Would you call yourself a mixer, recording engineer, or producer?
I consider myself a producer, mixer, and engineer. I’m interested in working on interesting music, in whatever capacity I can best help an artist.
Who are some of these artists?
I’ve worked with The Smile [Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood with drummer Tom Skinner], Arcade Fire, Idles, and Pete Townshend, to name a few. Recently, I’ve mixed two live albums for The Smile, as well as produced and mixed the [self-titled] debut album for a new Irish band, Somebody’s Child, who are brilliant.
How did you start in this recording world?
I was always into music from a very young age. My dad was a music journalist – a serious hobby – he interviewed a lot of amazing bands and used to take me along to gigs. I grew up in Helsinki, Finland, and came from there to study music at Goldsmiths, University of London. There I very quickly realized that I hated being in bands, but I was always the person recording the projects I was in and found the process very interesting. So, when I graduated, I set up in a small studio with a friend in Southeast London and started working!
Do you still have your own studio?
My studio, Hackney Road Studios, is in East London – in Hoxton, and I’ve been there since the beginning of 2018. Over the years, I’ve had different studios and different setups. I’ve also had the opportunity to travel the world and go to lots of incredible studios, which has been really fun!
You’ve worked a lot with Nigel Godrich. When did that start?
Yeah, I’ve worked with Nigel on and off for years. I met him originally through my wife [Laura Bettinson]. She’s an artist, producer, and DJ under the name of lau.ra, and is in a band called Ultraísta with Nigel Godrich and drummer Joey Waronker. I met Nigel through that; we got along, and I started helping him out. At the beginning with Ultraísta I was helping on their live sound, went on tour with them, and we became good friends. It’s not been constant, but we’ve worked on some great projects over the years, and he’s been a great mentor and friend to me. To me, he is one of the greatest producers of all time. If you look at the records he’s worked on, there are so many great ones! If someone’s always in the room when great things are happening, then obviously it means they’re doing something right. His aesthetic, his taste, and his approach are just so amazing.
What, in general, is his studio approach like?
Nigel’s obviously a private person, and he believes in the magic of the creative process in the studio. I don’t like to get too deep into that. He doesn’t give many interviews himself. But one thing that stuck with me was something he said to me years ago, which was, "Stop worrying about making things sound good, and worry about making them sound interesting."
How did you end up working on The Smile's debut record?
I’ve been working with Thom Yorke for a long time, both in a live sound and a studio capacity. When they started working on that record with Nigel, I came in to engineer it.
Were there any challenges to working on that record?
The biggest challenge for me is working with such phenomenal musicians who operate at such a high level creatively. I wanted to bring 110 percent at all times to justify my position in the room, and I wanted to make the recording process as invisible as possible for them so they could enjoy playing.
What about working with Caribou [Tape Op #37]? How did that happen?
Dan Snaith is someone I’ve met a few times over the years. He came in to do a session for a new season of a show called “From The Basement” which I...
