Vocalist, Songwriter, Topliner

Q: Is there anyone on SoundBetter you know and would recommend to your clients?

A: Yes!! Gerry Owens. He's an absolutely incredible at anything he turns his hand to musically and so meticulous with everything works on. He's a songwriter, guitarist, composer, producer, mixing engineer, mastering engineer. All of it. He's the best. (https://soundbetter.com/profiles/229738-gerry-owens)

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

A: Mac, Workstation, Mic (and leads), Scarlett, Hard Drive. That should do it. All I'd need would be electricity and Wifi and I'd come back from the desert island with a whole load of new music!

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

A: This is a tough question. There are so many artists I would love to work with - so many. Today, my answer is that I would love to work with a composer named Garth Stevenson. Garth creates music that is deeply moving and atmospheric and I would absolutely love to see what music might emerge from us combining. Garth composed one of my favourite pieces of music, "The Southern Sea", inspired by his days working on an icebreaker in the Antarctic, upon waking in the morning and going up on deck to look at the icebergs. How fabulous is that? Yep, today I choose him!

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I work with Logic Pro X. I love it. I use Kontakt, Battery, Soundtoys, Spitfire Audio, Nexus, Slate Digital and so on. All that good stuff. I do a lot of vocal production and I love Melodyne Assistant 5 and the Waves CLA plugins. I'm always investing in my studio and upgrading and only use quality mics and instruments.

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

A: I'm proud of my work with my electronic rock band, Moth Complex. I was the vocalist, co-writer and fronted the band. Over my time working on Moth Complex I released two albums, toured the States and in Europe, secured some sync placements and had one of our songs available for full band gameplay on Rock Band Network. All of that was so much fun. Plus I got to do things I always wanted to do - play big rock shows, create music I absolutely loved and all the adventure that comes along with it all. Plus I really pushed myself creatively and I was involved in aspects of everything we did. I edited videos, worked on some of the graphic design, learned how to wire and run our whole live set up! It wasn't always an easy ride, but I value it all so much and am very proud of it.

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

A: My promise is to listen well, to communicate as clearly as I can, to be absolutely open to any feedback and to do my utmost to make sure that I provide a song or a vocal they love and are delighted with. My promise is to do my very best to make sure that they want to be a repeat customer.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: I'd say my style of writing is pretty intuitive, and open. I'm always interested in learning and in trying new things musically, but also staying true to what is best for the song and for the emotion and the feeling that's being expressed.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I feel I bring an openness, and a willingness to allow what is best for the song - melodically, lyrically and any other way - to emerge creatively through me, rather than being rigid. Also I bring enthusiasm and passion for the whole creative process.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: At the moment I am scoring music for a full length feature film (my second score this year). I'm beyond excited about it all but can't share any details just yet...

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: I love analog, but I have to say digital. The world that is open to artists and producers as a result of digital is just fabulous. The easy of creation and all the art that is in the world as a result of digital is mind blowing in the best possible way to me.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Music!!!! I absolutely adore that I get to do what I love every day. I love creating. I love that I have such a passion for what I do and I love that the work doesn't ever feel like work. I'm doing exactly what I am on the earth to do, I know it, and I am so excited for all that is opening up for me.

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

A: The first is how to pronounce my name!! Aoife is a Gaelic (Irish) name and Irish is as old as Sanskrit! Aoife is pronounced close to "EE'fa" and it's from the old Irish world for beauty. Other than that, it depends on whether the customer is new or returning. New customers who have commissioned me to write generally want to be reassured that their project is in good hands, which I absolutely understand. My response is to reassure them that I will provide a rough draft of the song for them to approve before I move to full recording or production, and that they can approve it then or give me further direction. It's really important to me that my customers are happy with my work. It's paramount. Returning customers generally put their project in my hands and are willing to let me run with it, but I still follow the same process of providing a rough draft for their approval before moving to full production.

