Producer, Songwriter, Singer

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

A: I promise to put you and your happiness first, and that means finding that perfect hook, lyric, groove, or melody that makes you light up with excitement. At the end of this process I want to provide you with a track that you love and connect with, and vocal performances that you never thought were possible.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I love bouncing around different genres. That's something I didn't get to do much as an artist, but as a producer It's a really fun challenge to jump from genre to genre and switch your mindset to fit each.

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

A: That I'm only a pop singer from a "boyband."

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

A: I started playing guitar at age 7 and took lessons from a Berklee graduate. He also started teaching me Pro Tools at 10 years old, and It's been my passion ever since. Something about building a track out of thin air always excited me, and all the different ways you can manipulate a sound - so exciting! I was always the guy in my bands growing up that recorded our songs, and just started figuring stuff out as I went. The likely choice when I was looking at schools was Berklee, given my teacher had gone there, so I applied and auditioned for a scholarship and was lucky enough to be awarded one to attend. I feel like this is one of the best things I could have done as a musician, and it was a lot of hard work. That ultimately led to my signing with Atlantic as the singer of The Click Five and I'm so grateful for that experience. It taught me so much, and as a producer, I am constantly recalling tricks I learned in the studio from our Producer Mike Denneen at Q Division in Boston, MA. We earned a few gold records throughout Asia, and since then I've released one solo album and switched my focus to producing and songwriting. Since the switch to full-time production, my work has received over 50 million streams, numerous Billboard write-ups, a Billboard #1 (Dance Category, songwriter), a HypeM top 20, and numerous Spotify accolades such as New Music Friday placements (US), Top viral 50 (Denmark, Czech Republic, Norway, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, and more), iTunes #1's, etc! I'm proud of my work and love what I do.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I believe, no matter the genre, that the focus should be on the artist and writing something they believe in. This is most important, and in-turn translates to something that will connect with a huge audience in my opinion. With my background performing headlining sets to 40k+ audiences, I've had the unique privilege of seeing first-hand what works in those settings (and what doesn't). This includes non-english speaking markets as well.

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

A: I recently completed a production for an artist named Shea Diamond, who is an African American Trans woman. She is an unbelievably soulful and heartfelt singer, completely self-taught. After being incarcerated for ten years, she is now pursuing her artist career, and has signed with Justin Tranter (songwriter for Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Imagine Dragons, Julia Michaels, Gwen Stefani, etc). I co-wrote, produced, and mixed her single "American Pie" on her latest EP "Seen It All". Writing this song was wild. I was still living in Brooklyn at the time, and had barely an 80 sq ft studio. Shea and our other co-writer Abby Diamond were all crammed in that little room with no A/C in a basement in South Williamsburg. It's projects like this that make me humbled just to be included in an artist's life, and to be a small part in telling their moving story through a song. The icing on the cake was Justin Tranter, who's work I admire big-time, loved the song and made it a single for her.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: My collaborator Will Snyder and I are working with this amazing company Persp3ctive VR, which is creating the first ever Virtual Reality audio production software. It connects with your DAW and can midi map to any function, which is mind-blowing. For example, this allows you to do a massive filter sweep on the master track using your hands and body, as opposed to using a mouse. Game changer. Will and I are creating all of their music for their ads and we'll be featured in their behind the scenes footage while we are working on the track. Very cool!

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: My setup is entirely digital from a recording standpoint. It's very minimal input-wise, as most of what I do is one thing at a time (overdubbed). However, from a production standpoint I like to use "analog" sources to create sounds that may be manipulated digitally later. For example, using the human voice to make a synth part, drenching an acoustic guitar in reverb to make an epic washy sound that follows the chords, or patting out a drum beat on the door frame and messing it up with plugins pitch shifting to sound like hi-hats from an analog drum machine. I always love combining human feel with some digitally effected & quantized parts. Of course on top of all of that is the human voice and that's still one of the most nuanced and beautiful instruments to me. Additionally, I'm always using "Tape" plugins that add warmth and harmonic texture, like the UAD Studer A800 and Fatso JR, love those!

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

A: Hit me up! I'm always down to talk to people about what they're working on and I am flexible on pricing :)

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

A: Laptop, UAD Apollo, Telefunken AK47, Prophet 600, SJ-200

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

A: Kaytranada. I'm blown away by his dance production, musicality, and mixing. I love the synth sounds he chooses, the way the vocals are treated and often side-chained, and of course his drum / bass production.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Try tracking vocals with your session slowed way down (for example if your song is at 120bpm, slow the whole session down to 60 or 70 bpm and then track some ad libs over top of it). Then speed it all back up to your original tempo. Mess with the "formant" on the new vocals you did. This will create a dope sound! 100% credit to Jamie Lidell, an incredible producer! Recently learned this one myself and want to pass it on.

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

A: Most of my projects have some element of Pop. I love catchy melodies, repetition, and big choruses. However, I work on equally as much Dance / Club music lately and absolutely love that. My upcoming solo music is a combination of pop and house - so that would be an indicator that I gravitate mostly towards those two genres. All that said, my two highest streamed productions currently are beautiful acoustic ballads with little instrumentation, and I f'kn love them. It really depends!

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Typically I start the first day or two as writing days (unless the song is already written of course) and do some basic demo'ing of sounds to get the juices flowing while writing. However, this initial timeframe is always focused on songwriting, not production, as I always intend for the song to stand on its own without all the bells and whistles, and the message behind the song I typically work towards a real-life story that the artist has. Something they actually have gone through or believe in and can talk about. Usually it's part therapy part songwriting ;) I like to talk about real shit.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: My studio is in my house and is my pride and joy. My favorite pieces of gear are my Telefunken AK47 mic (which sounds so good on vocals and just about any other acoustic source), Ableton Push 2, Prophet 600, Juno 106, Roland JV-1080, Wurlitzer, Gibson Les Paul Custom, Gibson SJ-200 Custom, Gibson J45, Fender American Strat, and Fender American Tele. My most used software is Ableton (Track / Electronic Production), Pro Tools (Mixing, Vocal Tracking), Fabfilter, Tons of UAD Plugins, Keyscape by Spectrasonics, NI Komplete, Serum, Zone, etc. I have a big comfy leather couch and chair, and huge TV, which are pretty crucial. I pretty much always have some incense lit and I'm a nerd for setting the mood with lighting and colorful LED's on the ceiling. The feeling is very much like you're in a home, not a stuffy pay-by-the-hour recording studio. My studio mate and co-producer, Will Snyder, also has two persian cats so they are usually snoozing in the studio too. I offer overnight stays as well, if you were to come in from out of town (save you some money on airbnb's!).

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

A: I'm a fan of Max Martin, Kaytranada, Julia Michaels, Greg Kurstin, Teddy Geiger, Timbaland, Calvin Harris, Flume, Jamie XX, Lauv, Swedish House Mafia.

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

A: Most commonly I am hired as a producer who co-writes the song with the artist and then produces it. My other most common gigs are tracking vocals remotely and sending out the organized files to the client. I am also hired as solely Vocal Producer.