Episode 58

Show Notes

Live with Matt Rad - Episode 58
June 15, 2021
w/ Jon Castelli - Week 51

Show notes by: Bradley Will

Q: What do you do if you have a very limited amount of time for physical breaks and mental health?

Jon:
While I preach taking frequent breaks, in times of great stress it can sometimes go out the window.

• If you can’t always take breaks then the practice will prepare you for those high-stress weeks.
  

Matt:
Meditation is similar. Sometimes it takes several attempts to get in the habit of it.

When things come down to crazy crunch time, the fact that you’ve been in a good routine will help you maintain discipline and observe your practice when you need it most.

Maintaining good routines through challenging times and easy times is the measure of your consistency.

Q: Talk about balancing a music job and a day job in the early stages

Matt:
I don’t think there is balance early on. If you want to make music your profession it will be very, very difficult to have a balanced life while coming up.

My day job from 19-24 was working under Eric Valentine.

• I worked 10-12 days for him and then spent another 4-5 hours after the day’s sessions working on my own stuff because I didn’t want to be a “cable wrapper”.
  

The ability to have work/life balance in the music industry is hard to come by.

Balance in creative/entrepreneurial fields is a luxury that you get as you get into your career.

The question to me is “How do I do it in a way that makes sense and is good for my mental health.”

• Perhaps the solution is this: You push yourself to your limit to the point that it doesn’t drive you crazy. You put in as much time as you can.
  

Find the competition that makes you excited to work. But don’t obsess over people who seem to be grinding non-stop.


Jon:
I’ve never had a day job. So my perspective is a little bit skewed.

• I worked for my father in my young teens in his shop soldering speaker parts before I knew what path I was going to go down.
  

I don’t think I’ve ever felt balanced.

• I’ve now shifted my perspective and realized that balance is something to work on and to attain.
  

“Balance” may be an illusion and something that’s completely unattainable.

Day-to-day balance may be possible.

• Mental and physical routine.
  

You need to do a stress-test on your system. You need to find the limit of what you’re capable of.

• To make a weight-lifting analogy: you need to get the reps in.

• Don’t push yourself to the point where you’re getting sick 2 or 3 times a month because of your levels of stress.
  

Competition seems to incentivize people to put in these long hours.

• You shouldn’t necessarily follow the habits of others.
  

The incentive is to find happiness for yourself and for others.

• Lex Fridman’s most recent podcast episode with Daniel Schmachtenberger touches on the importance of compersion: The happiness or joy that we feel for the happiness felt by others.

Q: What is your biggest failure and what did you learn from it?

Jon:
8-9 years ago I’d just started working with Tony Maserati. He was mixing the self-titled Beyonce album and Tony asked me to tune 1-2 notes of Beyonce’s voice. Jon went ahead and tuned the entire vocal instead. Tony then yelled at him and put him in his place and told him to “Never do any more than what I tell you to do.”

That was a huge failure for me. It taught me to leave most things and not be so precious about things you think are better. Leave them be.

Q: Mixing and Production Horror Stories? How have you handled bringing sub-par records to the best level?

Matt:
Years ago my manager sent me a band that sounded terrible. The recordings were bad and the recordings aren’t very good. I wasn’t into it. My manager’s response was: “Yes the recordings aren’t good. That’s why they need a producer.” This caused me to rethink my approach to what my job was as a producer.

I don’t get things anymore and think “This is bad.” It’s my job to make it sound great and push things to the limit.

The answer is: I take it as far as I can possibly take it.

• That’s why they hire us.
  

The problem is rarely projects that are challenging. It is people who are challenging to work with.

A lot of the stuff I get hired for is finishing productions. A huge part of the secret of what I do is I take the time to listen and sort out all of the imperfections and details that need to be addressed.

• If I only did just this it would make everything I do sound better.

• There is so much care that can be taken.

• I have pride in the music and the art. I want to be a part of something that is great.

• I focus on the transitions. I listen to the downbeats and figure out how to enhance it.

• The care that I take in doing this is what I believe has separated me from everyone else.

Jon:
There’s usually a lot of intention in the recordings that producers send to you, as a mixer.

I tend to not sample replace or change any sounds.

I recently lowered a bass one octave in order to give the song some bass that it was lacking.

If a job is worth doing, do it beautifully. Every detail should be beautiful.

• Take pride in the work that you do.
  

I come at the record with a producer’s ear when I am mixing.

Records tend to take more than one person to create. The ones that come out that have had mainstream success.

When you un-mix a record and then expose all of the sonic issues you have to fix them.

If the producer is going to put tiny details in the song and then hide them, Jon is going to be bold and bring those elements out. Or else they will be muted if they don’t work.


Matt:
Simon Cowell has a tendency to bring up everything. If you’re going to have something in the song then bring it up.

Get the fear out of the records.


Jon:
We’re not incentivized to make something that someone hasn’t heard before. We’re incentivized to chase what’s current.


Matt:
Business people chase trends. Creative people should not chase them.

You want to “miss left”. You don’t want to miss in the middle. You want to be way off trying something bold. Not fail trying to do something straight down the middle.

“Trend is always late.” - Kanye West

Q: Have you ever used Reaper? Thoughts on Pro Tools as the industry standard?

Matt:
I’ve never used Reaper.
The only thing that will change Pro Tools being the standard is if something like Logic becomes the go-to for mixers and mastering engineers, which seems unlikely right now.

Jon:
Pro Tools is the best for audio editing.
I like the limitations that Pro Tools offers, like having only ten plugins on a channel.

Q: Do you only use a few plugins because the tracks sound great or on busted bedroom recordings?

Jon:
I’m not trying to change the vibe, even on busted bedroom recordings. I use my usual tools and process.

Matt:
If the record is going to sound like a busted-record then that’s what it is going to be.

Q: Should you have a subwoofer?

Jon:
It’s helpful to have a subwoofer to hear the pitch of 808s and low bass notes.
It’s all about bass-management and carefully getting your sub integrated.


Matt:
The idea is to be able to hear everything.
Adding a sub will immediately create a lot of phase issues that need to be carefully accounted for. It’s not something to be done lightly.

————

Jon:
I feel like we’re losing some of the respect, understanding, and care of the experts that came before us when we favor these bedroom-style productions.

We don’t want to completely demolish systems that are mostly working and start over. We want to incentivize people to improve things that are already working.