Alt rock and indiepop mixing

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: Where are you up to in the production process? What's the next step for you? How can I help?

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: It sounds cheesy but the best moment is delivering something to a client that puts a smile on their face. Having someone be pleased that I made their work sound even better is a wonderful feeling. The second best thing is getting to listen to a lot of great original music! Sometimes it's hard to stay focused on the work instead of just dancing round the studio... I think that's important too though to be honest :)

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Empathy. I try hard to meet clients where they're at, to understand what they're looking for, and to be the kind of person that I'd like to work with - open, reliable, compassionate and dedicated. I learnt those skills working outside the music industry but they're just as relevant in music - if not more so!

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

A: The first project I did any serious mixing for was in 2018, an album written (from scratch) and produced in a month with some friends to raise proceeds for the charity Youth Music. Looking back on it my mixing skills have definitely improved, but I was (and still am!) proud to have been able to do a job I and the artists were happy with, inside a very tight timescale.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: I'll give you two! First: Experiment. Doing things other people suggest can give you a starting point, but you can't train your ears with instructions. Try some things and listen to how they sound. Second: Get your workflow right. You don't want to waste time and break your creative flow by dealing with routing, clipping, or trying to decide what to do next. You want all your creative tools at your fingertips from the start! So come up with a template and a process and trust it - and let it evolve as you learn. This is not an exciting tip but it made a big difference to me! :)

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I like to kick off with a video call about the project to make sure I know in detail what my clients are after - what they like about their rough mix, what they want to change, how specific a vision they have, and so on. Once I'm on to the actual mixing, I'll start with a basic mix of levels and pan, into some compression and maybe a little bit of saturation - just getting my head round the vibe of the mix and how each track should be used. Then I spend a bit of time on the drums and bass, making sure the groove of the song is coming through right. Next I look at the lead instruments - often vocals but also solos, hooks and so on - and make sure they're getting the spotlight. After that it's really a case of listening to the track as a whole and working out what needs doing next - it can really diverge a lot. Also I take plenty of breaks throughout this process to keep my ears fresh! For projects with multiple tracks, I aim to send 2-3 back to the client before finishing the whole thing, to make sure I'm in the right ballpark. Then once everything's done it'll go to the client and we'll talk about revisions, and go from there.

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

A: Honestly anyone who puts their heart into something and shows it to the world is pretty inspiring, but my favourite musicians all take the rock and pop genres and make their own unique sound from them. I adore The Magnetic Fields, (We Are) Performance, Deerful, Shrag, Allo Darlin', The Decemberists, The Divine Comedy... and many others! I recently arrived late to the party on Self Esteem, and I just came across Miss Grit who I'm really enjoying. In terms of production professionals I can always listen to Andrew Scheps talk. He's one of the most encouraging people I've come across in terms of cutting out the bullshit and letting your ears tell you what's good. He also just seems like a really nice guy, I'd love to get a cup of tea with him!

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

A: I describe myself as a mixing engineer but I've been involved in the late stages of production, through editing, to delivering a final mix. I've given arrangement and song structure advice, and added synth or orchestral lines, then comped and tuned vocals and edited those and other tracks for timing, and finally done the mix itself as well. The mixing stage is where most of my experience is, but it really helps if you have a great arrangement and well-edited tracks going in!