Producer, songwriter, singer

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

A: I wrote a song called Grey about my journey to sobriety that I am really proud of.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Songs for girl groups, a ballad about divorce, and a pitch for Dolly Parton.

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

A: Austin Moorhead is a producer in Nashville who has done some amazing country tracks for me.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Digital, because analog is expensive as hell. But analog elements that feel organic do take productions to the next level - so I'm always looking for ways to introduce that.

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

A: Responsiveness, friendliness, collaborative spirit (won't let ego get in the way), willing to try new things or edit until we agree it's a good final product.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I love starting with an idea and seeing it come to a complete song that evokes emotion in people. It's a magical process to build something piece by piece that eventually holds meaning for others. Making art!

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

A: Q: What's your budget? A: Not as high as you're hoping.

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

A: I don't think many people even know what songwriters do - so it's hard to say there are many misconceptions out there. I'd say one major misconception is that songwriters aren't the backbone of the entire industry - we are. Without a good song, the singing, production, session players, tours, merch, marketing is meaningless.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What final product are you looking for? What are your reference tracks? What is your timeline? What is the intention with this song (you cut it, pitch it, sync library?)

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

A: Be open for a collaborative working relationship - ideally I am not looking for a transactional thing. I am looking for creative collaborators who will help me bring hit songs to life. The biggest hits always came from partnerships or groups of talented people - not one-off You pay me that, I will give you this.

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

A: Ok I've watched a lot of Naked and Afraid so 1) pot for water, 2) fire starter, 3) high-quality tent, 4) knife, 5) fishing rod.

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

A: I have been writing songs since I was about 15. As a day job I've worked in digital media/advertising for the past 10 years, but I've always been writing on the side. In the last three years I've been pursuing songwriting more seriously.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: I tend to do a lot of pretty, heartbreaking ballads. But when I'm doing more uptempo, I like to infuse a sense of humor and color into the song. I embrace pure pop, earworms, and fun - I don't take myself too seriously and I'm not too abstract.

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

A: Gwen Stefani - I think she's one of the coolest artists and I've adored her since I was young. Max Martin would be the pinnacle.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Don't overcomplicate it - keep it simple/bare bones. Each sound should be absolutely necessary. Still learning a lot about production.

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

A: Pop

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Melodies, song structure, and polishing a song. Lyrics are harder but I'm good at finding rhymes.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I'm fast - I can lay down lyrical ideas and clean things up. I like to follow some level of melodic math - so I can find the right way to make the lyric fit the melody/syllables. I can come up with pop melodies and ensure there is lift and variation between sections. I like playing with chord progressions and melodies to get the most emotionally resonant result.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Intro Zoom call, review some ideas (song starts, melodies, lyrical ideas, briefs, hooks, titles.) Come up with an outline for the song concept. Go away and start writing lyrics and melodies, lay a scratch demo down in Logic. Get overly obsessed with arrangement, harmonies, and production. Take it back and compare notes - get some critiques - try to make the song perfect.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: Just moved to London so still getting set-up but I have a SM7B and Rode NT1A for vocals. I produce in Logic. My audio interface is a Scarlett 2i2.

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

A: MNEK, Justin Tranter, Bonnie McKee, Julia Michaels, Max Martin, Dolly Parton, Sheryl Crow, Alanis Morrissette, Fiona Apple, Rufus Wainwright, Sara Bareilles, Sam Smith, Lauv, Charlie Puth, Ross Golan, Ali Tamposi, Linda Perry, Diane Warren, Glen Ballard, Allee Willis, Gwen Stefani, James Bay, Finneas, Teddy Geiger, Shane McAnally, John Shanks, Ryan Tedder, Ester Dean, Greg Wells, Bebe Rexha, Savan Kotecha

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

A: Cowriting on toplines. I specialize in pop melodies, hooks, and turning rough lyrical ideas into finished lyrics.