Popcast: Decoding Ariel Rechtshaid Among the A-list names in this year's Grammy ballot for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical, is Ariel Rechtshaid, who has been a pop pro since his teenage years but has only recently and suddenly, at 34, become a subject of great interest. The first thing to notice is his wayward resume: the Plain White T's acoustic-punk ballad "Hey There Delilah," a lot of work with Diplo and Major Lazer, Usher's "Climax," several strange and folky Cass McCombs records, odd jobs with Justin Bieber and Snoop Lion, Dev Hynes's post-R&B project Blood Orange, and then last year's auteurish trifecta: Vampire Weekend's "Modern Vampires of the City," Haim's "Days Are Gone," and Sky Ferreira's "Night Time, My Time." His signature productions are dense and counter-intuitive, mixing the rough and the smooth, using sounds and gestures from eras that don't seem to fit the circumstance; there's an aesthetic vandal in him, but also a disciplined songwriter who values a distinct middle-eight and a layered harmony vocal. I flew to Los Angeles to listen to other people's records with Mr. Rechtshaid, in order to figure out how he hears and what he listens for, which dislodged theories of happy-accident records, the value of the sellout phase, and the goldmine of the one-dollar CD bin. When I came back, Jon Caramanica hosted me on an all-Rechtshaid Popcast, poking at Mr. Rechtshaid's work and theories and inspirations to see if they hold together. Listen above, download the MP3 or subscribe in iTunes. Ben Ratliff on Ariel Rechtshaid. Tracks by artists discussed this week. Spotify users can also find it here.