What did you learn from Tom Elmhirst during your time at Electric Lady Studios?
Pretty much everything! What Tom was great at doing, as a mentor, was instilling the practice of mixing. Not so much the technical side, but rather keeping on top of making sure everything was tidy. If I went back to something six months later, I could fully understand where everything was. There's a whole labelling system I did with him that I still use now. He was also great at showing me that mixing is about routine. Once you get into those routines, and implement them over and over, you make your life so much easier. When I was first freelancing, I didn't have an assistant, and I learned you shouldn't be prepping something while you're mixing it. If you're prepping when you walk into the studio, you won't be able to creatively mix a song. Get it done before you get into the studio, so you can walk in and start mixing. He was also great at explaining the whole other side of mixing, which is dealing with people. People with different agendas, personalities, or egos. That's probably the biggest thing I learned from him.
Did you intend to stay at Electric Lady, or were you ready to go freelance?
When you work with Tom, he tells you he'll fire you when you're 27. You should use it as a stepping stone to having your own career. He believed in the role of assistant, because he did it for Trevor Horn [Tape Op #89]. He didn't want me to stay, even though we got on great together. I knew it was going to come to an end, so I knew I had to sort myself out.
Do you listen to music for pleasure now or are you always "on" with your mixing brain?
