Producer - Mixing - Mastering

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

A: I ran sound at a Christmas concert for a local gospel choir. They asked me to record it so they could reference their performance afterwards. Instead of giving them the stereo mix from the livestream, I recorded the whole performance in multi-track and gave them a fully mixed and mastered album afterwards as a Christmas surprise. I've now done 4 albums for them with more on the horizon .

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

A: That I'm just twiddling some knobs and faders and then slapping on plugins everywhere. In reality I'm carefully listening to the balance between all the parts and massaging things to get the best possible results. It takes a musical ear to mix music, you can't just look at the faders and say it's good, you've gotta hear it, feel it.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What inspires you? What do you envision this project becoming? What's the mood you're trying to set?

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Butter. You know how amazing fresh bread with butter tastes? Or butter on popcorn? How about butter caramelized onions on a burger? I bring the butter to your music and take something that's good and elevate it to a golden new level.

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

A: My acoustic guitar, a mic, a laptop, solar generator, and an interface. That way I could sit on the beach and record my ideas while waiting for rescue.

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

A: I've been dabbling and working with computers since I was a kid. The love of life sound came about in my teen years at church when we had no sound guy to run the board. Fast forward 25+ years and here I am working in the tech sector but still doing mixing and music production along side that.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Get your sound right, whether vocals or instruments, before you send things off to mix. There are some things we can fix with EQ but the less heavy EQ we have to do the better, and quicker the process is.

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

A: I typically work on alt-rock, pop-rock, and singer-songwriter stuff.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Fresh ears, fresh insight.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: That really depends on the project to be honest. I try to be as collaborative with the artist as possible. This is their baby after all and I want them to be pleased with the sound. For a mix, I'll listen through the stems and balance things as best I can. Then I'll go through and polish it with automation, some eq, and any other effects it needs. For production, I'll go through the rough song and work out what needs to be added or changed and then go from there.

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

A: Let's see, there are so many to list. Jon Foreman/Switchfoot, Tremonti, Mammoth, Rick Beato, Rhett Shull, Tim Pierce, Gary Hoey, the list goes on and on.

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

A: Primarily mixing and mastering. I get to polish their track into the best gem I can.