Production|Atmos Mix|Mastering

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

A: The Chicane Album 'Giants' opening track 'Barefoot'. I loved re-creating the classic Chicane sound with the guy who actually created it! using the classic hardware. would love to go back and mix this in Atmos!

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: A Back catalog project with William Orbit

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

A: I will treat your song as if it was my own and work with them to achieve the sound.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: The Music, and making sure the client is 100 % satisfied

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

A: What do I think of their song. I like to tell them the truth.

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

A: You can press one button and it does it all for you

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: How and where did you record the song, what's your aural vision for the song

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

A: Make sure you get someone who understands the sound you want

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

A: Some big Genelecs to hang from a couple of palm trees connected to an SSL G series desk positioned between them. A Juno 106 and a M3 laptop running ProTools and Logic.

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

A: I started playing keyboards at school, already into computers, I started to put the two together. I had an awesome music teacher who recognised this and would ask me what synths/keyboards to spend his budget on. I saved to buy my first sequencer for my computer at home and then my first pro synth, I then went to college to learn music which lead to me going to a school of audio engineering n London. From there I met a band who were building a studio in Shoreditch, I engineered there for a few years made some contacts and then worked at two more studios around London. I then Got my own studio in the Cotswold countryside ran that for six years before signing with Ministry of Sound, working with Chicane where we did a remix for William Orbit which eventually lead to me mixing his latest album in Dolby Atmos and my studio becoming Dolby Certified. Along the way I have done pretty much everything from producing Library music for BMG and Audio Network to programming synths for Biffy Clyro.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Mixing : Very Contemporary and powerful Production : Electronic, Ambient, Synth Pop with groove

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

A: Chromeo. I love their sound and use of hardware synths. Nina. I love her voice and her work on the album 'Sleepwalking' is Incredible. The Midnight, some of my favourite 'recent' music on the album 'Endless Summer', just crazy good.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Dance tracks sound better at 126bpm. It will sound great sped up or slowed down by a DJ at that bpm.

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

A: Electronic and Pop music. Although I have worked with a lot of Rock bands in the past.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Mixing. Adding atmospherics to a song or track that give that added shine without being noticed... unless you take it away again.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Sound design is a big part of my thing. so I can bring atmospheres, bass sounds, synth sounds, guitar sounds whatever is needed to add to a track without taking away its original greatness.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: For mixing its generally get the stems and prep them, which involves going through each one checking for noise and tuning and checking out each sound so I can start to figure out where it fits in the track. Put all the stems into ProTools and check them against a stereo 'Desk' mix if there is one available. For production, it would be very much up to the artist how they want to work. I have found that it's always better for me to adapt to their way of working, that way they feel comfortable and relaxed and can concentrate on their music the way they like to do it. I would then work around them giving suggestions, sounds and ideas.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I love hardware synths, so I have quite a few of those Analog and Digital. I run on ProTools Ultimate, Logic Pro and Ableton Live through an Avid MTRX Studio interface. My speaker system is all Genelec.

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

A: Jean Michel Jarre, Vince Clark and synth pioneers like those are the ones who have inspired me the most. As for producers of the modern age, people such as Georgia (who I had the pleasure of working with a few years ago) and Chromeo.

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

A: Dolby Atmos mixing and Stereo mixing are probably the most common. I also do a lot of Synth Programming and Production work, however, at the moment Dolby Atmos is what I spend a lot of my time on.