Mixing, Vocal Production &Tune

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

A: I'm really proud of Justin Bieber's latest record "Changes". We really dug deep and went into excruciating detail to get the best possible vocals we could and I personally think the end result speaks for itself!

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

A: I always knew I was going to be a musician. I started young with piano, choir and guitar and moved onto songwriting, production, scoring & engineering as I got older. When I was 21, I left Melbourne Australia to establish my career in L.A and have been here almost 20 years. I started from the bottom with nothing but knuckle-headed determination and grit. I always put my absolute best into every record I touch and consider them all a mark of my career, from the biggest records like Despacito, to an indie one that only 20 people will hear. I give them all my full creative attention. After all, the audience deserves it and the artists who are forking out their hard-earned money deserve it too.

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

A: If I haven't done justice to your record and it's not of a professional major label quality sonically, then you can request a refund. I'm happy to do as many edits/changes as you need until it's perfect.

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

A: I include melodyning in my mix fee which is hand-tuning your vocals unlike slapping autotune on it. It provides a far superior result and one you can not simply achieve with autotune. I'm more expensive than my peers but you get what you pay for.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: both

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

A: laptop, 251 mic, 1073, CLA 1176 & Derresser (yep that's my vocal chain).

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

A: Metallica, I've been a fan since I was a kid!

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: It's all about the song. Production can change, be remixed, mixed whatever. The song is where the emotion is and to me, music is all about emotion. Get the song right first, and the rest will follow.

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

A: Usually it's pop/hip hop but I've also done a lot of work in the adult contempory space (Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Bocelli etc).

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Though a combination of vocal tuning, added vocal production & mixing I'm able to take a song from the amateur space to sounding fully professional. I can also turn a poor/average vocal performance into a world class one :)

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: The most important part when starting on a record is to find out what really makes it tick and to make sure you don't lose sight of that while developing it out. For example, something may have a terrible mix on it but a sound may be distorting in the wrong way which gives it it's own unique vibe. You don't want to mix it all cleanly and lose that grit. Similarly, when vocal producing, I might add harmonies, adlibs efx and all fancy tricks but it's important to identify the tiny details in the rough demo that gave the song it's life and swag and to not lose that. Too many people get hung up on what they CAN do and not what they SHOULD do for the record and often this can make you lose sight of the heart of the record.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I have a hybrid in the box/out the box setup. I have all the plugins I need and some key pieces of classic analog gear that I use to give my mixes some warmth and saturation (SSL G comps, Neve 33609, pultecs etc).

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

A: Growing up, I played many different instruments from many different genres, from upright bass in jazz quartets to electric guitar in metal bands and everything in between. It has given me a great appreciation for all music so I would say I'm inspired by the best of each respective genre's.

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

A: Most of my work is major label vocal production, tuning and mixing. Some artists love my vocal production and tuning but already have their person for mixing, whereas some artists already have their person they're comfortable recording with but love my mixes.