Stu Watts chats with Myles Mumford, who has been making music and making records professionally since the late 90s. Starting trombone with his Dad, Monte Mumford, he completed a Bachelor of Performing Arts (Music) with trombone and composition before moving to Melbourne in 2002 to study at the VCA. After completing a Graduate Diploma in Dramatic Art (sound) Myles took over the operation of the VCA recording studio and hasn't looked back. Since then he has worked extensively across all spheres of music and audio creation including record production, music and effects for film, music and effects for theatre, location recording, concert production and more. He is well known for his musical and collaborative approach to recording, and his ability to create a sense of presence and space. Myles’ productions can be heard across all forms of media and regularly receives critical acclaim in the form of featured singles, featured albums, or album of the week. He's had a few albums nominated for ARIAs, several Bell Award winning productions, many Age and Music Victoria awards, a Green Room award, APRA awards and various others along the way. In 2012 - 2013 Myles volunteered for 12 months in Swaziland for Lusweti - Institute For Health Communication and Development through Australian Volunteers International. During this time Myles produced two weekly one hour radio shows on the National broadcaster SBIS, worked with local builders to design and build a recording studio, developed radio content, trained local staff, collaborated with the Swazi Community Radio Initiative, produced several albums of local artists and his productions featured in the Swazi Top 20 every week for more than a year. In 2014 he spearheaded the formation of Rolling Stock Recording Rooms in Collingwood which has quickly become an incredibly active hub of music making across all genres of Melbourne music with hundreds of projects in the ensuing 10 years and in 2025 was named as the MPEG Studio of the Year. In addition to producing and engineering, Myles is a multi-award-winning composer and performer. He has composed for concerts, theatre, and contemporary dance, with his work being performed across Australia and internationally.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro02:17 About Myles Mumford03:09 Early experiences with music10:04 Appreciating a broad range of music genres11:16 The technical side of making records13:40 Moving into production15:17 What is "good music"?19:28 Early days producing and engineering21:49 How his approach has changed23:47 Coaching an artist through a recording session28:29 About Rolling Stock Recording Rooms34:02 The wealth of talented producers and engineers in Melbourne (and the rest of Australia)36:31 The lack of support from our government and governing bodies43:39 The difficulties of being a producer/engineer50:00 Dealing with FOMO52:34 Respect and sacrifice1:00:47 What's Myles looking forward to1:04:55 Best bits of advice for producers/engineers and artists1:10:07 Conclusion/Outro
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