Rock/Metal Producer and Mixer

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

A: The Mould album, Fever Dreams. This is the longest project I have ever been part of, and I was responsible for engineering all of the main recording sessions, along with mixing and mastering the whole thing. While maybe its not the best mixing I've done to date, considering it was a college project and we managed to complete the whole thing in such an insane crunch whilst being surrounded by a million other things to do, you're damn right I'm proud of it!

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: At the moment, I'm bouncing between some smaller projects, one with an incredible rap artist, and another with a very colourful up-and-coming indie band.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: I'm going to take the easy route and say both - digital recording gives a kind of clarity and quality that analog simply achieve, however the quirks or analog gear is what's made up the sound of every legendary album ever, and the way it squashes and saturates sound is just so enticing.

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

A: That, no matter what it takes, you will be happy with the results.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Getting to create, because that's ultimately what the job is. Getting to the end of a long project and seeing something truly incredible get released to the world is THE best feeling in the world, and fils me with immense pride every time.

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

A: Usually I get asked a lot about what I'm doing, or more specifically how I'm doing it. My honest answer usually is that I'm just making judgements based off of what I'm hearing, and it's only a skill you can really pick up through continued practice.

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

A: That I can fix everything in the mix. A good performance with good source recordings makes up most of the sound of the album - you can't bake a good cake with poor ingredients!

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: 'What kind of music are you making?' is a big one. I'm not just looking for a genre, I'm thinking what are your inspirations, what emotions and feelings do you want to invoke, what does this music mean to you? These are the questions that can make or break the authenticity of a piece of music.

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

A: Don't just blindly throw yourself at them. Get to know me, see if working with me over an extended period of time is something you are comfortable with, because sometimes collaborations don't work and locking your money and time into a situation that makes you miserable isn't good for you or your music.

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

A: A Macbook, Beyer DT990s, Focusrite Scarlett, a Quad Cortex and a guitar. I could make music forever this way! Plus, the DT990s are just such killer headphones, and the Focusrite with a Quad Cortex gets me pretty much every and any sound I could ever need.

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

A: I did start wanting to be a full time musician, but my first time heading up a studio project made me fall so deeply in love with production and everything it has to offer, I've never looked back. That was only two years ago! (around December 2023-ish)

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Aggressive.

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

A: Working with Loathe would be so much fun I feel. Those guys truly have their workflow figured out, and are just such kind and genuine people I really feel I would feed off of them amazingly. Plus, their music is killer.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Do what sounds good. There's a lot of really shit information out there that makes music production seem like science over art - at the end of the day even if you have no ear for production, going for what you think sounds good over what some quote-unquote "professional" tells you to do will almost always yield better results.

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

A: Metal and Hard Rock, along with anything this encompasses, are my main focuses. I do have some experience in the Pop and Rap spheres, so I am very open to trying new things. I find that my favourite projects have been with people who love to blend genres and be truly unique, so if that sounds like you I think we're a match!

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Communication, for sure. I've been told by others that my people management skills are incredible, and this manifests in me bringing out the best of whatever musician(s) I'm working with. Especially as someone who has worked with some truly difficult clients, I find that no amount of technical skill can replace being a truly pleasant and easy-to-work-with individual, and good communication is the pillar of all of this.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: A fresh perspective. I often find that my input helps bring artists out of tunnel vision, and helps them see the bigger picture of what their music is achieving as an overall piece. Nitpicking can be both crucial and incredibly debilitating depending on where you're doing it, and I find I'm good at telling artists where imperfection can be what makes a song perfect.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I always start with talking to an artist about what they want. This to me is the most crucial part of the process, and helps me understand their artistic vision more deeply and deliver to the track the perfect sound to fit it. We'll then get into the studio and start demoing material, preparing for the recording process. Recording is a great opportunity for me to help give input on the track if it's welcome, suggesting different ideas that I think may elevate the song(s) to the next level. Then, I'll take this into Logic at home and start mixing the song. Drums are always my start point, and I don't move onto any other instrument until I know I have a truly killer drum sound on my hands - the rhythm section of the song is after all the most important to the feel. After this comes guitars and bass, where I'm trying to create the most captivating and complimentary tones, and then we top it all off with impeccable vocal production, where I'm always thinking about how I can make the vocals best compliment the song, not just sound like whatever pop record.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I run almost entirely in the box at the moment, mixing and recording all in Logic Pro. I have a very solid arsenal of Waves, Universal Audio and FabFilter plugins at my disposal, giving me the ability to bring the sounds in my head into reality.

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

A: Adam 'Nolly' Getgood and George 'G1' Lever are my biggest inspirations, and absolute heroes. With them both being so local to me too, it proves to me that I can achieve anything I dream of, and the idea of being able to produce on their level is so enticing.

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

A: Usually, clients approach me with a song or songs they want to produce into full scale releases. This always encompasses mixing in one way or another, and often I'll also be recording the music with them in its entirety.