What were your first studio or recording experiences?
My first recording experiences were in Freeport, Long Island, with a guy named Steve on ADAT. It was chaos getting started. Then we found this guy, Goo, who would record an EP in two days and mix it for one thousand bucks. We were like, "We'll do a full length. Great!" We all saved up money. The live room was in the garage. The control room was a mud room that was in his parents' house. He had a gas mask that was a bong, and we thought, "Wow! This guy is rock 'n' roll." [laughter] Then we started doing session with our friend, C.J. Jestrebszki, at this place called Runaway Records in Port Washington. We hung out there a lot. That was where John [DeDominici], our bass player, and I started learning [Avid] Pro Tools a little bit. We worked there as engineers occasionally. They were really nice. It was fun to be around it.
Was it oriented around the style of the music scene? The ska’ish sort of world?
Not that studio. They were skate punk kids. The ska scene and the punk scene in Long Island, especially that era, was crazy. There were four or five bands in every high school, and there were four or five shows every day on the weekend. If you were not playing one, one of your friends was. It was good for me as a kid because I didn't play sports. I felt weird around a lot of high school culture.
Was there a lot of all ages music happening?
It was all all ages. I don't know where it went. It's so sad to me. In Long Island, there were so many VFW, Knights of Columbus, and church basement shows. Maybe everybody learned their lesson and decided, “We're not having a hardcore show here. Last time they drew all over the mirror. They were drinking in the alley.”
How did you end up getting into the recording angle?
I was working and hanging out at that studio, getting familiar with Pro Tools. I went to NYU for music and technology, thinking, "I want to record and produce records." It seemed fun to me. I did a handful of recording classes, but it was always with friends who knew more than me. I tended to say, “Why don't you do it? I'll play, and you can record." I could come up with ideas quick, but as far as mic placement it never really clicked with me back then. I graduated school, my grandma got me a laptop, and I bought a [Digidesign] Mbox. My mind was blown. I was doing a lot of Cakewalk MIDI notation of songs to show band members, like doing horn arrangements. What do 16-year-olds love to do? They love to do MIDI.
Had you studied enough music before that?
I took lessons when I was a kid and I was in band. But while I was doing that, I discovered General MIDI and that was insane to me! I hit play and it goes. As I was doing that, I thought, “Maybe I could put a real guitar here.” I'd be tracking guitar direct into computer through Cakewalk, and it was not very good. Eventually, I graduated to [Syntrillium Software] Cool Edit Pro, and then a friend lent me a laptop with Pro Tools and an Mbox to record some remote stuff while we were traveling. I was thinking, “Wait. I could just take it with me?" Around then, I started this project I called Bomb the Music Industry! I didn’t want to do the touring band grind thing. I just wanted to make songs and give them away for free.
Were you playing all the instruments?
The first three records I was playing all the instruments, and I also had [Reason Studios] Reason and a MIDI controller. That was the other thing that made it all click, because going from General MIDI and clicking notes on a staff to a MIDI controller and Reason was like, “Wait, this actually sounds like a [Hammond] B-3.” And I just kept doing it.
Was Bomb the Music Industry! what led to getting some of the cartoon soundtrack work, or did that come through other channels?
Bomb the Music Industry! played a house show in Brooklyn. The guy who would go on to create Craig of the Creek was at that show and stayed a fan. Right around the time that I was making those records at Panoramic House, I got an email from him, “I'm going to make a show. I used to work on Steven Universe. We're making a pilot.” I was thinking, "Yeah, fucking right."
Because a lot of opportunities like this never happen.
Somebody cold emailing asking, “Hey, want to make music for a pilot on Cartoon Network?” For me, that wasn't on the horizon. This had to be a mistake. “You've got the wrong address? You sure you want me, buddy?” The pilot went great, and they kept me on for the rest of the show – five seasons, and a movie. Cool!
With Craig of the Creek, are you initially tracking all of it yourself or are you bringing in some of your bandmates?
I started tracking by myself – kind of the same thing that I had always been doing when I demoed songs. Trying to figure out how to do the timing of it was a mindfuck.
So that songs fit to visuals?
Basically. Like, how do you get the downbeat to happen when the kid falls down a hole? I was working at your studio, Jackpot!, with Adam Lee. I know it was there, because usually I'm doing it by myself. That was with my band, and I had to figure the timing out.
Ways to cue yourself?
Yeah, I don't know if that is the way anybody does it. Everybody I ever spoke to about it was like, “Oh, I just use a count off." I was like, “How do you record what's before the count off if you need a pickup in there?” I was looking up “how to be a composer” on YouTube. “I can't let these people know I don't know how to do this." I was lucky they gave me a lot of time on the first four episodes to figure it all out.
What kind of instrumentation were you using?
Fake drum kit, bass guitars, and a lot of analog synths. Ben [Levin, co-creator of Craig of the Creek] wanted something that was ska/punk-based for the show. As I started looking at the actual show, I realized that there were all these cinematic moments. It’s serious. Early on, they would send me temp music for these episodes, and it'd be the fucking Lord of the Rings score. At some point I said, "Guys, you cannot send me this stuff!" [laughter]
You were still living in New York. What was your home setup like?
I was in an apartment. I was in a room that could fit a queen size mattress. I had a little modular desk, a table, and keyboards. A little shelf with notebooks I had not looked at in years, a bunch of guitars leaned against it, and probably a mic somewhere. I'd spin around for ten hours and play some parts into the MIDI thing.
