Sound Architect: A Conversation with Producer Connor Small

Connor Small, also known as Quiet Son, shares his journey as a Los Angeles-based producer and mix/mastering engineer for both Grass-Fed Music and independent artists worldwide.

• Originally from Philadelphia, Connor discovered his passion for music early, banging on pots and pans as a child
• Gained initial studio experience through high school recording programs and internships
• Approaches production as a collaborative process rather than exerting control over artists
• Uses the analogy of artists being in the driver's seat while he rides shotgun with the map
• Views rhythm as the foundation of all music, emphasizing its importance when recording live performances
• Has worked on projects ranging from American Horror Story to independent artists across multiple genres
• Believes in making professional production accessible by working with artists' budgets
• Advises new artists to trust themselves while remaining open to feedback
• Emphasizes the importance of finding someone who believes in your vision
• Recommends waiting until you truly believe in your songs before recording them
• Can be reached through Instagram (@quietsonmusic) or his website (quietson.com)

For production inquiries, visit Connor's website at quietson.com or find him on Instagram @quietsonmusic.

Chapters

• 0:56 Meeting Connor Small aka Quiet Son
• 2:46 Musical Beginnings and Education
• 5:11 Working with Independent Artists
• 7:31 The Producer's Approach to Engineering
• 14:05 Artist Collaboration and Studio Control
• 20:03 Live Recording and Rhythm Foundations
• 23:19 Advice for New Artists
• 27:31 Career Moments and Contacting Quiet Son
• 35:13 Contracts, Legal Aspects, and Lessons Learned

Transcript

Rob (Wardrums) Franklin: 0:28

Hi and welcome to Franklin's Garage to Stage podcast. My name is Rob Franklin and my co-host is Dana Thunderbase Franklin With us today.

Dana (Thunderbass) Franklin: 0:39

We have a special guest, Real excited to have him on our show. His name is Connor Small. Also goes by the name of Quiet Son. He's a producer and mix and mastering engineer for Grass-Fed Music. How are you doing, sir? I'm good. Thanks for having me on, fellas. Oh, absolutely Thanks for joining us. So tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do over there.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 1:02

Yeah, so I'm a Los Angeles-based producer and engineer. I work both as an in-house producer for Grass-Fed Music, which is an artist management company, and I also work as a freelance producer with independent artists all across the country and the world. And, originally from Philadelphia, I'm living in Los Angeles now and, you know, working on music every day. It's been a blessing.

Rob (Wardrums) Franklin: 1:30

Oh cool, I see how we see from your webpage. You've worked with quite a few artists, which is your most successful project to date.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 1:39

You know I've done a couple of sync things for some TV shows like American Horror Story, some trailer things for that. Probably that's the most recognizable. But I've also had a couple of independent successes with artists like Nikita and Chrissy. So you know very, very proud of the independent work I've done.

Dana (Thunderbass) Franklin: 1:59

Awesome. So how did you get involved in your trade there? At what age did you realize that this is something you wanted to get into and what motivated you to pursue this?

Conner (Quietson) Small: 2:18

and and what motivated you to pursue this? Yeah, you know, uh, I think for me it's it was never really a decision. I think it was more something that I always wanted to do and, um, you know, as I grew up, I kind of learned the right way as far as how to produce music and like how to get into it, as far as going to school and and all that, but I think. But I think if you ask my parents the same question, they would say I was born this way. I used to pull all of the pots and pans out of my pantry and start.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 2:41

Yeah, would hit them with spoons. And you know, I think at that point my mom and dad were like, oh, we're in trouble.

Rob (Wardrums) Franklin: 2:49

I went through the exact same thing. Being a drummer. That's exactly what.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 2:51

I did.

Rob (Wardrums) Franklin: 2:55

Tu. I went through the exact same thing, being a drummer.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 2:57

That's exactly what I did Tupperware pots and pans with a ladle and spoons Very cool yeah. But I think I grew up in a very musical household. I was in the church choir growing up and both my parents were singers, so they really fostered that early on and I was very fortunate that just at different touch points in my education kind of things were starting at the time I was there. So a couple examples of that are my high school started a recording kind of program, like a couple classes when I was there, and so I got to have some exposure to that in high school and that pushed me in the direction of doing my senior project at a recording studio.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 3:33

That was, you know, pretty close to where I grew up. So I was just an intern there and, you know, a runner, just got coffee, learned how to wrap cables the right way, but even doing that very menial stuff I was just in love with being in the studio and being around fans and artists and just kind of wowed by the more engineering and technical side of things too. So I decided to go to college. When I went to college it was a liberal arts school but again, just very fortunate that they happened to start a music production program there, an audio engineering program when I was a sophomore. So very quickly dropped my business major and ran to that.

