Nicolas Müller - Niik Mill - Producer - Mixing - Saxophone - Zürich

Music producer, mixing engineer and multi-instrumentalist, with experience in and passion for traditional band productions as well as beat- and sampling-based workflows, Jazz to Pop, with the mission to bridge gaps between the two worlds. Strong musical background in Reggae and Dub, apparent in my love for spring reverbs and offering Dub-Remixes

Master of Arts in Music/Jazz Saxophone & Sound engineering (Tonmeister)

In my over 10 years of experience in music i took a big journey, starting out with a deep (deep!) dive into Reggae and Dub, making Riddims, learning all the instruments and also playing it in a live-band situation, as well as live-dub performances on an analog mixing desk.
Then realizing a lot of traditional band-productions and acoustic recordings during my studies, learning how to best capture the natural sound of instruments, work with room-mics and bleed, and communicate with a full band in the studio. And finally gravitating back towards beat- and sample-making and a contemporary pop-production workflow.

So my greatest forte right now, is navigating and translating between the two worlds of Jazz/live instruments/academically trained musicians, and the more intuition and emotion driven workflows of Hip-Hop/Reggae/Beatmaking and Pop. Being able to work with a full orchestra score or arranging a hornsection, but also chop up a sample mpc-style and having a sensibility for simple, strong hooks and attitude in a vocal.

Furthermore, my good ear for intonation and strong groove makes my editing very musical, never defaulting to a standard workflow but always finding the perfect amount of pitch and timing alteration needed for the given musical situation, from 100% by ear to 100% beat detective.

Send me a note through the contact button above.

Credits

Languages

English
French
German

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Interview with Nicolas Müller - Niik Mill

Q: Tell us about a project you worked on you are especially proud of and why. What was your role?
A: Friskit's EP Part II: After the calm. Being part of the band makes this really close to my heart, and I was able to further develop my style on the saxophone, and incorporate some new compositional ideas into the world of Reggae and Dub. Also, doing the production and mix, i think we found a good balance of modern and clean sounding, but still keeping the attitude and vibe.
Q: What are you working on at the moment?
A: A sample library, and developing parts of it into something between a contemporary jazz album and a beattape of original compositions
Q: Analog or digital and why?
A: Both. Digital for maximum control and variety, analog for quick and direct approachability and commitment
Q: What's your 'promise' to your clients?
A: To really cater to someone's needs and trying to understand them, instead of pushing my opinion of what's right
Q: What do you like most about your job?
A: Creating something from nothing (in producing/writing). Or getting to the core essence of a song or composition and finding ways to highlight it
Q: What's the biggest misconception about what you do?
A: I guess from having my musical focus on jazz saxophone in my studies, that I only produce/record acoustic music. Or for some that I only do Reggae music.
Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?
A: What music/artists they like, what their goals are for the project
Q: What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?
A: Music is subjective, find people who have a similar taste and musical background as you
Q: If you were on a desert island and could take just 5 pieces of gear, what would they be?
A: Laptop ofc, my Saxophone, an old, creaky nylon acoustic, Space echo RE-201, Beyerdynamic DT770
Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?
A: Starting out learning to play sax at 10, playing in bands and starting to make beats as a teenager. Studying music and sound engineering (Tonmeister), and on the side - and later fulltime - working as a sound engineer for music production, studio mixing, live sound and TV for 10 years.
Q: How would you describe your style?
A: RawGrooveDiet
Q: Which artist would you like to work with and why?
A: Damon Albarn for the ongoing innovation , Obongjayar for the delicate emotion, Lila Ike for the militancy and immediacy, Popcaan for the style and attitude
Q: Can you share one music production tip?
A: Spring reverbs are a great quick and cheap way for instant vibe. Following that, as most springs don't have any controls for reverb lenght, i found you can shape the decay quite nicely with a transient designer's sustain-dial. Or just gate in rhythmically to the track.
Q: What type of music do you usually work on?
A: Everything except the more extreme faces of electronic music and metal
Q: What's your strongest skill?
A: Groove sensibility, being it in playing instruments, programming drums, or also time-correction
Q: What do you bring to a song?
A: What it needs. I consider myself a good and empathetic listener, which enables me to listen deep and pay close attention what the song, the emotion behind it and the artist needs - instead of following a default pattern in production.
Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?
A: Damon Albarn, Little Simz, Lila Ike, Kitschkrieg, James Blake, Winta James, Colin Stetson