About Me

Background

A long time ago in a town far far away ..

I grew up surrounded by and playing music (trumpet) in school and local ensembles in Southern Virginia. But eventually I went off to college and traded my trumpet for a computer to get a degree in aerospace engineering. Twenty five years later, I downloaded a digital audio workstation software package and started writing and producing songs which fuse modern electronic/synth sounds with the traditional orchestral instruments I grew up with.

Making music is my own personal therapy session. Most of my original pieces capture a specific emotional journey, but I also sometimes enjoy just making a fun dance tune 🙂

I am looking for opportunities to perform live in the Richmond area and am also open to discussion scoring projects for videos. I am an experienced professional collaborator and look forward to making new contacts in the Richmond music scene. Just drop me a note!

Musical Influences

Modern Era Orchestral Composers

Aaron Copland – Appalachian Spring will always improve your day
John Williams – So many iconic melodies and dramatic moments

Rock / Jazz

Pink Floyd – Pioneers in so many sounds and storytelling
Terrance Blanchard – Check out the soundtrack he did for the HBO Perry Mason show .. damn

Hip-Hop

DJ Shadow – I only learned about him recently, but am so glad I did!
Wu-Tang Clan – In general I’m more an East Coast fan and Rza ties musical styles together with grace

Experience / Tools

2001-Today

Rocket Scientist

System Engineer

My day job is working as an aerospace professional for a firm near Boston, MA. I love solving challenging problems and these days I’m lucky to be a lead engineer for an amazing team of dedicated professionals.

2019-Today

Digital Audio Workstation Production

Ableton Live

I write and produce all my music using Ableton Live Suite Edition. I’ve enjoyed learning to use it over the years and it always surprises me with it’s flexibility for production and live performance. I compose mainly in MIDI using a few different controllers as needed to brainstorm melodic ideas that I then can edit and expand in the piano roll.

2023-Today

Mixing / Mastering

Ableton / Headphones

There are many opinions on the Internet about mixing and mastering your own music – and that’s fine. My inner engineer enjoys learning and doing everything myself! I am pretty happy with my mixes and masters today – I can get any loudness I want with clarity and dynamics in a range of styles. I do produce on headphones (no fancy studio) but the BEST reference I’ve found for your mix is playing it on your phone’s speaker – if you can hear all parts of the song clearly on that, you got something anyone can listen too 😉

2020-Today

Virtual Orchestra

Spitfire Audio Plugins

I use a few Spitfire products in my productions which sound great – even if they can sometimes be tricky to setup!
BBC Symphony Orchestra – Professional Edition (Orchestral Sounds used in all my Songs)
Eric Whitacre Choir (Vocal Sounds used in several songs)
Hammers Percussion (Cinematic Percussion sounds)

2022-Today

Virtual Synths

Arturia V Collection

I am (so far) a fully “in the box” producer – so when I need a great synth sound I use the Arturia V Collection plugin which is a massive collection of software models of classic and new synths. I will admit – as a child of the ’80’s – that my favorites are the Yamaha CS-80 and the Oberheim OB-Xa .. but who can blame me??