Rachel Field moved to Seattle from California in 2009 and quickly became heavily involved in the PNW recording scene. She has worked in several areas of audio production, and found her passion to be mastering. As Mastering Engineer she works on all genres, and with a wide variety of local and international artists such as Whitney Mongé, Fauna Shade, Old Coast, Jericho Hill, Ryme, The Fucking Eagles, The Baggios, Mouths of Babes, and Anomie Belle. Rachel also does freelance recording in several studios in the Seattle area.
About this interview:
Rachel joins me to talk about food service, customer service, reading people, riding motorcycles, getting sunshine and mastering. Enjoy! -Matt
Joe Finocchio is a musician and recording engineer (The Soft White Sixties, American Killers, Double Duchess, davOmakesbeats, The Family Crest) based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has spent the last 11 years making records in studios all over Northern California. Currently he resides at Santo Recording in Oakland and works out of his mix room in his Mission District apartment. Joe also works as a Production Manager for a Bay Area corporate AV provider called On Point Audio Visual.
About this interview:
Joe joins me to talk about his early struggles, the trust of mentors, skipping the intern process, working in corporate AV and not drinking with the band. Enjoy! -Matt
Frank Marchand is a recording engineer, mixer, producer, live sound engineer, broadcast mixer and Maryland native since 1976. He learned to play bass in his high school band in the late 70’s and was bitten by the audio bug when his band went into the studio for the first time to record some original material. He then attended a four year liberal arts college that had only one course in acoustics and four track studio that the director would not let any one use. After graduation he found work in a D.C. based mom and pop Hi-fi chain that specialized in selling blank recording media such as cassettes and blank video tape. Working up from the sales floor to the advertising end of the business he then landed a Front of House or House sound job at the now vanished Bayou in D.C. where he cut his teeth as a live sound engineer. After the stint at the Bayou, he then landed a job at Washington Professional Systems where he was the assistant to sound guru Greg Lukens and owner Robert Levin. It was while working at WPS that he came into contact with the Northern VA, D.C., and Baltimore studio community and started to freelance at many studios around the region recording bands on the weekends while being exposed to the latest in recording gear at WPS during the week. He decided to go freelance full time in 1990 and has recorded over 600 records and toured all over the world doing live audio work as well. He has owned or been a part of 4 different studio spaces through the years and still maintains a healthy touring schedule. Mr Marchand has worked on Grammy nominated projects, and Billboard Number #1 records during his career. He has worked with such artists as: punk luminary Bob Mould, Toured with Calexico and Texas Rockers The Toadies, recorded projects for New Orleans rockers Cowboy Mouth, Annapolis natives Jimmies Chicken Shack, Doom Metal founders The Obsessed, Blue Grassers Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen, Gospel visionaries The Reminders and Celtic creators of Celt grass, We Banjo 3. He is comfortable with all styles of music and has worked with many artists you have never heard of.
About this interview:
Frank joins me to talk about freelancing, live sound, recording in rehearsal spaces, adapting to acoustic environments, being a soccer coach, client repeat rates, and working on projects he likes.
Doug McBride is a man with many titles including studio owner, engineer, mastering engineer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, dad and husband. Doug founded and has run Chicago based Gravity Studios for over 20 years. He has worked with Izzy Stradlin, Veruca Salt, Smashing Pumpkins, Fall Out Boy, and many more. Doug lived in a treehouse in the Panamanian jungle for 3 months in summer of 1985 and he owns a beagle named Banjo.
About this interview:
Doug joins me to talk about running Gravity Studios, assisting for Steve Albini, 911, word of mouth, dealing with landlords and unexpected guests. Enjoy! -Matt
Justin Lieberman is a recording engineer and producer with over two decades of experience. Justin has worked with hundreds of artists on over 150 commercially released albums including Santana, George Winston, Roy Hargorve, Jonathan Richman, David Gray, Alanis Morissette, Les Claypool, Jennifer Nettles, Jackie King, Willie Nelson, Kronos Quartet, Ralph Stanley, Bill Frisell and many more. Justin has also worked on several films, countless radio and television commercials and has recently been focusing his work on score mixing for video games such as the recent blockbuster release Spider-Man.
