Recording, Mixing, & Mastering

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Indie rock bands in Nashville

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Both. There are amazing benefits of each.

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

A: We work until it feels right for everyone.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Music is the best

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

A: That anyone with a laptop and garage band can produce quality music nowadays.

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

A: Fast Astronaut-Produced, performed and engineered. The goal was to make a slick pop-rock EP and I feel like we did just that.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What is your vision or goal for the project? What do you want the end result to be?

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

A: We're here to serve the artist and the music....not ourselves.

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

A: Classical guitar, computer, midi keyboard, and speakers.

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

A: Forever. I started on piano at 5 years old and have loved music ever since. I performed on my first tour in 2002 as the lead guitarist for the band Park. We toured across Canada with Moneen and Choke. I was hooked. When I returned home, I completed high school and started my own band called The Junior Varsity. We had a strong local following and signed with Victory Records. I wrote songs that made it on video games and tv shows. We toured with Fall Out Boy, Panic! at The Disco, performed on Warped Tour and Summerfest and worked with successful producers. I joined The Dear Hunter next and performed on keys and guitar with the group. I engineered the band's 3rd album, Act III which made it on the Billboard top 200. We toured with Coheed and Cambria, Circa Survive, Thrice, Thursday, The Offspring, Incubus and Between the Buried and Me. Much was learned in this process. I completed an undergrad and masters degree in music and audio technology. I played bass on American Idol for David Cook and toured with him for 2 years. I performed on bass with Leah Turner on an arena tour with country legend Neal Mccoy. Now I am the audio program chair at SAE-Institute Nashville.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Polished, commercial, produced, crisp, detail-oriented, refined

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

A: Any that are driven to make music a career

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: The song must stand on its own with just acoustic and vocal before any level of production matters whatsoever.

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

A: Rock, indie rock, shoegaze, emo, pop punk, classic rock; music that usually has guitar/bass/drums.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Guitar. This is the backbone of my musical and production sensibility.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: It depends on what the artist is most in need of. Some artists only want to be recorded. Some want to co-write. Some just want help polishing the loose edges. There is no one-size-fits all. The sole purpose is to cater to the vision of the artist; not to put my stamp or brand on it unless something of that nature is requested.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Typical work is full-scale song production with a band or artist. We pre-produce the song together to make sure the tempo, key, chord changes, arrangement, melodies, and lyrics are all locked in. After we make our gameplan/blueprint, we then book the studio time and execute the plan of attack.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I have an optimized home studio setup. The core is a 2013 Mac Pro with a Universal Audio Apollo 16 interface. Focal Twin Be6s are my main monitors which are driven by a Dangerous D-Box. I have an array of tube amps, pedalboards, and guitars. For a vocal chain, I often use our Neumann U87 and Neve 1073 LB preamp and EQ. For guitars, I often use my API 3124 preamps and API 2500 buss compressor. I love my comfortably sized vocal booth. My studio is in a 3-story home built in 2015.

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

A: Andy Wallace, Nigel Godrich, Butch Vig, Mark Trombino, John Feldman

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

A: music production, engineering, guitar, bass, keyboards, mixing and mastering