Shoegaze Mix Engineer

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

A: One project that became especially meaningful to me was building the SHOEGAZER YouTube platform, where I share production techniques and recreate iconic shoegaze sounds for a worldwide community of musicians. Over time, the channel grew to more than 50k subscribers and 4M+ views, connecting me with artists from all over the world who were looking for nostalgic, emotionally immersive sounds inspired by bands like Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, and Cocteau Twins. The latter even featured me on ther officle website. It makes me very proud that I’ve even managed to get in touch with the big bands I’m talking about.

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

A: I’ve been deeply involved in music for more than 20 years, starting at age 13 as the bass player of the German teen band Devilish — later known as Tokio Hotel — before touring across Europe as a guitarist, singer, and songwriter in various alternative rock projects. Over the years, I recorded and produced multiple albums and EPs, contributed music to the German Netflix series Weissensee, and developed a strong passion for creating emotionally immersive guitar-driven productions with a distinctive analog character. Since 2016, I’ve been working full-time as a producer, mix/mastering engineer, and sound designer, specializing in shoegaze, dream pop, and atmospheric indie music. Through my SHOEGAZER platform, trusted by 50k+ musicians worldwide with more than 4M educational YouTube views, I became especially known for recreating iconic shoegaze sounds and helping artists turn raw ideas into nostalgic, cinematic records with depth, texture, and personality.

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

A: Clear communication, organized deliverables, and a mix that competes sonically with commercial releases while still sounding like "you".

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

A: A question I get all the time is: “How can I make my music sound more unique and emotional instead of overly polished?” My answer is that character often comes from imperfections - through creative production, analog gear like cassette tape processing, and finding the right atmosphere for the song rather than chasing a perfectly clean sound. I help artists develop a sound that feels authentic, cinematic, and memorable while still sounding professional.

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

A: Don’t just look for technical skills but look for a producer who truly understands the atmosphere, emotion, and identity you want your music to have. A great production should amplify your artistic vision, not make you sound like everyone else. Before hiring help, listen carefully to the producers previous work and see if it vibes with you emotionally.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: My strongest skill as a mixing and mastering engineer is understanding an artist’s vision and translating it into sound through empathy, communication, and instinctive collaboration. As a producer and musician, I craft catchy melodies, shoegaze-inspired guitars, expressive bass lines, deep lyrics, and immersive soundscapes.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: When mixing and mastering: Balance and life. As a music artist and producer: memorability, colour and my unique dreamy vibe.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: A collaborative mastering approach focused on understanding the artist’s vision through references and careful listening. Using subtle processing and occasional cassette tape warmth, I refine each track with transparency, character, and client satisfaction as the priority.

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

A: I'm not only a shoegaze nerd who own a lot of gear, as some might think. I'm rather minimalistic when it comes to gear and more versitile when it comes to genres.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I combine Ableton Live with real cassette tape hardware and vintage-inspired processin for warm, detailed, emotionally focused mixes. Built around trusted monitoring, custom Fender instruments, analog pedals, and Ableton Live for consistency and character.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Melodic, saturated, soft & heavy at the time, otherwoldy and ethereal. Always in between the real, surreal and artificial.

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

A: I'd love to understad how Elizabeth Frazer (Cocteau Twins) writes melodies. I'd love to write a song Alex Gehring (Ringo Deathstarr) could play bass to, only to enjoy her playing. I'd love to chat and produce with Walter Schreifels (Rival Schools) as he's one of the most talented rock song writers in my opinion. I'd like collaborate with Chino Moreno (Deftones) on a song to experience his way of writing vocals, singing and building song structure.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Yes! The magic comes from your ears - not the gears. Keep it simple and spend time in the EQ balance, rather then new toys and plugins. All you need is less. Like in sculpturing a statue - it's about taking away mass to find the right form.

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

A: I mostly work on alternative rock music like grunge, psychedelic rock, shoegaze, doom, ambient, dream pop, noise rock and progressive rock. I love big riffs, dreamy spheres and walls of sound. Mainly guitar-forward or hybrid productions.

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

A: I've been blown away by the My Bloody Valentine records 'Loveless' and 'MBV' when I first listened to them. Kevin Shields guitar layering taught me a lot about otherworldy rock music. But I also am a big fan of the tape recordings by Scott Cortez, who's known for his ambient albums and noisy pop songs with Astrobrite, STAR and Lovesliescrushing. Tape saturation and interesting layering of sounds is what I'm very inspired by.

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

A: Most of my clients are looking for some tasteful, authentic cassette mastering for ther indie music productions. I once showed my process in a Youtube video to compare clean DAW recording with the same recorded audio run through my Tascam Portastudio 4 track tape recorder. The result is warmer, a tiny bit noisy and unpredictable in a way. But it gives certain music styles, like shoegaze, dream pop, psychedelic and bedroom pop, even more 'alieness' and a nostalgic feel. This is how many musicians found me here.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: I’m currently exploring how far shoegaze can be pushed beyond its traditional sound palette.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: I love real analoge saturation from cassette tape. That's why I use it so much on masterings or guitar layers. Analoge distortion sounds so harsh and warm at the same time. But I love some digital distortion sounds from LINE 6 stomps and the VST plugins by Kuassa Amps a lot. Everything has its place in certain conditions.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: I feel very privileged being able to realise whatever comes to my mind and make it audible to others. In the Ghostbusters movies they use a ghost trap to catch the spirits that wander around. I do the same thing with song ideas and sound visions when I produce. I simply love inventing music.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: Where is your song going: streaming, radio, social content? Any reference tracks? Do you prefer a DIY home production vibe or are you looking for a high-end sound? What's the deadline?

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

A: Suncreme, a magic watermelon maker, a cooling suit, sunglasses and an extraordinary loud electric guitar with onboard amplifier and distortion.