Justin began his professional career in San Francisco at Toast Recording and then moved on to Different Fur Recording where he worked as a staff assistant and staff engineer for 7 years. In 2004 Justin began working at SF Soundworks where he met a producer PC Muñoz who introduced him to the Talking House Productions crew. Just joined the Talking House Productions team in 2006 and continued with them until the closure of Talking House in 2010. In April 2010 Justin joined forces with Willie Samuels and Cindy McSherry to launch Studio Trilogy. Justin served as co-manager and chief engineer at Studio Trilogy until it’s closure in December 2016 when he joined the team at Sony Playstation as a music engineer.
About this interview:
Justin joins me to talk about his journey from his early experiences at Prairie Sun to his current gig at Sony Interactive, commuting, work/life balance, Al Gore, mixing hundreds of tracks in surround and more. Enjoy! -Matt
Hans DeKline is a Grammy-winning, Los Angeles based mastering engineer. Since 2005, he has mastered thousands of songs & albums by artists such as U2, Pixies, Snoop Dogg, Touche Amore, mewithoutYou, Morcheeba, Veruca Salt, Lisa Loeb, Diplo, Jack Irons, James Fearnley, Candiria, Ritchie Ramone, Twista, Jesca Hoop, DJ AM, Papa M, Skating Polly, Gary Jules, Ninja Sex Party, Tim Finn, Ben Lee, JMSN, The Growlers, The Paranoyds, The Von Bondies, Partyshank, Jon Lajoie, Matthew Ryan, The Romantics, Steve Aoki, Pace Won, 825 Records & YOU!
Hans grew up in Tucson AZ where he started playing and singing in bands when he was 15. His early audio experiences started with using borrowed 4 track cassette machines to make mix tapes of hip hop and punk tunes recorded from vinyl. Hans would compress/eq and change level for each tune so that those tapes would play down like commercially released compilations. He didn’t realize it then but he was already starting his journey into mastering. Han’s played the role of recording artist by signing to Sony Work Group fresh out of college in 96 with his group Maypole. He toured for a few years opening for Wallflowers, Smoking Popes and Our Lady Peace. By 98 it all ended… and Hans ultimately transitioned to the studio side of things. After mastering a friends record in early 2000 and receiving many referrals as a result, Hans started what was the beginning of a love affair with mastering. By 2005 he was mastering full time.
About this interview:
Hans joins me from his home in Los Angeles to discuss his journey, communicating with clients, raising wolves, outside interests, and remembering to always ask what does it sound like?
“Artist” is the single word which best describes producer, mixer, composer,and multi-instrumentalist Butch Vig. Born in Viroqua,Wisconsin, his parents Doc and Betty exposed Butch to a variety of music and fine arts culture during his youth.
While attending the University of Wisconsin Madison, where he received a degree in filmmaking, Vig focused on experimental music composition – an area that would serve him well into the future. While at the UW, Butch jumped into the local music scene and joined the band Spooner as its drummer. Unlike most drummers, content to bang out the rhythms, Vig pursued music composition with the band and stepped behind the studio glass to shape the recorded sound as a producer.
After graduating from the UW, Butch co-founded Smart Studios and began producing and mixing albums. His perseverance as an independent producer in Madison carried far beyond Wisconsin’s borders, as artists from around the country began to hear the clear, edgy, hard rock sound shaped by Butch’s productions. His work with Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins and Soul Asylum in the 90s has been hailed by music critics and authors who have placed his work at the top of the decades best recordings.
Additionally, Vig has created many exciting remixes for such prominent artists as U2, Beck, Korn, Alanis Morrissette, Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails. In 1995 Vig returned to performing and writing with a band he formed that goes by the name of Garbage. The multi-platinum, Grammy Nominated band has achieved worldwide critical and commercial success as it ushered in yet another new direction for rock music. Recently, Vig has produced critically acclaimed albums for Against Me, Green Day, and The Foo Fighters, winning a Grammy for their album “Wasting Light.” He was recently ranked #9 on NME’s Top 50 Greatest Producers Ever. In 2014, Butch produced The Foo Fighters HBO documentary “Sonic Highways.” In 2016 Garbage released their acclaimed sixth album “Strange Little Birds”. In 2018 Butch produced the soundtrack for Puppy Love, and he recently wrapped up production on the new Silversun Pickups album.
-Jim Berkenstadt
About this Interview:
Butch joins me to talk about growing up in Viroqua, Wisconsin, the trajectory of Smart Studios, one band leading to another, being diverse, vibe crushers as well as Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and Garbage. Special thanks to former WCA guest Justin Perkins for connecting us!
