Mixing & Mastering Engineer

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

A: Me a guy called Cheyenne had an EP out late last year which was really cool. I love sending out beats and all of them get used, it's also fun to hear what people send me back and with this EP I just loved every song he did.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Too much. I'm trying to push getting my loops out there and also finding more mixing clients, as for my own music I don't plan on releasing anything other than beats for a while.

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

A: Can't think of any producers I've worked with who use this, to be honest, I'm pretty new to it myself I've been doing everything through social media, email and Paypal up until this point.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Both. I love the warmth of analog and the power of digital, it can be really interesting to combine them, especially for mastering.

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

A: That I'll do it until it's right. I don't want people to feel guilty for asking me to turn up the vocals a tiny bit, or the guitar down a bit, or the vocals actually turned down ever so slightly- I understand the devil is in the detail and I'm more than happy to make these little changes for people.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I love the fact I work with people from different countries and just different lives in general. When I develop relationships with clients it's really interesting to know where they're from, it's changed my perspective on a lot of countries, and I've also had some really amazing opportunities to visit certain places.

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

A: I asked a lot about how I program my drums, and I've said before many times- it's a secret. Lots of people ask me about my vocal mixing and mastering chains, it's hard to explain because I use analog and digital processing often layered with one another, but once you understand it'll become second nature.

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

A: Not so much a misconception but for me, using a DAW is like playing an instrument. I think you can be as proficient at using a DAW as you can at playing an instrument- and neither one should be considered 'harder' or 'real'.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: I think discussions about the budget are really important, I'm more than happy to lower my rates for people who need that, but I'd rather know first before I get paid. I don't really like how it gets swept under the rug, but at the same time I don't want to seem greedy, I just think it's important to be on the same page with everything. It's an overused quote but time is money. I like to know about them too, just basic things about their life but I think it's important, it often helps me see where they're trying to go with certain ideas.

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

A: Try to be open-minded in terms of creative control I think. I really understand artists that have a certain vision for their song, but there's a fine line I think between creative and controlling.

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

A: 1 guitar and 4 picks, I'll still lose them all.

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

A: About 7 years; and I'm very lucky that I get to do it for a living. It's taken me a lot of hard work to get to this point but it's worth it, I still love what I do all these years later.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Contrasting. I like having different elements in a song that work together, for example, an ambient spacy melody with hard-hitting drums. It doesn't always work, but when it does... eargasm.

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

A: I'd love to work with King Krule, his work inspired me a lot when I first started producing.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Don't think about it. Just learn everything, practice as much as you can, and be conscious of what you're doing, eventually, you want to get to the point where you're just putting on plugins and effects without a second thought, but all of the decisions are beneficial. I think it helps speed up workflow, but also can lead to some surprising and interesting results.

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

A: Weird shit. I just love things that blend multiple genres of music, or that sound like nothing I've ever heard before. A lot of the beats I release are pretty standard but I try and put my own spin on it. A lot of my own personal music which I haven't released (and don't plan to) involves heavy uses of sampling and remixing. I love taking little samples from really famous songs and making the slightly unrecognizable, it's like you know you've heard it before but can't think of where.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: I've always had really sensitive hearing so I think balance is my strong point. I think leveling is the most important part of a mix, I often spend the most time doing it, and the better I've gotten the more I notice how much easier everything that follows is.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I can't think of an answer that's not cringy as fuck, so I'm going to have to say me. I bring a part of myself into everything I do, I love using effects to put my own experiences into a song, its not easy to put into words honestly. I guess I just want people to be able to listen to something I've produced, and instantly know it's me behind it.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Lotsss of breaks, it's really important to me to keep taking step backs to avoid ear fatigue. There's also a phenomenon that proves the more you listen to a piece of audio, the less you notice the mistakes or things that stick out, so my whole thing when mixing is to listen as little as possible, take lots of notes whilst playing back, make the changes, then take a break and avoid listening to anything intently for a while.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: My home setup is dead simple it's headphones, preamp, and monitors, this is where I'll often get the basis of the mix. I think mixing on one pair of headphones, that's the same pair you use every time really has its benefits, I really understand how my current pair will affect the sound on most playback systems. All I need to do to finalize my mix is walk down the street to the recording studio there and I'll often run it through some analog gear or effects, and also reference through as many monitors as possible.

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

A: Burial and Aphex Twin are the first things that come to mind, I love weird electronic shit. As a musician I find Jaco Pastorius and Hendrix really inspiring, I love hearing people who have truly mastered their craft, it's what inspires me to keep going.

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

A: Most of the stuff I do is beat making really, it's how I started producing and I've been doing it the longest. I also have different mixing and mastering clients, which I'm trying to push a bit more- I feel like beat making within the last 2 years has become lost, it's so overcrowded and anyone can find any combination of loops and just put them together.