🆘🚨 Published in Sound On Sound! 🚨🆘
Thrilled to share that my article, “The Last Five Percent: What Mastering Can and Can’t Do,” is featured as a Technique Masterclass in the September issue of @soundonsoundmag — with a cover-line mention.
Sound On Sound has been one of the most respected voices in our field for decades, and a compass for me since the beginning. To now see my work in its pages feels full-circle and a real honor.
Grateful to Sam and the SOS team for the thoughtful edits and beautiful layout.
📖 Read the article at the link in my bio — and look out for print copies on shelves near you.
Hearing is the first instrument in this job.
Hearing Health Foundation just published my article “Listening for a Lifetime” — a practical safe-listening reference for musicians and audio professionals: day-to-day levels, breaks, loud rooms, and what to do when tinnitus panic hits.
It’s also appearing in their Winter print issue of Hearing Health magazine.
Read at the link in my bio! 👂
I’m in the new Tape Op (Feb/Mar 2026, issue 171) with a hearing health piece for musicians and engineers. It feels surreal to write for America’s most respected indie recording magazine.
“Safe listening” is calibration. Your ears are part of the chain.
Thanks to Larry Crane and the Tape Op crew. Link in bio 👂🔊
I am genuinely unable to convey my love for Interesting Hobbies Club and their music. The shortest version is that I’d listen to their songs all the time even if we’d never worked together.
I felt some powerful emotions while working on this album, driven by both the musical and lyrical content. And I felt new things about myself and where I am in life these days. It is one of those albums—one of those really, really good albums—that takes you on a journey to leave you someplace different than where you started.
@interestinghobbiesclub - music and lyrics
Brilliant album art by @gabbymontgomeryyy
Mastered by me 🔊
Growing up, a big part of my vision of America was formed through great yankee songwriters. The way Townes Van Zandt, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, and so many others wrote their story-songs left a lasting impact. To work with someone who genuinely deserves to be mentioned in those ranks—carrying that same legacy forward—is both a privilege and a pleasure.
@jackromanostories - music and lyrics
@jpschneids_drums - drums
@matthewsommerfield - bass
Recorded and mixed by @rainjohannes at @goose_room
Mastered by me 🔊
In Plato’s philosophy, every work of art is a shadow of a deeper ideal—an attempt to capture something perfect in an imperfect world.
Music is no different. Every mix, every master, is a gesture toward something felt but never fully contained.
Mastering isn’t about chasing that feeling forever. It’s about knowing when to let it breathe—when to stop adjusting and start releasing.
Not as a flawed thing, but as a careful offering that is ready to be let go.
“Works of art are of an infinite loneliness… only love can grasp and hold them.” — Rilke
Featuring the brilliant @jackromanostories
Mastering isn’t remixing the scene—it’s color grading the film.
The composition, the emotion, the performances—they’re already there. My job is to bring clarity and cohesion. To make sure the mood carries, the details shine, and nothing distracts from the intent.
Like framing a painting, it’s about enhancing the experience, not altering the art.
“Awake in Blue” by @itsbo00 , mastered by me
Loud is easy. Dynamics are the part that makes a chorus arrive, a drop feel physical, a vocal line land like a thought you didn’t know you were having. It’s contrast: tension and release, density and air, impact and space.
Good mastering doesn’t “fix” dynamics. It protects them while still meeting the real-world demands of playback—phones, cars, earbuds, playlists, normalization.
The goal isn’t to iron the life out of a mix. It’s to keep the record alive at competitive level: punchy, clear, and still human.
Featuring the incomparable @ivanwatersandthecitadel
2025 was a year of intense personal growth. For whatever reason, at 32 I felt 64. I made so much progress internally and in my private life that I’m still feeling a bit of inertia. But I’m doing well. I’m here, now—ready, and completely driven to spend the next 20 years becoming the best mastering engineer I can be.
I’ve long planned to retire (from mastering) in my 50s out of respect for the realities of hearing. With time—and even with careful daily exposure—there will come a point in the next decades when I simply won’t be able to hear what I hear now. So I’m determined to use the talents I have, and the physical attunement I’ve refined, to maximum effect.
I love this craft deeply. For me, it’s more than processing or engineering. It’s stewardship: a real act of care as you part with your record, where I can help artists feel confident and excited about the final product.
Going into 2026, I’m focused less on intense public-facing output (though a few mastering blogs are on the way) and more on cultivating my mind outside of audio. I’ll be buried in Plato, Bashō, Nishida, Jung, and a lot of other people from whom I still have a lot to learn. I’ll be a little less present on Instagram, but no less reachable via email—which remains (by far) the best way to get in touch: [email protected] 👌
I’m a dual-citizen now. I am over 12,000 words into a book draft. I’ve started developing a PhD thesis proposal. I’m participating in standards committees on audio, including determining loudness standards and how high-resolution masters are delivered and archived for streaming. And I’m also working with local WA civic groups focused on improving our common spaces—lessening noise pollution, and moving toward a small trial run of public “take a moment offline” de-stressing / de-overwhelm facilities, which I have real hope for.
With all that said, I’m signing off this year with genuine excitement. New visions will take shape. ♥️🔊
