We were lucky to catch up with Alec Ness recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alec, 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 started learning audio engineering in high school by recording bands and reading as much as possible. I decided to study music in college, which provided me with both resources and mentorship. From there I set out creating music and performing, working with others and engineering most projects I worked on. That was a period of trial and error, learning from experience and exploring career options.

Slowly as I became more successful I realized I enjoyed the technical aspects of music production and was often called on for my expertise in those areas. I decided to narrow my focus and spend less time on creating my own music, instead offering to engineer projects for friends and collaborators. I studied under a few successful engineers as well at this time, watching their process and using available studio time whenever I could.

I eventually set out on my own, and I still strive to learn from those around me. Ideally I’ll always approach my work with curiosity. I actually think that is the most essential skill: maintaining the desire to learn and challenge yourself.

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?

I’m a mastering engineer in Minneapolis, MN. My job is to get recorded music ready for distribution, applying the last bit of technical expertise and processing.

This is often a confusing process for both artists and listeners, so I also am here to answer questions and offer guidance during the final steps of creating an album or song.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Music has always been profoundly important to me, and I decided pretty early that I wanted to shape my life around creating music in some way. Having flexibility and being open to new directions within this idea has allowed me to continue making a career out of music. I think maintaining a more broad goal and being open to change has been very beneficial throughout my life so far.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Being kind to others and handling their art/music with empathy and attention to detail. Music is an emotional perspective of its creator and respecting that has led to meaningful connections with the people I work with.  

Contact Info:

• Website: www.alecness.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/alecness
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/alecnessmastering
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/alecness
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/alecness

Image Credits
Hayley Briasco, Braden Lee, Izzy Commers