Rock Vocal Powerhouse

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

A: Can you try and sing it like this instead? Yes, yes I can.

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

A: The biggest misconception is that being creative is something that comes natural to singers and songwriters which means it doesn't take much time. People definitely do not realize the amount of hours, blood, sweat, and tears that go into making great music. It takes a lot more than just having an idea to make a great song or to put in a great vocal performance. It takes experience and the knowledge of how to correctly approach these things, in order to maximize the quality of the end results.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What is the story you are trying to tell? What is the mood you want to put your listeners in? For vocals, I need to hear the song to know if my range will work or not. If the range isn't compatible, is changing the key possible?

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

A: Give as many details as possible to ensure you get the results you are looking for. Don't be afraid to ask for something you want even if it seems unrealistic. The worst thing they can say is no but it could also result in something fantastic.

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

A: My career path was graphic design but I have always lived and breathed music ever since picking up my first acoustic guitar and clumsily strumming the long dead strings at the age of 16. I always loved singing along to my favorite bands and started to take it seriously and realize my vocal talents around 2007. I have been writing, recording, and performing music since 2009. My newest project is as a co-founder and frontman for a prog/hard rock band called Stone Prophet which I started in 2016. All of the music in the rock mix sampler is from that project.

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

A: I promise to do everything within my power to not only give you what you are asking for, but to exceed your expectations and to build a rewarding, professional experience with you. If you trust in my process and your expectations are clear and attainable, I promise you will not be disappointed with my work.

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

A: Whatever would allow me to continue to write and record music. Assuming the island had electricity I'd take my iMac, Focusrite to record vocals and guitar, Shure SM7B microphone, Variax Shuriken, and a 50 year supply of guitar strings.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Vocally I suppose I am a mix of all of my main influences and inspirations. Chris Cornell, James Hetfield, Layne Staley, Maynard James Keenan, Brent Smith. Honestly I don't really know how to describe my style. I am quiet, reflective, and fragile when the song is mellow or somber and I am aggressive, tormented, and full of fire when the song is loud and energetic.

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

A: Again, there are too many to name but if I had to pick just one it would have to be James Hetfield. It would be absolutely incredible to write a song with James Hetfield. He has been my biggest influence ever since I discovered Metallica in the 90's and the reason I took learning the guitar seriously. I admire everything he has done for rock and metal music. Besides his signature growl I don't think he has gotten enough respect for his powerful vocals and no one can play a chunky, speedy riff quite like Hetfield.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Don't get stuck on the details. Find and capture the idea and then move on to the next part. Once most, if not all of the foundation is established, then go in and start working on the flavors to make the ear candy as sweet as possible. I used to spend far too long on one section of a song until I thought it was perfect and then I would feel too mentally drained to finish the song without taking a break for a few days before I came back to it. This is obviously a huge waste of time and the potential of what the song could have been may become lost.

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

A: My bread and butter is rock music but I love a lot of different genres. Anything that can create a mood or alter an emotion is in my wheelhouse. Vocally I can sing rock, country, pop, folk, blues. I love to sing all kinds of music and am always up for new challenges.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: My strongest skill is my ability to convey the emotions of a song through my vocals and my lyrics. If I am singing someone else's words, I place myself into the story of their lyrics in order to feel whatever is necessary to give the best, most meaningful performance. To explain further, I have hyperphantasia, which is the ability to see extremely detailed and clear images in my mind and to manipulate them to do whatever I want them to. Because of this, words are more than just joined characters on a page to me. I create scenes with them that feel real and this reality allows me to tap into the emotions of that scenery to create really compelling lyrics that carry true emotion when I perform them.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I understand what makes a song compelling to listen to. I hear melodies in my head to work over a song track. I create lyrics that develop a story in my mind and allow the story to show me where the song wants to go. This is the foundation of my songwriting. Once I have the basic sections in place, I work to create more excitement and more contrast in order to keep the listener engaged throughout the song. There's nothing more deflating than having a listener get bored a quarter of the way through a song and I understand how to avoid that.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: When songwriting, I typically pick up the guitar and create a new project template within Logic Pro X. If I have an idea in my head I will play the idea on guitar using the guitar plug-in Helix Native while I flesh the idea out. Once I have a solid idea I use Superior Drummer 3 to quickly throw in some drum grooves to lay down the guitar riff and begin building a song in that way. If a particular lyric or melody hits me, I will begin to write the lyrics out and then throw down some vocals to get a better feel for what I am hearing in my head. Once I begin to layer vocals and harmonies and the song begins to take shape, I continue building it from there.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I record my vocals into a 27 inch 2020 iMac running Logic Pro X. I use a Shure SM7B microphone connected through a Cloudlifter and a TPSII Preamp to capture clean, pure vocals. I use a Line6 Variax Shuriken guitar with amp modeling and alternate tuning changes to avoid any barriers to creativity when working on music. The goal is to have the ability to immediately lay down vocals or guitar as soon as an idea hits. Everything in my studio is streamlined to aid me in this and I pump my music out through a pair of Fostex studio monitors.

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

A: I am inspired by many different vocalists and many different performers. Vocally I find inspiration from Chris Cornell who had the seemingly effortless ability to take his voice from soft and serene one moment to aggressive and powerful, and full of soul in the next. Maynard James Keenan has the same effortless control over his voice and is a huge influence due to this as well. I'm inspired by vocalists who add something different and unexpected to their performance. Layne Staley, Eddie Vedder, James Hetfield. All powerhouse vocalists with the ability to surprise in their soulfulness and vulnerability. I'm inspired by the masterful guitar work of rock gods like Marty Friedman, Kirk Hammett, Dave Mustaine, James Hetfield, Dimebag Darrell, Steve Vai, Tony Iommi, Santana, Clapton, Zakk Wylde, B. B. King, and just too many more to name. If they have groove, soul, and grit, or they can light fire to their guitar neck with some tasty shredding then I'm inspired.

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

A: I've been told I have a unique voice and a different approach to how I write and perform vocal melodies which is definitely the most common type of work I do for clients. I'm able to pick out the moments in a song where my vocal helps to further elevate a particular lyric or even the instrumentation going on behind the vocal to pair the two together and make the song really pop.

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

A: I was given the task of taking a song that was written in a sort of pop rock style and putting a completely hard rock driven style to it while maintaining the somber emotions of the song. The end result completely reinvented the song while keeping faithful to the heart of it.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: At the moment I'm working on music with my progressive/hard rock band Stone Prophet as well as some side-projects with a couple of really talented guys one of which is local and one who is in California.

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

A: Unfortunately not yet but I have seen some really talented people on here.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Both. Each have their place and their conveniences. Digital just makes things go quicker and that's important when time = money.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I love creativity and I love taking something that never existed before and willing it into existence. I love the surprises of songwriting, the happy accidents that become a staple in the song, I love the feeling of accomplishing something that felt almost impossible. I love music with my entire heart and soul. Nothing makes me feel more like myself than writing and recording music and I love that I can share that with other artists and musicians.