Don Setaro is a producer and engineer based in the Central Valley of California with over 40 years in the world of music and audio. Don is also is involved in live sound, owns a record label and has an extensive background doing studio installation and wiring.
About This Interview
Don Joins me at Highwire Coffee in Oakland, California for a chat about soldering thousands of cables, working on model trains for Neil Young, building studios, running a record label and his love for audio and making records.
Nick Luca is a multi-instrumentalist musician, singer/songwriter/composer, music producer and audio engineer. He has toured throughout Europe, USA, Mexico, Canada and Australia with Iron and Wine, Calexico, John Doe (X) and his own band, Luca. As a session musician and audio engineer, Nick has credits on over 100 albums with artists such as Neko Case, DeVotchka, Robyn Hitchcock, Margaret Cho, M Ward, Darren Hanlon and many others.
About this Interview:
Nick joins me to talk about scenes, spirit animals, Calexico, Los Angeles, Kelsey Grammer, recording Hip Hop and diversification. Enjoy!-Matt
Tony Maserati is a Grammy Award winning mixer, and record producer / engineer. He was involved in the development of the New York R&B and Hip-Hop scene in the 1990s, working with Mary J. Blige, Notorious B.I.G., Puff Daddy, and Queen Latifah. Since then, he has worked on Grammy nominated projects with Beyonce (who he won “Best R&B Album” in 2003 with “Dangerously In Love”), Jason Mraz, Robin Thicke, Usher, and Selena Gomez. Tony has been nominated for a total of 10 Grammys, with four in the “Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical” category.
About this Interview:
Tony joins me to talk about his 90’s New York history, early adoption of technology, setting goals, contracts, not working for free and hip hop. -Enjoy
Adam Gonsalves has mastered over a thousand releases from artists around the world. He is equally at home mastering for digital formats and cutting lacquers for vinyl. Prior to mastering Adam worked for 7 years as a tracking and mixing engineer at Anchorhold Recording. From 2010-2013 Adam also produced the Square Cad Mastering Podcast. In 2017 he was featured in the book Why Vinyl Matters. Adam received a master’s degree in Music Technology from New York University. Adam is approved to provide Mastered for iTunes masters. Clients include: Willie Nelson, Peter Buck, Elliott Smith, Sleep, Blitzen Trapper, The Last Artful Dodgr, Sufjan Stevens, Pure Bathing Culture, Tender Loving Empire, Southern Lord, TKO, Living Music, Crane City Music, Typhoon, My Brightest Diamond, Dead Moon, Emma Ruth Rundle, Steve Aoki, Poison Idea, Rogue Wave, Ty Segall, Pelican, John Craigie, Earth, Horse Feathers, Blackwater Holylight, Calvin Johnson, Haley Heynderickx, Widowmaker, and many more. Additional credits available at Sound Credit.
About this Interview:
Adam joins me to talk about the Square Cad Mastering podcast, interrogating your own workflow, his journey into lacquer cutting and his work/life balance. -Enjoy
NAMM 2019 was fantastic as usual. Always so much to see. This episode is a little different compared to the others. Many WCA alumni come back for interviews including Vance Powell, Chris Selim and Lij Shaw and Alex Oana makes his debut explaining how his new venture Audio Test Kitchen works.
About this Interview:
I hang out with Vance Powell as he tells me about his recent projects with The Stray Cats and Trey Anastasio. Alex Oana tells me all about Audio Test Kitchen and we wrap up with a semi-drunken ambush interview with Chris Selim and Lij Shaw at our AIRBNB. Enjoy! -Matt
What started as a hobby, soon became an obsession that led me to start House Of Faith Studios in Palo Alto. When the graffiti covered building was torn down, my studio moved to Oakland. After 28 years, recording over 700 bands, I’m still amazed by the musicians I work with. Every band I’ve recorded has something unique and remarkable about them. I truly enjoy helping people achieve the recordings that they hear inside. As I tell my bands : ” I want this recording to sound like you, only more so. “
About this Interview:
I head over to House of Faith in Oakland for a chat with Bart about the most common musician personality types, people skills, studio sharing and his recent (2014) transition from analog to digital. Enjoy! -Matt
Ken Riley’s career started in 1980 at 3D Studio’s in Costa Mesa with Doug Doyle. Recording such names as The Altor Boys, Crumbacher, Daniel Amos and The Life Savors. Then creating the group Common Bond where he was lead vocalist, and the bass player. Common Bond toured and had 3 albums on Front Line Records. Then moving his career along to New York at Electric Lady Studios where he worked with the best in the industry. Bringing it to today where he is in his own well established Rio Grande Studios in Albuquerque, New Mexico recording.
