Producer, Mixer, Drummer

Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.

A: I'm a man of many hats and enjoy the process involved in all of them. As a drummer hired for recording sessions I get to play so many different types of music. Whether it's a huge, historic studio in LA or tracking at my own studio in N Hollywood the process of putting together the right drum kit, dialing in the sound, executing a part that serves the song, making the producer and artist happy is very gratifying. Producing an artist is a whole other type of gratification. So many artists with so many great ideas with so little knowledge on how to execute in the studio and get it "on tape"... The teachable moments are endless. And the moments that you draw a performance out of someone they didn't know they had in them?... priceless. As a mix engineer in today's industry I find myself contacted to mix projects that were recorded at the artist's home studio. More often than not, I'm contacted first to track drums at my studio for a project and then end up hired to also mix it. I've always had a fascination with the recording and mixing process, especially the challenging task of getting live drums to sound great, and the marriage of art and science, i.e. getting a beautifully written song to reach it's sonic potential. Living in Los Angeles, you find yourself doing things you never really thought about doing like Audio Post. I started mixing a couple national television shows a few years ago. That turned into other post jobs that include webisodes, teasers, trailers, corporate training videos, indie films and more.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: Lots of drum kits, tons of snare drums, a boat load of cymbals, racks full of choice boutique mic press, an arsenal of high end mics, my bass, my electric guitar, my acoustic guitar, a silly amount of software synths, a maxed out mac, a pair of killer monitors, and Logic, my preferred DAW (I do use Pro Tools but really dig Logic for it's ease of work flow for the writing process, MIDI, and stock libraries for getting ideas down efficiently).

Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?

A: This list could very long but the first names that come to mind are Butch Vig, Trevor Horn, George Martin, Trent Reznor, Nile Rodgers, Giorgio Moroder, Peter Gabrial, David Sylvian, Elbow