My guest today is Nick Bullock, a musician, teacher, producer, songwriter and music blogger. Nick has been an educator in music as well, founding a successful music school in Ithaca NY while playing and recording music with his band, The Sound Awake. And after years of running his business, playing in a band, and producing both his own records and others, he made a leap of faith and moved to Nashville TN to pursue his larger vision for songwriting and recording.

With his move to Nashville, Nick decided to focus on his own music. He built his home studio, and began to rehearse, write and record with a passion. In 2015 he launched an intense studio project with his band called 52 in 52 where he committed to writing and recording 52 songs in 52 weeks.

Nick’s intense journey has produced some stellar recordings, a blog, and also led to new productions with new artists. I am psyched to be here at Awake Studios to speak with Nick and learn more about the process of creating on such a high level.

What is 52 in 52?

52 songs written, recorded, and released in 52 weeks. Inevitably by the end I wasn’t able to release one song a week for a variety of reasons, but by the end of the 52nd week all of the songs were done and released on my SoundCloud page. Everything that I released, I’m not necessarily happy with it all, but there's at least one thing in each song that I really like. I view songwriting as a craft, so not everything that I write has to be great, not everything that I write has to be done, you just have to do it. Big thanks to Kevin Harper, Tom Elefante, Greg Herndon, Brain Cox, and Clark Singleton who supported and participated in the project. 

Check out Nick's 52 in 52 Blog!! 

Q - What was holding you back at the start?
A - I would say what was holding me back was confidence and lack of experience. [As far as starting 52 in 52] stress was holding me back. Just the overall overwhelmed feeling of trying to be a human being and make enough income for the family of now three and trying to finish all of this at once. I don’t know if it held me back, but I definitely have more grey hair on my head then needs to be.

Q - Share a favorite hardware tool for the studio
A- Probably my 335 or my 65 Twin. I do everything in the box, but all of my investments all kind of stem from instruments first. It goes from instruments to microphone to preamp.. All that sexy stuff comes after. But it's really those first three that are most important in capturing a great sound. So the bulk of my career has been investing the those. My Wurlitzer is a beautiful piece of vintage gear. My piano, I know exactly what it does, but my 335 is probably my favorite.

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My guest today is Jonathan Roye. He is a producer, mixer, musician, and audio blogger from Nashville TN. In his own words he has grown up obsessed with music, playing drums in garage bands, trombone in jazz bands, and guitar in country bands.

He has produced and mixed indie bands that you’ve never heard of as well as working on number one songs that you definitely have heard of. He has a drive to learn more and more every day to fuel his passion for learning music and recording. And he shares that knowledge with you through his audio blog at JonathanRoye.com and Youtube channel called Mix Notes.

Jonathan’s credits include: Kelsea Ballerini, Owl City, Ester Dean, Fearless Records, Forever The Sickest Kids, The Rocket Summer, Sarah Ross, Caroline Kole, Universal Music Grp, Black River Entertainment, Warner Music, Sony Music Grp, BMG Chrysalis, MTV, Fox Music Supervision.

He is also the creator of Woodshedaudio.com a boutique sample and loop library in Nashville TN. If you are producing music using drums samples you can find a growing library of cool sounds to fill in the sweet spots of your production. With sample packs like Shaker & Tambourine they keep it focused and easy to use. 

Q - What was holding you back at the start?
A - Easily just not meeting people. Especially back then because the internet wasn’t what it was, Youtube was just a baby. It wasn’t quite as powerful as it is now. I wasn’t going out to clubs enough, I would just sit at home and tinker in Pro Tools/do my own productions. I should have been going to a show every night.

Q - Share a favorite hardware tool for the studio
A- Speakers. Those are the best investment. Its boring, but true. I dont think people put enough value or focus into speakers and placement of speakers. Especially room treatment. You can do so much with room treatment that will cost you no money.