Songwriter, Singer, Topliner

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Start with an instrumental, or build an instrumental from scratch with my producer, I come up with some melody and concept ideas to go with the music. I write the song and record the lead vocals, engineering myself, and I record harmonies, doubles and adlibs. I then do the vocal comp using my recording takes. Once I am satisfied with my comp, my partner mixes and masters the song. Once the song is finished a release plan is set in motion consisting of: cover art, promotional photos, a trailer, lyric art, credit art, banners, description for press, press release, social media posting plan, videos and more revolving around content. Once the plan is finished, we submit to distributors thought our record label and repeat the process with a new song or project. When writing for a client not on our label, after my job is down whether it consisted of songwriting, recording or singing, I send the vocal files off for mixing and mastering from the party in control of the project.

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

A: There are countless creatives I admire and aspire to be like; far too many to count. At the moment, I am very inspired by an upcoming artist from the same area I am from in Northern California named Lolo Zouaii. I have watched her grow as an artist and creative and her success continues to expand before my eyes. It is a welcomed blueprint to what I strive to do. I am also currently inspired by a young New Jersey native songwriter named Nija Charles. She has worked her way into a spotlight as a songwriter at a young age by making sure she is the girl on call to get in the room. She has written hits for Beyonce, Kehlani and more. I am also inspired by SZA and HER (who also grew up in Northern California as I did). They both worked their way up as songwriters and used their success to propel their artist careers and opportunities. One of my original sources of artistic inspiration was Elton John and Bernie Taupin. The dream duo of Writer and Artist Producer paved a fantasy career for me. Once at an Elton concert I attended he spoke to the crowd about how he and Bernie struggled in LA to get people to take their songs and almost gave up before releasing the songs on their own gaining them the immense success we know today. He said they realized the songs were meant to be THEIR unique sound. There are many more creatives that have and continue to inspire me daily.

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

A: With songwriting, I commonly work one on one with artists to write a song perfectly catered to their story and sound taking our time but being efficient. During the process my clients learn how a song comes together. I record the artist (teaching how if needed) or I record the song myself (depending on what the client wants). I then do vocal comping, tuning and editing. I own a record label with my partner who is a producer and a recording, mixing, and mastering engineer. Unless an instrumental is brought in, he will produce a custom made song from scratch for the artist. After the writing, recording and comping is done, he mixes, masters and prepares the song for release. If requested, we then work with the artist to develop an PR Release Campaign plan and decide every detail of what needs to be done for the song/project release. With recording/singing, there are a number of different ways I work. My topline work consists of producers, artists, (etc.), sending me instrumentals. My work varies from me recording simple melodies with no lyrics, filling in lyrics to pre-existing melodies, choruses (or hooks), fully written songs, background vocals, feature performances, vocal samples/chops, lone verses and bridges; anything the client is looking for. I also sing lead and background vocals for live events and parties.