Pop & HipHop Producer/Engineer

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

A: In the early stages, I worked on a project for my pastor at my church. The final production work was completed by Chris Strawder, he's the drummer and music director for Tauren Wells. Watch that guy he's going to be an amazing producer, he already is.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Currently, I'm working on an album for Tantric Eternal, an EDM group. I'm also working on Afrobeats projects for AMVIS. I just finished some work for Netflix for a show called SpyOps. I'm also working on my own album.

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

A: No, I don't know anyone on here.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Both, because they both have their own unique contributions to great sound.

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

A: My promise is to give them all of me.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I like the freedom to create and the challenge of making something special out of those 7 notes.

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

A: Can you make a song like....? My answer: yes, but I won't. I'm me so I make my sound.

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

A: It's not as easy as the Instagram ads make it seem. It is an art and does take years to master.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: I usually ask what is the "sound" you want. What artists do you want this to sound like? (never one artist but a combination of many)

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

A: Make sure you're ready to work. Everything I do is more about the product than the money. I'm putting my name on the song or project so I'm going to give it everything I have to make it great.

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

A: I would take a Macbook Pro, Focal Monitors, NI S61 Controller, UA Apollo Interface, & Maschine Pro

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

A: I started producing for a bit in college, then I went to DJing and then I went back to producing and never stopped.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: I would describe my style as Universal. I believe there's not much I can't do musically but I'll bring my own unique sound to it.

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

A: I would love to work with Ludacris or Method man because of their versatility on the mic. They are able to rock many different types of beats.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: NEVER be afraid to delete an idea that's not working.

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

A: I usually work on Pop, R&B, HipHop, Afrobeats, & EDM.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: My strongest skill used to be my sound; my ability to pick the right sounds and put them together. And to an extent that still is my strongest skill. But now I would say, it's my ability to produce and mix a record simultaneously while I'm producing it. It makes my workflow way faster and an even better quality outcome.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I bring a well trained ear. I was a club DJ for 8 years. I started off as a DJ in Hip Hop clubs. There are rough crowds in there...drinking or not, they won't dance if you don't play the right songs. So I learned quickly what makes the crowd move. I play by ear so I bring my clients ideas to reality relative quickly and easily also. Overall my musical ability and my high musical IQ is what I bring to a song.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: My typical work process consists of thinking about what the project is supposed to sound like and working on the first thing that comes to mind. Sometimes it's the chord progression, sometimes it's the drums, sometimes it's the percussion and the "feel" that I need. It just depends on the genre and vibe. Once I get going I just go where the song leads me.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I used to work out of a traditional studio here in Phoenix called the Saltmine Oasis Studio. That studio has a ton of history; they have one of Dr. Dre's SSL consoles in there. But now I work more "in the box" in my home studio. This works better because I'm always doing "remote" work with artists and producers in other countries or states. My home set-up centers around my MacBook Pro running both Logic Pro & ProTools. I use mostly Waves, Slate, & Native Instruments plugins for my work. My monitors are Genelec 8030s. I have several interfaces I use for various purposes but I mainly use my Focus Penta as the analog portion of my signal chain, then everything is routed in the box depending on the "sound" I want. I use an electric Drum set to trigger various NI drum kits, I also have a Pearl acoustic drum set for the "real thing" sound....I have a few guitars, etc.

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

A: From a production perspective I am inspired by Timbaland, Quincy Jones, DJ Mustard, & JR Rotem. As an engineer, I'm inspired by Tony Maserati, Dave Pensado, Dave Aron, and Yoad Nevo.

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

A: The most common type of work I do music production and mix & mastering. My work is about 50/50 between the two.