Most recently, he contributed to the Kesha music video for “I Need A Woman,” which served as MGM Resort branded content celebrating free marriage and love.
He worked as a senior mixer and producer with Backer & Spielvogel Advertising, Bates Worldwide Advertising, Kamen Entertainment Group and Nutmeg Audio Post, before joining PLUSHnyc in 2010. Since there, he has crafted audio for multiple award-winning spots, garnering Radio Mercury Awards, AMP Awards, London International Radio Awards, and a Cannes Bronze Lion for Google Chrome’s “Speed Test”.
I’m a senior mixer/sound designer specializing in audio post production for advertising commercials for TV, Web, and Radio. I typically get hired by an ad agency or an editorial house to master the audio for a particular project so it is ready to air. This generally includes cleaning and polishing compromised audio elements, creating sound effects to help support the picture, recording voice over as well as doing on camera dialog replacement and then editing and smoothing out any provided music. The final stage is mixing, where I then take all these elements and balance them in relation to each other and to make sure they are in technical spec for release.
What is the best part of your job? Do you find parts of your position are collaborative, or do you work in a more individualized field?
The best part of what I do is when I get a chance to collaborate with the project’s team to solve creative and technical issues. Sometimes a project comes in with compromised audio -- maybe bad background noise or a technical issue that came up on set. More times than not, we can put our heads together and come up with a solid fix. It’s incredibly satisfying when I first play the old dirty audio and then the newly restored audio -- seeing the huge sense of relief and smiles on the team’s faces is just so rewarding.
Another great part of what I do is being able to anticipate my client’s needs before they know they have them. As a session unfolds, certain creative issues may pop up that could affect such things as deadlines or budget adversely. I’ll often work on a solve through audio if possible while the team tries to figure out a solution on their end. It’s a great moment when I’m able to say to the team “Have a listen to this, does this solve your issue”? If it does take care of the problem, then there is always again, that sigh of relief and feeling a little bit like a hero. It’s simple client services and problem solving, but it can mean the difference between a successful session and one where the team has to go back to the drawing board.
If time and budget allows, I always prefer to work alone on a project at first, in order to get to know the project and to get a feel for it. It also allows me the opportunity to work creatively and try things that I might not be apt to do with a room full of people. Once I’m happy with where I’m at, then I like to have the team come in and pick it apart creatively and then finish it up in a very collaborative manner.
Tell us about your background and what led you to become a Senior Mixer/Sound Designer:
I actually knew I wanted to be a sound engineer starting from the age of about 10 I think. Immediately after getting out of school, I enrolled in audio engineering school, and my first professional job in the industry was at then advertising giant Backer Spielvogel Bates as an in house audio engineer and then a few years later as an in house music producer. It was a great job where I learned so much about the world of media for advertising. I was able to work with artists such as Rod Stewart, the Allman Brothers, Big Daddy Kane -- this was in the early 90’s. Eventually, I realized I missed audio engineering and I also had a lot of respect for the sound mixers I had been hiring in New York. I would hire these guys and think, “I should get back in the chair”, so I left the ad side in 1994 to join the audio vendor side and I’ve been back in the chair ever since.
I joined Plush in February of 2010, I knew the Levesques from working at their first studio, Nutmeg, where I was for over 10 years. Mike Sr. had left during my time at Nutmeg, so when he reached out after starting Plush, I was only too happy to discuss as he and Mike Jr. are two of the best guys in this business bar none. I was looking for a bit more personal freedom to come and go as I liked at the time, and they were really good about that. Plush maintains a really nice work/life balance, and that aligned perfectly for where I was at both in my career and personal life. I’ve loved it now for almost 9 years — it’s been awesome.
How does the culture of the Plush office influence the way you work?
When Michael and Mike Sr. asked me to entertain coming to Plush, it was still a small shop with two recording rooms, and I was going to be in one of them. But now, 10 years later, we have six audio rooms and counting. The guys kindly invited me to help decide what the culture of Plush would be from the outset. We’re doing great, creative work, but endeavor to strike a nice work-life balance with the Plush team. A number of people at Plush are musicians and we all support each other’s creative lives, and make sure they have time to chase interests outside of audio post for advertising. We try to make sure their lives are enriched and supported through other creative avenues, which then carries over into the work we do together.
