Horns, etc.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Both. Why not?

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

A: That brass instruments are polyphonic - if you send me a demo track that is a horn section playing a bunch of chords and counter melodies and overlapping parts, that means I have to record each note of the chord individually and stack it multiple times. Brass instruments can only play one note at a time, so what might have been one or two demo scratch keyboard tracks could require 50 tracks for me to realize.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What are you looking for me to do? When do you need it done by? What is your budget?

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

A: I'd love to work with Steve Earle because I love many of his songs. Also the aforementioned Lanois and Rubin, for obvious reasons.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Always serve the song - good production, songwriting, composing and arranging are basically the same thing IMO.

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

A: Literally everything. Rap (Megan Thee Stallion feat. Da Baby), Metal (GWAR), Pop (Gwen Stefani), Classic Rock (Iggy Pop), Modern Rock (21 Pilots), Indie Rock (Vampire Weekend), Indie Rap (Ceschi), Hip Hop Reggae (Snoop Lion), Blues (Gary Clark Jr.), Hip Hop (Chika), Singer Songwriter (Regina Spektor), Trap (Blueface), Reggae (The English Beat), Neo-Soul (Van Hunt), Jazz (DD Horns), Blue Eyed Soul (Paloma Faith), Americana (Glen Campbell), Electronic (Diplo), RnB (Celeste), I've worked in just about every genre imaginable. Also a bunch of video games, tv shows, commercials, movies etc. Pretty much anything that might need horns on it, also been writing a lot of trap/hip hop beats lately with producer DA Got That Dope.

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

A: I've been doing this professionally for about 20 years. I went to school for music composition, and then spent a number of years touring and doing session work. Now

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Eclectic

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Creativity is probably the biggest thing I bring outside of my specific and general musical expertise. Left to my own devices I'm working on music 24/7 when not with my family, because I have a constant desire to create.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I have a pretty comprehensive understanding of how the language of music works from the bottom up and from the top down. I play a bunch of different horns and can track on the spot horn arrangements, but I also have experience songwriting, musical directing, singing, producing, composing, beatmaking, educating, engineering, scoring, orchestrating and sound designing so I bring all of that with me when I work on a project. I've got a great sounding room with some really great gear and instruments, but most importantly I know how to use them to serve the song!

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Usually I discuss with the client what their needs are and we agree upon a rate for the services. At that point they send me a bounce of the song they want horns on along with any other specific or general info about what they want me to do. Sometimes this means charts with exactly notated parts, sometimes this means a very specific demo part they've rendered with midi, sometimes this is a very loose voice memo recording of a half sung idea, sometimes this is just an email with instructions/description/references. Often as not, I just get the song and none of these things and people say "do your thing" and then I do my thing, send back an mp3, they give me whatever feedback they have and we go back and forth until they are satisfied with the product. At that point the client pays me and then I send over the wav files and/or pro tools sessions.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I've got a really great sounding room, and a decent selection of gear. My coolest piece of recording gear is a pair of API 312s that came out of the console that was in Sunset Sound Studio 2 in the 1970s (think first Van Halen record), it's a real instant mojo box. I use Pro Tools for my DAW. I typically track horns with a close mic and a room mic, and will often use more inputs if I'm doing outboard effects like say running a euphonium through a space echo and then into a bass amp - I might use 4 or 5 mics to capture that sound.

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

A: Horn arranging - people send me tracks, I send them back with a whole bunch of horns on them. Also lately I’ve been doing a lot of hip hop production and beat making as well.

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

A: Too many to list, but off the top of my head Daniel Lanois and Rick Rubin have had a hand in a bunch of my favorite records.