Production/Guitar/Bass

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: The creativity it allows me, with each project offering its own unique challanges.

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

A: Can you make this sound larger-than-life? The answer is most often yes...but I can't do much about that if it's a single voice and guitar!

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

A: The debut song of my group SLOVV, 'Red Cheeks'. We had been struggling to find a direction to take the song, and I tore it down to the basics, and I rearranged it into a sparse slow jam, that I wrote the lyrics of, played keyboards on, and mixed and mastered

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: I am working on an EP of my own music, and numerous songs for my band Estrellas.

Q: Is there anyone on SoundBetter you know and would recommend to your clients?

A: I do not know them personally, but I would highly recommend Matt Johnson as a drummer, as he has played on some of my favourite recordings of all time.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: A combination of both is the ideal for me. The versatility of digital production makes it easy to rearrange and warp recordings in a way that is non-destructive and time efficient, but the colour that analog imparts is something not easily replicated in the digital realm in how it 'feels'.

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

A: I'll put the same eagerness and thought into your work that I do with my own.

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

A: Writing and producing isn't an instantaneous process, it's a continuous work to improve and refine one's disicpline.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What is your expected turnaround? Do you trust me to take the song where I think is best? Are you comfortable with me re-arranging the song to how you have it arranged currently?

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

A: Have an idea in mind of what you want your song to sound like, but have an open mind to the uniqueness of me as a provider, which may take it in a slightly different direction.

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

A: Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb - Versatile amp, and I can crank it...I'm on a desert island after all! My Fender Cabronita - My voice on the guitar. Strymon Bigsky - All the spacial options I would ever need. Nord Electro 6D - Versatile keyboard/synth. Neumann U87 - A versatile condenser microphone that I'm accustomed to the sound of.

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

A: I've been gigging and writing music for about 7 years, and started uploading my own music onto Spotify 4 years ago. Much of my work, and those I've mixed, is produced entirely by myself, due to my diverse skillset. I currently work in music distribution and spend my free time producing music.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: My style is diverse - I have the taste and restraint to know when to play or mix minimally, and when to play densely and intricately.

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

A: I would love to work with Kevin Parker (Tame Impala). Many of his productions contain diverse influences, such that they take abrupt changes that I've not heard in any other productions; for instance, the middle section of 'Let It Happen', which emulates a skipping record, to transition to its next section in a very novel way.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Reverb and delay EQ is extremely important, and in a dense mix that uses a lot of spacial effects can be the difference between a muddy mix and one with clarity and separation between instruments.

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

A: At the moment I am most commonly working on rock (and its subgenres), but have a lot of experience recording folk and R&B, and some in funk.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: My strongest skill is my arranging - of contemporaries of my level, my productions are frequently a stand-out due to their sense of dynamics and space, and in their harmonic and melodic choices.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I've got a strong sense of arranging and dynamics, knowing when to restrain and when to go all-out.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: In my productions I typically build from the rhythm section upwards, creating a song that hits hard, while it flows and builds, before adding the melodic elements, and space.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I record primarily with a Warm Audio WA-87 into a tube pre-amp. I use a variety of guitars, such as my Fender Cabronita and Stratocaster, or my Faith Venus, or Freshman 12-string. I also have an extensive pedalboard that includes Strymon, Keeley, and Gamechanger Audio pedals.

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

A: Jeff Buckley is a huge inspiration to me, as well as the DIY aesthetic of bands such as King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Tame Impala. I love the clarity of sound and punch of an Andy Wallace production, or the psychedelic spaces of Kevin Parker, and the funky griminess of Vulfpeck.

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

A: Most commonly I mix rock and its sub-genres, as well as funk, folk and R&B. As a guitarist I am predominantly a rock guitarist, however I am adept in the aforementioned genres as well, and a great arranger.