Producing | Writing | Mixing

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

A: A local R&B artist that I work with, I was the executive producer for his debut single. This means that I was the songwriter, the producer and the mixing/mastering engineer all in one. He was very nervous coming into the studio at first to record his vocals, he wasn't sure about the process at all. It was not an efficient session, but I was able to get him settled in, relaxed and then he laid done some really good vocal performances. I was able to push him a little bit too, which I think helped him build up a bit of confidence. After the recording session, everything else on my end went fairly smooth. We wanted to do R&B featuring acoustic guitar, which I thought was such a unique and different combination, I loved the concept. By the time we finished production, he was blown away by how it sounded, being all like "wow I never thought of that" and this and that. Put out the record and, for him starting from scratch, the record did quite well. Now he's earning his first few royalties directly from his music. Even though the numbers are quite small, I told him to be proud of what he has accomplished so far. In recent memory, this was the most fulfillment I have experienced as a music producer.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: I just wrapped up a mixing/mastering project for a local artist in my area, this R&B single. That came out well, he's a regular client of mine now. There's also a 5-song EP with a regular UK artist of mine. It's pop-rock with more of an emphasis on rock. Very aggressive sounding, the record's got a bit of attitude. Three of the songs are done and we're currently in the middle of production for song number four, writing song number five. I also am working on my own album, a 14-song reggae-pop, Indie-rock type of thing. As you can imagine it's been challenging with my attempts to make progress on this album while working with those two regulars, while at the same time getting the occasional one-off or new opportunities that come along. Somehow I'm making it work though! I think I'm just crazy enough to pull it all off at the same time.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: I like both and use both in a hybrid environment. However, I've had much more fun using analog because of the natural color, character and "mojo" that hardware brings into the equation. You have real electricity flowing through the analog gear as opposed to 1s and 0s with a plug-in. Instead of emulating this sound with a plug-in (and being subjected to updates and incompatibility issues), you can just have that sound with the analog gear and never have to worry about your equipment becoming outdated. Especially with the 500 series format, you're able to get that analog goodness that you want, but without it being too overbearing with a high noise floor, machine hum, shortcomings such as these from traditional analog gear. I use analog to sculpt the sound that I want, but then I chisel away with digital plug-ins to tend to all of the details. For anyone who works in the recording industry, they should try to incorporate analog gear with their stuff for at least a few projects. There's a bit of a learning curve, but once you master that, you'll have access to sounds that not everyone has if they're working strictly in the box.

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

A: Your music has just as much of a right to exist as all of the other songs that came before and that will follow after you. I'm not going to actively turn you into someone you're not. I'm far more interested in making you sound like the best version of yourself. My goal is to take your vision, enhance it and help you reach your fullest potential as an artist.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I love taking these ideas that are swirling around inside the artist's head, that are kind of stuck up there. There's definitely some sort of a vision there that they need to get out, but they need help. You learn so much about a person by working on a record with them. There's so many opportunities for human connection and, sometimes, you create genuine friendships out of those experiences. Music making can be a very lonely process, so when you're able to share that experience with others, even if it's just working remotely, it's a powerful feeling. Once you arrive at the end of the project and you get it to a place where the artist says "that sound like me but better", that's when you know you've done your job well as a music producer. Regardless of how well the record sells, you were responsible for making magic happen. That will always be far more fulfilling than the size of your bank account.

