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Hi Stephen! Please could you tell us a bit about yourself and when you first realised that you wanted a career in music?
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Hi! I’m a mastering engineer based in Liverpool, UK. I work as part of the Weird Jungle mastering collective alongside my great mates and awesome engineers Katie Tavini and Izzy McPhee, and we specialise in working with artists, bands and labels to make sure their finished records sound as amazing as possible, and try to make the process enjoyable and fun whilst we’re at it! I’ve wanted to work with music for as long as I can remember, I started playing in bands when I was a teenager and being surrounded by music in various forms has been a major and constant part of my life for the best part of thirty years now really.

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Can you remember your first time in a studio? How did it feel and was it instant love?
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I’m not sure I can actually remember my first time in a ‘proper’ studio! When I was younger it was always about someone’s older brother having an 8-track recorder or borrowing a microphone from school and things like that, really DIY. I don’t think I even saw a real studio until I was well into adulthood, and to be honest I still carry that DIY ethos in everything I do, I’ve never been interested in being hired by a big studio or anything.

My studio I work from now is a wonderful space and a real labour of love, but it’s not posh!

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You’ve got a vast and eclectic catalogue of mastering credits! Do you have a particular favourite or one that stands out as an unexpected joy to work on?

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One of the true joys of mastering records for a living is just the sheer amount of music I get to listen to, and one of the things I quickly learned is that if you can’t find things to enjoy in music that perhaps ordinarily wouldn’t be your cup of tea, the work will become arduous pretty quickly! Every single song I work on has been made by someone who feels passionate about it, so even if it’s not to my personal tastes I always find something to love in it and treat it with the respect it deserves, and that often ends up in unexpected joy! I learned very quickly that what makes the work enjoyable is much more about people, communication and creative relationships than it is about your personal genre preferences!

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How does it feel / how does it differ hearing songs that you’ve produced in an intimate space like a studio performed live on stage in front of a huge crowd?

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I just love it. As much as I possibly can I go to see the bands and artists I work with when they come though the city, and it’s always such a joy to see the actual people behind those WAV files playing the music and it connecting with people in real time. That feeling of communal connection to music just can’t be replicated and is one of the greatest human experiences I can imagine.

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As mentioned above - a studio is often a very small and intimate space. How much does relationships / psychology play a part in the studio process?

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Hugely. As I mentioned earlier, I work as part of a collective and one of the reasons it was formed was to make the job less isolating and so we could essentially have colleagues! I think mastering in particular can be very solitary, and that can obviously have an effect on mental health which in turn can have an impact on the quality of your work. As well as the collective I’m also part of a WhatsApp group with a bunch of other mastering engineers so if at any point any of us need any help or even if we just want to get something off our chest, we have this little community that’s always there and always understands! You can’t do this as an island, finding your people is not just healthy, it’s imperative I feel.

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Do you have a favourite studio to work in and why is that?

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Well apart from my own room which is the only room I can say I’m 100% comfortable doing my best work in, I’m going to have to say Real World. Myself and Katie Tavini presented a masterclass event there last year and I’ve never been in an environment like it, it’s such a beautiful, special place full of absolutely amazing, friendly and creative people who are doing everything for exactly the right reasons, I just loved it. It was quite overwhelming to be honest! 

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What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working with sound / in a studio?

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I love just spending time with my wife and son, life as an independent freelancer in the music industry can be hectic and difficult to switch off from, so finding moments of peace and calm is important. I’m also a big Formula One fan, so getting to switch off and watch a race for a couple of hours is a lovely luxury! It’s not lost on me however, that mastering and F1 appeal to the exact same parts of my brain, the overarching idea that myriad tiny things can add up to something much bigger than the sum of their parts, and every tiny component can make a huge impact on the final result. 

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What advice would you give to your younger self about having a career in music?

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Find your people. Ask for help. Reach out to the people who are actually doing the thing you want to do and ask them how they got there, you’ll be surprised to find that most people will happily tell you. I spent too long not doing that and as soon as I realised that was a thing you could do, I kicked myself for not doing it years ago!

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Lastly – please could you tell us what it is about Flare Audio / OR a specific Flare product that you like so much?

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My 5-year old son is autistic, and one of his favourite things to do is make noise. A lot. Randomly, and loudly! He can shout louder than a Mogwai gig, and I know that because I’ve actually measured them both! So obviously working as I do in audio and critical listening being a big part of my work, I need to be very careful with my hearing. When I first discovered Flare I think I must have tried almost every product you make, and they all serve a specific purpose depending on how much sound I need to manage! I love the Calmer range and the new Definition, they’re perfect for just taking the edge off and the difference in how they make you feel is amazing, they really help with the sensory overwhelm that’s sometimes unavoidable in modern life. The Earshade earplugs are the best non-custom earplugs I’ve ever used too, I always have a pair handy along with some Calmers on my keys, as well as some carefully placed pairs around the house! To have a range of options to help manage the stress on my ears on an every day basis is genuinely important to the continuation of my work, so I’m really glad I discovered Flare when I did!