Indie Producer & Engineer

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

A: Gregory Alan Isakov. This Empty Northern Hemisphere is one of my favorite albums. Deep lyrical meaning, the sonic landscapes, and beautiful wide stereo mixing that gives the listener a depth most modern records don't parallel. His voice and harmonies drive the music, sitting perfectly in the dynamic and holding up everything around it, placed carefully. The other modern record I'd point at is Lord Huron's Lonesome Dreams. The same beautiful sonic landscapes, and it creates a mental picture closer to a dream state that takes you on a journey, more than a set of songs.

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

A: Indie rock bands, singer-songwriters, jam bands, folk, and musicians building long-form work where the album is the unit and not just random singles. I've worked in many genres of music. Reggae, blues, rock, folk, alternative, grunge, country, jazz, and symphonic scoring for film. However, I prefer to work with independent musicians who have an emotional connection to their music.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Communication. Most artists don't describe their sound in engineering terms and honestly they shouldn't have to. My job is to interpret, not to explain why the wording is imprecise. I ask specific questions until I'm certain on your goals. I'd rather ask three too many questions than waste time sending over revisions that miss the mark. Same goes for bad news. If there's something you don't like, say it clearly and we'll fix it together. If there's ever a problem I can't fix, you'll hear it from me early, while there's still time to do something about it. Mixing vocals in particular is a skill I take great pride in. Getting a voice to sit where it belongs, sound like a person, and stay there for the duration of the song regardless of the dynamic changes. That comes from years of live sound reinforcement. In a room the vocal is the first thing an audience notices when it's wrong. You want your audience to hear and remember your lyrics.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Experience. Creativity. Precision. You've heard your song four hundred times. I haven't heard it once. That first listen is worth something and I take notes during it, because by the second pass I'm as compromised as you are. Past that, an ear trained on rooms rather than screens. If a chorus doesn't lift, I'll say so before I try to fix it with compression. Sometimes the problem is a mix problem. Often it's an arrangement problem wearing a mix problem's coat, and pretending otherwise wastes your money. Creative ideas are cheap. Knowing which one to keep is the part that took 20+ years to learn, and it's most of what you're actually hiring. Whether it sounds good is not the thing to worry about. That's the floor, not the selling point.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Before anything, we talk. I want to discuss the project with you, hear any rough mixes and understand what the record is supposed to feel like, and find out what you've already tried that didn't work. That call is free and it's the most useful hour in the process. Then: You send stems. I mix. First pass lands within 7 working days, usually less. You send notes. Three revision rounds are included. I'd rather you be blunt than polite. Final mixdown happens here on my console and outboard. If you want an outside room instead, say so at step 1 and I'll quote it separately. I maintain great relationships with Abbey Road and with multiple studios in London, Rome, and Switzerland, so putting your record on an API, a Neve, or an SSL is a scheduling and budget question rather than a long shot. You get mastered mixes, ready to upload to streaming. If the record is also going to vinyl, I'll bring in a cutting engineer who specializes in it and coordinate that side for you. Vinyl needs its own master. A streaming master handed straight to a lathe will give you problems. You don't need 192 tracks to make a good album. A decent room, a few well-placed microphones, some time, and a lot of heart beats a pile of new plugins every time.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I mix in my private home studio. Pro Tools, a Waves LV1 Classic console, and numerous flavors of analog preamps and vintage equipment. The preamps include hand-wired Neve, API, UA, and SSL clones. Past what's in the room, I can patch in almost any piece of analog gear you can imagine through Audiomovers and Access Analog. Real hardware, in real racks, in other people's studios, running on your mix while we listen. A modest budget and a good song can now get through gear that used to require a plane ticket. If you'd rather have the final mixdown in an outside room on a Neve, SSL, or API, that can be arranged and I'll quote it separately before we start. I maintain great relationships with Abbey Road and with multiple studios in London, Rome, and Switzerland. Sometimes it's nice to patch in analog gear. But a great take matters more than any piece of equipment, and everything in the studio only exists to catch those moments. I love specific pieces of vintage gear for what they do. I'll still take a raw great take full of emotion over a bad take perfected with autotune and a stack of twelve plugins.

