I'm a graduate of the USC Thornton School of Music Pop Program with formal training in guitar, keyboard, bass, voice, songwriting, & production. I'm comfortable in a number of genres & love thinking outside the box to find unique sounds & textures.
Whether you need a rumbling baritone guitar, sparkling 12-string, psychedelic Mellotron or layers of smooth background vocals, I've got you covered! Happy to record remotely in my East Nashville home studio & flexible on rates. I can help you fine-tune your music & lyrics, add some "special sauce" flourishes to your recording, or arrange a song from the ground up around your drum & vocal tracks.
Would love to hear from you. Click the contact button above to get in touch.
Credits
Languages
- English
Interview with Mason Summit
Q: Tell us about a project you worked on you are especially proud of and why. What was your role?
A: Cameron Scott Roberts's releases; I helped finesse the songs, produced/arranged, & played most of the instruments.
Q: What are you working on at the moment?
A: A solo project & new recordings with my duo, The Prickly Pair.
Q: Is there anyone on SoundBetter you know and would recommend to your clients?
A: TBD
Q: Analog or digital and why?
A: Both, because they both have their place.
Q: What's your 'promise' to your clients?
A: I will bring my personal style to your project within the confines of your artistic vision & do everything I can to bring it to the next level.
Q: What do you like most about your job?
A: Playing different instruments, feeling like I made a difference or contributed positively to someone else's work.
Q: What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?
A: What I think a track needs... answer varies.
Q: What's the biggest misconception about what you do?
A: That most recordings are done live in a room with a band.
Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?
A: How do you want your listener to feel? What are your favorite records?
Q: What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?
A: Pay attention to specific elements in the music you like — what each individual instrument is doing and how it sounds. Familiarize yourself with basic musical terms. Be open to new ideas.
Q: If you were on a desert island and could take just 5 pieces of gear, what would they be?
A: My Gibson Country Western acoustic, Mellotron Micro, recording interface, Chase Bliss Gen Loss MKII, Strymon Iridium
Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?
A: I've been singing & playing guitar for nearly 20 years, producing & releasing my own music for over 10, producing other artists for over 5. Currently working on solo music, collaborating with my partner Irene Greene in our duo The Prickly Pair & playing in the rock band Jaw Talk.
Q: How would you describe your style?
A: Layered, whimsical, eclectic; referencing the sounds of the past without fetishizing them.
Q: Which artist would you like to work with and why?
A: Elvis Costello. An ever-evolving, prolific artist whose process I would like to observe up-close.
Q: Can you share one music production tip?
A: Don't chase the demo -- be open to spontaneity.
Q: What type of music do you usually work on?
A: Songs I've worked on run the gamut from soul/funk/disco to country/folk/Americana to modern pop & rock. I like to blur genre lines and introduce atypical elements to otherwise conventional productions.
Q: What's your strongest skill?
A: Finding sounds & tones that don't sound generic or stock.
Q: What do you bring to a song?
A: An understanding of historical musical & recording techniques to help achieve the particular style you're trying to evoke, an ability to balance tradition & modernity, a knowledge of music theory & chord structure.
Q: What's your typical work process?
A: Depends on the client's needs - happy to execute a specific idea or to spend a little time coming up with parts of my own. I like to add a bunch of fun overdubs and you can pick & choose what to keep.
Q: Tell us about your studio setup.
A: I have a small but mighty setup at home that allows me to record everything except drums right here using an eclectic array of guitars, effects pedals, microphones, keyboards, samples & plugins.
Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?
A: Jon Brion, Joni Mitchell, Brian Wilson, Weyes Blood, Sly Stone, Elliott Smith
Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.
A: Often I'll receive a song with basic tracking completed and be tasked with adding ornamentation like retro keyboards, autoharp, acoustic fingerpicking, banjo, ambient slide guitar, or lo-fi percussion to flesh out the production and add some ear candy to the arrangement.
- ProducerAverage price - $250 per song
- Singer - MaleAverage price - $100 per song
- Acoustic GuitarAverage price - $100 per song
- Bass ElectricAverage price - $100 per song
- Keyboards - SynthAverage price - $100 per song
- Songwriter - LyricAverage price - $100 per song
- Songwriter - MusicAverage price - $100 per song
Instrumental/vocal tracks can be done within a week. Flexible scheduling with production.
I can offer two revisions with my typical rates.
- Wilco
- The Beatles
- The Beach Boys
- Gibson ES-225
- Ear Trumpet Labs Edwina
- Focal Alpha 50 monitors
- Keyscape
- Martin 000-15
- Universal Audio Apollo Twin X
- Acme Audio Motown DI