Rob (Wardrums) Franklin: 4:12

That's a good combination of business and recording.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 4:15

Yeah, I think it ended up being really useful as I transitioned from being somebody who always loved music and wrote music into somebody who really saw this as something that could be a professional venture to somebody who really saw this as something that could be a professional venture.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 4:38

Now I see that you work with a lot of independent artists, but do you work with any bands as well? I do, yeah, I work with a couple of bands, for example, one run by a guy named David Kessling and a couple others out here in Los Angeles. Primarily I work with more solo pop artists, but I do take on band clients whenever I can, because it's a very different experience and it's really fun, yeah, I bet.

Dana (Thunderbass) Franklin: 5:01

Now, when you do band stuff, do you limit the genre that you want to work with, or will you take on everything from regular rock bands to death bands, or I mean, how, how far would you, how far would you go with that?

Conner (Quietson) Small: 5:17

Yeah, I know I really don't like to limit myself. Uh, as far as genre I, I think the only thing I would limit myself to is I really like to work with artists who are imaginative and who are trying to push the boundaries in whatever genre they're doing. So you know, for me, I listen to everything. I have a deep appreciation for all kinds of different music. So you know, if it's a death metal band and they're trying to bring in elements of different things and push the sonic boundaries, I think my specialty is really like bringing in different types of references and different types of genres into whatever genre the artist or the band I'm working with is. So don't try to limit myself, and I have musical ADHD, basically.

Dana (Thunderbass) Franklin: 5:58

So I get a little bored if I'm working on the same type of thing all the time. Nice. Now. Is there any special kind of elements or process that you go through when mixing and mastering to make these bands sound different, or is there a special technique that you use?

Conner (Quietson) Small: 6:16

Yeah, that's a great question. I don't know if I have a special technique. I don't think I'm doing anything that is revolutionary, Although I would say what I always fall back onto is trusting my taste and really listening to the artists. So that's what I would say is my special sauce is really putting the artist's vision at the forefront, doing everything I can to support that and then really bringing in my own taste and my own kind of way of looking at the musical landscape and what lights me up. You know, I think overall I approach mixing and production as as a world-building opportunity. I really love fiction and sci-fi movies and things like that. I try to apply the fundamentals of how do you get sucked into a really good story into what I do. Even though mixing can be very technical, I still try to approach it from a creative, world-building standpoint.

Rob (Wardrums) Franklin: 7:13

Okay, cool. Now do you have a particular studio that you work with, or you do a lot of home type engineering, or how's that process?

Conner (Quietson) Small: 7:23

Yeah, both. So I have a home studio that I work out of. I would say maybe, you know, 60 to 75% of the time and that's just for my own convenience. But you know I work out of a number of studios around la. So I've worked out of melrose hills and, um, girl sound studios on hillhurst. Stab is a great one. Um, you know various home studios that friends of mine or colleagues of mine run um, yeah, it's great.

Dana (Thunderbass) Franklin: 8:04

La is fantastic. There's just a range of studios, yeah, yeah, it's awesome for the last 30, 40 years, and we just recently started another project. But you know if, if we were at the point where we're ready to go into a studio and, you know, get something going, could we come to you directly, or or is this something that they would have to go through, like grass fed or some other kind of management company?

Conner (Quietson) Small: 8:26

Yeah, I mean you can definitely come right to me. I think, uh, with with grass fed. You know they have a roster of independent artists that they're developing, so they will send those artists, when they think it's a good fit, over to me. I'll take a listen and see if it's a good fit and we'll work together in that capacity. But I have independent artists or label artists hit me up all the time. Most of the time I would say it's pretty informally, through Instagram, people just saying, hey, do you have any beats? Or um, you know I found your work on such and such platform and you know I have some demos. But you know I. There's a number of ways that artists find me, whether that's through kind of the online producer, like freelancing marketplaces, like sound better, or Instagram, or they find my website. It's. It's always cool, but you know, I think for me a lot of it is referrals as well. That's how I get a lot of work.

Rob (Wardrums) Franklin: 9:20

Okay, cool. Now I hate to date myself here, but the last time I was in a studio it was actually on tape. It was, I believe, an inch and a half or two inch tape I can't remember the size exactly, but I remember when we were finished we had to actually pay for the master. You know that tape, and that was actually more expensive than the the recording process. So how is that different from nowadays, where everything's like digital?

