Guitarist, Producer

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: SESSION GUITAR WORK: I have a couple of Fender Strats, a Fender Telecaster, an Epiphone Les Paul, and a Martin acoustic that I record through a WA-273 preamp. I have a boutique custom-made tube amp, and I like recording my electric guitars by either miking the amp or using a Palmer PDI-03 speaker simulator. The pedals are too many to list, but I have a decent-sized pedalboard. I also own a Neural DSP Quad Cortex, which is an amazing unit, and several amp modeling software by Neural DSP, Universal Audio, Brainworx, Waves, etc. I like recording my acoustic guitar with a pair of Lauten Audio LA-120 or my WA-67. For songwriting and producing purposes, I also have a Sire V7 5-strings bass, Yamaha P45 and Novation Impulse keyboards, a Korg Minilogue and a Model D analog synthesizer, and a fully triggered drum kit (gifted to me by the amazing Greg Wells). MIXING: I work in a professionally treated room. My equipment include an Apollo Twin interface, Focal Studio Monitors and Ollo Audio S4X Reference Headphones. Plugins are too many to name — Universal Audio, Soundtoys, Plugin Alliance, Waves, Fabfilter, and more.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Musicality. Being not only a guitarist and a mixer but a songwriter and a bit of a multi-instrumentalist as well, I understand the space that every element is supposed to occupy in the composition. I always work toward complimenting the song.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: For session work, after receiving the request, I usually have a chat with the client and listen to their demo. Sometimes clients have a clear idea of what they want, and sometimes they just ask me to add whatever I think the song needs. After recording my parts, I send a preview to receive feedback from the client, who will either ask me to make some changes or proceed with delivery. For mixing the process is pretty much the same.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Whatever is needed at the moment. When the budget allows it I love to work in a nice studio and certain pieces of analog gear are magical, but I don't think anybody these days is removing ringing frequencies from a track with an analog eq.

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

A: I always give 100%.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Although certain aspects of music making are ripetitive, there's always something unique about a song or a songwriter. Every piece of music I get to work on feels new and inspiring.

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

A: A Martin acoustic guitar, a Fender Stratocaster, a decent condenser mic, a Macbook Pro and an Apollo interface.

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

A: Pop, pop-rock, rock, alternative, occasionally EDM.

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

A: Too many musicians to list. A couple of producers that come to mind are Greg Wells and Jacquire King.

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

A: Production and beat-making are not the same thing. Some people do both and the two can overlap, but producing a track doesn't always mean making a beat for it.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Write the melody before the lyrics.

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

A: I first picked up the guitar around age 13. After being self taught for a few years I Moved to St. Louis (MO) at age 17 where I first got in contact with jazz studies and music theory. There I studied with jazz and hip hop trombonist Lamar Harris. After coming back to Sardinia I started taking guitar lessons and then I enrolled into a music academy called NAMM where I studied with guitarist Francesco Congia. After that I moved to Milan to study at CPM Music Institute where I graduated with a diploma in contemporary guitar in 2013. While in music college I founded pop/rock band Allis On Air with some other students. Since 2014 we've recorded a full length album and a handful of Eps and singles. Among the many concerts we've played we were one of the upcoming acts at IDays2017 (headlined by Linkin Park, Sum41, Blink182 and Nothing But Thieves). We also did a few acoustic gigs in Ireland and once played a show with Welsh band Himalayas. I'm proficient in both electric and acoustic guitar, I have a lot of experience both live and in the recording studio (you can find my work with Allis On Air on Spotify). While working on my band's music I was also developing an interest in arrangement, production and recording. I handled most of the songwriting, all the lyrics and also recorded and mixed our pre-production before going to the studio. From there I started taking it more seriously and the last couple of year or so I've been producing and mixing for some local artists. The jobs may vary from mixing finished tracks to singer-songwriters who can't play an instrument but have melodies and lyrics down so they come to me to develop their songs with them.

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

A: My work varies between recording guitar tracks, producing, mixing and mastering. If I'm hired as producer I might have to do both the playing and the mixing depending on the budget. But I also get hired just for session work as the guitarist or just to mix and master a track.