Composer/Producer & 3D Artist

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Making people happy making music.

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

A: 1. How much do you charge? Answer: That depends on what you need. 2. How long will it take? Answer: Do you want it done well or just done? It's rare that I finish a track in one or two days. It does happen but it's rare. I usually come up with 10+ different riffs or melodies, or progressions, and cut them up and mix them around. I hardly ever lay something down and I'm like BAM that's it!. That's just not how I am. And even if that's whatr happens I will set that aside and still come up with a bunch of different material to experiment with. I might redesign a synth sound 8-12 times before a track is done.

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

A: It's probably a combination of composing and producing.

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

A: For me, it's be honest with me. I'm a big boy with big boy pants on. One thing that art school taught me, if nothing else, was how to take criticism. So you can be 100% honest, and I'm not going to get butt-hurt. If you don't like something be direct, tell me you're not feeling it. That way we can fix it, and move forward. I've had situations in the past where someone is worried about hurting feelings, by telling me the truth. And that is just about as unproductive as it gets.

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

A: My most recent album. I think I'm most proud of it for a few reasons. The first is that I was diagnosed with a pretty aggressive cancer about 6 months ago, and I've had some pretty harsh side effects after my surgery. But I've managed to push through it, and that's a pretty big deal to me. The second is that I've collabed on two separate songs with 3 different people who I've never met before, and who live on the other side of the world. I think that's pretty cool. The last reason is that a good friend sang vocals on two of the songs, and I think that's pretty cool too.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: I'm actually releasing a new album this month after a few years without a release. And I'm self releasing it, which means it's my first release without a label. So I'm working on a lot of the boring stuff like marketing.

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

A: I don't know yet. I haven't searched through the providers yet.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Both. We have the ability to use both so use whatever tools you have at your disposal.

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

A: I'll never give you something that I just slapped together. I will put my full energy, and heart into it. I'm always going to give it my best. I will always be communicative, and honest.

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

A: I think people think I'm constantly sampling music. When, in fact, I'm adamantly against sampling music, and I've always been quite vocal about it. Years ago I was collaborating on a track, I had just finished mixing it down and sent it to them to listen to. They responded that they were sorry, but they forgot that they had sampled something, and it was still there. It would have been easy to leave in the song, it was like a tiny vocal chop if I remember. More than likely nobody would have ever known it was sampled. But I went back and did my best to recreate the sample, and then added some effects to it so that it sounded less like the original. I just feel like we are supposed to be creators, and sampling often doesn't give credit where credit is due.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: 1. Do you have any reference songs? 2. Do you have a feeling or vibe you want to convey? 3. Do you have scratch takes, or scratch vocals?

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

A: Does this island have solar electricity? If it does then a super jacked PC, midi keyboard, A pair of nice powered speakers (Not monitors, so that we could really jam), and a nice powered sub. I guess that's five. If there is no electricity then, a grand piano, a drum set, guitar, stand up bass and a sax.

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

A: So I've been doing this on the side since 2001. As far as my career goes I went to art school. I started out in the working world as a graphic designer. I moved up the ranks became the chief technology officer, then started my own SEO company with a couple of partners. Went and worked for a development firm to start up an SEO division there. Because of the way that company functioned there was no direction for me there, and when the CEO told me I was being layed off I was surprised it took them as long as it did. After that I decided I wanted to get back to doing something creative so I taught myself 3D and have been freelancing as a 3D artist ever since. I've been a contributor for companies like Shutterstock, iStock Photos, and Adobe to name a few, as well as a bunch of smaller companies.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: As an artist I would say funky, happy, fun dance music. As a composer I don't think I can answer that right now.

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

A: Number one would have to be Daft Punk. I just love their creativity, and their style. I feel like they vibe off of some of the same 70's sounds that I do, and like to merge them with a more modern feel.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Always try to experiment. I'm not talking about experimental music, I mean don't just lay something down and call it a day. iterate on what you have. Try some more complex ideas, and try some simpler ideas. You might come up with something that works better, or you may not. You might also come up with something that doesn't work at all for the song you're working on, but would be perfect for another track or the start of a new song. But if you don't try new things you'll never know.

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

A: Until recently I've mostly worked on electronic dance music usually with some funky or disco-eque flavor to it; house, drum and bass, breakbeats, and future funk. Lately though, I've been working on a lot of orchestral stuff. It's not all just orchestral though, I'm often mixing it with like a funky bass riff or a funk guitar part. But I've been enjoying incorporating that "sound" with my own.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: I think it's probably composing piano parts. At least it's what I feel most comfortable doing. When I was younger taking piano lessons, my piano teach had one of those nice electric pianos (I paid no attention at the time of brand or model). But I remember the cool thing was that you could record what you played. At home we had an upright, and of course that feature did not exist. My piano teacher would set aside time in each lesson for me to "have at it" as she would say. That was time for me to go on my own tangent, and record things I'd come up with throughout the week between lessons, or come up with new stuff right there. I think creativity in both music and visual art has just always been there with me.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I hope I bring something different to a song. I don't really want to sound like someone else. I mean artists are always going to sound like other artists in some ways, especially the artists they are inspired by, but I honestly try to do my own thing, and not focus on what others are doing. That said, if I hear something that sparks my interest I'm sure some of that is injected into my "sound", whether consciously or subconsciously. Other than that I think I usually bring a little funk to a song, some good vibes, and happiness.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: It really depends on my mood to be honest. As well as whether or not I'm sitting down with an idea or no idea at all. If I have an idea I try to get that part down and recorded first. If I have no idea I usually start with a beat, then a chord progression, then a bassline, and then the melody parts. It's rare for me to work on the same song all day. I usually work on anywhere from 2-4 songs in a day unless something is really vibing perfectly. I have finished songs in a day or night, but that's really rare for me. I almost never write a part and think, "That's perfect". I usually go through several iterations. I might come back to that initial idea, but not without some exploration and experimentation first. I often like to bounce tracks or several versions of the same track and then chop them up and "mix and match". I often take a few days break from a single song to sort of give my mind a fresh perspective. I may end up coming back to the track and trash it or I might come back to it and finish it in a day.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: Nothing to flashy right now, a good amount of my gear (drum machines & synths) are in storage. I was feeling kind of claustrophobic and I just wanted to kind of clear the studio to get a sort of fresh start so to speak. I've been missing that gear so it soon will be time to move it back into the studio. Currently I'm working with a PC I built myself. with an i7 8700K, NVIDIA 1060 6GB Graphics card (Running 3 monitors and a Wacom Pro 16 tablet display), 32GB ram, and a Focusrite Pro40 interface. I have various mics, and a couple decent preamps, a bass guitar, a couple Nektar midi keyboards, some old school sound monitors, and a Sub Pac.

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

A: Daft Punk is one of my all time favorite groups. I love the way they are able to merge disco and funk with modern electronic dance music. As with most composers though, I'm inspired by so many other artists as well. I go through waves of inspiration, and it's really just about who I'm listening to a lot recently which changes constantly. Lately I've been listening to Tipper, Opiuo, FKJ, and a lot of 70's funk and disco artists.