Session Bassoonist

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I most enjoy working with people who have never considered using bassoon before. Seeing their reaction when a bassoon drops into their track is always priceless.

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

A: I'd love to work with They Might Be Giants, I'm not sure what their process is like, but it seems like every musician on their tracks brings their own individual quality to the final product. And it seems like they'd be super fun to work with.

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

A: The most common thing I do is record a pre-written idea. But many of my clients don’t write music, so I typically transcribe the idea from an audio file.

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

A: I’ve been doing session recording work since 2016, but I’ve been collaborating with bands and other artists since 2013. My career began as an orchestral bassoonist, but I loved recording and being in the studio. Once I moved to Chicago and got my first taste of studio recording, I wanted to find a way to do more. I worked with an audio engineering friend of mine to start slowly accumulating the equipment and knowledge to make me a self-sufficient session musician.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I bring emotion and depth to a song. Using expressive dynamics and intuitive phrasing, I can move a listener and convey meaning beyond the words of a song.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I’ll get a request from a client, and ask them follow up questions to ensure we’re on the same page. Then, I’ll listen through the track to make sure all the notes are correct and I have no further questions. Lastly, I’ll record a few takes, edit the track to include the best combination of takes, and apply my usual effects (simple gate and a high pass filter) and send the client back a reference mix along with the individual bassoon track(s).