Tell us a
little about your musical background and influences?
My entire
family has always been passionate about music. Growing up, I remember my father
having all different genres of music playing at our house or in his car. My
brother was a bass player and he got me into the 90's alternative rock movement
when we were very young. The first CD I ever listened to was Nirvana’s
“Nevermind” and even then, I was blown away by how the record sounded as a
whole. I didn’t realize at the time it was the mixing and production that I was
so drawn to but it made a huge impression on me back then.
I played
in bands as a drummer and began to become interested in the recording and
engineering side of things. I went from that to trying out keyboards after a
friend introduced me to Hip Hop music. Once again, it was the production and
“beat making” processes that sparked my interest. My father bought me a copy of
the software, Reason 1.0, and I made beats and electronic music throughout high
school. I didn’t really start to take the production seriously until I was in
college studying to get my bachelor’s degree. I made beats in my dorm room,
working with artists on campus. I found out about a website called “Soundclick”
and I created a page to post my first beats. Once that was in place, everything
started to take off from there. Eventually, artists and companies started
offering to license my music. At that point, I realized if I was diligent, it
might be possible to turn it into a career. I committed nearly all of my free
time to making music and studying production. Thankfully, great opportunities
came up shortly after I graduated and I'm now working in music full-time.
You have
made a couple of sound banks for AAS, how did that business relationship start?
I was an
assistant engineer in a studio just outside of LA in 2012 and the owner and
friend told me about a music conference held in Anaheim, CA called NAMM. I
didn't know anything about it but I attended that year. I was using a few of
the AAS plugins at the time, especially Strum, which was one of the only
convincing guitar emulation plugins. We spent some time hanging out at the AAS
booth and met their Product Designer, Eric. Their team was very down-to-earth
and extremely bright. My manager, Zack and their CEO, Marc, discussed putting
together a signature sound bank for their Ultra Analog VA-2 plugin. That ended
up becoming "Reverence" and I've just finished a new urban bank
called "Low End Theory", along with working on factory presets for
most of their instruments. AAS is a top-notch company and it has been an
incredible experience working with them. Their approach is so unique in the
plugin instrument space, being that everything is based on physical modeling.
I’ve always been inspired by the AAS plugins, so to be able to collaborate with
them has been an honor.
Do you
have any advice for people who are looking to get into sound design?
I would
encourage you to experiment and also study the sounds you know and appreciate.
The best way to learn something is just to sit down and fall in love with the
process. Starting out, I didn't know much about the technical side of sound
design. I just knew what sounded right to me, as well as the types of sounds
that inspired me to want to write music. Particularly with sound design, you
want to create sounds that inspire people and are playable. Most are flicking
through presets very quickly, so you don't have much time to catch their
attention.
I would
suggest choosing one synth that you are inspired by and are comfortable with.
Then center all of your production around that instrument for a while to truly
learn all the features it has to offer. Eventually, you’ll pick up on a lot of
the technical aspects and by necessity you’ll be able to create different
sounds with this one instrument. Most of the main technical aspects of a synth
will translate to others, so this will give you a great basis for sound design.
Since you
also produce and engineer, what does your studio mainly consist of (Software/Hardware)?
I've sold
a lot of my outboard gear at this point. I'm all about simplicity and enhancing
workflow. My main setup consists of:
iMac (Quad
Core i5, 12GB ram)
DAWs
(Logic Pro X, Cubase Pro 8, Pro Tools 11)
Loads of
plugins
RME UFX w/
remote
Event 2030
/ Yamaha NS-10M
Sony MDR
7506 / Audio Technica ATH-M50
Yamaha
Motif ES6
Access
Virus B
Akai
MPK249
Microphones
– Shure SM7B, KSM32, SM57, Rode NT1, NT1-A, iXY
What is
next for you?
I'm
currently looking to sink my teeth into more in-depth production projects as
well as working with talented artists. I feel the process of working with
artists personally that you truly believe in and contributing to a specific
vision is extremely rewarding. We're working on great new sound design projects
with AAS and others. I also launched Divine Tracks about a year ago, which
offers my beat catalog as well as beats from 4 other extremely talented
producers: Jurd Beats, Bombs and Bottles, DJ Shaw-t and Sean Ross. That's
something we're excited to continue to develop. I’ve recently started creating
more learning based content on my YouTube channel, whether it be mixing and mastering,
making beats, sound design or just for those seeking inspiration. To help encourage
and inspire the next generation of producers, engineers and beat makers is something
that is very important to me
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