8 ½ years as traveling musician and recording artist, producing two gold records. 10 years as engineer and musician in Los Angeles, 8 ½ years as engineer in New York City at: Electric Ladyland Studios. Unique Studios. PowerStation, Fantasy, 10 years of operating a studio in New Mexico.
About this Interview:
Ken joins me to talk about his history, his hunt for the New Mexico sound, the importance of artists knowing who they are, his partnership with Drew Newman and the beauty of New Mexico and it’s people.
Gentry Studer grew up with a definitive love of music. He played various instruments from an early age, later joining rock bands in high school. But with a name like “Studer”, although no actual relation to the famous tape machine, he was bound for the engineering world. Gentry graduated from the prestigious Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences program in 2013. He moved to Los Angeles and worked under one of the most iconic mastering engineers. In 2015 Gentry started his own company, Epicenter Mastering. In 2016 the operation moved into Paramount Recording Studios in Hollywood, California. In 2018 Epicenter Mastering relocated down south to Nashville, Tennessee in the historic RCA Studio A building.
His combined creative and technical backgrounds have informed Gentry’s approach to the art of mastering– not only to preserve and enhance the sonic qualities of an artist’s vision in the mix but also to bring across its feel and emotional intentions. As he puts it, “it’s amazing the advances on the technical side and what it allows us to do but you can also fall into its trap. My musical background and extensive ear training allow me to go off feel, not just a spectrum analyzer.” “The idea is to preserve the recordings life, passion and blood sweat and tears the artist has poured into their work.”
Gentry loves to stay busy in the studio – equating mastering projects with “having the privilege of meeting new interesting people everyday.” When he’s not working he spends time seeing live music, enjoying the outdoors, trying craft beers and whiskeys, and eating endless amounts of hot chicken and BBQ.
About this Interview:
Gentry joins me to talk about interning with Howie Weinberg, moving around the US, his new studio located in the RCA building in Nashville and communication with remote mastering clients. Enjoy! – Matt
Jaimeson Durr is a San Francisco Bay Area recording engineer, mixer and producer that works on a variety of music genres from local legends like, Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani, Chickenfoot, The Circle, The Dead, Dan the Automator as well as many other new promising artists. For the past 14 years Jaimeson has been primarily working out of his own studio Wally’s Hyde Out (formally Studio C) in the legendary Hyde Street Recording Studio complex where many well known artists recorded including Santana, Clearance Clearwater Revival, Jefferson Airplane,The Grateful Dead, Green Day, Train, and many, many more. He has also performed on and mixed several songs for hit prime time TV shows and movie trailers 90210, The Mindy Project, Ugly Betty, Rango, Arthur, The Lorax, Tangled and many more.
About this Interview:
Jaimeson joins me for coffee at Philz Coffee in Lafayette, California to discuss his journey, his mentors, never quitting and his work with Sammy Hagar. Enjoy! – Matt
David Streit is a producer, mixer, recording engineer, and live sound engineer based in Portland, Oregon. He has been working with sound for over 30 years. David began his audio career working in clubs and venues in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. He loved seeing bands play live, and became an avid concertgoer. These experiences proved to be very useful when he decided to move to Nashville, Tennessee and become a recording engineer. David developed his recording skills assisting and learning from the engineers who came before him as he rose up through the studio system in Nashville. Eventually, he became an engineer and producer himself and has been a freelance audio engineer in Connecticut and Santa Cruz, California. Now, David is happy to call the Pacific Northwest his home, and is excited to be a part of the amazing vibrant music scene in Portland. David has a bachelor’s degree in recording from Middle Tennessee State University, and learned about mic’ing classical ensembles as an intern at The Aspen Music Festival. He was a staff assistant at Quad Studios in Nashville, has taught a college course in multi-track recording and mixing, and has done location sound for video shoots. He has a passion for music and sound, and feels lucky to have been in the room for so many magic moments.
