Man Behind The Screens

In starting to write what I was originally going to be talking about, I realized that I haven’t introduced myself yet! Hi I’m Michael!

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First of all, I’d like to thank you guys for even reading this. Really means a lot that you’d take the time to see what it is I’ve been working towards for quite some time! I’d really love to hear your guys’ input on how I can help you better when it comes to studio related things and music! Like seriously. Don’t be shy!

The whole goal behind this series of content is to help you have a smooth and fun time in the studio and give any kind of value I can give, from the perspective of a guitarist, audio engineer, and physics grad. Being a physics grad, I believe, gives me a unique perspective into running, learning, and teaching everything revolving around a studio; it’s made me dive deep into the very basics of how everything works, which has helped me understand things a different way as opposed to solely the artist’s perspective.

If I can help you guys be successful when it comes to the studio and be able to get to a place where you can record, it really helps everyone around; the sessions will run smoother, we’ll have a higher quality product, have more fun working on projects, it’s really a win-win for everybody! Even if you don’t choose to work with me, you can use the knowledge learned here and help out the engineer you’re working with!

So some background on myself. Let’s see… I’ve been involved with music since the fourth grade. I guess we’ll start from the beginning.

The Very Beginning

My friend had challenged me in the 4th grade to do a slide on guitar (picking the string and sliding up the neck playing every note along the guitar), and proclaimed I couldn’t do it. I tried, but I wasn’t very good at it. So, I took lessons at a store that’s now closed (can’t remember the name of it now 😢) and soon enough I could slide up and down the neck of the guitar. It really all started as a challenge, and I thought it was really fun to do something that the result from all the hard work put into it was visible.

I stuck with it and fast forward to middle school, I tried out for the 7th grade jazz band. Throughout my lessons I was only learning how to play songs I liked, never really learning theory and scales. This bit me in the butt because I didn’t make the jazz band. My teacher said to come try out next year, after learning a bit of scales.

I had my guitar teacher teach me everything I needed to make the 8th grade jazz band. Come the next year, I blew away the audition from site reading and playing the blues and major scales (little did he know that each scale has the same shape on the guitar, no matter the key, so it was actually pretty easy but he seemed pretty impressed so I just went with it hahaha).

In 8th grade jazz band, I formed/joined a few friends in a new band, just playing for fun. We played at their house, and they had a computer with an interface and Pro Tools on it. They didn’t exactly know how to use it, just knew some simple stuff; I wanted to record our songs and covers so I took up learning it little by little.

It was rough, and I produced some very cringey recordings indeed haha. But it’s all part of the process. Before I knew it, I was recording friends while in high school still using their rig at their house.

I didn’t have enough money or know-how to get a rig myself until I think mid-highschool haha. So what I did was ask people over to my friend’s house to record them. Hahaha fortunately they didn’t mind and actually kind of liked it, because it meant they could get some recordings with a certain quality they couldn’t produce. Their parents were actually okay with it for this reason too, although they were wondering why I was the one learning it, and not their children haha.

I felt bad about using their equipment all the time so I got a small rig myself. Computer, simple interface, a pair of headphones, and a microphone. That’s when I really started to ramp up my recording.

The Middle

Something that really shaped how I looked at and learned music was joining the show choir’s band, playing guitar. We spent about a month or two learning two shows, and then competing throughout the rest of the school year. It was a lot of work, but I learned so much from everyone there.

I think the biggest thing I took away from it was self discipline. We had to learn a lot of songs in a very short amount of time, and then go on to compete against other bands/show choirs from other schools; without being self disciplined, you were sure to fall behind.

It was the most rewarding thing though when you know you performed your best. We went on a trip to perform every year to compete against other schools nationally, and the most memorable and fun time I’ve had was playing on the Grand Ole Opry stage.

Though it was for a school event, it was really quite exciting. Carrie Underwood went on to perform the night after us. We ended up getting the “best band” award 2 out of 3 times competing against schools across the country. I think from then on I had this need to do my best at everything I do.

So recording kept me involved in music during college. I did some covers with friends, and ramped up the business side of the studio. It was super tough finding time to do that while trying to earn a physics degree, but I stuck with it as slow as it was.

The same thing happened after I got my job as an Electrical Engineer working on making tests for circuit boards usually made for going into airplanes, though I had much more time than in college haha. And now we’re here!

Now

It’s been a long and slow journey, learning things that didn’t directly help with what I’m now doing, but I think the skills built from learning how to problem solve and get a broad understanding of how everything works really propelled my ability to learn new things.

My experiences probably don’t look the best on a resume just from how seemingly random they are, but I think they add up to being able to solve any problem and learn extremely quickly. That’s definitely an important skillset to have when working for yourself, so I hope I’ll be able to see that come to fruition by sharing what I’ve learned through this and on projects, whatever that may look like!

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Thanks again for taking the time to read! Stay tuned to continue the tips revolving around studio prep and upping your songwriting game!

There's a few documents I made that you can have, and they're free! If you'd like a checklist to studio preparation, head over to the blog homepage! This is a comprehensive checklist of everything needed to get the most out of your session, and save you time and money while recording.

If you'd like something to help out your songwriting game, head over to the blog homepage as well and sign up for email notifications on new blog posts that have been published, and you'll get a free download of what I call the Top-Down Songwriting Pyramid that will help you stay structured and focused on the right things for writing your songs! You can unsubscribe at any time if you just want the document, though you'll be missing out on posts that don't get shared on social media :)

All the best!

-Michael