Skip to main content

Apple Podcasts Spotify  Stitcher Radio TuneIn Radio iHeartRadio SoundCloud

A recording and mixing engineer who has worked with the likes of Justin Bieber, Snoop Dogg, Meghan Trainor, Poo Bear, and Kehlani, among others. Based in Los Angeles, his work has brought him all over the world and earned him multiple platinum records. He has not only worked with incredible talent in music but also run professional recording studios, worked for publishing companies, worked on shows for major television networks, worked on sports broadcast teams for ESPN, recorded hundreds of audiobooks, worked in live sound, and dabbled in just about every form of professional audio during his journey. He has been featured in Sound On Sound and Tape Op Magazine, among other industry publications.
Send your questions or comments about this episode via https://featuredup.com/nhte

Notable Guest Quotes

“Every project is different, every artist is different, and my role within every artist is different too, because it all just depends on relationships just like everybody else.”

“That all really, like, piqued my curiosity for just recording and making music, and it changed my process where I didn't want to be in front of people or performing or even playing.  I didn't want to do any of that.  I was so much more curious with, like, EQing and putting reverb and delays and mixing, and that was what started everything for me.”

“And I went to school … where I learned everything from, you know, every bit of the audio industry from TV, film, it was mostly focused on music, but we did everything from TV, film, live sounds and so on.  And got a little taste of music theory and it was just a very well-rounded program and that was what kind of gave me the foundation for what I built my whole career off of.  And I've made money off of every little thing that I've learned from school.”

“Music, the hardest thing is just getting started and getting connections and everything is so based on who you know, that, like, you might really never get a chance unless you know somebody.”

“I'm never going to be complacent. So, I'm always still searching for the other opportunities.”

“I sold, like, every pedal, every guitar, every piece of thing that I had, I sold so I can still keep paying my phone bill and paying my car bill and gas to get to the studio and whatnot.”

“He showed me a text that, he said, ‘Okay’ – it was, like, a screenshot from Poo Bear from Justin Bieber – he’s like, ‘Hey, that song that you recorded earlier today, he sent it to Bieber and he liked it.’  So, he's like, ‘Just to let you know that, you know, this is, like, the world that you're in now’.”

“That brought me to getting tied up with Justin Bieber where I did even more traveling than I did with Poo Bear.  And I went on tour with him and I, you know, have traveled around to all kinds of different studios wherever they need to, you know, wherever (Justin) feels like working.”

“Whether I (know) how I can make anything happen, I'm always going to say yes and figure it out, no matter any situation.”

“The mixing has been taking over and that's really what I want to do at the end of the day because it's so much more of a, you're more, I would say, involved in the creative process in a way and your likelihood of the songs reaching the consumer are much higher as well too.”

“I've really been trying to work with as much independent up and coming people if I can as well, because, you know, I don't ever see myself on top of a pedestal in any type of way no matter any accolades or any people that I have worked with.”

“Often times when you see these teams that are really locked in, it's a completely unspoken art where you will see the engineer and the producer or the songwriter never even say a single word to each other, but you'll see them build the entire song because we've all just worked on hundreds of songs together.”

Songs on this episode

“Snooze (acoustic)” by SZA (featuring Justin Bieber)
“Can You” by Harv