Songwriting, Top Line Writing,

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: At the moment a large project is working on the full soundtrack to an upcoming movie. We're able to write to picture and really make the story come to life.

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

A: The main thing would be to have a fairly clear idea of what you would like song or melody-wise, perhaps with some examples. Music is so subjective that it's great to be on the same page before a project starts. On the other hand sometimes it's great when a client says "I love your work, do what you do"

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: We work near the ocean in Kenting, Taiwan. We have a studio here where we work everyday. Drums are recorded using a Roland TD-15K, and we process these afterward to get great drum sounds in a small studio environment. We do a lot of recording on Logic Pro X, and also have a huge amount of 3rd party plug ins. I mix on Reaper - I've been a fan of it for a few years now, and just love how stable it is.

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

A: The common type of work we do is writing, producing and mixing full songs for clients. These are in a variety of styles, from pop and rock through to folk and country. I also do a lot of work composing top line melodies on other artists demos or finished tracks. Sometimes a client will come to me if they're lacking a big hooky chorus, and other times I'll compose the vocal melody for the whole track.

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

A: Yes, Waltz Mastering. We have used him to master songs for our Palm Lakes project and we always love the results.

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

A: I'm extremely proud of our new project called Palm Lakes - It's 80's influenced Vocal pop & Synth Pop. The first single 'Satellite' got single of week on various stations that love this kind of music, and I really believe in the music, production and visuals. We wrote the track, recorded it, performed it entirely and mixed it.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Digital for us - I love the sound of Analog and try to recreate it especially for our retrowave material, but digital makes working from a home studio so much more achievable.

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

A: To be reliable, to keep them informed all the way through the process, to hit deadlines and if they have already listened to our music and like our work then they will certainly like the finished result.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Everyday is something new creatively, I can work from home near the beach and create music. I love it!

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

A: One of the big questions is always about credits or commercial rights. It depends on the project, but we do many jobs where we take a buy out and all the commercial rights go to the client. We're open to working in many ways.

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

A: That music is just a pipe dream. Hard work really pays off.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What style are they looking for? Do they have any initial ideas or examples (it doesn't matter if they don't)

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

A: An acoustic guitar, a note pad, a pen, a plectrum and a beer.

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

A: I studied at the Jazz & Rock Academy in the UK, and then became a pro musician in my early 20s - I toured the UK in various bands, and then started producing and recording. We toured Asia in 2011 and it went so well that the band relocated. While in Macau our writing was picked up by Melco Crown Entertainment, which opened up a whole new area of writing for other projects - Suddenly we were composing music for huge casino light shows and entertainment features, from there we also started getting commissions to write for TV campaigns, movies and other artists.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Dedicated, professional, easy going and very friendly. Musically, I want to achieve something dynamic with big melodies.

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

A: I would love to sit in a room and watch Mutt Lange in the writing stage all the way through to production and mixing.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: The drums and bass working together well is key, it's the base that the rest of the musical cake is baked on - I like a track to be tight and punchy, with vocals that shine through.

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

A: Rock, pop, country, folk, metal, synthwave & retrowave, kids songs and soundtracks.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: I certainly feel that our strength is in melody and hooks. It's the music I grew up on and still love to this day, so I always try to bring these elements to a track. I'm looking for that great chorus, and as my brother and I have worked and sang together for many years we're also good at stacking interesting and effective vocal harmonies.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I love my work and treat it each song with equal time and respect. We've always worked in a very structured and professional way, and never miss deadlines. I bring dedication to the project.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: For a typical song writing job it would be this: Firstly I talk to the client about what they want, and any particular specs such as length, tempo etc. The 2nd phase is to record a demo, usually a very short one demonstrating the melodies and feel, however I can also produce a full demo if required. This goes to the client and once approved I begin recording the entire track, mix it and then master it on final approval. Everything is done 'in house', but I also have a network of other artists I can contact if someone requires something a little different - a live saxophone for example.

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

A: I'm inspired by great songs, and especially like music from the 70s, 80s and 90s. I'm inspired by the fantastic commercial song writing of someone like Mutt Lange, but also love the dense production on something like Peter Gabriel 4.