my production work these days . I can always up my mixing skill with almost any project that comes across my inbox , but if I ’ m going to dive deep into a production these days , I have to be incredibly passionate about it creatively .
PS : Let ’ s get into your background a little bit . How long have you been developing your career and where did it all start for you ?
Guaiana : In terms of when I started , I started 15 years ago when I was 14 or 15 years old in my parents ’ basement . I was in my first band , and after it fell apart , I realized I had a bit of recording gear on my hands . I ended up going to an arts high school and started recording a bunch . Pretty much all my friends were in their shitty first bands , you know . So instead of working a retail job or something , I was just charging a few bucks and a pizza to make some fun jams with my friends in my basement , pretty much . It was really fun , actually ; those early days really made me think out of the box in terms of my gear limitations .
But I think career-wise , this has been my full-time thing for the past , I would say maybe seven years now .
PS : Tell me about how you and producer Anton DeLost came together to found your studio , Room 21 Sound .
Guaiana : So , we both basically had our careers come to an exponential head at the same time . He was in London , and I was in Caledon . I think we both just kind of realized , like , “ Hey , we want to move to the city , neither of us can facilitate rent for a full space just for ourselves ; let ’ s look into some options ,” and we found a space in this building that we were going to build out . Right before , we realized we were in over our head with the cost . We had money saved , but we also were just going to try to DIY a ton of it . And when we started pricing it out , it was becoming a nightmare . Luckily enough , right before we started building anything , the manager of the building was like , “ Hey , there ’ s a studio . It ’ s a little smaller than the space you have now if you wanna take a look ,” and when she told me the size , I was like , “ It ’ s probably a producer ’ s room ” because it was like 700 square feet . I walked in and it was basically laid out how we would have built a space . It ’ s definitely weird room shapes , but it ’ s a full studio where we could do drums and everything . And our lease allowed us to move to any other unit in the building if it better suited our needs , so we just jumped right on it . As of January , we ’ ve been here for six years now .
PS : Once Room 21 was put together , what went into the process of actually developing the studio ?
Guaiana : Honestly , it ’ s a little interesting . I think at first , I named the studio and made a website for it and everything , and that was just because early on when we first moved in , we were looking at different ways of generating income . We thought maybe we can rent out the studio , and because it ’ s fully stocked , any engineer can walk in and record . It ’ s pretty user friendly , too .
But as time progressed , I think both Anton and I realized that our careers are more our names than they are the studio . So now it ’ s just an office , basically . Some of the biggest records I ’ ve done in the last little while haven ’ t even been here ; like we did the whole Silverstein record at Union [ Sound Company ]. It ’ s a great drum room , and it ’ s really affordable . Plus , the vibe there is so nice . I try to work there as often as the budget allows .
PS : At this point in your career , I think it ’ s fair to say that you have a signature sound and style to your production and mixing that clients would hire you for , but how do you find it balancing your own ideas for how something should sound or what a production should be , versus meeting specific artist requests ?
Guaiana : It ’ s one of those tough things , I don ’ t find myself in that situation too often . I always have a discussion with the band on every project like , “ What vibe are we going for with this record ?” And usually it happens before going in [ to the studio ], just so everybody ’ s on the same page . I want to know that
MIKING UP DRUMS FOR SILVERSTEIN AT UNION SOUND COMPANY
I ’ m a good fit too because I ’ m at the point in my career where I don ’ t want to work on a record just because I need a job . I want to be the guy to work on your record .
It ’ s always about having a conversation with the band , like , “ What are we looking to do at the end of the day ? What is the vibe for this song ?”, and it usually breaks down on a song level where we ’ ll take a look at every song and sort of reference ideas from other songs and where we want to take it . It ’ s rare that we disagree on those things because I ’ ll always build off of their idea unless I have something outrageously drastic , which does happen from time to time . When that happens , I ’ ll sort of pitch my idea as well as I can . And a lot of the times it ’ s really fresh , so a band will go for it . But there ’ s always those occasional times where they ’ ve got crazy demo-itis and they ’ re like , “ No , we don ’ t want to change it , that ’ s how it ’ s gotta go .”
I mean , for the most part , I feel like I balance it pretty well . And I think it ’ s just because I want to have an honest conversation with the artist .
PS : Have you done any work that ’ s pushed you outside of the boundaries of your typical style or what you ’ re used to doing in terms of how you engineer and mix ?
Guaiana : Occasionally I do . I found that the Intervals record [ November 2020 ’ s Circadian ] was one of those situations . I ’ ve never done anything that didn ’ t have a vocal in it before , and I ’ d also never done a progressive metal record . I ’ ve had a lot of people tell me it ’ s a very polished record . But to me , that might be one of the most organic records I ’ ve ever done .
It has almost no drum samples on it and
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