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

A: I get asked a lot if I write top-line melodies as a co-producer and the answer is yes. That's a pretty common request, given my musical background. Sometimes there's some friction regarding royalty payments, clients want to know if they'll owe me any. The answer to that question totally depends on the project and the scope of the work involved with that project. For example, if I am hired as a session player or mixing/mastering engineer, I never ask for royalties. My role in the project is very small compared to others involved with the record. If I am hired as a lyricist, co-producer, vocal producer or featured vocalist, I ask for a modest share of royalties, as I am actively contributing to the sound of the recording and the writing process, but still am not deeply involved. For my songwriting and producer commissions, I ask for a larger sum of royalties, as I am heavily involved in the process. For those who do owe me royalties, naturally they want to know how large of a share they give to me. This depends on how much I am being paid upfront. If I am being paid more upfront, I ask for less royalties and the opposite is also true. It's all a matter of being fair and not greedy. I never ask for any royalties that I don't believe I earned. There is also an option for a "buyout", where the client could pay me exponentially more than my asking price in exchange for me giving up any share of royalties. Another common question I receive is whether or not I claim ownership over the final product, the answer is no. Since you as the client paid for the production, you deserve to maintain ownership over the master recording. In some situations I will ask for royalties, depending on my role in the project, but I will never demand a transfer of copyright ownership or anything like that.

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

A: It's very frustrating when someone views you as "evil" or "malicious" for making money with music. There's absolutely nothing wrong with making money from making music, from doing something that you're good at. I think mostly that comes from societal views and expectations. At least here in the United States, creativity seems to be very frowned upon. Because we don't need it to survive, it's nowhere near as valuable as math or science. The thing is we DO need artists in the world. Being a starving artist is also 100% a choice, but people seem to have this romanticized view of the starving artist. So when artists are actually making money from the art and start to make a decent living, people shame them for that. Despite all of that though, I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing, because it makes my corner of the world, of the artist's world, a bit of a brighter place. That's worth far more than however much money I make from a record.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: Typically I start with the questions which will help me determine the scope of the project. "How many tracks/stems?", "How long will the song be?", "How many instruments would you like recorded?", "How many vocals are we working with?", stuff like that. After those initial questions are answered, I will send them a quote. If they're on board with my price or if we negotiate further, then I'll dive into the artistic considerations. "What's the story we're trying to tell?", "What vibe do you want?", "Any particular instruments/sounds you want on the record?".

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

A: Try to hammer out as many of the details for your project as possible prior to messaging a provider. The more information you have, the easier it us for us to understand what you need and the quicker we can get to work. Communication, communication, communication. But don't stress if you don't know EXACTLY what you want. Part of our job is to help you figure it out. Just come as informed as possible before initiating a conversation with a potential hire and that'll serve you well.

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

A: My acoustic guitar and ukulele for sure. I love the sound of acoustic instruments and the feel they have and, I know this is weird, but the SMELL that they have. Honestly I think I'd be able to keep myself well occupied with just those two instruments. But since I can still bring three more things, my 76-key piano, Fab Filter Pro-Q3 and my 500 series rack. You could still make a lot of dope music with that bare-bones setup.

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

A: I did not consider a career in music until far later than most. Originally I was studying conservation in community college, found out that I didn't like that, but was taking a music theory class at the time for my elective. I made the switch in 2018 and in 2020 I committed to jumpstarting my career in the recording industry. From 2020 to 2022 I was in university, getting my degree and Pro Tools certification. I was mostly taking on free work at the time, just trying to build up my portfolio and reputation before I started charging people for my time. About one month after graduating, I landed my first paying gig as a music producer. Since then I have continued to work as a music producer and have also been hired as a songwriter, session player, vocalist, and a mixing/mastering engineer. Most of my work comes from the Internet, but I do encourage local artists and support the serious ones with my services whenever the opportunity presents itself. I'm a firm believer in supporting your local music scene whenever possible. My next big goal career-wise is to move to Nashville sometime in 2024 and make a go of it there.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: I am music-first and artist-centric. Personally I'm not a huge fan of the "playlistification" of music and the influences A.I. have had in making everything sound even more same-y. I'm much more interested in what the artist has to say. They have a message that they need to deliver to the people and it cannot be contained. They want to make their corner of the world a bit of a brighter place. I believe that, a story-telling approach to music, coupled with an emphasis on live instrumentation, brings the human element back into our music that has been sorely lacking, at least in my opinion.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Look at this whole process as a pyramid, with the lower levels building the all-important foundation for the final product. Bottom to top, it's built like this: songwriting-arrangement-editing-mixing-mastering. The quality of the record hinges on the songwriting and the arrangement. If you want to think about movies, the artist, songwriter(s) and producer(s) are the "writer's room" in the recording industry. You don't care how epic of a battle you're seeing on screen if you don't care about the story and the characters. Same thing goes for making a record. Spend the majority of your time on the songwriting and arrangement. After that, the editing, mixing and mastering will all fall into place that much easier. Great mixing and mastering will transform an already great song on its own into a polished commercial record.