Conner (Quietson) Small: 9:42

yeah, well, I you know. Similarly, I don't think you're dating yourself. I also started on tape you're much younger so cool.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 9:51

No, I I remember vividly getting chastised about not being very careful with the tape, but that was also an education I got in college was like learning how to cut the tape with you know razor blades and splice different sections. I wouldn't say it's a lost art form, but it's definitely not common anymore. You know, I think one of the great things is you can do everything in the box now, and I think that in some ways democratizes things both for people like me, who are in the production world or the engineering world, but also for artists too, because, as you said, it can be a really expensive process and I think that a lot of artists are able to come to somebody like me, or I think that a lot of artists are able to come to somebody like me or you know my. You know people who are kind of doing the same thing that I'm doing, and they're able to have a more affordable experience and still get a really, really great professional sound Nice.

Dana (Thunderbass) Franklin: 10:45

Okay. Well, since you brought up the word affordable, you know I'm going to ask what kind of costs is involved for somebody using your services, whether it's for a single song or a complete. Well, I guess they don't call them albums anymore, Do they?

Conner (Quietson) Small: 11:02

Yeah, there's definitely still albums. Actually Just wrapped an album project today. They're definitely still in existence. I think you know, as far as when somebody comes to me, I like to look at, you know I have standard rates right. They're always changing depending on my bandwidth and you know what the artist is able to swing and and that's that's really what's key for me is I like to keep things. You know, unless you have a label that's giving you an advance and you're you know you have a set budget for your production or for the mix on your album. My thing is, there's so many barriers to entry to the music industry already, Like one of the things that I can control in my own world is, you know, without sacrificing being able to put food on the table, I like to work with artists as much as I can on their budget. Um, cause I don't think that anybody should be priced out of having a professional sound, and there's so many artists that I'm sure throughout history has been priced out.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 12:00

You know they, they are super talented, but you know it's if it's a choice between paying your rent or you know recording a song, you know I can understand if the choice is rent, and so for me, I always look at a project holistically. You know, what can the artist afford? Where's my kind of middle ground on what I can afford to, you know, allow in terms of reductions on my price? But if they come to me I'll look at it holistically and I'll offer production services vocal recording, mixing, mastering. Sometimes I offer programming for live sets if they're doing, you know, more of a, if they're using background tracks or maybe they're mixing in some electronic elements with a band. So, yeah, I like to provide a range of services and also price it in a way where the artist feels comfortable and they still feel like they're getting a really good producer and really good sound nice.

Rob (Wardrums) Franklin: 12:55

Now, do you do live shows as well? I mean, have you done engineering on live shows as well, or just, uh, strictly recording?

Conner (Quietson) Small: 13:03

yeah, strictly in the studio. I I've never really branched out into the live engineering scene. That's uh, it's a whole different piece and I think for me I I'm a little more comfortable in the studio.

Dana (Thunderbass) Franklin: 13:14

Okay, I get you like to have the four walls around me more control, uh okay, well, speaking of control, you know, say, a band comes in and you know they're working with you and but you hear something that maybe you don't like or you'd like to change. How much control do you like to have and what? What kind of you?

Rob (Wardrums) Franklin: 13:34

know, what?

Dana (Thunderbass) Franklin: 13:37

what kind of giveaway is there for you know, do you work with the band and the band work with you?

Conner (Quietson) Small: 13:42

question. Yeah, really good question. I think it's always a it's a dance, right? I think for me, control is a really sticky work, because I think that a lot of producers want full control and that's just not how I approach it.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 13:58

I think for me, it's really more of a collaboration. You know, as I mentioned before, it's like it's putting the artist's vision first right, because they are the artists. They have that artistic instinct and I like to. I like to work with the artists to maximize that artistic instinct and when there are disagreements, when there are moments of maybe feedback needs to be delivered in terms of hey, I think we can do this performance a little bit better, or, you know, maybe something isn't working. It's more of an examination of why isn't this working, or why aren't we feeling what we want to feel, versus you need to do it this way, cause I think for me, I'm only one person and maybe I do trust my taste and that, again, that's always what I fall back on, but you know, I'm not the only person with good taste in the world, or I would say good taste, obviously, but uh, you know, I think it's also a learning experience for me too.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 14:49

