Noisemaker - Mixer - Engineer

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Both. Analog can do things that digital can't. Conversely, digital can do things that analog can't.

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

A: I want YOU to be happy with the end result. I promise to provide you with my time and attention to detail. If there's something you're hearing that I'm not, I promise to listen to you and make sure you're confident in what we're making before moving on.

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

A: Do you know what all those buttons do? Yes, except for that one.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What do you want to get out of the project? Who/what are your influences? Do you need me to do any additional editing, tuning, or quantizing? What is your plan for release?

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

A: Macbook Pro, UAD Apollo Interface, U47 Fet, my 1952 Gibson Acoustic, and an XLR cable

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

A: I started interning at studios and with producers in Minneapolis. After a few years in the Midwest, I spent a quick bit in Nashville, then moved to Los Angeles where I've been happily making music for the last six years.

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

A: Spoon. In my opinion, they're one of the last great 'album' bands who can put together a whole piece of art in the album medium. I absolutely love their catalog and their approach to production.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: If you're hitting a wall in either the writing or the production process, switch things up with instrumentation. If you've been writing it on acoustic guitar, bang out those chords on a piano instead. Work your way through the song in a way you haven't before and see what happens.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: A fresh set of ears for starters. I can help with writing if someone is hitting a wall, or production if they feel the song can go in a different direction but don't know how to get there. But I'm also happy to sit back and make sure everything sounds as good as it possibly can while still capturing what the artist is looking for.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: My studio setup is a bit of a hybrid. I work mostly in the box, ProTools being my main DAW, but as a retired amateur guitar player I have too much gear laying around that I can't NOT use it, right? I love reamping anything and everything through amps and pedals, which creates new sounds you'd never get through a plugin. I also have an Overstayer VCA compressor that I love using for parallel drum processing, and an old Tascam Cassette deck for analog degradation.

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

A: I am most inspired technically by people I've gotten to work with first hand. Engineers like Jim Scott, Shawn Everett, Darrell Thorp, Billy Bush, Butch Vig, are all guys I've had the pleasure to learn from and are always at the top of their game. Musically, I find inspiration in tons of different artists ranging from Mozart to Springsteen, Lady Gaga to Iggy Pop, Metallica to Stan Getz. At the end of the day, I just love a great song.