Stepan Honc on SoundBetter

Add atmosphere and energy to any track with an award-winning guitarist, credited on albums of Grammy-winning producers.

Classically trained at university and European conservatoire, yet over the last twelve years in London I have developed a unique style that elevates and boosts the energy of song in any genre, being it pop, EDM, rock or anything else. Rhythm guitar is often wrongly considered inferior but specialised acoustic guitarist makes as much difference as a world-class drummer and can make any song sound way more upbeat and unique.

Working with GRAMMY winning producer Martin "Youth" Glover (Dido, U2, Killing Joke, Paul McCartney, Marilyn Manson, Faith no More) on projects Indotranceltic and Paya&Youth, session guitarist at Greystoke Studio of multi-platinum producer Andy Whitmore (Peter Andre, MN8) and touring with IAMA finalists PerKelt.

I specialise in acoustic/flamenco-style guitar to find new rhythmic ideas that suit and enhance your track but equally prolific in atmospheric finger style and classical guitar performance.

Basic rate $150 per song, including doubling the takes for stereo panning and editing for a mix-ready track. Multiple versions available as well as revisions and discounts for recording shorter sections. Do get in touch, looking forward to work with you!

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Credits

1 Reviews

Endorse Stepan Honc

by Shyju M.
Verified
Mastero indeed! Enjoyed working and definetly will be back!!

Interview with Stepan Honc

Q: What's your 'promise' to your clients?
A: I’ll do my absolute best to make sure you are happy
Q: What do you like most about your job?
A: Diving into new songs and figuring how to make them better, playing amazing instruments, listening back to what I’ve done and hearing back that the client is happy
Q: What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?
A: Look for someone whose music speaks to you, provide as much direction as you can come up with and don’t doubt your intuition
Q: If you were on a desert island and could take just 5 pieces of gear, what would they be?
A: Four really good guitars and a knife
Q: What type of music do you usually work on?
A: Slow atmospheric or fast upbeat rhythmic, acoustic or EDM
Q: Tell us about your studio setup.
A: AKG C414 XLII microphone to Neve88rlb preamp to Apogee Ensemble converters.
Q: Tell us about a project you worked on you are especially proud of and why. What was your role?
A: CastleFest Collective: Hope is the Thing with Feathers. More than forty musicians (including some of my heroes) in seven different countries making an album remotely together to support financially our favourite Dutch festival during the pandemic break. On top of playing guitars and co-writing some of the songs I’ve actually initiated, organised, produced and mixed the whole album (and got an award for it).
Q: What are you working on at the moment?
A: Preparing next album with PerKelt
Q: Analog or digital and why?
A: Both!! Analog for great and full sound from the source, digital for precision and infinite options still wide open once seeing the big picture
Q: What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?
A: Question: Can you do this? Answer: Yes.
Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?
A: Started studying guitar at 6yo (33 years ago), graduated from conservatoire and university at classical guitar performance, setup a band, moved to London, won some awards and started working with top artists from around the World.
Q: How would you describe your style?
A: From mystical atmospheric finger style to smashing rhythmic engine.
Q: Which artist would you like to work with and why?
A: Michael Jackson for his perfectionism
Q: Can you share one music production tip?
A: Don’t hesitate to abandon a subpar idea, use the saved time to come up with a better one
Q: What's your strongest skill?
A: Guitar playing with attention to detail
Q: What do you bring to a song?
A: Atmosphere, energy, texture, beauty, new interesting ideas
Q: What's your typical work process?
A: I analyse the track for structure and chord progressions, form a general idea based on the song and directions from the client and start recording what I feel should enhance the song the best, experimenting with different ideas and polishing the performance until I am happy with the result. I then edit the guitar track to smoothen any non-musical imperfections, double for stereo if needed/requested and send over.
Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?
A: Martin “Youth” Glover, Sona Jobarteh, Jim Morrison, Michael Jackson, Billie Joe Armstrong, Sting, Rodrigo y Gabriela, John Butler, Jeff Lang, Victor Wooten, Béla Fleck, Jaz Coleman, Tim Henson
Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.
A: Adding atmosphere, energy and texture to existing tracks with the acoustic/classical guitar.