Alex Cores Hayes is a writer, producer, mixer and executive producer from East London. Originally making his name as part of the Haunted House collective, who came up on the pirate radio shows in and around the E5 postcode in the mid 00s, he became known to the wider world after produccing his long time collaborator and childhood friend Professor Green’s Upper Clapton Dance. He would go on to Executive Produce the majority of Green’s records including "Alive Till I'm Dead", "At Your...

Burke Reid is a Canadian-Australian producer, who began his career as part of the seminal Australian alt-rock trio Gerling. After ten years in the band, and 4 critically and commercially successful albums, he left to pursue a career solely in production. His very first full length role, The Mess Hall’s Devil’s Elbow won the Australia Music Prize and set him off on a fascinating and varied career as one of alternative music’s most interesting and in demand producers. Work with Courtney...

Our guest this week is Luke Smith, a British record producer and musician who emerged in the early mid 00s with his innovative and critically acclaimed band Clor. Having split up after their first album he immediately embarked on a production career and found early success with his work on Foals sophomore album Total Life Forever. As well as cracking the top ten it received a mercury award nomination and elevated the band to a new stratosphere in the British alternative and rock scene. Work...

This time our guest is Andy Hall Hall - a Music Producer / Songwriter / Engineer, working out of his studio in Battersea, South London. He started his career as a guitarist & vocalist in bands, but soon turned his interest to production after co-writing The Other Tribe's summer hit song 'Skirts' in 2012. He’s worked with some massive artists including James Gillespie, Bastille, Griff, Kygo, & Fickle Friends. He produced the majority of James Gillespie’s debut album ‘Safe’, including...

We've wanted to interview Catherine Marks since we started the pod and so we were delighted to finally get a chance to sit down and talk to her at the beginning of the year. An Australian by birth, producer and mixer Catherine is now based in London England. She begun her career after a chance meeting with super producer flood at a Nick Cave concert in the early 2000s. Abandoning a career in architecture she moved to London full time to assist at his legendary Assault and Battery Studios in...

It’s been a long time, we shouldn’t have left you, without a podcast to step to… We’re back with a surprise drop in time for Black Friday, to talk about all our favourite new plugins of 2022, the best free plugins out there, along with a news update and an apology for dropping out of the game mid-season! We also have a chat about how to make a sustainable career as a producer and grow your network, thanks to a great email from one of our listeners, James. Listen to last year’s Black Friday...

Something of a 'mini-pod' this week, no guests, just Lawrence and Bob pondering this question: What do we know now, that we wish we'd known when we started? Predictably, the answers range from very wholesome thoughts on your musical identity and songwriting, all the way to techy stuff like saturation and gain-staging.  We hope you enjoy this one!  Please let us know your answers to this question, or perhaps you are just starting out, and you have something that you wish you knew right now!?...

A year on from our first Mastering Engineer episode, we’re delighted to bring your our second. And this time around we’re speaking to the brilliant Katie Tavini. Katie is a mastering engineer based in Brighton, England. Originally combining her nascent mastering career with a full time role as an audio archivist, a nomination for the MPG (Music Producers Guild) Mastering Engineer of the Year award saw her, after a period of reflection she talks about in this interview, taking on her craft...

This week, we speak to a specialist vocal producer first time. Cameron Gower Poole graduated from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA), and made his way up the production ladder at Trevor Horn’s Sarm studios. After excelling as an engineer in vocal recording sessions, Cameron built a reputation as someone who could get the best out of an artist's singing performance. After being nominated for breakthrough producer of the year by the Music Producer’s Guild in 2021, and then vocal...

This week, we speak to Leo Abrahams. Leo is a musician, composer and producer. Although classically trained, he left behind a degree in composition at the royal academy to play guitar for Imogen Heap, and later, Ed Harcourt as part of their touring bands. A chance encounter with production legend Brian Eno led to him assisting on a variety of projects, often helping to ‘finish’ the myriad of releases Brian would be working across. This led to him taking on more production roles and Leo has...

Carey Willetts is the bass player in multi-platinum selling indie band Athlete. Along with his fellow band members, he wrote numerous hits including Wires which won an Ivor Novello award for 'Best Contemporary Single’ in 2006. Since turning his attention to writing and producing for others, Carey has worked extensively with Dermot Kennedy both as co-writer and producer on several tracks including Better Days, A Closeness, and Lost. Other credits include Amber Run, Jack Curley, and production...

Mikko Gordon is a London based mix engineer and producer. He graduated from Goldsmiths with a degree in music and has worked with much of the exciting talent coming out of that university since then. After building a relationship with Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich through his act Ultraísta, Nigel recognised Mikko’s talents, and brought him on to his team. Since then Mikko’s worked on some incredible projects, most recently The Smile, a supergroup which include Radiohead members Thom Yorke...

