About
Thirty years,
still at
the desk.
I started out chasing rock star dreams from behind a drum kit. In 1994 I moved to the other side of the glass, and I’ve been making records in the Bay Area ever since.
The short version
I make records in the San Francisco Bay Area. Recording, mixing and mastering, in stereo and in Dolby Atmos.
I love making records. All of it. The load-in, the takes that don’t work, the one that suddenly does, the mix at eleven at night when it finally sits.
What I record
Most of my work is guitar, bass, drums and voice, and I’m happiest in rock and americana, where the record lives or dies on whether the band sounds like a band in a room.
I take every jazz session I can get too. Fewer overdubs, more listening, and the whole thing hangs on capturing players reacting to each other in real time.
What I care about
I care about the band, the record and making something that lasts. Everything I do is in service of that.
Where I started
I came at this from behind the kit. I started in New Mexico, moved to San Francisco in the eighties, and spent years drumming in The Sextants and Seven Day Diary. Touring, recording, winning and losing record deals, and getting a close look at how records were made.
The producers on those sessions were Larry Hirsch, Gil Norton and Joe Chiccarelli, who has since made records with U2, Beck, The White Stripes and The Strokes and won multiple Grammys. Watching the three of them work is what got me interested in the other side of the glass. In 1994 I traded the sticks for faders.
So I know the band side of this. Four people with four opinions about the same chorus, a budget that ran out a week ago, the singer who needs one more take and the drummer who’s sure the last one was it. I sat in that room as the drummer for years. So when you’re out there and I’m behind the glass, I know what it feels like from where you’re standing.
Since then
Studio ownership, and the education that comes with it. I ran a room in San Francisco through the financial crisis and went back to freelance in 2012 when the numbers stopped working. That experience is the reason Working Class Audio exists.
Thirty-odd years on, Joe brought me in to do the Atmos mixes for the new Arde Bogotá record. Same two people, opposite sides of the glass.
Working Class Audio
I host a podcast about how this job works, which has run since 2014 and is well past 600 episodes. Engineers talk to me about rates, burnout, gear they regret, and how they stay solvent. It has taught me more about this business than anything else I’ve done. You can find it at workingclassaudio.com.
Denon profiled me in their Meet the Makers series, which you can watch on their site.
Ready when
you are.
Tell me about your record and I’ll come back with days and a number.