I was born and raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and currently live in Marion with my wife, Jessie, and dog, Benny. I am what I've come to call a "creative professional". I am a musician, audio engineer, songwriter, videographer, entrepreneur and maybe most importantly, easy to get along with.
As long as I can remember, I have always wanted to be creating things. A song, a picture, something out of cardboard...
I started recording music in 2001 and have obsessed over sound ever since. Originally, I started because I wanted to hear all of the ideas in my head come together. Now, I just love hearing things. The tiny details of fingers moving over strings of an acoustic guitar, barely audible ghost notes on a snare drum. It's an amazing experience to help put together all the pieces of a song, and build from the ground up a beautiful work of art.
In late 2007, my friend Ian Williams and I opened our own recording studio, The Soundhole. It started years before in a spare room in Amana, and eventually moved to an official location in downtown Cedar Rapids. During the historic floods of 2008, we moved to a location in a 100 year old building in the Uptown district of Marion. Unfortunately, due to the building be sold we were unable to keep our space. We closed the studio doors at the end of 2010, and since then I have been working out of my home studio, as well as BlueSky studio in Marion.
To me, recording is about capturing energy - the kinetic, living, moving sound waves through the air. Then balancing those engraved moments - anxiously waiting to be released back into the air - to come together as something more, bigger than the individual parts. It's not about getting all the right notes, but about hitting the notes with the right intention. Perfection, to me, is not about the individual pieces, but how they fit together as a whole.
In recent years, I have come to include photography, video, graphics and design in my toolkit. Visuals can impact our mood every bit as much as music. It's all about direction. What information do you want the viewer to get to? What thoughts do you want them to think? What story are you trying to tell? Visual presentation is not about looking cool or beautiful, but about framing the information in an effective, memorable way.
I am not sure what my ideal job is, but I have come to believe it's less about the actual type of work, and more about the people I'm working with and the purpose of that work. Here is what I do know:
As long as I can remember, I have always wanted to be creating things. A song, a picture, something out of cardboard...
I started recording music in 2001 and have obsessed over sound ever since. Originally, I started because I wanted to hear all of the ideas in my head come together. Now, I just love hearing things. The tiny details of fingers moving over strings of an acoustic guitar, barely audible ghost notes on a snare drum. It's an amazing experience to help put together all the pieces of a song, and build from the ground up a beautiful work of art.
In late 2007, my friend Ian Williams and I opened our own recording studio, The Soundhole. It started years before in a spare room in Amana, and eventually moved to an official location in downtown Cedar Rapids. During the historic floods of 2008, we moved to a location in a 100 year old building in the Uptown district of Marion. Unfortunately, due to the building be sold we were unable to keep our space. We closed the studio doors at the end of 2010, and since then I have been working out of my home studio, as well as BlueSky studio in Marion.
To me, recording is about capturing energy - the kinetic, living, moving sound waves through the air. Then balancing those engraved moments - anxiously waiting to be released back into the air - to come together as something more, bigger than the individual parts. It's not about getting all the right notes, but about hitting the notes with the right intention. Perfection, to me, is not about the individual pieces, but how they fit together as a whole.
In recent years, I have come to include photography, video, graphics and design in my toolkit. Visuals can impact our mood every bit as much as music. It's all about direction. What information do you want the viewer to get to? What thoughts do you want them to think? What story are you trying to tell? Visual presentation is not about looking cool or beautiful, but about framing the information in an effective, memorable way.
I am not sure what my ideal job is, but I have come to believe it's less about the actual type of work, and more about the people I'm working with and the purpose of that work. Here is what I do know:
I want to work with people who have a passion for what they're doing and are driven to do their best at it. Always striving to improve, to find better and more efficient solutions. Who bring upon change because it's better, not because it's due.
I want to work with people who have an open mind while holding true to their values. Willing to explore, experiment and expand on what they know, to find out what they don't. Who will honor the past, yet respect the future.
I want to work with people who's talents are greater than my own. That see mistakes and failures as experience and steps towards being better. Who not only inspire, but also want to be inspired.
I don't know who the people are, where they will be or what the work is. It doesn't matter what it looks like or where it is, as long as it's going to be a story I'm proud of.
Thank you for visiting my site and I look forward to working on projects with you. If you have any questions, comments, ideas or just want to chat, feel free to contact me. In the meantime, please enjoy reading my blog or listening and view some examples of my work.