Producer/Composer

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

A: Q - Are the vocals to close and the drums to loud? A - Nope!

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: Where do you see yourself going? What do you want to accomplish? Who do you sound like the most?

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

A: Find someone who is going to battle to find that special thing that makes you stand out!

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Be bold! Never stop learning and growing. What you’re doing isn’t trivial. It has the ability to move people. So get good at being you and give it everything you got!

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I always try to give a song a life if it’s own. That being said its important to have familiar tones and some predictability in the production so the listener feels at home with it.

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

A: I worked with my brother "Jordan St. Cyr" on a song called “Yours”. I produced it and it was a blast just to work with him again as we are in two different countries! Got a Juno for this one!! Thx bro!!

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Currently I'm finishing up one of my own albums that will be titled "Journey of a Lifetime". It's about the battle of chronic illness and the road to recovery.

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

A: Jeff Sojka! What a Gem!!

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Both! Digital is efficient, it’s organized, it’s readily and easily shareable. Also the recall for revisions is to quick to ignore especially these days. As far as analog goes I still like summing my aux’s through dangerous audios summing mixers. There’s just more spacial separation, depth, and width to me. From there it’s also easier to insert analog compressors, verbs, etc, as inserts on buses.

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

A: I won’t give up on them! If I’ve agreed to a production you will have my respect, and my heart in that production. I give my work my all. I truly care about my clients and want them to succeed.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Once the song starts to evoke emotion. I know then I’m acting in my most truest self, I know if I feel something, then there’s a good chance other people will too.

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

A: The biggest misconception about being a producer is that we just hit the record button. When really we go to war with art everyday. We try and get our clients into a happy headspace to help bounce ideas around. We’ll mine for days to get hooks and give a song a heartbeat. We’re artists, mixers, engineers, and musicians who love just sitting in the back of a dark lit room trying to cast a light on what could be the next most beautiful piece of art. We’re not the face of the art, we’re the foundation.

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

A: 1. Apple MacBook Pro 2. Native instruments 88 keyboard 3. Universal Audio 8XP 4. Neumann U47 5. A pair Barefoot 01's

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

A: Playing in bars in rock bands since age 14. Touring the country. Recording multiple albums that just didn’t cut the industry standard sound. It made me think, “I can do better”. I’ve always had that passion for recording and found I was at my best whenever I was in the studio. Being surrounded by preamps and mic’s and macs and avid gear made me feel more like who I was. When “Paparazzi” by Lady Gaga came out I thought “that’s more the sound I want to get into”. This attitude pop that still makes you move. I quit being in bands from that moment and started producing music. I’ve had 4 studios to my name now. 3 of them I’ve had the pleasure of building myself with my Dad who I inherited music from. I’ve produced and written music for 20 years now and I feel I’ve as of late hit my groove. I’ve learned from some amazing mixing engineers and producers along the way and aspire to keep learning and enjoying the process more and more.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Real Vibe! It's gotta sound like it wasn't produced on a laptop, lol!

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

A: Lady Gaga - Joanne changed my perception of pop. I understood since that album that you can top the charts all the while remaining completely authentic.

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

A: Pop, Film Composition

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Writing Hooks and Melodies are my strongest skills

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Normally a song is presented to me by my client. If it’s got something to me that’s worth their investment I’ll ask for a rough vocal and rhythm instrument. This is so I can produce a track around the vocal. If the client can’t produce that then I can help them to. From there I’ll help determine a key, a tempo, and a full production demo of the song. This includes any recording, comping, editing, and tuning. By this time (if the artist chooses) we’ll go into full production which really focuses on the vocal and mix aspect of the production. Usually the hooks and instrumentation is very close to done from the demo already. If the client doesn’t have time, typically I’ll record the harmonies and BGV’s myself. If I’m not mixing the song then I’ll deliver a rough mix to the client to determine that the production is where we want it. I’ll bounce all the stems, and send them to a mixing engineer I’d recommend or one that the client would like for the song. After that it’s out of my hands and the mixing engineer sends it to a Mastering house that we’ve agreed on, and I pray the song does well for my client!

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: Fully Loaded New Apple MacBook Pro with two apple cinema monitors. Protools ultimate is my main Daw of choice but I have no problem using Logic Pro as well. As far as plugins and software goes I pretty much have all the top stuff. Listing it here would take to long. I’d be surprised if an artist wanted something I didn’t have but if by chance I don’t I’d get it. 😉. I have Neve preamps for front of house and currently I am using Universal Audio’s 8XP daisy chained to a Twin X, and another DSP box (processing) for AD/DA conversion and playback. I also have an Avid 192 16x16 I/O that could be used instead of the UA but so far I’m liking this setup better. That audio is then sent to a pair of Focal twin 6b’s. From summing I have a Dangerous Music16 channel summing mixer with inserts of distressors, Avalon, Neve channel strips, UA LA610’s/1176’s and some old Urie gear for saturation. I have a mic locker including Neumann U47, U87, AKG 414’s, Royer R121’s, Mojave MA100’s, Shure SM7, dynamics and more. Martin Dreadnought Acoustic, Fender Tele/Strat, Gibson LesPaul Studio/Custom. Also I have a Kontact 88 keyboard mounted on a rollout under my desk for quick access to the keys. That’s the basic setup.

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

A: Jeff Juliano, Andrew Scheps, Hanz Zimmer, Ludwig Goransson, Tony Maserati, Greg Wells

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

A: I’ll produce everything an artist needs for their song. I can write a track in real time with the artist/songwriters (track writing), I can do all of the Instrumentation, Recording, Editing, Comping, Tuning, Mixing, etc on a production. I’m also very good at getting a great performance out of a singer or musician I’m told.