Sometimes I get surprised, I think something's not going to work and it ends up being the best part of the record. So it's always remaining open to that part of the process and making sure that the artists because a lot of artists can get discouraged very easily and working with a producer, especially as an independent artist, can be really intimidating um, I've had artists kind of look at me as, like the, the boss of the environment, and that is very much not what I'm trying to foster. I'm very much trying to foster. I'm very much trying to foster.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 15:21

I think the metaphor I always use with artists is like when I talked to them for the first time is you, as the artist, are in the driver's seat, I'm riding shotgun, I'm looking at a map, I'm telling you all the different ways we can get to your destination. Maybe this one's the fastest, but this one's maybe a little more scenic and you get to decide do we take the scenic route or do we get on the highway and just floor it 100 miles an hour and get there as fast as possible.

Rob (Wardrums) Franklin: 16:19

That's a good analogy. Thank you, and I can tell you your compassion for it as well. Now, I've only recorded in a studio twice. Both scenarios were live, where we were all playing at the same time, but one was in all the instruments were in isolation booths and the other was in the same room. How do you approach live-type recordings?

Conner (Quietson) Small: 16:43

Live recording is fun. I think there is definitely magic that can happen when you have a band that's tracking together in the room. Now, obviously, there are technical limitations to what you can do there.

Rob (Wardrums) Franklin: 16:56

Right and all that Right.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 16:59

Yeah, you know it's. I think for me, like always having the drum room feel big but somewhat contained, like you want it to feel, like there's some energy and vibe coming from that particular room Right, and having the basis to be in there is really helpful because you have that rhythm section syncing up and that's what we are yeah, there you go.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 17:22

So, yeah, you, you know exactly what I'm talking about. I think I'm very bottom up when it comes to production, so I always want to make sure that the rhythm is is hitting first thank you, I love your writing yeah, I mean, I think it's important, right, like whenever I'm tracking something that is live, and I think this applies to electronic recording too but the, the rhythm, is the most important part to me outside of the vocals, because that's I mean, that's the first music anybody made, right?

Rob (Wardrums) Franklin: 18:00

It's like we're sitting around a fire.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 18:03

Rocks against stick, yeah, clapping hitting our thighs, you know those are the most. I think that's the essence of music. Vocalizing on top of those rhythms is it's a communication, and so you communicate a lot with the rhythm. I think that everything has to start there, and then you know, it can be a challenge if you have a lot of session musicians coming in and they're trying to slot themselves into that. But I think as long as the rhythm is working, it's very easy for other musicians to pick up what's going on. So I always start from there cool there we go

Dana (Thunderbass) Franklin: 18:36

okay, so here's a scenario for you and, um, you know, say you know you've got a full band coming in. They want to do, you know, some studio work and stuff down, and and you're on board with everything they're doing, but say there's one member of the band that's just not quite cutting it or maybe isn't up to par. The rest of them, you know, do you suggest to the other members hey, we can replace this guy. You know just on, you know on the work and you know if you want to do stuff with them, live fine. But I mean, how would you approach something like that where you have maybe one member that's just holding, holding the rest of the guys back?

Conner (Quietson) Small: 19:13

yeah, I mean, the studio environment can be very different than a live environment. So you may have somebody who gets a little for lack of a better word like a little gun shy or a little nervous when they're in the studio. So my first instinct is to always go to that person privately and have a conversation with them and be like hey, like just checking in with you how you feeling, do you need anything? I think my the way I approach my role as a producer when I'm in the studio is, you know, obviously there's there's personality management that can happen, but I think you know making sure that, yeah, I think it's like you never want to cause a situation where somebody is going to feel embarrassed or tempered or temporarily going to flare that like that happened, of course, right and then you can manage those situations.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 19:59

But I think, going to somebody privately and being like you know, encouraging them right, like I know you can do this, like you, you wrote this part right, you can definitely do this or do you want a little help or a little, you know, maybe maybe I can give it a shot and we can kind of work on it together. It it's. I think that's the first way to approach it Now. If it's really not working, I think then it's still a private conversation of like, hey, how do you feel about bringing somebody in for this? You know, I know you can play it, but maybe maybe it's just an off day, right? We're humans, we have, we have our off days.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 20:30

Um, you know, yeah, uh, michael jordan didn't score, you know, 80 points every game, right, you know, he had his games where he scored 10 or 20, right. So you know, I I think it's it's really about giving grace to people, meeting them where they're at. If somebody does need to be replaced, it's making sure that you have buy-in from the whole band and that you know, because they're still going to go out and perform together, maybe tour together you don't want to leave a bad taste in anybody's mouth through the studio and you also don't want to let anybody domineer from other band members, like you don't want the singer coming in unless it's the singer's band and and everybody's in agreement that the singer called the shots. You don't want somebody kind of dictating what's going on, and that's a big part of being a producer as well as managing ourselves.

