We recently connected with Nik Bruzzese and have shared our conversation below.

Nik, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I’ve been playing and recording since 1999. I started taking recording serious in 04 and went into business for myself. I learned by working long hours on my craft and working with different bands while simultaneously starting and recording my own project.

I think something that would have sped up my learning process would have been to work for free more. I think if you fill your unpaid time with free work for other artist to be creative and not have the stress of getting it right at that moment in time would have helped me. It was tough to juggle that because I was in and out of the studio to go on the road, but it’s a mindset I still try to have while now being in this business for 20+ years. The most essential skill for me was being a people person and knowing how to talk and show respect to every one and every idea. I think it’s a psychological journey recording a band with 4 or more member to have everyone on the same page, positive work follow and good vibes throughout a whole session.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

So I come from a family of drummers. At a very early age I took up playing then drums and then slow moved to recording my punk band and other friends for free at about the age of 13.

I started full time recording and producing as early as I can remember, honestly. I was either playing in bands or in the studio my whole life. I started my own studio, SmallHill Studio and then ended up going to school for recording. At the time I was finishing shcool, my band Man Overboard (Bass&Vocals) started to gain some momentum and I found myself on the road about 6-8 months a year from 2008-2019.
Man Overboard went on to tour the world, work with amazing producers (Will Yip, Bill Stevenson, Jason Livermoore) and brand our band with our shirt “Defend Pop Punk”

I think one thing I help clients solve and also what sets me apart is a few things. I’m really into song writing as much as engineering. I love to get involved with the artists song as much as they let me. Helping with song structure, melody, lyrics, to drum parts, in all in. I’m not sure some engineers really like to get involved in that process but like I say often, I’ve been on both sides of this…being in a band, creating a brand, and writing to and also, producing those songs, helping build a sound and vision.

After working by myself in and out of different studios, I landed at The Gradwell House recording studio in 2021. The studio is one of the nicest I’ve ever been in, owned by Dave Downham and Steve Poponi

In 2022 to currently I started playing bass in The Story So Far.: since then we’ve done some pretty amazing tours with Blink-182 touring being at the top of that list. I love all the guys in the band and we’ve known each other for a very long time so, I’m honored and totally into helping out and being on stage with them.

Im super proud of the not only the records I’ve been part of but for the process. This business comes with the ultimate highs and the super lows. Im grateful for being in the position I’m in and enjoy the daily grind.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

One of the most rewarding things in this business is bring clients songs to life in a way they never thought could happen. When we go a final playback and I see how amped people get, I feel like I did my job right.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Between both my wife’s family and mine, we have been through a lot of big losses in our lives. Knowing how dark those days are make the rest of the problems in business, life or whatever else seems small.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.NikBruzzese.Com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/duckpondjix?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nik-bruzzese-4a2717126?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
• Twitter: @DuckPondJix