Music Producer, Rock & Indie

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

A: I went to audio engineering school more than 10 years ago and have been working in the field since then. I have been making music and constantly developing as a songwriter itself for more than 15 years now. I worked for Songfinch for 4 years and wrote 600 songs in that time (not including my own or co-writes).

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

A: Asian Kung Fu Generation, they are an amazing Japanese Rock band who wrote a couple songs that were placed in the Intro's of many of my favourite Anime's growing up as a kid. Over the pandemic I re-discovered their music and went on a binge through their catalog. I love their minimalist "band in a room" approach to their productions, and would love to be involved/ capture their sound at some point in my career should the once in a lifetime opportunity ever arise.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Great sounds come from the source! Less is more, try to do as much as you can to "finalize" the sound before you hit record.

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

A: John O'Reilly Jr. he's a super talented session drummer with a great knowledge of recording as well!

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

A: 1) Yamaha NS-10's w/ Sub 2) Neumann U87 3) Coles 4038's 4) Neve 1073LB 5) UA Apollo Twin

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Mixing, Recording and Songwriting.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I work out of an 800sq ft facility in Toronto called Metrolab Recording. It features a sizable live room, dedicated mix room with an plenty of analog outboard gear and excellent monitoring

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Building an array of analog outboard gear to best serve my mix template. I really want to approach each production with the tools that get the job done efficiently and effectively, and work in 95% of instances. With plugins they're almost too much fun to mess around with and obsess over the glossy GUI's without paying enough attention to what they're actually doing to the audio. I have quite a lot of analog "go-to's" especially when it comes to compression

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

A: I'm really stoked on the work I've done for Modern Life Elixir. I had a very hands on role in the whole production from the ground up as a co-writer all the way to recording and mixing it. We're continuing to work on more tracks together and I see a great future for this artist in our Canadian scene, hopefully making it to radio in the next year or two. As well, I had the pleasure of doing a bit of engineering on a song by The Reklaws called "I Grew Up on a Farm". While I had a small role in the production (mainly helping to record acoustic guitars and some vocals), it was a great experience and surreal to hear some of my work on Country Radio in Canada.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Analog, because it better suits the way my brain works. I find myself constantly tweaking and second guessing due to visual-bias when I use digital, whereas analog I can just work intuitively. If something sounds good it is good, and that goes for both analog and digital, however I'm sometimes put off by the GUI of plugins affecting the way our brains perceive audio. There is an unfortunate connection between the two that is impossible to completely shut off (unless you turn of your computer screen and use a physical controller for your plugins like the SSL UC1 etc).

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

A: A quality production that's true to your artistic intentions.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Crafting and Recording unique drum sounds/ setups, and Mixing through analog compression.

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

A: A wide array of questions that all stem from "can you fix this in the mix". The answer is probably not. It's always a best practice to commit to sounds on the way in and get them absolutely as close to finished as possible. If you feel the audio needs to be "fixed" then you should probably go back and re-record it before sending it to be mixed.

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

A: That computers and digital software can do everything that analog equipment can. It comes close in most cases (and great work can be done all in the box), but it's the simple intuitiveness and tactile experience of using analog gear that is irreplaceable.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What are your goals with your project and what are some sounds you've wanted to achieve in the past but haven't been able to?

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

A: Pick out some reference mixes from artists that you aspire to sound like!

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Organic and realistic productions with a unique analog colour and sonic palette.

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

A: Rock, Indie, Alternative and Pop Punk.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I have extensive experience as a songwriter, and I also provide an array of analog equipment typically inaccessible to artists with smaller budgets.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: If it's a full song production I start from the ground up, being the song itself (ie. demo's and pre-production). I thereafter aim to capture the song in the form truest to the artist's intentions, and utilize recording and production techniques that best suit the genre/ style of music while achieving a professional and competitive sounding result.

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

A: I am inspired by artists in the Indie Rock domain such as Kings of Leon, Arctic Monkeys and The 1975.

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

A: Full Song Production and Mixing.