Producer, Mixing/Mastering

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I love taking a good song and making it great. I love the reaction I get from my clients when I send them my version of their songs. Nothing beats it.

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

A: All I would need are headphones, a laptop, and a little midi keyboard. I guess I'd take a laptop charger too, since I still have 2 pieces of gear left. And water lol.

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

A: I started working in Garageband when I was 10 years old. I'm 23 now, so I've been doing it for 13 years straight. I started doing client work about 6 years ago, but I've been releasing songs into iTunes since I was 12.

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

A: Mostly Pop and all subgenres (electro pop, synth pop, pop punk, pop rock, etc), but I also do a lot of Reggaeton, Electronic, Hip Hop/R&B, Afrobeats, and everything in between.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: I'd say creative takes on production and using weird sounds that you wouldn't normally hear in a song, and vocal mixing.

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

A: Benny Blanco and Diplo are two that come to mind. They both produce MASSIVE hits for huge artists, all while releasing their own music and doing their own thing. They pretty much have the exact careers I'd want.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: My production style tends to lean towards the more electronic side of things. That's not to say I can't make instrument based music, but since I can't play any instruments very well I'd need to outsource that.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I can bring your ideas to life. I can bring energy to your mix, life to the arrangement, and a professional sounding product to the table.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: For production: We either start from scratch (I make a beat and you write to it), or, what many of my clients do, and what I prefer to do, is they will write a demo (either to piano/guitar or even a Youtube beat they found), they'll send me a voice memo, and I'll build the song around their idea. Some of the best songs I've made have stemmed from voice memos. Usually, my clients will send me 2-3 references songs so I can can get an idea of how they want their song to sound. We'll toss ideas back and forth and I will produce the song to completion and do revisions until the client is 100% satisfied. For mixing/mastering: The client sends me the stems (all tracks rendered as separate files–e.g. kick.wav, lead vox.wav, claps.wav, etc). Then, I mix them and send it back for any feedback/revisions. Then I continue with revisions until the client is satisfied.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: I love to hear about their ideas for the direction of the song and I always ask for 2-3 references for what they want their song to sound like.

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

A: I mostly do productions, which include mixing and mastering. However, I have quite a few clients who only need mixing and mastering.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Regarding mixing: When a sound/instrument is hidden in a track, people tend to boost up the volume on it to bring it to the front. Now, this is circumstantial, but utilizing subtractive EQing on other instruments in the same frequency range can make room for your sound/instrument and let it shine through the mix without making it too loud.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: I have been raised in the digital age, so digital is just something I am more comfortable with.

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

A: My promise to you: I will make your song sound great, and I will work until you are satisfied.

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

A: A track I worked on called "Creator" by Christopher Blake. It was mixed flawlessly, the vocals were processed beautifully, and the overall outcome of the track was something I was very proud of. I was the producer and mixing/mastering engineer.