Welcome back to the Process of Production! After a hiatus during which Lawrence’s second son was born, we’re back, and better than ever. To start the new series, we interview the one-and-only Gordon Raphael. Gordon is a producer from Seattle, Washington in the USA. After an early encounter with a synthesiser opened his eyes to the world of music production, Gordon got involved in the grunge scene in his hometown, forming bands and making weird noises on his synth. After moving to New York...

Jim Lowe is a Grammy award winning engineer, musician, producer and mixer most famous for his work as the long time right hand man to Welsh Rock Band Stereophonics. Starting out as an Engineer at Nomis Studios in London, he made the step from the engineering chair to the production chair when Kelly Jones, the band's lead singer, reached out to him to engineer demo sessions for their fourth record. The two immediately struck up a fruitful working relationship and by the time the band came to...

This time we chat to prolific pop production powerhouse Paul Whalley. Working from his space in Tileyard (the north London studio hub that’s been home to the likes of Mark Ronson, Noel Gallagher and MNEK), Paul Whalley is one of the most prolific and exciting producers working in the industry today. Despite a masters from Guildhall School of music in Classical Composition, it’s in the more modern pop, dance and rock worlds that he’s been making a name for himself since moving to the Tileyard...

With Black Friday looming, Lawrence and Bob run down their top picks for discounted plugins and software during the annual sales, which seem to grow in volume every year. We discuss the big hitters like Waves, Soundtoys, and Native Instruments, but also some lesser known plugins including Bob’s #1 pick for Black Friday this year, which is on the master bus for every track he works on. We talk about when and why you might want to add some third-party software to your production arsenal,...

This week we talk to the amazing Isobel Anderson. After a career as an artist which has amassed over 25 million Spotify streams, Isobel set up the online community the Female DIY Musician, which helps female-identifying aspiring musicians and producers to find their confidence in an arena that has always been male-domianted. Last year, she started the podcast Girls Twiddling Knobs, which she describes as brining a "feminist perspective to all things music tech", and in our opinion is a...

This time, we speak to Emily Underhill, an artist and producer who performs under the name Tusks. After a self released Ep called ‘Ink’ in 2014, Tusks was signed by One Little Independent Records, and has gone on to release two albums with the label, Dissolve in 2017 and Avalanche in 2019. Tusks supported Bob’s band Alpines on tour, when Lawrence was playing keys in the live band, so the conversation picks up on many that we had sharing a tour van around Europe. Emily has been a...

Tim Palmer’s CV is beyond impressive - starting as an assisatant at Utopia studios in the 80s, he mixed worldwide smash I just died in your arms tonight by Cutting Crew - this led to further work with 80s new wave bands like Kajagogoo and The House Of Love - this brought him to the attention of Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin who wanted a more contemporary sound for his 80s solo work. His work on Robert’s records brought him to the attention of David Bowie who also wanted a fresh pair of ears on...

In this episode, we delve into the world of mastering for the first time. To guide us through what if often referred to as a ‘dark art’, we speak to mastering engineer Kelly Hibbert, who has a wonderful and varied CV across a range of genres, but especially alternative and hip-hop, working on records from Flying Lotus, J Dilla, Madlib, Jordan Rakei, Little Dragon, Duke Dumont, and MF Doom to name a few. Kelly has had an amazing career, starting out as a drummer, then getting into studio...

This week, we take a trip to 123 Studios in Peckham, south London, to interview the studio's owner, Brett Shaw. We speak to him about how his production skills are built on a foundation of engineering expertise, working on sprawling album projects, building your own preamps, and what it’s like recording the vocal for a multi-platinum Grammy-winning single. Brett started his music career as multi-instrumentalist in the band South, who signed to Mo' Wax  in the late 90s, a cult record...

This week we speak to producer, violinist, arranger, composer, and songwriter Tobie Tripp. Classically trained at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, he received his first break as a co-writer on Tom Misch's 2017 break out single “South Of The River.” This led to him emerging as producer and songwriting aid to a new generation of talent - including artists such as Honey Mooncie, Hannah Grace and Honne. Alongside his work as a producer and arranger he has become the go to composer for...

This week we have a somewhat self-congratulatory moment, and celebrate making it to double figures in episodes. It might not seem like a lot, but the podcast is well and truly off the ground now, and it’s time to appreciate that before we dive into our next round of interviews (we have a lot of great guests coming your way). For a bit of fun, we pose each other the questions that we pose to the guests in our regular features. So that’s the session food-tip, our thoughts on the most important...

We speak to Chris Sheldon, an Engineer, Mixer and Producer who has worked on some of the most influential rock records of the last 30 years. After serving an apprenticeship at various London studios through the 80s he produced the million selling debut album, troublegum, by cult british rock band Therapy! A couple of years later his relationship with super-producer Gil Norton led to him producing the Colour and The Shape for the Foo Fighters. Not content with 2 of the greatest rock records of...