Rob (Wardrums) Franklin: 21:17

Yeah, like I said, that's got to be the hardest part of managing personalities. In fact, we just had this discussion on our last podcast about you know how a band is really like a marriage, and it's got to be more of a democracy, rather than, you know, one person calling the shots. Yeah, so that's an important part of being a band. But my question to you is for new artists, because we're kind of we're called Garage and Stage, so we're kind of trying to encompass the whole process. But for new artists, like maybe just starting out, what would be your advice to them?

Conner (Quietson) Small: 21:51

getting to the point to where they should record. Yeah, I think the first thing I would say is trust yourself. You make the music you make for a reason, so always trust your artistic vision, but also be open to feedback, constructive feedback, you know. Be open to community, bring people in, you know, don't be afraid to work with other people. You might. You know, I think it can be kind of like dating, like you, with producers, with band members. Like you, you might need to go through a couple of different quote-unquote relationships to find the one that sticks.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 22:28

Um, you know, it can be, it can be nerve, like nerve-wracking, putting yourself out there. But I think that's the first thing is really trust yourself, be open to community. The second thing is find somebody who is going to believe in you. Find somebody who's going to meet you where you're at and help you grow, whether that's a manager, a producer, band member, band member um, you want to have somebody that is going to see your vision, maybe see how that vision can be achieved, uh, if you don't yourself, and support you on the way getting there.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 23:04

And then, lastly, just from a technical, uh, perspective, as far as like, when do you know it's time to go to the studio. I think you know it's time to go to the studio when you have songs that you really believe in and need to record. I think if you're unsure about a song, don't go to the studio yet. Refine it, work with somebody, bring in a songwriter, if you're, if your gut's telling you, hey, I, I don't know what I want to do in terms of recording this song, just wait, you know it can be recorded later. But if you have songs that you're like God, I'm dying to get these recorded and I'm dying to put them out because I believe in them. I believe in myself. That's your indication.

Rob (Wardrums) Franklin: 23:44

Good advice Awesome.

Dana (Thunderbass) Franklin: 23:47

So when everybody's pointed in their career, they always have their one special moment where the light bulb goes on and it hits them. It's like oh shit, this is, this is what I was meant to do. Or you know, kind of like the pinnacle of your career, have you had a moment like that?

Conner (Quietson) Small: 24:02

I think I've had several. Yeah, I I don't know if that will ever stop for me because I think it's uh, I don't know if that will ever stop for me because I think it's. You know, this is a very like passion driven career for me, but I think one moment that really stands out to me is when I first graduated college and I moved to New York. I was both working on some solo stuff as an artist, learning how to produce, and I was in a duo where I was producing, uh, most of the tracks, although we were co-writing, and my band member, you know, was also doing some production. And I think the light bulb moment for me was when that duo ended and I felt fine. Not fine because I wasn't, you know, sad to see that kind of phase end or to see that project end, because I was, but I felt fine because I, through that process, had learned not only like I can do this as far as producing music, but also I felt so lit up by it, I felt so fulfilled by it that I was like oh yeah, I can do this for myself, but I can also do this for others. You know, I can help others have that feeling for myself, but I can also do this for others. You know I can help others have that feeling and that's what really drove me to fully pursue production, because you know there were so many things that were saying to me.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 25:38

Like you know, I was working at a record label at the time. You know you could just work at a record label, you could stay there and be in the music industry, but I wasn't getting that same feeling of being really like fulfilled and lit up. It was a day job. It was a cool day job, but it was a day job, yeah. But you know, I think I think that was the aha moment for me. It was like, okay, this thing that I was putting a lot of energy into fizzled out and I had to step away, and feeling fine about that and feeling confident in that really pointed me in the right direction.

Rob (Wardrums) Franklin: 26:08

Cool. Well, you have an impressive resume. Are we able to take things from your website and put it on our podcast website as well?

Conner (Quietson) Small: 26:17

Yeah, absolutely Everything on my website is released, so please feel free to include any songs you feel gravitating toward.

Rob (Wardrums) Franklin: 26:23

Cool, Thank you. Now. If somebody wanted to approach you after listening to this, what's the best way to contact you?

