Highlights for me are working on Lewis Capaldi’s record ‘Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent' and in particular the song Forget Me, which went to Number 1 in the UK Charts. I’m also proud to be a long-time collaborator of Amber Bain, otherwise known as The Japanese House, including contributing to her albums.

There was always plenty of music available to listen to in my house growing up. Both my mother and father were pianists (my dad a professional at one point) so it was very easy to nourish my curiosity for these bizarre and exciting sounds with their support. My mother was more interested in soul music whilst my father had an interest in more progressive rock/jazz and improvised music in general.

Nowadays I try to make sure I’m listening to a wide palette of genres and sounds. I’m very late to the party with classical/symphonic music too and the naturalistic and ambient audio capture pairs so well with a set of LCD-X!

Our school had a very supportive guitar teacher who saw something worth developing in me as a drummer and more importantly a musician. He provided career advice, opportunities and support through the very confusing process of choosing to pursue that path for a living. There are plenty of career-defining folk I look up to and call on for advice/support still to this day.

I would always suggest approaching work (and life in general) with curiosity. Keep an open mind and never fall in love with your own ideas. There’s a great Thom Yorke quote on music making that resonates with me: “You’ve got to be prepared to torch it at any moment”.

I’ve been working with headphones in some capacity for most of my musical years, with everything from monitoring myself in a recording/ live environment to casual listening. I’m much more introverted with my casual listening – I love shutting myself out from the ambience of my surroundings into the safety of a closed off headphone world. I certainly use it as a way to give myself some space in close-quarters environments like touring. In terms of my workflow, because I spend quite a lot of time travelling I use headphones to keep my listening environment consistent and therefore trusted.

If I need to cast an ear over anything that requires critical listening in a studio environment I’ll usually do two listening passes; one as quietly as possible to really pick out the detail and one at a medium level. I’m trying to preserve my hearing so I try to avoid listening to anything too loudly. My dear friend and monster producer/mixer Jonathan Gilmore taught me that everything sounds great when it’s cranked up really loud, which can be dangerous for critical listening.

I first tried a pair of Audeze at a studio in Bow whilst recording some drums for The Japanese House’s second album ‘In The End It Always Does’. I had been curious about them before but was always cautious until I tried some out for myself. After that session I definitely started the hunt to procure a pair of my own!

The LCD-X are quite simply my trusted listening surface. I’ve finally found something portable that I know displays the details faithfully. I was so impressed with the quality of the product and how I’ve received less ‘sound design’/processing-based recall notes from my clients since using.

Previously with headphones I’ve owned before, I’d always get a fairly accurate presentation of the sounds I was making but found I’d still have to check general dynamics on speakers to feel how the air was moving. I think something about the physical size of the Audeze really helps with spatial translation, as well as with level dynamics. I’m much more pan and dynamic conscious now I’ve spent some time with my Audeze.

All super useful things when you’re being entrusted with supporting other people’s creative dreams!