Music Producer / Remote Mixing

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

A: I've done so many projects it's impossible to pin point one but I would say my current album for EMI I'm pretty proud of. It's hip hop album featuring live drums and a US rapper. I'm based in London and we've been working on the project for over a year but it's finally come together. I've produced, edited and mixed the project with the drums and rap vocal being recorded remount in London and the US respectively. The energy and magic of the tracks is unbelievable.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: I'm currently working on two Hip Hop album projects for EMI Production Music UK.

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

A: There are many great musicians and producers who have worked on some fabulous artists but I don't know them personally.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Both. Both have their benefits and disadvantages but at the moment I would swing towards digital because most analog processes can now be emulated in software so there isn't the necessity to deal with the negatives of Analog any more.

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

A: I will always work to create something I am proud of not matter how 'big' or small the client is.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: There is nothing more thrilling that creating or finishing off an amazing piece of music. That is it. The ultimate feeling.

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

A: Every customer is different but the moist common questions usually refer to how long it will take either for production or a mix. For a production if the client is there about two days per song and a mix about one day.

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

A: Probably new topline writers feel that if they write the top-line that they own 100% of the song.. :)

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: Every client is different so there isn't a script for all clients but I try to get a handle on how they want the project to sound in terms of it's own merits but also using other artists or tracks as references.

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

A: My Neumann mic, My Tannoy Eclipse 8 monitors, my mac and my keyboard and my Akai drum pad.

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

A: My Neumann mic, My Tannoy Eclipse 8 monitors, my mac and my keyboard and my Akai drum pad.

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

A: I created a sample "DAT" at university, got and it reviewed in a national magazine. The reviews were so great that the head of the Time and Space called me up and asked if I wanted to be distributed by them. I couldn't fund the CDs so I called the next biggest player in the game, Matthew at AMG and told him the story. He agreed to take the masters, fund the resulting sample CD and do a JV. We ended jus doing well with two separate sample CD projects. From that Matthew was approached by two guys who were starting Extreme Music and from that I got into Library music and have since written for Universal, Sony ATV, Pigfactory and many others.Through out the past 20 years or so I 've also worked with dozens up and coming artists some of whom went on to make it such as Leona Lewis and Fleur East.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Perhaps one could say my style is unpretentious hip hop musicality

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

A: If I could work with one artist it would be Rihanna or Kanye. I know that's two but I can't choose. Rihanna has the ultimate pop Urban voice and Kanye is on some next level creativity that I think is really special.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Yes, don't steal samples.

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

A: I mainly work on beat driven music. Hip Hip, R&B. Most of the time the productions feature either rapped, sung or a combination of both.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: I think see above - taste but also technical ability and experience. But then again perhaps it can be more specifically described and being able to find the focus of a track and make that stand out.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I think every producer and or mix engineer is unique but what I feel separates me is taste and technical ability. Taste means being able to know instinctively what is good and what is garbage and technical ability means knowing how to fix or improve. You can't learn or teach taste in my opinion. I also have over 31 years experience creating music.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: My process depends of what the job is. If I'm re-doing a demo for an artist I listen to the track and try to identify the strengths and weaknesses and then work out how I can fix them. You need to find what "motivates and moves" the track along and balance that with the other elements. Similar too film production where camera movements need to be motivated, each production or mix decision needs to have a motivation.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: Over the years I've stripped everything down to the basics. I record through a Neumann mic, Focusrite ISA 430 mic pre and the do the processing in Logic Pro X. Mixing in the box is so liberating in terms of flexibility.

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

A: I love and admire may other professional's work. I love the combination of real and programmed instruments. I love music by Chance the Rapper, Kanye, Drake, DJ Khalid, Koffee, Mike Dean, Kendrick Lemar, Action Bronson but I also like blue eyed should by Adele for example. It would take all night to list the production credits of all those involved and my whole list but those are a few.

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

A: I do a mixture of vocal recording, editing and mixing plus production. Most of my career I've had artist come to me with either just a concept or sometimes fleshed out demos and I would create records for them from this.