Questions

Foundation & Mindset

1. A lot of engineers call themselves engineers forever, even when they're running a business, managing clients, and making decisions that have nothing to do with a fader. When did you stop thinking of yourself as just a mixer, and what forced that shift?

2. You moved to LA in 2017 with what sounds like very little safety net. What was the math you did, or refused to do, to make that decision feel survivable?

3. A lot of engineers are waiting for permission. A credit, a co-sign, the right gear, the right city. You didn't seem to wait for any of that. Was that confidence, desperation, or a story you told yourself on purpose?

4. When you were engineering at NRG and Kanye walks in, what was the internal monologue? Because that's the moment most engineers freeze.

Network & Opportunity

5. A lot of engineers think specializing will limit them. You bet hard on a sound and a workflow. What did you say no to in order to say yes to that?

6. The Tyga session that led to Kanye. That's the kind of moment people frame as luck. But you were physically in the room because you'd done a hundred boring things first. Walk me through what those hundred boring things actually were.

7. You've now worked with Burna Boy on close to a hundred songs. How did the first one happen, and what did you do in the beginning of that relationship that made it the relationship it is today.

Outreach

8. When you first moved to LA, you hand-delivered boxes of donuts with your resume taped to the lid to studios across the Valley until someone let you in. That story gets told a lot, but I want the un-famous version. How many studios did you actually hit? What was the actual ask when you walked in? A job, a coffee, a tour? How many ignored you? And what's the version of that story that didn't work, where you tried something clever and it just made you feel desperate?

9. Every time that story gets retold, someone's going to hear it and think "I should go buy donuts." But the donuts weren't the point. You were just impossible to ignore. What's the difference between copying someone's tactic and understanding why it actually worked?

10. A lot of engineers never reach out to anyone. They stay in their room and hope the work finds them. You seem to have both a client network and a peer network. You teach at Puremix, you collaborate with Eddie on Mixland, you talk to other engineers publicly. How often are you meeting with engineers, producers, artists outside of a session? And for the engineers listening who are terrified to send that first message, what would you tell them?

Sales

11. The Doja Cat mix started as a spec mix. You mixed it before anyone asked you to. That terrifies most engineers. They're afraid of doing free work, or worse, being told no after they tried hard. How do you think about the cost of going first?

12. For engineers trying to make the jump to working with major labels, what should they understand about how those conversations actually start?

13. How do you think about pricing as your career grows? Without getting into specifics you'd rather keep private, what changes about the way you set rates as the work gets bigger?

14. Mixland gives you a second income stream that isn't trading hours for dollars. Was building that intentional financial protection, or did the business case sneak up on you?

15. Do you wish someone had talked to you about money earlier in your career? Not rates, but the actual financial side. Taxes, saving, knowing when you could afford to say no. What did you have to figure out the hard way?

Systems & Long Game

16. What does a normal non-mixing week look like for you now? How much of your time is spent on the business of mixing versus the act of mixing?

17. Working on a project with Burna Boy and shipping a Mixland plugin and recording your own music are three full-time jobs. What's the operating system that makes that possible without you imploding?

18. Walk us through the actual tools. What are you using day to day to run the business side? Calendar, invoicing, file delivery, communication. What does the stack look like?

Closing

19. You've been vocal about supporting what we're building here since before we ever met in person. Why? What is it about this conversation, the business of mixing, that you think engineers need to hear?

20. You just put out music as an artist, Won't Let Go and Feel Your Wave. What does an engineer learn about engineers by becoming the one waiting for the mix to come back?

21. If you had to give one piece of advice to the version of you who was still in Minnesota in 2016, but you weren't allowed to talk about gear or technique, what would it be?

22. One thing you'd absolutely do again. One thing you'd never do again.