Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephan Hawkes.
Hi Stephan, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is Stephan Hawkes, and I have been producing albums for over 20 years. After spending most of my career honing my craft in my hometown of Portland, Oregon, working with a lot of great local artists as well as many national and international acts, I moved to Los Angeles at the end of 2022 and run a multi-studio facility in North Hollywood, CA. From production and engineering to mixing and mastering, I work in all phases of the production process and focus on making sure that artist’s needs and creative vision are met and fulfilled.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I would say it feels like it’s been a relatively smooth road, but in reality, the odds of making a career in music are always stacked against you. Running your own business of any kind is never the easy road to choose and building a client base as a young person living in a suburb of a smaller metro area meant that things really did take a while to develop. Honestly, it was far from guaranteed that I would ever be able to make a career out of music production at all. Luckily for me, it was a lot cheaper to live in the early 2000s, and that allowed me to stay hungry and push myself as hard as I needed to in order to keep my head above water long enough for things to come together.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
In the broadest of terms, I pride myself on being able to help artists achieve their musical vision at all phases of the music production process. And unlike most people who specialize in one or two of the jobs related to making records, I do all of the jobs at a high level for a WIDE variety of genres. This allows me to showcase a broader understand of music as a whole and keeps things fresh for me.
I would definitely say I am mostly known for doing rock/guitar-focused music and all of the lighter and heavier offshoots of that. So, anything from the most intimate singer/songwriter music to the most intense technical death metal and everything in between. But again, things vary quite a bit depending on the job I’m doing.
In Mastering I work with plenty of pop and hip-hop artists and have even been mastering music for Air Supply for the better part of a decade, and this is in addition to all of the guitar-based music I also master. Mastering is less genre dependent than production because it is more of a technical endeavor of making sure that the overall sonics of a project are as good as they can be and that they are competitive for the genre and translate well across all platforms. Over the years, I have assembled a truly bespoke and world-class collection of mastering equipment that allows me to bend and shape the sound of whatever projects I am sent. With mastering and audio production work in general, I’m only concerned with what IS possible and have no interest in putting limitations on any project. One of my favorite things is achieving sonic feats of strength that people don’t think can be done.
When mixing, the job usually becomes quite a bit more specialized for most people, but that isn’t really the case for me. I’ve mixed about as wide of a variety of projects as I’ve mastered, and the key to this is understanding the requirements of each genre. And there are techniques I’ve learned doing extreme genres that end up coming in handy on simpler ones, and the more you mix, the more you pick up experience that will help you on your next project. If you do a wide array of projects over a 20-year period like I have, and you pay attention to general musical trends, eventually, you’ve got enough gameplans to make sure that you can handle any mix project that comes in. Although I certainly have groups of things I generally try to achieve when mixing, I don’t work from a template. Music is too diverse and personal to have a “one size fits all” solution for everything. You have to fully understand what it’s going to turn the tracks you are given in the final product that the client wants, and you have to be will and able to make it happen.
As far as Engineering is concerned, I have assembled the perfect equipment to make sure I can capture the best sounds possible. No stone has been left unturned, and I have a guitar/amp collection that is more comprehensive and well-put together than I ever imagined possible. This attention to detail ensures that someone can just fly in with nothing but their personal belongings, and everything they need to make a record is here waiting for them. And between being a studio musician myself who can handle drums, guitar, and bass and all of the other musical resources I know, whatever needs done can and will get done.
All of these angles factor heavily into my Production style. Production means a lot of different things to different people, but to me, it means being able to navigate and elevate any project and give the artist whatever their particular project needs to connect with the people that consume their art. That is a very broad definition, but anyone who has ever made a record with me knows exactly what I mean by that because whatever was required for them to be happy with their final product is exactly what they got. My overall production philosophy is that being able to interject my own aesthetic and taste into every project I work on a long while also executing the vision of the artist should be a seamless process where everyone wins.
No matter what phase of the production process I am involved in, the requirement is always the same: Give Them What They Came For. It’s the entire basis of my entire career and I’ve found that as long as you do that, people will keep coming back and trusting you with their art.
What makes you happy?
Honestly, I find joy in almost all musical endeavors. Just creating things that will last forever and executing the vision of an artist brings a big smile to my face every time. I also enjoy free time with my wife and dog, spending time with friends and family, and discovering and enjoying the many food and entertainment options in my area (and beyond).
Contact Info:
- Website: www.stephanhawkes.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephanhawkes
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/stephanhawkes
