Piano / Keyboards

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

A: In 2016 I composed my debut EP called Enlightenment and on 2019 I released a second EP called Laniakea, both instrumental progressive metal EPs. I had truly wonderful musicians featured on them and I'm very proud of both the result.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I love playing the piano and creating keyboard parts for songs. It is a very fullfilling career to me. I take every gig seriously and always do it with a smile on my face.

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

A: That I compose songs with just a very rough and short idea or just a description and reference song or even over just lyrics without any melody pre-written. I only provide piano/keyboard recordings for covers or finished song arrangements.

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

A: Send me an audio file of the song you'd like me to work on in mp3 format (I won't need a high resolution format like wav), give me any details like the BPM and of course what you envision the piano/keyboard part to be or simply let me know if you'd like me to create what comes to mind.

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

A: I started playing the piano very young, around 6 years old. At around 13, I started playing at a local church for the services. After several years I started thinking of doing it for a living, so I joined a music school at the University of São Paulo, one of the most respected universities in Brazil. After that I participated in a few projects, made an european tour with a progressive rock band, and for a few years I've been doing freelance gigs which at this moment I've done over 2500 of them.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I always think of what I can add to a song that will make it better but always with the context in mind so I don't over do it.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: It depends a little on the type of work but I usually listen to the whole song, sometimes a few times, thinking on what type of piano or keyboard line would fit in there, then I play the song and improvise over it. After that I start recording takes on each section of the song, listen to all of it and make any necessary modifications I think it needs, and lastly I do a pre-editing on the final takes so it will be ready for my client to import into his project and start the mixing process.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: My studio setup is quite simple, I use an Yamaha P95 digital piano as a controller connected via MIDI to a laptop which runs the DAW Reaper and a few VSTs including Spectrasonics Omnisphere for synths and Keyscape for piano and electric piano sounds.

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

A: My biggest references in piano/keyboard playing are Ludovico Einaudi, Jordan Rudess, Keith Emerson, David Paich, Diego Tejeida on synth sound design, and classical pianists like Daniel Barenboim, Valentina Lisitsa, András Schiff, among others.

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

A: The most common types of work I get are piano and keyboards recording for covers, piano only versions of songs and piano/keyboards recordings for clients' original songs usually in pop, rock, country and variants. The most common sounds I use are: grand piano, upright piano, rhodes, wurlitzer, hammond organ, string ensemble and synth pads.