Well I’ve mixed and mastered two records that have both hit over a billion streams on Spotify alone. Loud Luxury – “Body” and DJ Regard – “Ride It”. It’s always exciting when a record does well but when it really goes stratospheric and hits multi platinum sales then that’s very exciting. I also worked on both of CamelPhat’s albums, “Dark Matter” and “Spiritual Milk” (which came out last year), both of which I thoroughly enjoyed working on as I’m such a huge fan of the music. More recently I’ve been working on albums for ZHU, Eats Everything and Galantis. All very different genres of dance music but they are all artists at the top of their game so it’s a huge privilege to be trusted with the mixing and mastering duties. The artists are all super nice guys as well I should add.

Well my parents bought me a drum kit when I was 7 or 8 and I played drums up to my mid 20s in various bands. We even supported the Manic Street Preachers when they were just a fairly unknown Indie band. I know it’s a bit of a cliché but I was also in to all sorts of music and I mean everything! The first artist that made a serious impression on my was David Bowie when I was maybe 8 or 9. I distinctly remember hearing him sing a high falsetto harmony over his regular vocal on “Space Oddity” to create a sound that was more than the sum of its parts and I thought, hmmm, that’s interesting.

I was massively into Metal as a teenager too. Metallica was the big one for me and I saw them a few times. This was before they got big so they were playing fairly small venues and they were hands down the best gigs I’ve ever been to. Other than that I was big into Indie music and also reggae, specifically stuff like Studio One, Lee Perry, The Upsetters. What was interesting was that they were making this just incredible sounding music from these frankly shitty studios in contrast to these very expensive studios that had the latest technology that often produced these rather cold, thin and soulless albums. A lesson that sometimes technology is not always as important as we think it is for producing quality music. Sometimes limitations can enhance the end result so to speak.

So after that the explosion of dance music in the UK in the late 80s / early 90s was just an enormous influence on me. They say every generation has its ‘movement’ whether it be Psychedelia, Punk or whatever and for me it was definitely Acid House. The music, the parties and the whole scene were instrumental to making me realise that I would love a career that involved working with this music in some capacity.

Well I guess I’ve touched on a few of those in the previous question. In terms of factors that have influenced the course of my musical career I think it would be fair to say that the exposure to synthesisers, drums machines, samplers and the like were pivotal.

Around about the time when I seriously started getting in to dance music in the early 90s I started to learn about these bits of kit that were being used to make these records. And by that I’m talking about things like the TB-303 Synth, Akai S-1000 Sampler, TR-909 Drum Machine and the Minimoog. I bought a 1 Meg Atari ST computer and a few basic synths along with a Akai S-01 mono sampler and from that it really fostered an interest in the technological aspects of creating and engineering music which has continued to this day although obviously so much of that has veered away from the analogue to be replaced by its digital equivalent.

Well mixing and mastering are tough areas to break into for sure and there are a lot of talented people out there trying to stamp their mark and make a name for themselves. However, be persistent, hone your craft and almost above all else learn some people skills. For all the talent out there it's getting your foot through the door that’s almost the most important thing.

If you’re emailing prospective clients then ensure that you personalise each mail rather than a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Try to get to know the people booking the jobs, basically the product managers, at record companies. Perhaps offer to do a mix or master for free. Other than that, be realistic that it’s going to take time before you can carve out a career and whatever happens, have a back up plan!

I’ve probably been working with Audeze headphones for the last 6 or 7 years and to be honest I simply could not work without them. I start any job working on the PMCs and then flick back and forth between them and the NS-10s. Once I’m satisfied that it’s pretty much there I’ll have a listen on the headphones and they’re great in highlighting all sorts of things that aren’t always obvious on the PMCs or NS-10s.

The best example of this is distortion, especially on kick drums. There’s been loads of times when I think a master is good to go and then I have a listen on the headphones and I can hear the decay of the kick breaking up so it’s a matter of adjusting the limiter’s release time until the issue is fixed. Hats off to Audeze because they really are extraordinary at detailing the anomalies and sonic characteristics that occur when adjusting parameters such as the attack / release time of a compressor or limiter. That, more than any other reason is why I can’t work without them.

You just need to walk around to see how many people listen to music with headphones so it’s crucial as a mix / mastering engineer that you work to produce music that’s going to sound great on consumer headphones. The LCD-2 headphones are extraordinarily flat and detailed. If I engineer a track in my studio and it sounds good on them then I know that it’s going to translate well onto other headphones whether they be Airpods, Bose or whatever.

I’ve literally just finished mixing the ZHU album last week so that’s been a big project (this was written in Feb 2024). Other than that I’ve stem mastered a track by David Guetta, Galantis and 5 Seconds of Summer. I’m not sure when that one’s coming out but I have a feeling it’s going to be huge. I also mixed the new Endless Summer track (a Sam Feldt and Jonas Blue side project) “Rest Of My Life” which has just been released. The last single, “Crying On the Dancefloor” clocked up 93 million streams on Spotify so expecting big things with this one!