About this Interview:
David joins me to talk about Portland vs. Nashville, why musicians choose to hire engineers, prepping for live recordings, security, mortality and legacy. Enjoy! – Matt
Mike Stevens is a Producer, Engineer, Drummer & Percussionist. A life-long lover of music, bringing more than 20 years working as a professional musician throughout the US and abroad, as well as a decade of producing, recording, and mixing San Francisco Bay Area bands. Coming from New York City in 2006, his diverse experience has brought a unique perspective into his work. He has been called upon to work with many San Francisco artists and bands (including ska pioneers The Uptones and Red House Painters/Sun Kil Moon frontman Mark Kozelek), as well as playing percussion for Donna Summer’s 2008 Crayons tour. He has a deep understanding of what makes a song great, both as a musician and listener, in the studio, on stage, and on the air. Mike started his own Recording Studio in 2009 to establish an artist-friendly hub for creators of great music and the people who listen to it. When he isn’t touring or performing on stage, he dedicates his time to working with new and seasoned artists, helping them discover what is authentic and unique to them.
About this Interview:
Mike joins me to talk about how he combines the world of recording with the world of homeschooling for his kids, helpful landlords, picking the right gigs and the authenticity of the performance. Enjoy! – Matt
Manny Sanchez began his professional career in audio in 1999 as an unpaid intern at Chicago Recording Company. He had no formal training but a hunger to learn and quickly began assisting on high profile sessions. In 2000 he was the third assistant on the last Smashing Pumpkins sessions before they had their first hiatus. He befriended Billy Corgan and Billy insisted he be placed on any further sessions at CRC. In 2001 Billy formed Zwan and asked producer Bjorn Thorsrud to inform Manny that Billy would like him to engineer the demos for the band. This was a daunting task for Manny and he had to request that the demos be recorded to analog tape because he hadn’t learned Pro Tools yet. Billy agreed and eventually Manny was asked to record their album “Mary Star of the Sea” alongside producers Alan Moulder and Bjorn Thorsrud. The recording of this record would have a profound effect on Manny and would shape his entire career.
After finishing up a long and arduous stint working solely for Billy, Manny decided he needed to branch out on his own. He built IV Lab Studios in 2004 in a 100 year old vault inside a family friend’s building in Wrigleyville. This decision to build inside a building that he did not own would play a significant roll in the life of the studio, but as a hungry young twenty-something he didn’t question the opportunity when it came to him. The studio was a great success considering the changing landscape of the music business and played host to the best of local talent as well as national acts. It was within the walls of IV Lab that he solidified his relationship with jam/prog favorites Umphrey’s McGee, as well as pop-punk icons Fall Out Boy, both of whom he still works with today,
In 2012 the building that housed the studio was lost to foreclosure and the new owners wanted nothing to do with the studio. This crossroads put things into perspective for Manny and he began to seek out new homes for the business as well as other potential work that was in line with his experience. Luckily for the studio, it found a new home in Lincoln Park with some new partners that owned the space so the hope was it would be its forever home. Manny was happy the studio would survive but also unsettled by his own career trajectory and ready to make a change.
In late 2012 he was contacted by former Fall Out Boy tour manager Dan Suh and asked if he could come to LA and engineer for PSY at the height of his “Gangnam Style” popularity. This wasn’t the most ideal creative outlet for Manny but it was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. The gig was open-ended and he remained in LA after it was over and planted his roots.
About this Interview:
Manny joins me to chat about his early experience in Chicago working with Billy Corgan, studio ownership, the cost of real estate, working with Psy in smoky control rooms and his ever-expanding world of post working on film trailers in LA. Enjoy! – Matt
Brian Gibbs is Producer, Engineer, and Owner at Tool Shed Studios (70+ record credits 2017). An accomplished musician and performer with a B.M. Degree from Berklee College of Music, he brings his diversified portfolio of skills and passion past the stage to his roles as a producer, studio engineer, FOH engineer, music teacher (percussion, keyboard, strings, and vocal instruction), and as a mentor to the college interns at the studio.
Assistant Engineer (pre-production) 2015 Grammy-winning album “Realidades”/ Los Tigres Del Norte
AES San Francisco Treasurer (3 years)
AES International Diversity & Inclusion Committee
Audio GANG Member
Berklee College of Music Alumni Committee
Recording Academy Voting Member
Recording Academy P&E Wing Advisory Committee (SF Chapter)
Recording Academy District Advocacy Captain
About this Interview:
Brian joins me for a one on one chat about immersive audio, the details of running a studio business, buying your neighbors wine and making your bed. Enjoy! – Matt
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