Composer, Session Strings

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

A: I cowrote the song "Praying" with Kesha - and it became a chart topping hit, and a huge rallying cry for the #MeToo movement.... I am still floored that I was a part of that process. Hugely grateful.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Cowriting with artists with BMG, and film scoring with a production company down in Los Angeles, as well as podcast scoring in Los Angeles as well.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Analog and Digital

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

A: I promise to provide you with a top level orchestral recording (I provide anywhere between 16-24 stems of strings typically), which has been RX'ed and cleaned up, performed by a world class musician (over 28 years of experience), and easily plugged into your mix and session. No hassle, no endless pitch correcting and messing around with crap string player performances.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: The flexibility, and the endless supply of unique and varied projects.

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

A: Do I do revisions? Yes.

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

A: I'm not just a string session player. I am a contributing writer to a track, and can bring an organization and efficiency to recording sessions that others don't.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What is the Bpm for a track; do you have a lead sheet; what is the situation with songwriting/publishing %'s?

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

A: violin, viola, sheet music, turn table, and vinyl collection.

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

A: Playing violin since age 5 - did my post grad at Berklee School of Music for Music Business, composition and scoring for Film and TV, and then toured with Macklemore and Ryan Lewis from 2008 to 2017. Also was in a rock band from 2002-2012, and toured heavily on the west coast.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Cinematic and lush

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: use pre-delay with tracks to make them sound like they are 'slightly' sitting behind another take (like a sitting string section.)

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

A: Across the board.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Orchestral arranging/production, and string performance.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I flesh out a song, and bring a whole new dimension of sophistication and epicness to them.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Get a stereo Wav track from a client to write to (sometimes a lead sheet provided, but not required.) I'll take that and drop it into my Pro Tools setup, layout the structure, figure out the main melodies and countermelodies I want to introduce, and write out a rough arrangement on sheet music. I then record a 'rough' of my arrangement live in my studio (I work faster recording live than providing midi mockups); provide that to the client, and await feedback, and go back and forth that way.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: Fully treated mixing room with Mac Pro, Apollo Quad interface, dual Grace m501 preamps, single UA solo 610 preamp, stereo pair of Coles Ribbon 4038s, Neumann TLM 103, Neumann U87

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

A: Top industry professional arranger/producers like Dave Campbell, Quincey Jones, and Vince Mendoza.

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

A: string and horn arrangements for pop, hip hop, folk, rock, and contemporary music clients. I also do a lot of scoring work for podcasts, film, TV, and commercials. I'm getting into full production and co-writing with artists now since I was signed with BMG/Sony.