Production/Songwriting/Mixing

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

A: Me and my friend started a band in 2020 called Grand Apollo, and that has been a huge learning process in every area of music from songwriting and production to promotion, social media, live performance etc. I'm learning so much about being an artist and promoting my own music, and at least in Oklahoma people are starting to know who we are which is a cool feeling.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Right now just busting my ass trying to make this a full time thing! I'm trying to work with as many talented people as I can so I can get a solid body of work out there.

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

A: I'm very new to the platform so I don't think so!

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

A: I'll do everything within my power to make sure your vision becomes a reality. I don't stop working on a project until the artist is 100% satisfied, and even if they end up deciding they want another producer I'll do my best to help them find the right match! I'm here to serve people, I don't care about my ego.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I love the fact that this is something you can never truly master. Each and every day is a new opportunity to push yourself further and come up with something way cooler than you've ever done before. I love the challenge!

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

A: "How did you do that?" "I have no idea!"

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

A: I think a lot of people don't understand how relational this job is. Half of my job is just making sure the artist feels comfortable and unafraid to be vulnerable. I'm working with something that is so close to people's hearts, and how I handle that is crucial.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: I always want to know the vision of your project. What do you want the end goal to be, how do you want listeners to feel or react, whats the aesthetic, any numerical goals, etc. When I'm working on something I like to be focused on a specific goal because if there isn't one I find that things get aimless pretty quickly!

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: I don't know why people still argue over this, they're both good they just sound slightly different. It just depends on what you're going for!

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

A: Learn as much about production as you can. You definitely don't have to be good at it, but I think collaboration is so important. The more the artist knows about my job the better our communication will be, and I think that goes for any producer! I really really like working with people who know exactly what they want and have an idea of how to get there.

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

A: A boat, fuel for the boat, a nautical GPS, plenty of food and water, and an iphone.

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

A: I made house music as a hobby for years in my room and eventually ended up going to school for music production which usually is a dumb idea but was actually a godsend for me. I went to ACM@UCO in Oklahoma City for 3 years and after that came back home to Tulsa to start a band and find artists to work with. I moved back in 2020 so you can imagine how that went. In 2021 I got an internship at Lava Sound Studios and within 3 weeks I became a contractor because he said I knew too much to be an intern (thank you ACM). I now rent out one of the rooms at Lava and am looking for artists to work with and ways to make money doing music. I've been producing my own music and my bands, as well as a few artists here and there, but I'm now reaching out through as many outlets as I can to try and find people to work with. Overall I've been doing this for around 10 years, starting when I was 17 to now!

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Organic and dusty. I have absolutely no idea how to explain why but it makes sense in my head.

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

A: I've always wanted to work with Selena Gomez. I feel like she has way more potential than she's shown and her vocals sound so cool. She's put out some really cool stuff but it's rare that her songs hit like I think they could. But also Aurora because who wouldn't want to be in the same room as Aurora.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: If you want vocals to sound super present and wide like Ariana Grande, record 2-4 doubles of the lead, pan them all the way to the sides, and use a combination of comping, Auto-tune, Vocalign, eq, and hours and hours of editing to get them perfectly in line with each other. If they are perfectly lined up in pitch and timing (and I do mean PERFECT) they'll sound like one vocal thats huge and present and takes up the stereo spectrum. Your brain won't register that theres doubles at all. I usually only do this for the chorus.

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

A: I typically work on music within the commercial Pop realm (mostly Pop, Singer/Songwriter/Rnb). So a lot of in-the-box production (synths, DI guitars, midi drums, etc). But I've also done a fair share of Rock and House.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: I'm damn good at vocal production. I'll fight you if you disagree :D

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: The most important thing I offer is emotional perspective. How is the song making us feel? I spent 7 years learning the technical side of music production only to realize that what makes a song successful has nothing to do with technique, but how it feels. Some of the most impactful songs ever released technically sound terrible, but they feel so, so good (I usually reference Post Malone in conversations about this). Everything I do is to flesh out or enhance the emotional weight or impact of the song.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I like to sit with the artist either in person or over the phone and hear out their vision for whatever project we're working on. We'll talk about other songs to reference, the aesthetic they're going for, what they want listeners to feel, how they'll market it, and what they want the result to be commercially. From there I like to record vocals as early as possible. Since the emotional center of a song typically lies in the vocals, I like to at least get a decent demo recording and then I'll base the rest of what I do on how it sounds with the vocal. We'll usually get a rough structure of the song as soon as possible too, laying down rough ideas for the drums, bass, chords, etc. Once we have a solid demo that feels good I'll spend however long it takes fleshing out the production to the point where they are in love with it. Then we'll do final recordings of vocals and any instruments depending on the kind of project it is. All that's left is editing and mixing. I only call it done when they are 100% satisfied with it.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I work out of a studio in Tulsa Oklahoma. We have two control rooms and a live room that is fully equipped with Neve/API/Tree Audio/Avalon preamps, Neumann/AKG/Shure/etc microphones, a variety of synthesizers from classic and well known to weird and niche, a variety of acoustic and electric guitars/bass guitars/amps/etc. a rhodes.... it's a full studio so theres a lot of stuff! I use UAD interfaces on Mac computers, and I work in both Ableton Live 11 and Protools with most of the expected plugins like Auto-tune, the Slate bundle, UAD and Waves plugins, etc.

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

A: when it comes to production I'm a huge fan of Rick Ruben, Mark Ronson, and Jack Antonoff

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

A: I typically take an idea the artist has, which could be a voice memo of a vocal melody or a demo they recorded themselves, and help them to fully flesh it out with studio quality production. I also do a ton of vocal comping and tuning.