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

A: Beck, for never making the same album twice and getting away with it. Lord Huron and Dawes, for deep creativity and the sonic landscapes they build. Medium Build, for proving that passion and performance makes the art, not the technology. Pearl Jam and Radiohead, for the creativity they brought to the genre and the diversity of the music between albums. Pink Floyd, The Beatles and the Grateful Dead, for building records as one piece instead of ten songs in a row. On the engineering side, Dan Healy above anyone else. Running front of house for the Dead is what most people know him for, but he produced many studio records too, and he was as fluent in electronics and physics as he was in music. I was lucky enough to be mentored by him. He was doing things with a live mix that most engineers still won't attempt. Before that, Omega Recording Studios in Rockville, Maryland, class of 2003, where I learned to operate and maintain SSL, API, and Neve properly.

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

A: Mostly singer-songwriters, indie rock bands, and musicians working on long-form pieces where the record is the unit and not the single. You send stems. I mix through Pro Tools, my console, and analog outboard, and we hone the mixes and edits until they're right. Nothing in the process needs you in the room, and most clients prefer this. Before relocating to Europe I spent 20+ years on the road mixing front of house and monitors in 30+ countries, nine of those years with Buddy Guy. I do less of that now. It's still why I mix the way I do. In a theater there's no second pass and no undo, so you learn what actually reaches a listener instead of what sounds good on your own monitors. Vocals stay forward. Low mids stay out of the way. Nothing depends on you owning good speakers. I keep a private recording studio and retreat in the Italian archipelago. Most of the work happens remotely and always can. The studio is here if you'd rather come and make the record in person, on an island, walking distance from the beach.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Both. Because each domain has benefits and drawbacks. Digital recording techniques offer a speed and consistency that analog never did. That said, there is still a lot of analog equipment manufactured in the 1960's and 1970's that can sounds warmer and richer than anything available on the market today. I prefer to use a hybrid approach utilizing the best of both worlds.

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

A: I promise that I will care deeply, and pour my heart into any project I accept. That I will push for your album or song to be a sonic masterpiece. That I will use all of my experience to bring your projects to successful completion.

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

A: If you work in the studio you can't do live, or vice versa. I will work in any aspect of music production that moves my soul. I love creating albums in the studio, and I love seeing a piece of work come to life in the live setting.

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

A: Don't be intimidated by costs or your current level of preparation. If you have an idea, and I like the music, we will find a way to make it work. The music and creative relationships are more important than anything else.

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

A: I began in this industry as a 16 year old kid that just loved going to concerts, and got lucky enough to be given the opportunity to work in the industry. In my early 20s I went on to study Recording Engineering at Omega studios in Bethesda, MD. Since then I've worked for a number of different recording studios, bands and artists. I've circled the globe more than a few times mixing FOH and IEMS for a number of Grammy Award winning artists. I've seen the technology change and expand drastically over the years, and I've tried to embrace all of these changes. I've had the pleasure at mixing at some of the worlds most renowned venues including Red Rocks, the Hollywood Bowl, and Montreux Jazz Fest. For several years I also served as as Professor of Live sound and Studio Production at the University of Vermont, and I still enjoy teaching and mentoring to this day. When I am not on the road I truly enjoy working with singer-songwriters and independent musicians on long format albums, and film projects. Let the music be your guide.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: The most important thing is to listen, and to feel the music. Even if I’m mixing on the best recording console in the world, it won’t make a bad song into a hit. The goal is to build strong relationships with my fellow musicians, so that we all feel comfortable in the studio when we are recording. It’s better to have one good take with high energy and emotion then pasting together 10 different, takes to make a song “work”. The most important thing is to capture the raw emotion in a song. No amount of equipment can remanufacture that.