Electronic/EDM Producer

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

A: I recently produced a single for an artist that started out as a singer/songwriter type, and almost had a western feel to it because of the guitar. I completely stripped it down and was able to make an amazing new EDM production that really get's your head boppin', and I'm extremely proud of myself for it!

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: I'm currently producing/writing a song for pitch with someone with really good connections, and also producing/writing a song from scratch with another artist. Putting out a single of my own in a few weeks as well, it is a collobartion between me and an emo/rock band from Florida, we got a really interesting vibe but I really am proud of the outcome!

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Digital. Because I'm not some old dude stuck in his ways!!

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

A: That I won't be mean to you, but I will always be honest about how I feel about a project. I have to put my name on it too!

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I like being creative. Actually, I love being creative. I like getting out my chair and dancing along to track I just made and thinking "This is a hit...wait there's just one more thing I gotta do to it"

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

A: "Can you do this genre?" "Is this type of track hard for you?" As long as it's not big room, we're good! (I don't like big house...it isn't creative enough for me!)

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

A: I think people think that I might just go on Splice and drop in samples, or just pickup some synth presets and plug in something really quick. As I said, I'm a musician first and I try to take care of the project's creative integrity as my own, and I want it to be a refreshing and modern product that doesn't step on the original artist's toes, or make them feel like it'll sound like everything else!

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What's your goal for this track? What's the mood/genre you want to create, and how do you want people to envision the song when their listening to it? And of course, what are some references that have the same vibe that you want?

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

A: Look at their portfolio and try to get "before and after" tracks of how a song started out, and how it ended up after the producer gave it a whirl. Also, make sure you like the producer and you two get a long as friends, the whole provess will be much better if you have a good time with each other (not to mention...I'm always down to make more friends)

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

A: Laptop, hardrive, interface, a mouse, and studio monitors.

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

A: My original career path was wanting to be an engineer. Than once I moved out to LA, I realized that that is not at ALL what I wanted to do. I didn't want to mix other people's music, I wouldn't to CREATE other people's music (which is what I was doing when I first started picking up instruments anyways)

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Creative. A little outside the box, pushing the envelope only enough to make you ok "hmm...ok I kind of like that".

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

A: I'd love to work with Porter Robinson. Both his songwriting and sound design are absolutetly beautiful. Zedd would be an awesome producer to work with too. Of course...Max Martin!

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Producer's need to stop being so technical all the time and throw all the rules they learned in school or youtube out of the window. Things like that shouldn't be something that you're actively using to produce, it just bogs up creativety and stifles the mood of the whole track. Just let the music flow!

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

A: Usually the big umbrella of pop/electronic/EDM. I did produce two albums of instrumental prog-metal though, as well as engineer for a handful of rock/indie bands when I first started out producing, so I have that under my belt too!

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: My ear! I have perfect pitch (seriously) and can play any idea onto a keyboard, literally instantly. Whether it's a bass line, melod, or even proper voice leading for string arrangments, I can actualize it right away.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I bring my years of performing as a musician (drummer, guitarisit, keys, bass, cello) in a huge spectum of genres (rock, jazz, metal, classical, marching band, contemporary, acoustic, indie) to properly communicate and execute any idea that might be in my head into the computer, and I'm very good and translating the vague descriptor words I client might use (faster, more tame, more exciting, sadder, more thoughtful) into actual musical elements.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Talking to the talent to see if it's a good fit for both of us. I want to make sure that we're both bopping our heads after the final product, so it's important that we're on the same page from the beggining! I'll listen to the song and see where I think it could go and dig up some references that might be similar to what's in my head. Ounce I get the OK, I'll usually start with a bucket of samples that fit the vibe we're both going from, start with the laying down percussion, and then (my favorite part) syntheiszer and sound design. I'm a huge fan of automating the volume and cutoff filters, so that is a big part of my actual creative process!

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I have a trusty little set of Samson monitors that I've been using since I started producing, which means I'm extremely comfortable with them, as well as a 10" sub to get all the low end I need. I run Reaper with a large collection of sound design and synthesizer plugins to make whatever sound I might need, over 1tb of different samples to choose from, and using an 8channel Tascam 16x08 as my interface!

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

A: Porter Robinson's songwriting, The Chainsmokers simplicity, Zedd's sound design, Disclosure's groove, Charlie Puth's head bops, and Bruno Mars's swag.

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

A: Full blown production, taking your singer/songwriting sounding track and doing whatever I need to to make a modern, electronic pop single!