“I never expected this. I still feel that I have so much to learn and to prove,” Manon Grandjean tells us, when asked how it feels to be on the receiving end of her fourth MPG Award nomination. Scooping the Breakthrough Engineer of the Year win in 2017, Manon picked up a further plaudit in 2018, adding the Engineer of the Year award to her trophy cabinet. Last year, Grandjean clocked her third win, taking home the coveted Mix Engineer of the Year prize. Grandjean, though, remains humble about this level of recognition: “Every year the other two nominees are people that I look up to and aspire to be as good as. Sometimes it’s really hard for me to think of myself as being in the same category.”
Eyes and ears first fell upon Manon Grandjean’s engineering flair with the release of Stormzy’s Gang Signs & Prayer, made in tandem with illustrious producer Fraser T Smith. It was a process that Manon still reflects upon as being instrumental in shaping how she views her role in the studio: “At the time I was in-house engineer for Fraser T Smith, in his studio in Parsons Green. Stormzy would come up to the studio and usually it’d be only us three – Fraser, me and Stormzy.”
“Fraser would put some ideas down on piano, guitar or create a beat on Ableton Live,” Manon adds. “Stormzy would put a rough guide vocal down with just a handheld mic in
