Composer / Sound Designer

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

A: Recently I worked with an old friend of mine to take one of his tracks and take it in a different direction. I have known this friend all of my life, we are both musicians but never truly got to sit down and do something creative together. It's been a joy to give his track a new life and I look forward to working with him more in the future!

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: I am currently spending a large proportion of my free time on a masters degree in composing for video games, at Thinkspace Education. This has been an amazing opportunity to meet fellow composers, learn new skills and keep on top of the latest innovations in game audio.

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

A: That I will put 110% to deliver what you want, and spend as long as I need in the studio to get to that point. This is a lifelong endeavour to create art for other people as well as myself, and I love every minute of it.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Apart from the obvious fact of enjoying my job, I love seeing a positive impact on other peoples life. Knowing that my music in some way has helped others in a variety of ways, is hugely rewarding for me knowing that I'm making a difference to peoples lives.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: For me, I'd like to know the ground rules pretty early on. If you have a specific vision in mind then I'd like to know from the get-go. If you have a specific sound you're looking for, then audio examples are a brilliant way of helping me focus on a particular genre of music that the client may want. Having said that, if the audio is taking a backseat in your media, and as such the audio style is more flexible, then this is of course absolutely fine and gives composers like me more creativity to work with.

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

A: Some people may say that cheaper producers will reflect in the quality but that's certainly not the case. You want someone who is passionate about your own project and invested in it as much as you are. Having a pleasurable working experience with another creative, who wants to put the project first and not their ego, is paramount.

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

A: I have been playing the piano since the age of 4 and the guitar since 12, and it has always been a hobbyist endeavour for me. However, after making my own music for the past 5 years under the artist name "Ion Stream", it's really pushed me to want to chase a personal dream of mine, which is to work as a video game composer. The emotional tie between video games and their soundtracks has been so important to me and how I grew up, and I'd love for strangers to have a similar connection to my own music within a video game.

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

A: I've become a bit of a fanboy for an artist known as State Azure. He has some incredible music out on streaming services but also has some inspiring live YouTube performances, that actually inspired me to do some of my own. If you haven't heard of him, I highly recommend you check him out :)

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: It's an obvious and well-used tip but ear training is by far the biggest tip I could give anyone. Spend hours (short intervals) of listening to different types of music, working out what frequencies instruments typical sit at, play around with your compressors and EQ's until you can hear what they do to the sound. All these things take years of experience to understand and grasp, and it's just a case of putting the time in!

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

A: I adore making ambient music when it's a personal project, but I thrive when I'm completely out of my comfort zone. Anything I've not done before is extremely exciting to me and it often takes me on an amazing learning experience.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: I'm never a fan of these questions but if I was to give myself 1 point, it would be the knowledge of knowing when something just sounds good, you know? There is a sweet spot that takes years of experience and practice to know when your track has that professional quality to it, and it's very handy to know where you need to fix issues and what tools to grab to help fix them.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Depth and space! A lot of my collaborations have been to elevate a song or to take it into a completely different direction, with a great sounding end result. When working with game audio, my technical expertise in computer software from my working background keeps my knowledge at the cutting edge which can help bring a game to life very quickly.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: Most of my music production is done with virtual instruments, which leaves a small footprint. Currently my hardware studio setup is as follows: Arturia Keylab 88 MKII controller Arturia Keystep Pro ASM Hydrasynth Desktop Module Novation Peak Typhon Dreadbox Pro-1 DT 990 Pro Studio Headphones MOTU Ultralite AVB Interface Edifier R1280DB Studio Monitors Streamdeck Acoustic treatment

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

A: I am a huge sci-fi nerd and so any space ambient producers are a huge inspiration. Currently artists such as State Azure, Carbon Based Lifeforms, and Solar Fields are standouts for me and keep my creative juices flowing!

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

A: Currently, I have been working closely with game developers in the indie space, helping elevate their games to the next level with professional audio.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Yes. But seriously, both have their advantages and disadvantages. I edge towards the digital side just because of the number of extra options you generally have for sound design in ambient music. But they both have their place!

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

A: How did you get those sounds?! To which I answer, magic ;)