Recording Studio Rockstars

What does it really take to make your best record by embracing limitations and finding creativity in the constraints?

My guest today is Jordie Lane, a Nashville-based Australian indie roots artist, songwriter, and producer. With a background that includes performing at the Sydney Opera House, composing for TV comedy, and touring with legends like Billy Bragg and Old Crow Medicine Show, Jordie brings a wealth of unconventional record...

What happens when you stop calling it pre-production and just start making the record?

My guest today is Vance Powell, multi-Grammy-winning producer, mixer, and engineer from Sputnik Sound in Nashville - and the most frequent guest in RSR history, now returning for his seventh appearance on the show.

Vance has been with us since episode RSR002, and once again he brings an incredible combination of blunt honesty, deep musical intuitio...

What happens when you realize the soundtrack of space travel isn’t science fiction - it’s real music carried aboard real missions?

My guest today is Kevin White, Nashville educator, musician, and creator of Songs of Apollo - a documentary project that explores the real relationship between music and space exploration. This isn’t just a story about composers imagining the cosmos. It’s a story about the actual ...

What happens when you start writing, producing, and mixing like the forest, not the trees, and you leave your worries behind?

My guest today is Micah Tawlks - producer, mixer, songwriter, and artist based in Nashville, working out of his home studio in Whites Creek. Micah first joined us back on RSR324, and he’s back to go even deeper into the intersection of writing, recording, and mixing. He’s known for work with COIN,...

What happens when you build a studio in an industrial zone…and still end up in court for making records?

My guest today is Toby Suess, drummer, engineer, and owner of Tinroof Recording in Fallon, Nevada - a studio that started as nothing more than a rehearsal space and grew into a full hybrid recording room with a killer drum sound. Toby has recorded everything from punk bands to singer-songwriters, dialed in his live room, r...

What happens when you finally stop chasing every plugin and build a mix workflow that actually works?

My guest today is Grammy-winning mixer, producer, and musician Jason Lehning, returning to the show after RSR074. If the name sounds familiar, it should - we’ve also had his brother Jordan (RSR104) and his dad Kyle (RSR094), the legendary producer behind Randy Travis. Jason grew up in studios and learned early on that songwrit...

What happens when a Chicago multi-instrumentalist with power-pop roots, psychedelic instincts, and indie-folk sensitivity lands in Nashville with a home studio, a loop pedal, and a fearless creative streak?

What happens when a Chicago multi-instrumentalist with power-pop roots, psychedelic instincts, and indie-folk sensitivity lands in Nashville with a home studio, a loop pedal, and a fearless creative streak?

In this episode, I sat ...

Why do your deepest, most emotional songs come out better when you stop trying so hard?

In this episode, I sit down with Nashville legend Bobby Bare Jr. - fearless songwriter, creative instigator, touring bassist for Guided By Voices, and the son of Country Music Hall of Famer Bobby Bare. This conversation is a masterclass in real creativity, free of pretension and full of joy, humor, wisdom, and truth bombs about songwriting, gear,...

What do you actually need to know BEFORE you press your vinyl record… and what mistakes will totally ruin it?

In this episode, Piper Payne returns to take us way deeper into the real-world physics, workflows, and decisions behind vinyl mastering and pressing. We dig into how your mixes translate onto a lacquer, why the inside of a record behaves differently from the outside, and what you should never do with high-frequency co...

What happens when your drumming videos blow up online… and suddenly you’re touring the world behind your own band?

Hi Rockstars, it’s your host Lij Shaw.

In this episode, I sat down with Nashville drummer and creator Kortney Grinwis, one half of the alt-pop duo Chapel, to talk about her journey from posting drum videos on the internet to building a full-time career on the road. Kortney shared how she developed her ...

What happens when you stop chasing the band dream… and start writing songs that actually work in the real world?

Hi Rockstars, it’s your host Lij Shaw.

In this episode, I sat down with songwriter, producer, and sync-music mentor Mike Meiers to dig into how he went from traditional band life to building a sustainable career writing music for film, TV, ads, and beyond.

We talked about how understanding the emotional core of...

Why does the rough mix always feel like the real song - and how the hell do you get that magic back without ruining it?

In this episode, Pat Sansone and I go deep into the lifelong puzzle of mixing: why the first tracking rough has all the energy, how chasing it can make you crazy, and why mixing is really more like photography than engineering. Pat walks through how his visual art - Polaroids, slide film, CMYK vs RGB, Lambda printi...

What happens when you sit down with a songwriter who’s done everything from early fan-funded records, to major-label pop, to K-pop, to sync, to teaching songwriting at Berklee - and ask him what really matters in the studio today?

Bleu McAuley and I go deep into the intersection of creativity, workflow, sync licensing, AI, and staying inspired at a time when music creation is changing fast. We start with his early days in Bost...

What happens when you rescue a forgotten studio that once shaped American music history - and bring it roaring back to life?

This week, I sat down with Teresa Knox, the powerhouse entrepreneur and preservationist behind the rebirth of The Church Studio in Tulsa, Oklahoma - the legendary home of Leon Russell, the early Shelter Records family, and the roots of what became known as the Tulsa Sound. Teresa shares the entire arc of this ...

What happens when you finally get to mix Spinal Tap in Dubly Atmos? You turn it up to 11, of course!

My guest today is Grammy-nominated engineer and mixer Steve Genewick, joining us from his Atmos room in Los Angeles to walk us through the wild, hilarious, and surprisingly heartfelt process of capturing and mixing the new "Spinal Tap II: The End Continues" soundtrack and album. In this episode, Steve talks about working directly wit...

What if your mix engineer secretly backed up every session in triplicate just so your grandkids could remix your demo in 2085?

In this episode, I’m joined by my brother from another podcast, Matt Boudreau - veteran mixer, Atmos trailblazer, and the host of Working Class Audio. Matt’s credits include immersive mixes for Green Day, Alanis Morissette, and the theme for Real Time with Bill Maher, plus stereo magic on artists...

What happens when a tree destroys your home and studio - and it leads you to a new creative life across two continents?

In this episode, I talk with Ronan Chris Murphy, the world-traveling producer, engineer, and artist known for his work with King Crimson, Steve Morse, and Tony Levin, and for teaching hundreds of musicians how to finish their records through his Recording Bootcamp and RIPA Festival of International Sound.

Ronan shar...

What happens when you stop chasing shiny gear and start listening more carefully?

In this episode, Locke Davis, founder and CEO of the Pickr Music app, shares how his deep dive into Nashville's studio culture and Blackbird Academy shaped his approach to building a platform that connects professionals and democratizes the recording industry. We explore the importance of community, the nuances of studio etiquette, and how technical to...

In this episode, we dive deep into the art of staying creative - even when life gets messy. Tim and I talk about recording at home, the beauty of imperfection, Logic shortcuts, AI tools, Costa Rica inspiration, punk rock sound gigs, and songwriting prompts that dig into the soul.

We also laugh a lot about “Spanish Inquisition Part 2,” fart algorithms, “The Wrong Burrito” in Nashville, and how to survive creat...