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    Interview with .

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

    2. A: I played technician to the wonderful Anna Laverty who occupied my studio for a few weeks. It was amazing to have a birds eye view to her workflow and process.

    3. Q: What are you working on at the moment?

    4. A: I'm currently scoring an advertising campaign international camping gear retailer, as well as knocking out the final mixes for a local band's EP to be sent off for mastering. Also, installing new flooring into the live room area for some better acoustics.

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

    6. A: TBH, I think I am probably the only producer/engineer on this site from Western Australia.

    7. Q: Analog or digital and why?

    8. A: Well... it's like the little girl in the taco advert where her family are arguing over soft vs hard taco shells and she butts in saying "why cant we have both?" To be honest, I tend to roll my eyes when folks start arguing for either side. I mean, jeez - if it sounds good, use it!

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

    10. A: Honesty, clarity, respect and quality - my job is to turn your ideas into something extraordinary.

    11. Q: What do you like most about your job?

    12. A: Honestly, whether it be for myself or with my clients - I absolutely love and making music and am eternally grateful that I get to do this every day.

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

    14. A: "Are you available?" and my answer is "I will always make time".

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

    16. A: If you're reading this then I think you already have a fair idea of most misconceptions around people like us trying to make a career anywhere within the music industry as a whole

    17. Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

    18. A: Do you have any demos of what you want to record? Even just a phone recording can help me get a bigger picture of the whole song.

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

    20. A: Know what outcome you want to achieve and be clear about your expectations for doing just that. Having a goal to work towards make the whole process easier to navigate. Also, PRACTICE!!

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

    22. A: 1) Yamaha C1 piano 2) Martin & Co 000 or D-28 3) 70's Fender P-bass 4) Shure sm57 w/lead 5) Tascam 4 track Portastudio I could definitely keep producing music with those 5 things at my disposal.

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

    24. A: Whether it's songwriting, recording, or performing & touring, I've been at it for over a quarter of a century. Although, not so much the touring now-days because, y'know... I'm old, I guess? So, I've mostly remained at the helm of the studio for the since 2019

    25. Q: How would you describe your style?

    26. A: Enthusiastic :)

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

    28. A: Joey Waronker - I love the way he plays drums. I don't really care which band or what song, just so long as he's on the drumkit

    29. Q: Can you share one music production tip?

    30. A: I'll give you two: 1) Mix - Mono everything below 150hz. 2) Bass - split your signal - 150hz and below is treated on its own channel and the above feeding an amp or simulator. That way you can ride it in the mix for more 'weight' in say the choruses or other parts of the song.

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

    32. A: Pop / Indie / Alternative / Singer Songwriter / Folk / Rock

    33. Q: What's your strongest skill?

    34. A: I would say my strongest skill is my ability to hear the instrumentation that isn't there. You'd be surprised how much depth a toy-piano concerto could bring to your acoustic pop track, or taking a sample of tapping the back end of a 2B pencil on a closed notebook is just what is needed for your ambient edm arrangement to sit the groove in the right place. And don't get me started on sub-octave synthesizers, I'd find a home for that even in a classical setting.

    35. Q: What do you bring to a song?

    36. A: In producing, I love to get right in there - As I was a professional songwriter and musician before becoming an engineering producer, I have an honest and in-depth collaborative approach to every song and I aim to squeeze the absolute best result out of every production with my unbridled enthusiasm to find 'that' sound that's going to take the song to a new and wonderful space.

    37. Q: What's your typical work process?

    38. A: As far as mixing goes, I can't help myself when it comes to the chop/quantize/nudge/tune/aligning of tracks before loading into my mix template. I know there is a standard to charge extra for these types of things but personally, I see those processes as a part of the overall mixing territory. And I would hate to return a mix to a client that only emphasizes such discrepancies. I call that part my "administrative" process and once I can sign off on all of that, then I can get to the fun part of actually mixing. I mainly mix hybrid into a series of outboard and eq and use a balance of multiband &other "fruit" (saturation, transient & width shaping, ect) at the business end of a mix. on the other side, it's all about making each channel sit within the same room or space as the next one. I mean for example, I'll use up to 5 or 6 different reverb variations on a snare or a vocal at any given point but if it gets the track sitting where I need it to be then who's to argue, right? That's probably why my template is somewhere above 150 channels in it's present incarnation, lol.

    39. Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

    40. A: I use a hybrid setup for my production and mixing, making use of some top notch mic pres from Phoenix, Heritage, SSL et.al, through a range of outboard such as a Heritage 33609a and Symph baxandall eq, 4000 bus, 1176 and EL-X distressor compressors. I use the latest version of ProTools running off an M1 Studio mac with a selection of plugins I have curated for my mix templates from the likes of UAD, Oeksound, BX, Fabfilter, Sound Toys, Spitfire, Leapwing, etcetera.

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

    42. A: Artists: Bill Callahan, Blake Mills, Radiohead, Aldous Harding, Nick Cave, Idles, Angel Olsen, Hamilton Leithauser, Bon Iver, Nils Frahm Producers: Darryl Thorp, Tchad Blake, Nigel Godrich, Bob Clearmountain, Shawn Everett, Andy Wallace, Anna Laverty, Nick Launay, Hans Zimmer

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

    44. A: Producer, engineer, mixer and collaborative songwriter

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