Music Producer/Vocal Wizard

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

A: Every different person that offers you this type of service will have something different to bring to your music. I advise listening to the stuff I have done and if any of it makes you feel good things inside, hit me up so we can make your music do that too.

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

A: That's stupid. :)

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

A: My career path has always been in music. I was a music major in college. I interned at Robert Lang Studios in Seattle. I completed the audio production program at the Art Institute of Seattle. I have been writing, recording and playing music for the last 15 years.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Musical

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

A: Kanye. I don't know.. Mostly curiosity. Haha.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Practice before recording! There is no replacement for a real, genuine, and magic human performance of anything! That being said... I'll can still fix it. :)

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

A: I have worked with a lot of rock, singer-songwriter, and pop type of stuff. When doing the YouTube cover song tracks, I get to play around with all different styles.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: My strongest skill is with vocal production. I love helping singers to sound better than they ever thought they could and to growing. I believe that anyone can improve drastically and quickly if given the right help and with the attention to the correct details.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I will always have a unique perspective on how to bring out beautiful parts of each song. I have a very "organic" style music background but I really love all the new production tools that are available for us to create music. I love finding ways to mix the electronic and organic elements together in a way that brings out the best of both worlds.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: My work process is always different depending on the project. When I am working with someone to build a track or complete a song, the first step is to align the vision of how the production should sound. Next, we will lay out a timeline and schedule to complete the steps needed to get there. And then the fun begins! :)

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I have my own studio in the entire underground level of my home. I have been collecting gear and refining my workflow process for many years and so my setup is very catered to my work style. I have a large live room for tracking drums and live instruments. I do most of my overdubbing in the control room. I work primarily with ProTools. I am on a MacPro (6 core) and am using an RME UCX as my main interface which is linked to another RME 8 i/o rack mount for up to 16 channels of simultaneous recording. I have found that is all I really need for the projects that I do. I have a wide range of microphones and outboard gear for recording and mixing.

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

A: Everyone!!! I find inspiration in the craziest and most unlikely places. I am constantly dissecting everything that I hear. I will list a few of the better known musicians and producers though. Producers that I love and study are, Butch Vig, Max Martin, Rick Ruben, Mark Trombino, Aaron Sprinkle, just to name a few. In the EDM world I am always floored by the musical talent of Zed. I love also Bassnectar and Seven Lions. Vocally I love the work of Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith to name a couple. I will stop myself now but I could go on about music all day. :)

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

A: Most often I do full instrumental and vocal production for the songs that I work on. This keeps me pretty busy most of the time but when I have the chance to work with other productions I will do just the vocal production for a track. I also love when I get the chance to record a vocal or guitar tracks for another song. Those are my 2 primary instruments but I can play most other instruments well enough to add parts into a song production. For live performance I have stuck with singer and guitar playing. I used to play the drums on stage when first playing in a band but I was demoted to lead singer and that kinda stuck. :)

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What are your goals for this production? Why are you doing music? What are some examples of how you are envisioning your product?