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

A: I am a popular choice for pop, rock, R&B and Indie productions. I have also been hired for jazz, blues, reggae, punk, metal, country and EDM songs. I'm just a fan of music in general, so I'm willing to give anything a try at least once.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: My musicianship, hands-down. Being able to speak the language of music with other musicians and artists helps so much with the creative side of things. Everything else in the production process is built off of the songwriting and the arrangement of all the sounds. Creating a sense of flow is what makes a song great. The musical intuition I possess gives me a unique perspective and allows me to point out certain details that others may miss.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I'm a musician first and foremost. I play, I sing, I write songs, so I have an intuitive understanding of music from the artist's perspective. I speak the language of music, if you will. That's usually how I'm able to get my foot in the door with a new client. What allows me to close the deal are my technical abilities with my engineering background. Having a music producer who possesses both of the musical and technical knowledge, and performs both sets of skills very well, is rare. Even if I'm not hired as the music producer, I could be a co-write, session player, session vocalist, mixing/mastering engineer, co-producer, vocal producer, however I may best contribute to the project. My versatility allows me to fulfill many different kinds of roles in the production process.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Pre-production is the most important thing to start with. You must get on the same page with the client, what they need and prescribe the appropriate solution for them. After that, we continue to go back-and-forth for a couple of days, if I'm writing the song from scratch. I want to deliver a demo that they like form-wise and vibe-wise before they commit to payment. That way we're both that much more confident once we kick off production. The initial feeling that you get is so important. If you're not feeling the demo, you won't be feeling the final record either. After that, I'll record the BED tracks (rhythm section - guitar, bass, drums, piano) then pass it off to the client for their vocals, if there are any. I get them back, manually tune, edit and arrange them if need be. I add in any other instrumentation I want, then it's on to mixing. I always start with a static mix, add in EQ, compression, dynamics processing, just to clean everything up. The effects get added in towards the end along with automation, then I usually master the song later that evening or the next day, depending on the deadline. As you can see, that's quite a lot of work! I'm very thorough and make sure that all of the decisions I'm making are in service of the song itself. If the client says "yup, that sounds like me", then you did your job successfully as the music producer.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I like keeping it fairly compact and simple. My computer is an iMac, hooked up to my Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 interface. That houses all of my 500 series analog gear, which has become a big part of my sound. I use JBL MKIIIs for my monitors and a pair of Audio Technica headphones for playback. On my right sits my Yamaha 76-key keyboard, which is very nice to have being a pianist myself. Plenty of real-estate to work with. Then on either side I've got my baritone ukulele, a 6-string Gretsch electric guitar, 6-string Jasmine acoustic guitar and a 4-string Crestwood bass guitar. I also have a small collection of microphones from brands such as Shure, Rode, sE and Audio Technica.

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

A: Bruno Mars is one of my favorite artists of all time. Especially his sound from "Unorthodox Jukebox" to "24K Magic" to "An Evening With Silk Sonic". He's one of those artists that has evolved his sound over time and you can witness that journey throughout all of his music. Some other heavy influences on me have been Usher, Khalid, Queen, Coldplay, Led Zeppelin and KYLE. As you can see, my music taste is all over the place! I like a lot of different things.

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

A: Mostly I get hired as an executive producer, which is where I play the role of songwriter, producer and mixing/mastering engineer all in one. I record all of my instruments live and will occasionally lend my voice to the song for backing vocals or as a feature. This is my favorite type of work to do, as I am heavily involved in the creative process from start to finish. You can become very close with the artist that way.