Pianist / Composer / Producer

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

A: NU EPOQUE: www.nuepoque.com. I really like the music and it involves my best skills (keybpardist, producer, arranger, live performing and improvisation)

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

A: That you'll be 100% happy in the end. If you won't I have no problem in keep working on it or cancel the order without charging anything... but in more than 100 works done in Soundbetter and Airgigs, with a feedback of 100%, that never happened. ;)

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: That is creative.

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

A: - Do you think you can do this for me? - Yea, sure. :)

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

A: That electronic music can't reach the same prestige of jazz or classical. Having done Doing both I realized that a mix of an electronic track could be as difficult, time consuming and demanding as an arrangement for a jazz big band or a symphonic orchestra.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: Is there an artist would you like your music to sound like? Do you prefer your music to be completely original and unheard instead?

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

A: Try to look for references for the piano/production style that you expect from me. Be as specific as possible in your requests.

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

A: Elaquent, Stimming, Kaytranada because they're my favourite producers and I would learn a lot. Also I would like to produce music for artists like Solange, Bjork... because you have to be very creative and experimental

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: If you work in the box and you have a good sound interface with good preamps and low noise, use in/out loops re-recording stems into the daw whenever you want to add some density and saturation to sounds that feel too artificial, cheap and poor.

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

A: Here Pop/rock songs, in my other activities outside Soundbetter: Jazz, Nu Soul, electronics.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: The piano playing I think, and my knowledge about harmony and music.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: I listen carefully to the material that the client sends me, his references and indications. Then I make a chart of the song and start producing/recording some draft and sometimes I send it to the client already to see if we're going in the right direction. Often I deliver directly the complete work and most of the times the client is very happy and doesn't need any further revision. But when they do I'm available for all the revisions they need. After the work is completed we leave each other a feedback.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: Im my acoustically treated studio I work with an iMac connected to a a metric halo sound interface (top quality converters, 2+8 ins and outs). I Have a Nord Stage piano, some midi controllers for Virtual Instruments (Native Instruments, Spectrasonic etc.). Top quality speakers (Klein and Hummel O300) and a classic analog compressor: API2500.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Eclectic

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: - On my project NU EPOQUE: www.nuepoque.com. - On the production of a project of an artist called Klaymax - Arranging two songs of a client of Airgigs who sent me just the vocals of his original songs and want me to develop the chord progression and the piano accompaniment.

Q: Is there anyone on SoundBetter you know and would recommend to your clients?

A: no

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Analog for texture, character and color, digital for editing, organizing and control.

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

A: Piano, computer, speakers, sound interface, micro

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

A: I started studying piano at 6. Became a pro jazz musician at 18. Got into electronics and production at 24. Since then I've been working only with music. I'm 34 now.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: What the client ask for! :)

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

A: Elaquent, Stimming, Kaytranada, Erykah Badu, D'Angelo, Morricone...

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

A: Piano track for a song, arrangement of an original composition of a client (in solo piano or with many instruments), Solo piano versions of famous songs.