Conner (Quietson) Small: 26:30

Yeah, so, as I mentioned you can, you can definitely find me on Instagram, my. My Instagram handle is quiet sun music. You can reach out to me over email. I have a website form on my website quiet suncom. You can fill out all your project details and get in touch with me directly. Um, I would say those are the best uh, best places to reach me.

Dana (Thunderbass) Franklin: 26:50

okay, cool okay and okay, so quiet, son. There's got to be some kind of backstory to that you know where does that come from? Is that, is that like a, a family thing, or is that something you came up with? Tell?

Conner (Quietson) Small: 27:03

tell us the story on that family thing, or is that something you came up with? Tell, tell us the story on that. Yeah, no, I you know. I don't know if there's any like huge story or meaning behind it, but it's. You know, when I first started out, I was producing under a moniker called husks and that was like I was making really dark industrial music and I was really into horror movies and it like, yeah, it was something I think for me at the time was embodying this like very dark, brooding side of me.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 27:31

But it wasn't. It wasn't a complete picture and I struggled with it for a while and I I also realized like people, people weren't really getting it and I had to have some really hard conversations with myself about like okay, what, what identity am I trying to put out there as producer and as an artist? Cause I I do still record and release my own music. Cool and quiet son just kind of came to me Cause I think I was always a shy kid, I was always a quiet kid.

Rob (Wardrums) Franklin: 28:00

Um, now, do you have a brother? It was like there's one. Is that my sister? Okay, okay, I have a sister.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 28:06

She's uh, you know, she's eight years older than me. So in in some ways, uh, I did have a lot of alone time as a kid because I think when she went to college I was eight or nine. Um, you know, so I was a quiet kid and I think what quiet son communicates to me and what I found that people really understand about it when they read my bio and kind of connect that all is that there is a softness. You can kind of come as an artist, be seen, um, you know, be taken care of as far as, like bringing something really powerful or painful into your music and know that somebody's going to have the empathy to sit across from you and understand that and work through that process of putting it into a song, which can be really delicate. Um, so, yeah, I think overall it's really just trying to communicate to people that, uh, this is a, this is a space of, of, yeah, of softness and quietness.

Rob (Wardrums) Franklin: 29:14

Cool. Well, you sold me. I'd love to work with you. Hey, I've got one more question. Okay, I've got one more question for you. Um, recording practices, practices. We're a band, obviously, so what would be your advice for bands in like, say, maybe a limited room for just recording practices?

Rob (Wardrums) Franklin: 29:33

you know, basically for your own, you know your own use to look for, you know areas to be improved on yeah, areas to be improved on in terms of just how you record well, yeah, just overall, like like, sound like, say maybe like we, we spend a lot of time with our mix to make sure it sounds good before we even play, obviously so we can hear each other at the right levels. But if we want to record our practices to see, you know, just basically for listen for mistakes or see what's working, what, what isn't working, what would your advice be for for? Basically the mix of a room and maybe say a small room like like 20 by 20 type size room yeah, sound treatment is very important.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 30:16

Um, you want to make sure that you're not having any spots, especially if you're recording like drums or guitar that have some of those really high mid frequencies. You want to make sure that any reflection points are taken care of, and there's some programs and microphones you can buy that can help you find those reflection points so that you can put that sound treatment in in a way that's unique to your room. I think ear training is really good. There's a website, I think it's called Ear Gym or something like that, but it basically gives you listening exercises and it can help you train your ear. So I do see that as something that can be really helpful.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 30:56

As far as, like understanding if the mix is off or if something isn't quite sitting right, can kind of identify oh, it's coming from these low mids and maybe the guitar needs to be lowered an octave or the bass needs to fill a little bit more space. Um, and then you know the other thing, as far as just hardware or software, it's like really learning how to use eqs and really learning how to use compressors at least a like a basic fundamental understanding that can also take recording to another level, because it will add just a little bit of more control dynamically and control frequency-wise, to your recordings. I think you can go a long way with EQ and compression.

Dana (Thunderbass) Franklin: 31:38

Cool. So if say a solo artist or band they want to work with you, especially after hearing this podcast, they're like oh, this guy sounds awesome. And you know say down the road.

Dana (Thunderbass) Franklin: 31:49

We get our stuff, you know, really tight and we want to give you a call. At what point, I mean, would an individual or a band need a manager to approach you first? Or can they just come to you and say, hey, we want to do this, we don't have any management, you know, we approach you first. Or can they just come to you and say, hey, we want to do this, we don't have any management, you know, we just want to do this on our own. Um, is that something as approachable? And then the other part of that question would be what are the legal ramifications? I mean as, as far as you know, um legal ownership of the rights and licensing and all that that goes with it. How do you approach that?

