instrumental in the development of Sydney band Amy Meredith, co-producing their debut album Restless and co-writing six songs from the album, including their breakthrough single Pornstar and their ARIA Top Ten hit, Lying.

Conley also worked with Brian McFadden, co-writing and co-producing much of the Wall of Soundz album, including the ARIA Number One hit single Just Say So, the Christian Lo Russo/Brian McFadden collaboration Not Now, and the Delta Goodrem/Brian McFadden collaboration Mistakes.

He has also collaborated with Australian hip-hop artist Phrase, co-writing and co-producing the Triple J staple and APRA-nominated single, ‘Spaceship’.

Robert also worked with Penelope Austin, co-writing and co-producing several tracks, including "Smoke into Flames " (October 2012), "A Place to Call Home " (March 2013), and "Don't Rescue Me".

During 2013, "A Place to Call Home " was used for the Australian TV series of the same name.

Robert and Penelope Austin co-wrote "The Dark Collide " with J. J. Abrams and Charles Scott.

Which was used on the Australian version of the Star Trek Into Darkness soundtrack (April 2013).

He has also co-written and produced Penelope's upcoming debut album, which will be out through Beautiful Dark/Mercury Records (Universal Music).

He also features heavily as a co-writer and producer on Georgi's upcoming debut album release through Parlophone in the UK.

Robert has also lent his producing skills to a number of independent artists, including up-and-coming Triple J favorites The Delta Riggs (Talupo House Mountain Music Volume 1) and world-busking band Set Sail (The Riley Moore EP).

Along with co-writing with a number of Aussie artists, including Delta Goodrem, Marvin Priest, and Tim Omaji, he has taken on mixing duties for new artists, ‘The Walking Who ’ and ‘Okenyo.

Robert has also set up his own recording studio in Redfern and is currently developing new artists for his label, as well as developing an independent film and a new children's television show.

Robert is the CEO of Specific Music, which is a boutique music publishing and production company based in Sydney.

They specialize in finding new talent, developing 'up-and-coming' songwriters, producers, and artists, and introducing them into the music industry.

Specific Music is sub-published through Kobalt, and they work closely with the Kobalt team to help songwriters, producers, and artists get the opportunities they need to continue to grow.