Jazz Pianist, Music Producer

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

A: That would be my debut album "20s". I took the best 10 songs ideas from my hard drive, improved and arranged them, wrote melodies with lyrics and found 30 other musicians to help me. Rhythm section and some vocals were studio recorded, but all the rest was home-recorded (including strings section). I was a songwriter, lyricist, recording engineer, producer, mixer and I've even tried my hand on rapping :) And that I was able to get Ben Bloomberg to help me a little bit!

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: I am taking my time to work on my friend's music projects and slowly starting to think about my second album, to try another set of music genres.

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

A: I just started here, but I can see a lot of great people with huge credits! I bet, working with any of them is a great experience!

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Both. Digital is way more affordable, and I didn't have an opportunity to work with analog gear too long. There is a lot of great emulations and you can always go back in digital, that's a plus. But, if I could afford it, analog saturation would be a lovely addition to my studio and my sound.

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

A: I will do my best, to make the music you are happy to have and listen to.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I do appreciate the freedom and variousness. With today's technology I can create music literally wherever I am and I love, that with every single client, my Spotify playlist, approach, knowledge and my music taste grows!

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

A: The price and the way I work. My priority is to make deal with you. There's no point in asking a horribly high price tag and loosing a potential client.

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

A: I am not trying to be like anyone. You can hear who inspires me, but I am always myself and I don't like to create music which doesn't sound like the music I would create. It wouldn't even sound good probably. But this happens very rarely.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What music you like and why? What do you like, and what you don't like in music? Who are your favorite artists and why? What would you like your song to be like?

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

A: Be authentic and be yourself. I am not here to create things the way I want. I'm here to do what you want me to, with a bit of my touch on it. Which happens naturally.

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

A: The only 5 pieces you need to create a hit song- computer, keyboard controller, headphones, a microphone and... another pair of headphones for a singer, who would be there with me :)

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

A: I've been a jazz pianist since I was 6. Music production opened for me when I was 12. I tried my hand at Transatlantyk Film Music Competition twice in 2014 and 2015, although I had Logic and been doing this for only one year. Then I worked with my friends on their project for a few years, and in 2019 I begin my own artist path, taking 3 years to create, produce and mix my debut album with 30 musicians and around 200 tracks per project. It was a long, huge challenge, but I've consulted my mixes with a lot of people during this time, to be as good at this as I can. While creating an album, I've studied sound creation in Warsaw Film School, which gave me more knowledge or audio, professional tools and sound design.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Soul/R&B if I have to choose something. I love complex harmony and if I can add a pinch of jazz into a modern sound, I'm happy to do it!

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

A: I will repeat myself, but it would be one of the three persons I mentioned in other question, especially Jacob Collier. To experience his knowledge and out-of-the-box way of thinking. Other than that, I would love to work with various singers like Ariana Grande, Jesse J, or Tori Kelly.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Get to know your tools and use them consciously . It's not easy to choose only one tip, but the most important one would be knowing your tools and their potential. Don't put EQ on a "warm vocal" preset, if you don't really know what you want to achieve. Don't put a compressor on every track, because everybody on YouTube does that. Know your steps and goals, when it comes to creating music. Regardless, if it is a production or mixing.

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

A: It's usually various, multiple styles of music, but my best is in soul/jazz/pop/R&B/funk and similar, groovy styles. I'm a trained jazz pianist and this is what feels the most natural to me.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: If I had to choose my best, it would definitely be my creativity, open-mindedness and willing to get inspired by tracks people like and then try to create something similar with my touch on it.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Myself. The only thing nobody can learn and get better at than I am, is my style and approach to the sound. I love the warmth in a sound, I love harmony and cool arrangement tricks, layers of sound, with rich and massive sound. However I do like a minimal, warm style of music as well!

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I appreciate having a common vision with my clients. I like to make a free, short 30-45 second demo, to find, if the way I hear the song, it the way my client wants to. When we are on a good path, I ask for a 50% deposit and we work on it further.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: My studio setup is quite simple. I use a trusty Roland FP-7 as my main keyboard controller, I produce in Logic Pro and have a Beyerdynamic DT 990s and a pair of Dynaudio BM6a as my primary mixing and sound creation tools. I use a ton of world-class plugins and virtual instruments from Native Instruments, iZotope, Slate Digital, Waves etc.

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

A: I really admire musicians, who can do a lot of work by themselves and are very open minded. Jacob Collier, Kaytranada, Elise Trouw to name a few. I love Jacob Collier's creativity, freedom with genres and ability to make his songs sound so good! I had a privilege to work and discuss some of my mixes with his friend and mixing engineer - Ben Bloomberg.

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

A: I am good at working with vocalists and other musicians, who want to make their song from a scratch. I listen to the reference tracks and try to adapt to fulfill any requirements. I love to arrange, create harmonies and melodies and make clients' tracks how they want it to.