Professional Sound - February 2017 | Page 20

PROFILE

JOEY STURGIS

By Andrew King

It turns out that Joey Sturgis , one of the pros behind the Unstoppable Recording Machine podcast and training program , is something of an unstoppable entrepreneur in his own right . Since establishing himself as a go-to producer , engineer , and mixer in the world of modern metal production , Sturgis has wasted no time building up his brand and pushing into adjacent businesses . Now , outside of his continually successful studio work , he ’ s offering valuable info to fellow studio professionals alongside longtime friends and collaborators Eyal Levi and Joel Wanasek with Unstoppable Recording Machine and the popular Nail the Mix online training program , and has also lent his talents and trademarks to the Joey Sturgis Tones series of plug-ins .

His empire-in-progress is even more impressive considering his relative youth and the fact that he ’ s only been recording professionally for a little over a decade . What ’ s more , he says his entire career is really the product of a “ lucky accident .”
Sturgis grew up in a musical family in Connersville , IN . He learned guitar from his father , who ’ s been teaching the instrument for over 40 years , and was playing drums in his pre-teens with a band of 30-year-olds .
At 17 , he started producing beats and electronic tracks with Sound Forge , Acid Pro , and a RadioShack microphone . “ My friends would come over and we ’ d just goof around , so I never took it very seriously ,” he recalls with a chuckle .
Around that time , he was playing drums in a band that was ready to lay down a demo . “ We had no money , no idea how to do it , and so
I took it upon myself to take what I ’ d learned with the whole ‘ experimental beatmaking ’ thing and figure it out ,” he says . “ My friend had a makeshift studio in his garage , and I ’ d go in there at midnight and play around ‘ til 6 a . m ., go to bed , wake up at noon , and repeat . I did that for at least a year , maybe longer , and finally got to the point where I was comfortable recording the demo for the band .”
That demo ended up on the band ’ s MySpace page and Sturgis recalls a flood of inquiries coming in from people asking about the recording – where they cut it , with whom , how they did it … “ So our response was always , ‘ Our drummer did it ,’ and it was like , ‘ Well , can your drummer record my band ?’”
Sturgis started taking demo clients through MySpace , and each happy customer spawned several new referrals . His schedule booked up quickly , and yet even with all of the successful MySpace connections , his first album project was born of an entirely different set of circumstances .
“ My band played a show at a coffee shop close to 10 years ago with a band called The Devil Wears Prada ,” he shares – a band that has since ascended to the peak of the metalcore scene . “ I was just floored . They were doing something crazy and I just wanted to be a part of it , so I introduced myself and asked if I could record them .”
Initially , the band was keen to track their material themselves , but Sturgis persisted for close to six months and finally convinced them to come to Indiana and cut a demo . “ I think we decided on $ 80 for the whole EP because I was just so keen to do it ,” he recalls , laughing . On the back of that EP , the band signed with Rise Records and returned to Sturgis ’ own Foundation Recording Studios to cut their now heralded debut LP , Dear Love : A Beautiful Discord .
The album ’ s success essentially made Sturgis Rise Records ’ go-to engineer , with the label sending bands like Miss May I , Of Mice & Men , and For the Fallen Dreams his way for full album projects . He ’ s also produced , engineered and mixed the likes of MyChildren MyBride , Asking Alexandria , and We Came as Romans , lending his now-signature powerful , polished production style to their work . Not too bad for the guy who calls himself the “ champion of learning by trial and error .”
Since establishing himself as a household name in heavy music circles , Sturgis has expanded his brand into new genres and new initiatives entirely . With Nail the Mix , Sturgis and company will tackle a new song each month , and show people different techniques and approaches for mixing music using the raw tracks from an actual session . “ It breaks down barriers ,” Sturgis says of the endeavour . “ You ’ re getting world-class recordings of real musicians from big-budget studios . You ’ re not hindered by room sound or gear ; all that really matters is , what can you do with this song ?”
With the Unstoppable Recording Machine academy , they can tackle virtually every stage of the pre-mixing production process , from finding the right guitar tones to the fundamentals of compression and EQ to track editing . And that ’ s also where Joey Sturgis Tones products come in . As he says , it ’ s all about helping people on both sides of the glass create good music .
Having scaled to the peak of the heavy music industry , Joey Sturgis is now in the unique and fortunate position of having various professional endeavours that all support and feed into one another , creating a seemingly unstoppable ecosystem of success around his name .
Andrew King is the Editor of Professional Sound .
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