Producer, Songwriter, Guitar

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: I'm currently working on a few sample packs to help my fellow producers out there, as well as a few of my own music projects.

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

A: My promise is that I will not stop until we've created something that sounds better than anything you've done before.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Every week I struggle to figure out how to create a new sound, and every week I become a better producer because of it. Overcoming those challenges never stops being rewarding.

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

A: That Rock producers who work on a MacBook from a home studio aren't real producers. I hate that rock musicians all over the world are being ripped off by an outdated, obsolete model.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What's your vision and how can I help?

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

A: I have been pursuing music my whole life. Forming my first band at age 8 and continuing to try to make a band work until at age 16, I decided to stop letting uncommitted musicians slow me down, and go it alone. From that point in 2012 onwards I have committed myself fully to producing (mostly my own) music, with whatever gear I had. This started out as a rocky, figuring it out as I went along sort of process, and is now at the point where I have quite a plethora of tools at my disposal, and have built up a super efficient workflow that creates great results every time.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: I strive to have my own unique sound. Although I'm not a fan of modern rock and metal production, I'm also not interested in creating nostalgic, dated sounding music. I tend to pursue more organic sounding tones than you'd hear in any modern metal track, but more tight, powerful tones than you'd hear in 90s rock. The goal is always just to lose any aspect of a sound that isn't contributing something powerful to the mix.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Alongside my extensive experience and skillset, I bring a burning passion for music that pushes me to obsess over creating the greatest sounds possible. I just love music and want to commit myself to any project that will add more great music to the world.

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

A: My recent single Cast Out, for my solo project [EXOR]. I'm proud of this track because it fuses all my influences in a way I've never achieved before. It's like a beautiful dance-pop song but also an insanely hardcore metal track. I did everything (writing, pre-pro, production, mixing, mastering).

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Digital, because I'm not 90. No one cares how you created the sound. The goal is to make something sound great, which you can either do quickly with digital, or slowly with analog.

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

A: Billy Corgan. I'd love to produce, mix and master a Smashing Pumpkins album that rocks harder than anything they've done and I know I could do it.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: The ultimate underrated tip is use your ears. It's obvious but everyone forgets it. You can buy the best sounding equipment and use the best sounding compressors and EQs, but nothing will sound good until you figure out how to make it sound good. There's no formula. Just patience and persistence.

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

A: I specialise in harder music - whether it's rock, metal, hip hop or pop. I'm best at making things sound raw and visceral.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: My strongest skill is my ability to envision a certain, specific sonic experience, and find a way to get it to come out of a speaker with the exact impact and feel I had I imagined.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I cover this in depth on my site (exormusic.com). I usually will spend a good amount of time on pre-production, making sure all the pieces are in place for the track to be as impactful as possible, and allowing for a smooth production, mixing and mastering process.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I work almost entirely in the box. Although I do work primarily in guitar-driven music, I believe Pop and Hip Hop are leading the charge in how we produce music, and Rock needs to catch up. It's nice to walk into a big studio and see a ton of shiny vintage guitars and amps, but ultimately we're here to produce great sounds, and I don't want anything slowing down that process and adding unnecessary expenses. Making great music with a laptop is no longer a 'new' thing, so I'm one of the few guys trying to move Rock production forward, because the new model is superior and the old model is obsolete. So I use a multitude of plugins and in-the-box production techniques, and a few great, reliable, versatile instruments to create my unique sounds.

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

A: The guys I find myself looking up to most are Max Martin, Rick Rubin, Billy Corgan, and all those other guys who are always just killing it in their field. A common thread I notice between these guys, is that there's a minimalism to how they approach writing and production. Although all of these guys have created some super complicated productions, it's obvious that the goal was always just to capture a great idea as simply as possible and take out everything that the song doesn't absolutely need. For me that 'use everything you need and absolutely nothing more' mentality is the key to making a good song superb.