In-house mastering engineer for 3 major pressing plants. 20+ years full-time pro experience in analogue/hybrid mastering, vinyl-mastering, mixing, audio editing. Fat As Funk (est. 2006), using high-end analogue hardware combined with precision digital tools. Approx 18,000 tracks worked on since starting. Your music in safe hands.
Expert at complex mixing, mastering & editing jobs. Pre-vinyl optimisation.
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Interview with 20+ years mastering, mix, edit
Q: Tell us about a project you worked on you are especially proud of and why. What was your role?
A: Recently the Kenji Eno 9-disc vinyl release on Lost In Cult Records. If you don't know him, he is a legendary game music composer from Japan. That was great fun. I think it's still on pre-order, but check it out if you like that sort of thing.
Q: What are you working on at the moment?
A: I've been doing a lot of video game soundtracks for vinyl recently, this last week some breakbeat, some neo-classical, some house.... all sorts.
Q: Is there anyone on SoundBetter you know and would recommend to your clients?
A: I have only just joined as a provider, so I haven't looked!
Q: Analog or digital and why?
A: Both of course, but I have some of the finest analogue hardware in the world, & you can hear the difference. It really does sound better than just "in the box". Totally avoiding digital is pointless in this day & age, & I have some excellent software tools I use daily.
Q: What's your 'promise' to your clients?
A: You will love your masters.
Q: What do you like most about your job?
A: It's fun, I virtually-meet interesting people, hear lots of cool music & am the one to sculpt how the finished product sounds. It's what I've always been passionate about & I'm grateful to have made a career out of it.
Q: What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?
A: Can you give me any tips on my mix? .... Yes.
Q: What's the biggest misconception about what you do?
A: People just think we make it louder. "It's not how loud you make it, it's how you make it loud" to quote the late, great Jon Dent.
Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?
A: Do you have any tracks in mind you'd like me to reference? Do you have any specific requests?
Q: What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?
A: Find the sweet-spot of experience, equipment & price.
Q: If you were on a desert island and could take just 5 pieces of gear, what would they be?
A: A computer + software, Korg Minilogue, stereo microphone, audio interface, V-drums. If I was stuck on a desert island I don't think I would be bothered about mastering & would focus on the creation side while hoping to be rescued!
Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?
A: Back in the mid 90's I went to music college & started producing. I was promoting club nights back in 2000, & people were commenting on how fat my tracks sounded compared to everything else, & when I told them I mastered them, they asked me to do theirs. This grew & when someone said "you should call your mastering Fat As F**k Mastering!" I liked it, but thought it needed a tweak! So in 2006 Fat As Funk Mastering was officially born. I've been mixing & mastering full-time every since for clients worldwide. I branched out into the world of Sync Licensing & ran a successful 3rd party licensing agency Rinse The Sync, securing over 30 placements, including some of my own music. I shifted focus to a music library which is picking up steam & has worldwide sub-publishing. I continue to love my jobs.
Q: How would you describe your style?
A: Professional.
Q: Which artist would you like to work with and why?
A: Aphex Twin, just because he is my biggest influence growing up as a teenager.
Q: Can you share one music production tip?
A: Less is often more.
Q: What type of music do you usually work on?
A: House, rock, dance, pop, orchestral, singer-songwriter, electronica, jazz.... everything. After 20+ years doing this daily I can handle anything & no longer need to specialise.
Q: What's your strongest skill?
A: Being an audio ninja.
Q: What do you bring to a song?
A: Over 20 years professional experience running my mastering company & working on approx 18,000 tracks including whole publishing catalogues, and for labels, managers, sync agents, studios, producers & musicians all over the world in every genre you can imagine. Having been the "in-house" mastering engineer for 3 top pressing plants for over 10 years, mostly for pre-vinyl mastering I am one of the foremost experts on this. I am also a composer of trailer music with credits including Star Wars: The Book Of Boba Fett, Nine Perfect Strangers, Alien: Covenant, Antlers & Sprite.
Q: What's your typical work process?
A: I evaluate the material, listen to the client's ideas, then I make it sound awesome & deliver what they need.
Q: Tell us about your studio setup.
A: Fat As Funk (est. 2006), a boutique studio specializing in high-end analogue hardware combined with precision digital tools. Core hardware & software: SPL Passeq EQ Mastering Edition, Bettermaker Mastering EQ, IGS Tubecore vari-mu valve compressor, Warm Audio Pultec-clone valve EQs, fully balanced 24/96 signal path. Variety of high-end licensed plugins by Waves, PSP, Isotope etc. Accurate Control Room custom built studio with exceptional acoustics and full-range monitoring
Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?
A: Too many to list. Everything from Tom Waits to Aphex Twin.
Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.
A: Analogue mastering, pre-vinyl mastering, mixing, pre-vinyl optimisation of existing masters (re-issues & soundtracks on vinyl), mix evaluations, audio restoration, audio editing, remixing.
