Was there a point where you realized you wanted to make music?
High school in the '90s was obviously a very different time in the music industry. I really liked listening to The Beatles' Anthology, because it was all studio outtakes. I'd heard all of those outtakes, and I was thinking, "This is exactly what I want to do." I was getting into music in my teens, and I wanted to build a recording studio in my basement. My parents said, "We'll give you $200 to build a studio in the basement." Listening to albums like Fleetwood Mac's Rumours was a huge point, because of the way it sounded – the drums were a big thing. Building a studio and playing guitar was a catalyst, for sure. I went to recording school right after high school, then I got my first job as an intern, and that led to an assistant job at Chicago Recording Company [CRC]. On the first day, 25 years ago, they said, "Get out of the industry, it's crashing." That was always in the back of my brain, so I went to Columbia [College] for film in Chicago and focused on directing and editing while I was managing a recording studio. But all I really wanted to do was record bands and work with artists. It was hard to continue doing that as the industry started shrinking, studios started getting smaller, and budgets got smaller.
If you were to give your 19-year-old self a piece of advice, what would that be?
It took a long time to be stable, where I'm at now, and a ton of different side roads. Change any of those, and it would never lead to the same thing. I made a lot of mistakes, but I think that's the biggest point. I was cocky as a 19-year-old. Changing my way would have totally disrupted everything. I wasn't a great assistant, so I got out of that quick and started doing it myself. It wasn't until after graduating film school that I had an opportunity to move to Los Angeles for the first time. That path changed everything. I was out here for a year, and then I went back to Chicago with knowledge to start a real studio [The Alley Recording Company] and do everything that I'd just learned in L.A. If I would’ve stayed in L.A., maybe it would have been different. But life is that journey – you have to make mistakes to get to where you're at.
Who knows if I'd be sitting here with you right now?
Well, think about this. You and I had this big talk when we had our first dinner. Then Covid caused me to do YouTube videos, and content online opened so many other doors that I would have never had if I didn't step into it. You meet one person for an hour, and they can totally change your entire life. It's so weird how that works. If I would have stayed in Ohio after recording school, or if I would have stayed at CRC longer than I did, or if I went straight into film instead of going right back into music after film school? Yeah, it's crazy.
Have you developed a recognizable sound? When did that happen?
