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A music business entrepreneur, producer, engineer, multi-instrumentalist, performer, and educator. He's releasing his first solo album in September and is the founder of the record label Underground Sun and co-founder of Underground Sol record label. He writes, produces and engineers music for a wide range of artists across numerous genres, with his music having been heard in prime-time TV shows, multi-million dollar movies, and advertisements for Fortune 500 companies. He also hosts a monthly music-based live stream variety show and docu-series, and a Web series about music production and music business. He is the author of Producing in the Home Studio with Pro Tools (the first book about using Pro Tools) and has written other books, articles, and online courses for Berklee Online and Lynda.com (now LinkedIn Learning) about Pro Tools and music production. His passion for music and education has led him to become the Content Manager for Audio+Music for Lynda.com and LinkedIn.

Notable Guest Quotes

"I've been inspired so much during this time to make a lot of changes in life, I think a lot of us are now with the pandemic and everything."

"This has been a journey that I've been on for decades, really.  And it finally just needed to happen.  I couldn't hold it back any longer."

"It's easier to be behind the scenes, helping other people be in the spotlight.  And I felt very comfortable that way as a music producer.  But I think that it was really what people refer to as a shadow career, which means that you're living your dream through somebody else who's doing the actual dream.  And I kind of got frustrated with that."

"Dealing with artists -- and collaborating, mostly, songwriting-wise -- is one of my greatest passions."

"With the change of what was happening in my life, I just realized that I had something to say.  I had emotions to get out that maybe could help other people?  Definitely were helping me kind of express what I was going through."

"When we finished, he gave me a hundred-dollar bill.  And, I still have that hundred-dollar bill in a plastic frame, that, I'm like, 'This is the first money I've ever made from music production.  I'm keeping this no matter how poor I am.  I'm not getting rid of this'."

"You hear that artists make ten percent of the income that they generate.  And I was like, this is not right.  Let's get it to a place where everybody's sharing the way that it should be.  So, most of my deals with (his record label) are basically 50/50.  As long as we're both putting in fifty percent of the effort, then we should split everything 50/50."

"For so many millions of people it was the worst day of their life.  And I still feel so much about that.  But for me it actually was the best day of my life."

"I think... one of the biggest keys to mental health is changing the narrative that you tell yourself."

Songs on this episode

"Silver Arrow Sunday"
"My Greatest Enemy"