Producer | Mix | Guitarist

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

A: I can only promise one thing, I will take your project very seriously and give it everything I can. Every once in awhile I check myself to see if I can cut corners, and nope, for some reason it's just not something I'm capable of doing.

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

A: I'm currently working on some solo material that I'm very excited about.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: I always have a few things going on at the same time. I love jumping from one to the next and back again. Keeps things fresh creatively.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: I came up on analog, reel to reel recorders, consoles etc. That said I'm very thankful for digital. What we're able to do today would be absolutely unimaginable 30 years ago. Plugins have gotten to the point where you get the best of both worlds even if one is simulated.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Well music mostly, but being your own boss ain't that bad either.

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

A: Can you help make me famous? Perhaps, depends on how good your song is. Everyone is just one song away from wild success.

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

A: That I look too young to have as much experience as I do.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What's their intended target audience. Is there a particular band or song you like the mix of, just to get a feel of where they're coming from.

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

A: It can be a difficult decision deciding on who to give your "baby" too. I'd say just listen to the little voice in your head saying "pick me, pick me" haha.

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

A: Macbook pro, UA Apollo Twin, Townsend Labs L22 Mic, BeyerDynamic DT 1990 PRO, Midi keyboard.

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

A: I started studying and producing music in Japan in the early 90's. Moved back to the US in the late 90's and continued writing and recording every since. 2010 started a band and got signed to Atlantic records. Played most of the big festivals, toured for years, supported The Rolling Stones and a ton of other A list bands. Took a break from touring and continued producing and mixing.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: I have a background in alt-rock and indie but I grew up listening to pop and various instrumentals. Mix that all up and that's more or less what I am, probably.

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

A: I'll answer this in a more general format. There's several older artists that to me, have lost their way. It seems they're trying to be too hip and do something modern but it just doesn't sound like them or comes off un-natural. I wish I could work with some of them and get them back to the basics of what they did great at and keep'm from chasing what's hip right this second.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: I think overthinking things is a typical pitfall we all in the music business can fall into. I constantly catch myself going there and have to pull back from over analyzing. If it's not working at the moment come back to it later, it'll come.

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

A: A wide variety. I've lived and worked all over the world and have really soaked in many cultures and genre's.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Bringing out the best in recorded elements. I like tweaking and experimenting with different approaches to find what fits best for each track. To me there's a perfect match of processing for each source. For example, one certain compressor or preamp, eq or what have you that just fits like a glove, that brings out the strengths in each sound source.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: 20+ years of skill and listening.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Depends on the project. If I'm producing a track from a demo I really like to zero in on the core song and make sure it's all there. Often I'll work with the artist to help strengthen the melody or lyrics as much as the artist is comfortable with. I think a good producer is able to gently coax along an artist in the right direction without putting too much of his/her influence in the writing. If I'm mixing a track I'll typically listen over to the song a few times while soloing each track to get a sense of how everything sounds, the way it was recorded, what strengths or weaknesses certain elements may have etc. Then I dive in. The music/song will usually tell me what needs to be featured and showcased and how things should flow. I've had time to develop a "gut feeling" so I usually just go with it.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: Over the years I've had room's full of equipment. Large consoles, racks of outboard gear etc. Now I have all that gear in the way of incredible sounding plugins. So much quicker, simpler and possibly better sounding because of all you can do with automation makes for greater creativity. Endless options, sometimes a good thing, sometimes not, ha.

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

A: I love how cool and minimalistic Finneas productions are. I Love how Eric J's mixes sound. Joe LaPorta's masters are awesome.

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

A: Mixing & creating a full production for a bare boned song demo.