Conner (Quietson) Small: 32:21

yeah, yeah, you definitely do not need a manager to reach out to me, uh, nor a lawyer. You can just hit me up directly and work with me. Uh, I promise I'm a approachable guy. But, uh, yeah, I, I think I work with artists of the entire spectrum of the music industry, like somebody who's just starting out and has no idea what a producer does or how to make a song, um, all the way up to people who are assigned to labels and you know the whole gamut in between. So it's the kind of thing where you can reach out to me directly and I I treat every artist the same, um, you know, I look at every project individually, um, and give that project what it needs.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 33:05

So sometimes it's I need to produce and mix and master the whole song. Sometimes it's hey, we just need an extra set of eyes or ears on this. Can you come in and just add a couple of things? As far as legal ramifications, you know I always think it's good to have a producer agreement ramifications. You know, I, I always think it's good to have a producer agreement. Um, that way, just everything is above board. You know what the terms are. I think there's a couple of things, uh, split sheets and and producer agreements are good. Split sheets are always a negotiation as far as what you, as the artists, are comfortable giving up sometimes what is that exactly?

Conner (Quietson) Small: 33:44

so a split sheet is basically what artists and producers and songwriters use to determine what percentage of the song each person who worked on it okay, controls okay. Industry standard for a producer is five points, and five points essentially means 20 of the artist's share of the track. So in a situation where you have a label, you have multiple songwriters, the artist might be taking, let's say, 18% of the track Within that. Typically, they're giving up 20% of that to a producer. Um, no, I don't always do that. It's a little more simple when you don't have a label with independent artists. I've done 50, 50 splits if there's no fee involved. Um, so it's. It's always a negotiation as far as like, how much are you paying me upfront? How much do you feel comfortable giving up? Um, I'm never going to demand a certain amount, but we will have a conversation around what feels good for everybody.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 34:46

If you have songwriters in the room, you know we always have to have a transparent conversation around what contribution was added. Normally I try to keep things equal and equitable between all the people in the room. Make sure everybody's voice is heard and everybody feels adequately compensated. Make sure everybody's voice is heard and everybody feels adequately compensated. Now, if you have a manager, they're going to take care of the bulk of that. But again, they should be involving everybody in the conversation.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 35:14

Producer agreements it's really just setting forth the terms of the work that we're doing. You know, am I producing an album for you? Am I producing a single? How much am I charging you? When are the payments due? You know how do I deliver your files, what are my expectations as far and your expectations as far as the cadence of how often we're meeting, as well as like, if we do need to split, if you do want to go in a different direction or I want to go in a different direction, you know what are the terms of how we split. So it really just keeps everybody protected and all the information about porn.

Dana (Thunderbass) Franklin: 35:48

Cool. And one more thing I want to ask, and you know now, now that we got all these questions about all the formality stuff down, um, loosen this up a little bit, and everybody's had a moment in their, in their career where it's either really mostly embarrassing something where like, oh shit, I can't believe I really did that. Tell us about something that maybe you're producing something and it didn't quite go as planned, or you forgot to hit the record button, or something like that.

Rob (Wardrums) Franklin: 36:18

No shit moments.

Dana (Thunderbass) Franklin: 36:20

Yeah, there's got to be a moment where you're like, oh damn, I wish today never happened.

Rob (Wardrums) Franklin: 36:24

We've had quite a few of those.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 36:27

Oh, we all, we all have. Oh, man, um, where do I even start? I mean, I, you know, I was doing a. I was doing a producing a writing camp. Uh, last year, maybe it was the year before, I can't remember, but, um, you know, I'm the main producer. I'm also engineering. We got, you know, 50 different artists and songwriters cycling in and out of the room and I show up to the studio and thank god I showed up early because I come in and I'm like, oh fuck, nothing's set up, sorry can I curse?

