Remote mixing and editing

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

A: 'sanssouci' by Winter Boyfriend. Specifically, the guitar solo in tan lines (1:53), the vocal breakdown in 'dandelion' at the start of the second verse (1:09), the bridge in (party) in parenthesis (3:16), the entirety of wide awake....

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Winter Boyfriend Demos....

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: I like analog things but i work in the digital domain because it's easier, cheaper and quicker to get to the results leaving more time to focus on being creative.

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

A: To make their music sound the best i can.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I love you music. Unreleased music is even cooler.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What are your influences? Help me understand the specifics of where you see your band. What mixes do you like? Specifically the mix, doesn't have to be in the same genre, or you might hate the song, it's just the mix. How do you want the listener to feel listening to this song?

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Sound like the artist elevated. Production tricks, drums and guitars that destroy, cool vocal sounds. Stylised and ecentric where necessary.

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

A: Joyce Mannor, Macseal, Mannequin Pussy, Bully, Liquid Mike, Mitski, Charli xcx, Chloe Moriondo, Turnstile, Stay Inside, Soul Glo, Forests, Indigo De Souza, Los Campesinos, I Love Your Lifestyle, Foxing, Charly Bliss

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

A: Indie, emo, punk, hardcore and pop are my favourite genre to work in.

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

A: I have been doing it as a hobby forever, but only started taking it seriously in 2021-22, when working on my own work and enjoying the process. From there i was seeking out multi tracks for artists across many styles, to practice and learn whatever i can. I find it so satisfying taking raw tracks to a final mix. The Winter Boyfriend songs being released in 2024 were mixed around August 2023, and though i am very happy with them i have already made substantial progress to the point where i know how i could have made them better. Constant improvement is visible to me at least!

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: If this was a self-recorded project often the vocal levels vary within take (and not like a musical, deliberate use of dynamics), so going in to manually automate levels, line by line, rather than relying on compression or plugins to do the job for you really helps make sure you hit the processing (compression and eq) at the right level, and you can get an really usable vocal sound. Also if you need to do drum replacement/reinforcement it's very rare the stock sounds in Steven Slate's Trigger are the ones, unless you are making 2000s pop-punk. Try and get ahold of a range of samples that are more up to date, or better yet make samples of the actual kit being used.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Musicality and thinking about the song over everything. That and taking DIY recordings to another level.

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

A: I love Shawn Everrett (particularly on vocals), Will Yip (especially on drums, and anything heavier, but also vocals - Patience by Mannequin Pussy is a perfect summation of his work), Jack Shirley who is one of the best at capturing raw energy, whether that be Joyce Manor, Jeff Rosenstock, Gouge Away or whatever and then i love Patrick Hyland's creative choices (though i think some of the mixes don't carry the weight of the creative choices).

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

A: With Winter Boyfriend i recorded most of it, and comped, edited, mixed and mastered all the project (drums being the exception, 7 of the songs were tracked by others and i was playing). As well as creating an exciting sound i also like to do a lot of automation to emphasise points, like long reverb trails on a specific lyric, or maybe all the instruments drop out to a vocal super up front in the mix, or a cool drum fill.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: A willingness to push the sounds far enough that they sound exciting and interesting while still being tasteful and judicious.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I first check any performance cleanup issues, tuning, timing, dead tracks and noise removal. Then i listen to the mix as it arrives with me, fader-up, and if there is a rough mix i listen to that. From there i will start getting a balance, and making sure any individual tracks sound good. The mix from their onwards is typically make the drum sound good, the bass, working in that classic way, unless the song warrants something else. Occasionally i will work on the vocal sound first just because i know it will be extra important in the song.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: Cubase 11 Q-Acoustics speakers i know like the back of my hand (can't remember model number) Melodyne Endless plugins including Arturia FX Collection, a lot of Fabfilter, Ozone, and myriad others