Mexican-Norteño & Rock Drummer

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Drums for a podcast jingle for a friend.

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

A: Dylan Wissing. I don't know him personally, but I'm a huge fan and aspire to produce drum tracks like him.

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

A: I played drums on a Latin Grammy winning album. My parents have always been so supportive of my musical pursuits, and since I don't have a college degree in anything, it was nice to be able to give them a reason not to be embarrassed to tell their friends that their son plays music for a living.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Digital. It's more consistent and requires less money and time to upkeep. Song is king, not gear.

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

A: My promise is that I will do my very best to produce what your are hearing in your head.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: That the people who hire me are entrusting me to help them realize the sonic vision. It makes me feel useful in a field that also brings me so much joy as a major consumer of it.

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

A: Q: Do you prefer Eduardo, Eddie, Ed? A: It doesn't matter to me. Whatever is easiest for you to say.

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

A: We're only a stupid drummers. Because recording drums involves more microphones than most other instruments, we have to invest more time learning to engineer our own sessions.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: - session specs - due date - aesthetic vibe - budget

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

A: Relax. I'm easy going. I'm very flattered that you want me on your project and I also want your project to sound as good as I can make it, with as few hiccups as possible.

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

A: 1. music player 2. music recorder 3. good heaphones 4. piano 5. knife

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

A: I have always wanted to pursue a freelance/hired-musician career. I've worked with "bands" since I was a kid, but always knowing that I wasn't part of the actual group. I really enjoy going from a Norteño gig one day to a singer-songwriter gig the next to a hip-hop jam after that. I love the stylistic challenge and it keeps me inspired to create.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: I would say my style is groovy. Whatever genre, simple or busy, loud or soft...I like things to groove.

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

A: I couldn't t narrow it down to only one. I would love to work with Blake Mills and Jon Brion. They each have some of the most unique and creative musical styles, and both work in a wide spectrum of musical genres.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Keep an open mind.

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

A: Most of the work I get requests for is in Mexican-music genres, but I also enjoy playing other genres that I'm less known for- from swing to singer-songwriter to indy-pop. Despite what drummer-jokes imply (haha), I am a musician and I find joy and inspiration in all the genres.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Depending on how you see it, I think my strongest skill is my agreeableness. I'm fairly easy-going and easy to deal with.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I'd like to think that I have a pretty unique palette of influences and inspirations, and because of it, I have a "cool pool of tools" to pull ideas from. At end of the day, I'm here to help realize the client's vision as smoothly and quickly as possible.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Typically, I like to get at least a couple reference tunes from clients (via Spotify, YouTube, etc.) so that I have a better idea of the sonic aesthetic they're going for. I then capture a quick drum take, so that the client can confirm that I'm moving in the right direction. Once we agree on the sounds, I'll go ahead and record a couple different takes. I then bounce individual WAVs of each of the takes and deliver them via Dropbox, WeTransfer, Google Drive, or whatever storage platform the client is comfortable with.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I currently track drums using a variety of Shure, Sennheiser, Audix microphones, into a couple of Presonus interfaces, then into Logic Pro.

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

A: Some of my biggest musical inspirations would have to include Norteño legends such as: Los Relampagos, Los Cachorros de Juan Villareal, and more modern Norteño legends such as Intocable. Outside of the Norteño genres, I love groove music! From Al Green to Andrew Bird to J-Dilla. They all inspire me to push myself and create.

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

A: Although I do have experience working in high-end studios, the most common type of work I do is remote drum tracks from my home studio, for singer-songwriters producing music in their home studios.