Conner (Quietson) Small: 36:58

that's all right, well, yeah, but uh, yeah, you realized, oh man, like there's no intern, uh, so I have to figure this out on my own. There's, um, just nothing is working. And you know, having to kind of troubleshoot that and for the first, like I would say, hour of the day, just everything that could go wrong was going wrong, like the mic preamps weren't working, the compressor was shut off, my laptop was having issues and I was like man, this is just not my day. You know, eventually we found another producer who could come in and troubleshoot some things with me and we got it all sorted. But I think it's moments where you feel like, okay, people are kind of counting on me to figure this out. It's a new environment and you can't quite exactly get it. And you know this is why we have interns and assistants who are familiar with the space. But you know, I think that was that was an oh shit moment. And I think also, just, you know, reflecting on the question about contracts and things like that, you know my own personal experience and I'll share this for any artists who are listening who might be intimidated by contracts I think it's always a good thing to have a lawyer take a look at things.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 38:12

I got into a contract when I was much younger with an artist marketing firm and I won't say the name of it.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 38:19

But an oh shit moment for me was when I realized I signed this agreement and they're not doing anything. They're not doing any work and I had to essentially buy out the agreement, um, and move forward from that. But it was no shit moment because I learned a lesson of like I, as an artist, wanted to have my music promoted and I didn't do enough vetting to make sure that it was the right situation for me. Um, now, luckily, I continued to follow up and I continued pushing them to do the work that they said they would do in the contract. They gave me the bare minimum, didn't even fulfill the terms of the contract. But that was no shit moment for me, cause I was like you know, I really wish I had done a little bit more research and not trusted so readily. So I'm not saying artists shouldn't trust, but they should definitely do their research, do their homework, have conversations with people Makes sense. Trust your gut before you put anything in writing.

Rob (Wardrums) Franklin: 39:16

Okay, good advice Now in closing. I know you're a busy guy so I don't want to take up your whole afternoon here. You're a busy guy so I don't want to take up your whole afternoon here, but I noticed that you're nominated for the Best Mixing and Engineering for Hollywood Independent Music Awards. Are there any other awards that you've been nominated for?

Conner (Quietson) Small: 39:36

I don't think so. I think that's the main one. I tend to be a little shy about submitting. I happen to be encouraged to submit by the artist I was working with, and also my fiancé was very supportive of me doing that. So you know, you're making me realize I should probably submit to some more things. Okay, all right.

Rob (Wardrums) Franklin: 39:58

Well, I really appreciate your time, Connor, and also, as your name implies, Quiet Son, and it's been a pleasure. You've given us some really great advice. In closing, is there anything else you'd like to say to new or or artists that are ready to hit you up?

Conner (Quietson) Small: 40:16

Yeah, no, I, I, I think the music industry is a really, really great place. You know, like anywhere, it has its problems. So I think, just as I said before, trust yourself, um, be open to new experiences, make the best music you can make and, when you're ready to jump into the studio, find a producer and an engineer that you really trust and it's going to be a super fun process and just enjoy it, cause you know, recording is special. There is a magic in being in the studio and that's why I do it as a career. So, yeah, thanks for having me.

Rob (Wardrums) Franklin: 40:52

Hey, thank you very much and, like I said, we'll include your all your social media contacts and your website and and your picture as well and on our website, if you don't mind. And again, thank you, we appreciate it.

Conner (Quietson) Small: 41:03

Thank you very much yeah, thank you guys, this was a pleasure all right.

Rob (Wardrums) Franklin: 41:06

Well, you have a great rest of your day and, uh, talk to you later you too thanks all right, thank you, bye, bye all right.

Dana (Thunderbass) Franklin: 41:14

Well, that was a. That was a good interview with that guy. He was, uh, very, very educational and, you know, let gave us some really good advice and any of you aspiring musicians out there, it's good. Like he said, do your homework with the producers and management and, once you get to that level, trust your instinct on these people. When you get to talking to them, you'll know if it's a fit or not, and so, yeah, so I appreciate all the advice from him and thank you again for listening. And please don't forget to hit us up on our site and anybody who wants to contribute to the show. This is a two-man show and it takes a lot of work and some financial means on our end to put this together, and we'd love to keep doing it for you. So please contribute if you can. A couple bucks a month is all it takes, or a big lump sum. If you got some extra money hanging out, you know we'll take a big check from you too, so so what do you got to say, bro?

Rob (Wardrums) Franklin: 42:09

well, I'd like to thank everybody again for listening and do check out our website because I will, in our contributors page, put um quiet son's bio and his picture and basically his, all his accomplishments, and he's got the links to all the artists he's worked with and there's some, there's some great stuff on there. It's not really our cup of tea because it's more pop, but it shows, you know, his expertise in the field. So, yeah, once again, thank you, and everything Dana said was like perfect. So thank you very much and please do continue to listen. Thank you All right.