Production, Mixing, Mastering

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

A: "Bloom Decay" by Darkswoon - Because Jana's voice and songwriting/lyrics are impeccable. I find Nora's integration of metal and punk style bass parts into the band's electronic-based darkwave fascinating. Like every band that I truly love they don't fit squarely into any specific genre or sound like anyone else. I co-produced and mixed the record. I also added additional instruments (synths, guitar, and drum programming) to most of the songs. My wife, D, did all of the vocal editing. It was really wonderful to work with a group of people that I truly admire and care about.

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

A: I am currently trying to focus on mixing because I think that's where I can add the most value to most projects. Also, because it excites me the most and being excited about your work is key to doing a good job. I like to bring out, not only, the elements that should get the primary focus in a mix, but to emphasize the unique elements that make the song special or different from other tracks by the artist or of the genre. Recently, I find myself working in a sort of hybrid way combining mixing with additional production. Only if the client requests and wants the production help, and many do, I find myself making edit or arrangement suggestions while mixing or adding additional instruments to the mix to fill out the sound. I only do this when the client approves or desires it. But if everyone is on board it is very fun and tends to yield great result. Many clients want mixing and mastering done together and occasionally, under the right conditions, I will agree to do both. But, in general, I prefer not to master a project that I have mixed. I fully endorse the idea that mastering serves as the final quality check and it's really important for someone with fresh ears to tackle that role. So, I won't master something I've mixed just to make a little more money! I want what is best for the music.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: I work entirely in the box. Everything I do is digital and has been for a very long time. For mixing the ability to instantly recall in digital is something I don't think I could ever give up. I don't like mixing one track at a time. I like to jump around and work on a very circular fashion. But I don't agree with the debate in general. Analog and digital are both great. Use whatever you want to use to make the music you need to make. I would rather not deal with tape but if that makes you happy then go for it! Just print WAV files if you want me to mix it. HAHA.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: I'm mixing the next Bloody Knives record and remixing most of the We Are Parasols catalog at 96k for an upcoming Patreon project.

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

A: There are two mastering engineers in Portland that I recommend all my clients go to when possible - Adam Gonsalves and Amy Dragon. They both work at Telegraph Mastering. I've known Adam for a few years now and I have total faith in him to get my mixes across the finish line with this amazing mastering. He masters all of my personal projects. I've only worked with Amy once so far but it was on the recent Darkswoon album, which is one of my favorite records that I've had the honor of working on.

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

A: I've been an independent musician since the early 90s. So, I've been doing some variation of this most of my life.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Black denim and cotton.

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

A: Most people consider everything I work on to be on the darker side of music. Much of it doesn't fit nicely into a particular genre. But I'd say dream-pop, shoegaze, indie-electronic, experimental, darkwave, post-punk, and alternative folk cover the general territory.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Collaboration

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I work out of a home studio. I always have. I've never even had a separate rehearsal space for any of my bands! This is why one of my various musical projects is called bdRm (or bedroom). My current space is acoustically treated and I have Focal monitors, including a sub. It's not very big, just enough room for my desk and a wall of synths, so I don't record other artists here very much. When I do it's usually solo artists or electronic-based groups that I'm fairly friendly with or vocal recording and overdubs which is something many artists still need help with these days. I really try to focus on remote mixing,

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

A: Brian Eno, Alan Moulder, Flood, Tchad Blake, and Trent Reznor