Indie Pop Producer

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

A: One project I’m especially proud of is producing an album for Kodaline. My role was producer, helping shape the record from the songwriting and arrangement stages through to the final productions. What I’m proud of isn’t any specific sound or technique. It’s that we managed to make a record that felt honest to the band while still pushing into new territory. Those are usually the projects that stay with me.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Digital. Not because it’s better, but because it removes barriers between an idea and the finished record. I’ll happily use analog gear when it serves a purpose, but I’m much more interested in outcomes than ideology.

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

A: I’ll care about the song as much as you do. I can’t promise that every record will be a hit, but I can promise honesty, attention to detail and a genuine commitment to making the strongest version of the music possible.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: The moment when a song suddenly reveals itself. When an artist hears something and immediately says, “That’s it.” Those moments never get old.

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

A: The most common question is usually some version of: “Can you make this sound more professional?” My answer is almost always: “Probably. But first we need to figure out what kind of record this actually wants to be.” A great mix can’t solve an unclear artistic direction.

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

A: That I have the answers. People sometimes imagine a producer’s job is to arrive with a clear vision and tell artists what their music should be. In reality, I see the role as creating the conditions for something honest to emerge. Most of the time, the best ideas come from paying attention, asking the right questions and recognising what’s already there.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: Usually very simple ones: What are you trying to say? Who are your favourite artists? What do you feel is missing from the song? And perhaps most importantly: what do you want people to feel when they hear it? The answers tend to reveal far more than discussions about plugins or references.

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

A: A piano. A laptop with Ableton. A pair of headphones. A microphone. And some way of charging everything. I’m not much of a gear collector. I’d rather have limitations and good ideas than unlimited options.

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

A: I’ve been making music for over a decade. Like a lot of producers, it started with being obsessed with records and wanting to understand how they were made. Over time that grew into working with artists across Scandinavia, the UK and the US. I’ve been fortunate enough to contribute to projects ranging from emerging independent artists to internationally recognised acts, but my approach hasn’t really changed: serve the song first.

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

A: I’d love to work with Bon Iver. Not because of the sound itself, but because Justin Vernon has consistently followed curiosity over convention. The records always feel like they’re searching for something rather than trying to fit into a market. That’s the kind of approach that excites me.

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

A: Most often I help artists take a song from an idea to a finished record. Sometimes that means producing from scratch. Sometimes it means helping reshape an arrangement, adding instrumentation, refining the sonics, or simply figuring out what the song is actually trying to be. The specifics change from project to project, but the goal is always the same: make the song feel more like itself.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: A mix of artist projects and production work. I recently finished producing an album for Kodaline, and at the moment I'm working on releases with artists in the US, UK and Scandinavia, while also developing my own artist project. Most of the things I’m excited about right now live somewhere between alternative, pop, electronic and indie music.

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

A: Don't hire someone because they have the right plugins or references. Hire someone who understands what you're trying to say as an artist. The best production relationships happen when there's trust, honesty and a shared understanding of what the song is supposed to become.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Atmospheric, emotional and detail-oriented. I like records that feel human, even when they're heavily produced. I'm often looking for the tension between something beautiful and something slightly imperfect. My goal is usually to make a song feel more like itself rather than imposing a specific sound on it.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Before adding anything, ask yourself what can be removed. Most productions improve when you stop trying to make them bigger and start making them clearer. Space is one of the most powerful tools in music.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Helping artists uncover what makes them unique. The technical side matters, but I think my biggest strength is hearing the identity inside a song and building around that rather than fighting it.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Perspective. A lot of artists are very close to their own material, which is completely understandable. My job is often to help identify what's essential, what can be pushed further and what can be removed. Sometimes that means producing a record from the ground up. Sometimes it means changing one chord or muting one instrument. Either way, I'm trying to help the song become the strongest version of itself.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: It usually starts with the song. Whether it's a voice note, a piano demo or a finished arrangement, I spend time figuring out what the emotional centre of the song is. From there I build the production around that idea, constantly asking whether each decision serves the song. The goal isn't to make something impressive. It's to make something believable.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: My studio is built around Ableton Live, a piano, a collection of synths, good monitoring and a handful of tools I've collected over years of making records. To be honest, I don't think gear is the interesting part. Most of the records I'm proudest of came from chasing an idea rather than chasing equipment.

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

A: Most of my work sits somewhere in the space between alternative, indie, electronic and pop. That said, I’m much more interested in whether a song has a strong identity than what genre it belongs to. I've worked on everything from intimate piano songs to heavily produced electronic records. The common thread is usually that the artist wants something that feels personal rather than generic.

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

A: I tend to be inspired by people who build complete worlds around their music rather than just making records. Artists like Bon Iver, Dijon, Mk.gee, Frank Ocean, James Blake and Radiohead have all had a big impact on me in different ways. On the production side, people like Rick Rubin, Daniel Lanois, Rostam, Hudson Mohawke and Two Inch Punch have influenced how I think about records. Not necessarily because I want things to sound like them, but because they all have a strong point of view. More than anything, I’m inspired by people who make music that feels honest and unmistakably like themselves.