Session player groove enabler

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: I'm working on trascribing all the horn parts of Horace Silver's album and the 2 violin arrangements on the Stephane Grappelli/Yehudi Menuhin albums

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

A: Know what you want specifically from me, and know what you want to let me do.

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

A: Electronic, Funk, and American Roots.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Taste, Learning the bass parts of whole albums gave me a sense of not just how to play with pyrotechnics, but which songs need simple parts played with love.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Learn everything you can about music and sound, but in the end forget about how it looks on the DAW and listen to how it sounds.

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

A: Tracking bass and cello parts across many genres. Strong reading, remote recording, fast turnaround. If you're looking for a vintage vibe I specialize at doubling upright bass or my hollow body electric basses with a picked fender "Bass VI" (sometimes called a tick-tack bass) which gives the bass more fatness and clarity than any stereo amping techniques, all while effortlessly sitting in any mix.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I bring dedication and groove. If I take on a project, I'm going to carve out enough time to focus on it like its the only thing on my plate at the moment. And whenever I record I make sure the groove feels good.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Step 1 is always find out what you want. Whatever information you have, a live demo with the signature riff, a humming the bass line you want into your phone. A song it should sound like. Throw the kitchen sink at me, I'll listen. Step 2. Absorb the song, listening to it. Step 3. Create a personal demo to make sure my parts compliment the flow of the whole song. Step 4 record the actual part. Step 5 Send you a low res mix to make sure you are pleased with the result Step 6, touch up anything you want redone Step 7. send you all the relevant hi res files.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I own a lot of electric basses, the four that are usually on call for recordings are a Music Man Bongo, a fretted and a fretless Godin A5, and a 1971 hollowbody epiphone (before the gibson buyout). My upright bass and Cello both have shadow pick-ups. I generally play through a little Tech21 compression on my line in, but otherwise leave the signal clean. Then I can send you the unaltered track in addition to any plugins I've applied. I use a scarlett audio interface with either Logic or Ableton.

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

A: I've been inspired by far too many musicians to list. By listening to all the recorded music I can find time to listen too, I'm always reminded that there's a recording I love that contradicts some general principle. So I always find the best approach to the song, from pop albums which stay perfectly on the grid, to old funk and jazz albums which may not hold a constant tempo, but get you out of your seat every time you listen to them.