Engineer & Songwriter

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

A: Week to week I'm working with contemporary christian music, but I love to take on music that reminds me of the stuff I grew up on (punk / alternative). I'm always open to mixing other genre's, however.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: I pride myself in my ability to work in high pressure environments under tight deadlines. In the live world you may only have a few minutes to dial in a mix, things get worse when you're working with aging PA's or a console you've never worked with before. The opportunity of putting together an experience others can enjoy despite the difficulties is really rewarding. In the studio it feels like a dream come true, suddenly you can take as much time as you'd like to dial in that snare, and you've got a beautiful set of speakers in front of you and all the digital tools you need. At the end of the day, the most valuable skill i've had to learn is to serve the audience / client first. If i'm the only one happy about my work, i've missed.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: There may be moments where musically, something needs to change at the source to take it to the next level. Maybe the singer jumping the octave, perhaps a different guitar tone might cut through better, or maybe we should hear that chorus one more time. The creative process might meed things need to go back and fourth, but to me that's the exciting part about putting music together. I'm always down to push faders, but i'm always willing to do whatever it takes to serve the song and the artist, even if it means changing the arrangement or re-tracking things when needed.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I prioritize establishing the scope of work and expectations first. (Are we tuning vocals, aligning drums, quantizing stuff or just pushing faders) . Getting a demo in hand is incredibly helpful to determining the amount of work needed. Once we figure out scope, we'll talk labor, delivery and revisions. For Live Audio mixing the process is similar - we'll establish scope and expectations and figure out what work needs to be done (How much gear is provided by the venue / client, Will IEM monitoring / mixing be needed or is this strictly FOH mixing). After this, a site visit or a call into the venue will happen to determine what gear may be needed. After that I'll gather bids and rental quotes to present to you along with my flat rate for the whole event.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: The goal of my home studio was to build a miniature version of the studio at my work. I typically work on a set of Adam A7x's with a UA Apollo 8xp, but for my home studio I opted for the Adam T7v's and the UA Volt 476. The bulk of my signal chain revolves around Waves emulations of SSL 4000 desks, and the 1176 compressor. I've also got a suite plugins for drum replacement / sampling and vocal correction. Also sitting on my desk are a few trinkets from my childhood (A Macintosh SE and a Nintendo R.O.B.).

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

A: I grew up on mid 2000's Pop Punk / Alternative Rock. My go-to artists included Paramore, Fall Out Boy, All Time Low, and many more from that era that I can't fit in this response. I was always striving to recreate my favorite sounds when come to find out - many of my favorite bands were mixed by Chris Lord Alge, so a lot of my signal chains are based off of his SSL + 1176 workflows. I predominately work in Church environments in live audio and had the privilege to rub shoulders with some of the legends in that industry. Probably the most memorable was working with Hillsong's, James Hurley. Not only is he skilled but his attitude, posture and humility was unlike anyone i've worked with. When I'm working with others I strive to be more like James

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

A: Weekly I specialize in Live Audio Mixing (FOH Engineer), but occasionally I get the pleasure of working on peoples projects in the studio. Tuning, Alignment, Arrangement changes and, comping are all typically part of the process but my favorite part is definitely taking things to the finish line with the final mix.