Session Musician/Producer

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: My next record, an Ambient-Pop record for an artist named Kyle Van Der Velde, and an Indie-Rock record for a band called "1812". I'm always making beats too, just something I do mindlessly in my spare time.

Q: Is there anyone on SoundBetter you know and would recommend to your clients?

A: If you're looking for a solid female vocal, Amber Sweeney is your best bet!

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Digital, because I don't own a $78,000 tape machine... otherwise analog. ha!

Q: What's your 'promise' to your clients?

A: I promise to my customers that we will unlock the most potential out of your project possible.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Working with other artists that I wouldn't normally be able to work with! Also crossing genre barriers. All of my original material is predominately Pop/Rock so breaking out into Hip-Hop or straight Pop is always super fun.

Q: What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?

A: How much is this going to cost? -Let's talk budget, expectations, end gain!

Q: What's the biggest misconception about what you do?

A: It's too expensive. I am willing to work out price to fit YOUR project. I've cut my teeth doing a lot of free work so I appreciate a good deal as much as anyone!

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What inspired this project? What do you want to achieve with this project? What type of influences do you have? Can you give me 3 songs in the current market that you want this to resemble? What would you say your strengths are in this projects? Where in this project would you need the most help? How quickly do you need this turned around? What does your budget look like?

Q: What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?

A: Don't be resistant to change because I won't be. I'm not looking to take over your project, I'm just looking to unlock all of it's potential.

Q: If you were on a desert island and could take just 5 pieces of gear, what would they be?

A: Acoustic Guitar, pad and pen.... and survival gear! There's an infinite number of songs that can be written with just an acoustic guitar and a voice. The pad and pen are so I don't forget the awesome songs I wrote waiting to be rescued.

Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?

A: I started as a singer/songwriter in high school, joined a band at 18, toured the west coast for 6 years while learning and refining my production skills, and now I've returned to being a full-time musician/singer-songwriter. All in all I've been at this whole music thing for about 11 years.

Q: Tell us about a project you worked on you are especially proud of and why. What was your role?

A: I was hired to curate and compose the soundtrack/feature film music for an independent film called Monster. I loved being a part of this project because it was the first of it's kind I had been hired to do. Collaborating with other artists and creating emotionally moving, but non-invasive music was a great chance to practice emotionally moving an audience through a different medium.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: All about putting out a quality end product that affects a wide audience. Clean cut, concise, and likes to have fun!

Q: Which artist would you like to work with and why?

A: Honestly, any artist that challenges me! We can't learn and grow as musicians if we aren't being properly challenged. So if you have a style I haven't worked with before, or an ambitious project I want to be involved!

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: "Don't Bore Us, Get To The Chorus" is for suckers. If you can't grab your audience from the first line, your song needs work.

Q: What type of music do you usually work on?

A: Pop-Rock and Ambient Pop.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Songwriting/Hook Writing. I spent years practicing and refining this skill. Besides that's how I make most of my money nowadays.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Subtlety. You can teach how to use compressors and mic technique, but sometimes the best thing you can do for a song is take things away. You can't teach someone taste.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I like to feel out what the artist is looking for in their project (sound, direction, impact, etc...) and put together a rough mix out to them within a day. Then we can freely discuss how we'd like to improve upon the demo so that we end with a product that everyone is happy with!

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I work with an industry standard AVID Protools mixing setup out of my home studio, Wandering Soul Studios. I kept my setup mobile so I could do mixing and light tracking offsite.

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

A: I've been inspired by producers Geoff Ott and Casey Bates. Both are Seattle based engineers with great ears and taste! Geoff has worked with acts like Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, 3 Doors Down, and the grunge-rock side of Seattle, while Casey has worked with a lot of Hopeless/Fearless/Fueled By Ramen signed bands. When it comes to Hip-Hop side of my production I have to give a huge nod to Christoph Andersson, G-Eazy, and early 2000's Hip-hop.

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

A: Most often I am hired to do hook/chorus/full song writing as a male vocalist. Although I've done quite a lot of Electric/Acoustic/Bass guitar dubbing also.