If I’m entering the industry and I want to become a sound designer/mixer, what steps should I take? What characteristics do sound designers/mixers typically share?
The most important thing nowadays is to be multi media platform literate. It’s not good enough anymore to just know audio concepts and have technical expertise. When I was starting my career, engineers needed to know about sound and signal flow and acoustics. Now, they still need to know all of that, but they need to be on top of other programs as well. We have to wear more hats now, our clients and their clients are doing more with less, we are no different, what is the saying now? “Adapt Or Die”, right? It’s true.
Our junior mixers blow my mind. They are very talented, smart people that walk in and are proficient in a number of media programs such as Pro Tools, Premiere, After Effects and more, and are as comfortable doing video editing or visual effects work as they are doing audio. For someone starting out, that is now almost a necessity. If you want to be a mixer/sound designer, that can be your primary focus, but the landscape has changed so radically that you have to be proficient in these other programs that have little to do with audio or at minimum have a working knowledge of them. It’s gotten to a point where we look at newcomers and will grab them if they know all these things -- they’re like gold.
Sound designers/mixers starting their careers should also be honest with themselves about what their social skills are like. I know guys in the industry that are light years ahead of me technically, but they’re not busy with work because clients can’t socially relate to them. Now, that isn’t to say you don’t need foundational engineering knowledge, one absolutely does, but I would encourage newcomers to ask themselves what their comfort level is in being a leader every day, giving an opinion and believing in that opinion. I’ve been doing this for over 30 years and I’ve had a number of former assistants working in the business still, and the best advice I can give them is: learn how to run a room, anticipate client needs, and believe in yourself, believe in your own opinion...that is the stuff they remember and the stuff I feel serves them best in this industry.
How has the role evolved over the past few years? Do you believe the role varies depending on the agency?
We have to balance workflow and creativity even more, due to shorter schedules and tighter budgets, while still allowing creatives and producers to end the day satisfied with the end result. You still want to give the client the quality they’re used to, but you have to ask yourself, “how do I mix this project to a level that I and the client will be happy with?” knowing the current challenging landscape of budgets vs creativity vs time. Learning to navigate that question sometimes requires more tough conversations with the client now than in the past. Now, I ask clients what their deliverables goal is for the end of the day at the beginning of our day together. If I don’t feel that their deadlines are possible, I have to have a realistic discussion with them sooner than later. You certainly don’t want to start an all day creative session with the realities of scheduling and budgets, but there have been numerous times that I was glad to have these talks at the front of a session and so have my clients.
I don’t think my role changes with each agency, but my role can change once I meet every the whole team for any given session. Then, I know what role I’ll play very quickly: With some teams I’ll take a very active role leading the session both technically and creatively and with others I may step back a bit and let the creatives run the show as they may have a very particular vision of how that session should go. It’s really up to the personalities in the room and the project.
What project or finished piece of work are you most proud of? Do you have any future developments in the works?
I still always come back to a Google campaign called “Speed Tests” which I did the mix for. The spots were a challenge to mix because there was so much going on in them. Also, I thought the creative on it was just very, very clever. The campaign not surprisingly wound up winning some Lions at Cannes, and I was really proud to have been a part of it.
On a more recent note, I recently worked on a spot for Kesha and MGM Grand called “I Need A Woman,” which was part of the Universal Love Campaign through McCann that won several Lions this year, including Gold in Brand Experience & Activation. That was a bit more challenging technically, which was very satisfying, and then being a part of the social message of celebrating universal love was wonderful as well.
I’ve also been working with a fantastic creative team, currently at TBWA/Chiat/Day. I’ve done a bunch of projects with them and their creative is always just stellar, but two spots come to mind immediately : jetBlue “Little Tickets” during their time at MullenLowe, and Adidas “Alone.
What is your favorite ad of all time?
Wow, that’s a tough one but I do tend to gravitate towards comedy spots. So, while not a super classic or iconic spot in terms of time, I do love the Liam Neeson Clash Of Clans “Revenge” spot. I just makes me laugh out loud...every time...and I think that makes for a really successful ad.