Indie / Dream Pop Producer

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

A: You should check how Søren Jensen plays the drums.

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

A: I promise my clients to be all ears to receive the ideas and give attentive feedback and share my ideas with them. My goal is to leave my clients satisfied and to help them fully express the song's intention. I promise to follow the client's ideas and to fully use my skills.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: It's highly recommended to record vocal in the best possible conditions. If you have a chance to record at some local studio, it would be the best. If not, you can record it at home in a treated room if you have one. You can use some sort of acoustic shield in your room. If you don't have access to it, try to use a storage room or closet, or your home library for vocal recording.

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

A: They usually ask me if I can make a song according to some reference track, if I can edit and tune vocal. Yes, I can follow any reference and also mix and add my style to production. I do all the stages of music production, including vocal tuning.

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

A: Well, I had some hires as a session musician, as some clients thought of me. Often I can do this too, but firstly I see myself as a producer, mixing engineer, composer and arranger, though guitar is my main instrument.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: I usually ask to describe the project in details. Turnaround time and budget are among my first questions. I'm asking more when we discuss instruments, song's structure and energy.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Guitar solo improvisation is my strongest skill. Building guitar sound is one of my biggest passions. I'm good at mixing and recreating almost any style of reference tracks.

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

A: I'm proud of all the projects that I've made for my clients. First, I'm proud to produce the full EP "Sunny Once a Year" for Johnny Onda and to mix/master the full "Piano John" EP for Kenny Stokes. I've spent great efforts to help those songs stand out, but I feel that the result is good.

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

A: Well, I think I would take an acoustic guitar, some multichannel Zoom recorder, a bongo drum, a flute and a notebook with a pencil. My routine would be to write, record and mix a desert island album. Songs about memories and simple things. The album's motto would be: if you lose something, you start to value it.

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

A: I would like to work with Ukrainian band Go_A, because they represent a great mix of traditional folk music with electronic base. I think it would be great to work with Kevin Shields from MBV, who is a fantastic experimenter. Probably, I would like to work with Steve Reich to explore his approaches to music.

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

A: I usually work on music of independent artists and bands. When I write music, my style often includes using dreamy/space guitars and ambient textures. Talking about tags, the type of music can be referred to such genres as dream pop, indie pop, indie rock, shoegaze, twee pop, post punk, alternative pop, lo-fi, alternative r'n'b, post rock.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: These days I'm mixing an EP by a punk-hardcore band, Ryzhi za Gratamy, that we've recorded together. Their songs have live drums which is interesting, and we have occasional Zoom-sessions where I share my screen, so we make dynamic adjustments. Besides, I'm working on recording and mixing/mastering with Kyiv based experimental/ambient artist called Forma Avanhard. Another project is producing, recording, mixing and mastering the second single of the UK-based songwriter David Johnson and his collaborator.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I get a lot of pleasure when my clients release the songs. I feel totally happy to be a part of creating process, to help artists express themselves, as I know this feeling of having your song released is magical. Besides, talking about the process, I enjoy when my clients approve my ideas and adjustments, when they respect my attention. I'm lucky enough to have great, devoted clients who are also fantastic songwriters. Basically, I love everything about my job, and I'm glad to devote myself to this terrific process of making music.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Analog can give us limitations that sometimes improve creativity. Often, less is more. But talking about digital world, it's an endless field of possibilities. I guess that perfect balance would be to use the best features of both analog and digital.

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

A: If possible, be clear and precise. Describe your track's emotion. Send me some reference tracks that inspire you. Be opened and friendly, and I'll do my best to satisfy your creative desires.

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

A: I've been composing, arranging, producing, recording, mixing and mastering music for about 10 years. I started as artist and musician, member of bands, but suddenly explored my big passion to music production.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Indie Pop / Dream Pop / Ethereal. The main element of my style is dreamy guitars.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I bring fresh ideas about how to develop the song, as I have a lot of listening experience of both old and new genres. The song obtains a special style. Some of my clients are happy to find their path with me and keep asking for more ideas. Besides, I do my best to bring the song to the desired quality, whether it's commercial standard or bedroom indie tune. I bring all my attention to the process of making the song.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Usually I gather all the information about the track: lyrics, chords, references, then we discuss a track's emotion and client's wishes. Then I prepare the first demo to check if we're going in the right direction. Later on, as I add more instruments, effects and automation, I share next versions with a client, and then we can adjust it more. It comes to the point, where only technical changes needed, so I make a final mix and master it, export stems on demand.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I work on Windows, HP Pavilion, using mostly Ableton and Reaper. For monitoring, I use ESI uniK 04 and Beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO. MIDI-devices — Yamaha NP-12 and Akai APC Keys 25. Interface — Digidesing MBox 2 Mini. Guitars — Squier Affinity / Bullet Strats, Stella Parlor Guitar (Replica), Admira Rosario

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

A: From the field of producers, I really like William Orbit's works because of his unique use of synths and of the way his sound layers interact to create joined textures. My all-time source of inspiration is the music of Velvet Underground and Lou Reed — I love how edgy and dirty it is, but still forever poetic and magical. The story of Moby and his approach to music gives me great support. I'm a fan of bedroom indie pop, such as Beach Fossils and Henry Nowhere.

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

A: Usually I receive a client's vocal demo and build instruments around it. We follow our ideas based on discussed reference tracks. I develop a full song structure, and we adjust it till it's good for a client. The last steps are effects automation, mixing and mastering, exporting stems if needed. The end result is a zip file with WAVs and MP3s mastered for streaming platforms and CD/laptop