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

A: That it's easy to do music if you have a DAW and a bit of time. My feeling is that it's one thing to have the tools, but that's just the starting place. It absolutely takes commitment and dedication to do music to a quality standard. It also takes a passion for the craft of songwriting, of singing, of production. It takes a willingness to have humility, to be open to constructive criticism and to learn. To be willing to change and grow - it gives the opportunity to really grow as a person. There's a lot of strength required for all that. It's a vocation, I believe, to do music at a professional level. It's definitely my vocation!

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: Firstly, I find the more specific we can be the better, so I ask questions like: - What is this song being used for? - Can you provide references for me that illustrate the tone or vibe you'd like to create? - How can I best provide that for you? - What deliverables do you need? - What mixes (if any) do you need? - What's your time frame for getting this done? - Do you have any other notes or thoughts you can share? Secondly, I ask my client to imagine the job is complete and exactly as they want, what does this look like? Sometimes coming from a "reverse engineering" standpoint can make ideas pop up that we don't see from the other direction! Not always, but sometimes

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

A: I would suggest to be intentional, if possible - to have references for what sound you are leaning towards. I find that as people we might use the same words but have different ideas about what that word means. So communication is really key, I find.

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

A: I'm from Dublin in Ireland, so music has been part of my life as long back as I can remember. We had big extended family parties from the time I was tiny, with everybody singing and playing music. When I got old enough to go to town on my own I started singing as a live and session vocalist for artists in Dublin, but loving bands like Deftones and A Perfect Circle and System of a Down and Tool, I had my heart set on being in a loud, heavy band. So I started work on what would become Moth Complex, my electronic rock band (with a leaning towards the Industrial), and we released two albums, toured the States and Europe. So much fun. After that I did more session work, released some stripped down acoustic songs to see what that felt like and started learning how to produce for myself. Long story short, that has led me now to working with clients, creating custom songs and music for an upcoming film, is leading me in to scoring and now has me here at Soundbetter. Really, I have been doing music my whole life. I've always known this is what I wanted to do and I am 100% on the right path for me in my life. I love it! Every day I love it and I feel so blessed.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Self care! Hydration, taking the time to step away and allow the song breathe - even for the time to have a cup of tea - means being able to come back and have a relaxed perspective. I know it's not specific to music production, but I find that the better the headspace of the producer, the better the production flows and the better the music sounds at the end of the day.

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

A: For my clients, I find myself mostly working on genres that roll around rock and pop. Sometimes that moves to heavy rock or soft pop or even country or electronic. Mostly I find myself working with song structures that involves verses and choruses and bridges - and I really enjoy that. For my work as an artist, I love to explore different textures and sounds, even a little dissonance or darkness. I find it interesting to play with those types of sounds.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: It might sound a little abstract, but I feel that my strongest skill being able to surrender to creative flow. I love to learn and to study everything in relation to music, but at the point of time where songwriting or singing is happening, I love to be open and allow creativity to flow. So it's less something I am trying to do, but more what I am allowing. That always works so well for me.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: My work process varies slightly depending on what I am working on, but has similarities too. Whether I'm doing a vocal recording or songwriting or a full production, I start of by finding what I call the "feeling space" of the track or the vibe I am going for. It's only ever a matter of finding a starting point and then allowing the flow. I'll give toplining as an example. I'll start by looping the track I'm toplining to and let it play a good few times. Ideas usually pop into my head immediately, but I keep going, welcoming new ideas until I have an intuitive hit that says "this one". Then I start to do a guide vocal and then the creative flow takes over... I change and adjust and add or subtract until I have what I feel is the strongest vocal possible.

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

A: I'm really inspired by musicians and music production professionals who have absolute passion for what they do, and who like to experiment a little and create new sounds or take an unusual approach. This is really fun for me.

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

A: I usually work with clients as a vocalist, topliner and lyricist - all of which I absolutely love to do! I enjoy having a spirit of collaboration so much and it's fun for me when our ideas spark new ideas within each other.