PROFILE
DARIUS SZCZEPANIAK
By Andrew King
D
arius Szczepaniak has a lot of
great studio stories. So many,
in fact, that after sharing a few
– about the sense of humour
of the late, great Jeff Healey or having
Chris Lord-Alge come out of nowhere
and critique one of his mixes – he humbly
cuts himself off and says, “Maybe I’ll write
a book someday.” Considering the places
he’s gone and people he’s met throughout
his recording career, it would probably be a
damn good one.
A veteran of Toronto’s recording com-
munity, Szczepaniak has spent time at sev-
eral of the city’s best-known studios; most
recently, he’s planted roots at North York’s
Iguana Studios. It’s there, on the famed SSL
4082 G series console, that he’s producing
some of the best work of his career with a
hybrid approach to recording he’s devel-
oped over the past two decades-plus.
Szczepaniak was born and grew up
in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood. His
parents instilled a strong work ethic in him
early on and also surrounded him with
music, insisting he take piano lessons on
the weekend.
“My uncle was also a music lover and
would always quiz me,” he reminisces. “He
would play a song and ask, ‘Quick! Who
sings this?’ He always had me on my toes. I
didn’t know it at the time, but that would be
the foundation for my career as an adult.”
His first in-studio experience came in
his teens when he recorded in a commer-
cial facility. “I’m sure I drove the engineer
crazy,” he recalls with a chuckle, “but I
ended up sitting next to him for the major-
ity of the session. I remember thinking as
a 16-year-old, ‘This could be a really cool
thing to do.’ That’s when I became what I
call an amateur recordist.”
Szczepaniak would borrow a few mics,
a clunky eight-track recorder, and any
console he could get his hands on and
record anything and anyone. Realizing he’d
found his calling, he enrolled in a college
recording program.
Out of school, he did stints at revered
rooms like Metalworks Studios, Comfort
Sound, and eventually, the iconic Phase
One Studios.
“I did anything I could to be a ‘Phase
One guy,’” he says. “I started there as an
assistant and slowly worked my way up.
The owner, Paul Gross, ran a tight ship, but
we could always count on him for advice to
make our recordings better. It was awesome.”
Szczepaniak was there long enough to
work his way up to head engineer. “That
was one of my proudest moments,” he
shares. “I was finally a ‘Phase One guy.’ We
made so many records there and I met a
lot of great people. It will always be one of
those places that shaped my life and my
future as an engineer.”
Following his stint at Phase One,
Szczepaniak set out as a freelance engineer.
After years working in and around Toronto,
he now found himself travelling to the U.S.
and Europe to make records. “Working long
hours and in different places meant that
scheduling my life was tough,” he shares.
“I needed to work, but also wanted to be
at home with my family. We eventually
figured it out.”
Like many of his peers in the business,
figuring things out has been an ongoing
challenge of his career. “With so many vari-
ables in technology, sticking to one method
or another isn’t an option as a modern
engineer,” he says, referencing analog and
digital workflows. “I learned to combine the
old-school techniques with new school
modern music production, and nowadays
I’m what you would call a hybrid engineer.”
His newfound home at Iguana offers a
great environment for someone with his skill
set, and Szczepaniak says mixing on its his-
tori c SSL is a dream come true. “The majority
of my work these days is mixing, so it makes
good sense to be on this board,” he says.
“The live room here is great, too. I’m getting
some great drum sounds here lately.”
Some of his current projects include
work with Windsor, ON rock outfit The
Silence Factory, mixing for an act called Out
of the Ruins, produced by Scott Middleton
of Cancer Bats at Iguana, and recording a
throwback metal band called Purveyor of
Chaos. “We’re doing this record old-school
style,” he says excitedly. “Play everything,
edit and tune nothing. It’s is going to crush
when it’s done.”
Reminiscing about the highlights of his
career, that’s when the stories start flowing.
It’s quickly made clear that Szczepaniak
loves what he’s chosen as his life’s work
before he transitions to talking about a few
other things that are close to him: his fam-
ily life and teaching.
He and his wife of 20 years, Jacquelene,
and their two boys, Tyler and Connor, re-
side in North York and lead a “pretty normal
Canadian life,” meaning when Szczepaniak
isn’t in the studio or teaching at Trebas
Institute, he’s at the rink watching his boys
play hockey, or in the summer, at the cot-
tage devoting as much time as possible to
fishing and other outdoor activities. Simply
put, he loves “being a family man.”
Professionally speaking, there’s plenty
on the horizon for 2017, as Iguana has
upgrades planned that will make mixing
“a lot faster and more fun.” He continues:
“We’re doing a few slight modifications to
the console, and we’re getting ready to
make some great records. It’ll be another
great year for music” – and likely for some
great stories that come with it, making for
another good chapter in that book of his…
Andrew King is the Editor-in-Chief of
Professional Sound.
PROFESSIONAL SOUND 21