We were lucky to catch up with Joe Marlett recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Joe , thanks for joining us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?
Yes, I have been an independent music producer/mixing engineer since 1999.
I started out like everyone else in those days, interning at a small studio… getting coffee and drinks and wrapping cables, and cleaning up. But I kept at it.. kept learning, and eventually started engineering for that same studio. I started getting enough work to quit my job as a computer programmer and go into a recording full-time
Not long after, I was working as a staff engineer at Signature Sound in San Diego and in 2000 thats when blink-182 walked into my life. I ended up working on the live record with them and and their producer Jerry Finn, then a year later they came back to record Take Off Your Pants and Jacket. I Learned a lot from Jerry, and we became friends and he helped me get into a studio in LA, Conway studios.
While I was working at Conway… engineering for Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, Seal,..
.. the blink record was released and that is the record that literally changed my life. Not long after it was released a band in Spain named Lombardi sign their first record deal with Warner Spain, and they sent me an email asking me if I would do their record because they saw my name on the blink-182 album. So in November 2001 I flew to Spain for the very first time, recorded and mixed their record, and that became the catalyst for my career in Spain, Mexico and South America.
So within six or seven years of moving from a small hippie town in Northern California to San Diego, I was working in LA at a badass studio with foo fighters and queens of the Stone Age and being flown to Spain, London and Mexico living the life I would have never dreamed.
Now, 20 plus years later, I’ve got 2 Grammy nominations, a wall full of gold and platinum records and over 3.5 billion streams world wide.
To be a great producer, you have to travel the path to fully understand all of the situations that you will be faced with.. there are no short cuts.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
1995 I moved from a very very small town in northern California down to San Diego. Moving to the city was very scary for me. I was born in a little town called Willits. My parents were hippies so they bought a piece of land an hour outside of Willits, up in the mountains with no house, no electricity, no water. They bought a 35’x8′ trailer and that was what we lived in until they built a house we eventually moved into. So I literally grew up with no electricity and no running water in the house. The last mile of our road, appropriately named, ‘Old Wagon Road’ was more of a trail, that went through 6 creek crossings, which would be raging in the winter time. My brother and I ‘literally’ had to walk a mile, rain or shine, to catch the van that would take us to the ‘one room school house’ (yes, like little house on the prairie) that we attended with 16 other kids from the area, ranging from K-8th grade. We lived off the land, growing a garden, chickens for eggs and meat, goats for milk, and Rabbits too. but it was in this town that I found my passion for music because we didn’t have TV. The only thing I had was the radio and my parents vinyl records. Music became my escape from the hard life of living on a farm. I started playing drums. I got into a couple bands and then a few years after graduating high school I ended up in San Diego as my girlfriends job transferred to SD.
One of the first jobs I had was in a warehouse and it was there that I met a the guy that was in a band and I asked him if he knew of anybody needing a drummer and he basically told me to go to recording school and I would meet a ton of musicians. So that’s what I did. I enrolled in Miracosta College in the recording arts program. I’d say within 2 to 3 weeks I was hooked on production. I was hooked on recording and the entire process of recording. The big recording consoles, the gear. Everything just spoke to me in such a way that I knew that this was what I wanted to do the rest of my life.
I spent the next couple years grinding it out in recording school and spending every free moment in the studio. I started out as engineer, then mixer and finally producer. Being a producer is a lot more than being part of the creative process. The music is one aspect of the job. the other part.. which takes time to truly master, is understanding the psychology in the room. Musicians and egos. Knowing how and when to push an artist to be better is truly an art. I have become a master of using subtle but very effective techniques the help musicians get of their own ways
I recently built out a mobile app, and launched a 6 week producers course, and weekly live zoom mentoring sessions that focuses on this concept. I believe it’s the first of its kind. Every other Masterclass, course and YouTube videos are all focused on the technical side. I’m throwing rocks at convention, which is why I called the program, Alchemix440, (Alchemix440.com)
It’s a play on the word Alchemist, or Alchemy. “A seemingly magical process of transformation, creation, or combination.” That’s what I do as a producer.
Alchemix focuses on the philosophy of studio magic.. strategies and concepts I have learned and mastered to make each and every recording experience perfect and unforgettable.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
This particular question hits home for me in a very profound way.
Creatives tend to think outside the box. We don’t conform to what would be considered, the ‘normal’ workings of society, whatever normal may be.. as thats completely subjective. I thrive on the unknown. Not knowing where a certain decision will lead me, or what path I’ll take based on that decision. There’s excitement in that. There’s a rush. Non-creatives don’t understand that feeling. That is alien to them, and uncomfortable. I don’t like feeling constricted.. or having to follow along, just because. School was always hard for me, mostly because of the monotony of the structure. Go here, sit there, do this.. etc. I never felt free to think.
in 1999, I was offered a lot of money to stay on as a computer programmer, writing code for online credit card processing… I was faced with a decision; Do i stay at this job, sitting at a desk, knowing that my life will be financially secure, but also knowing that I hated programming and would continue to hate that job, and maybe my life is I stayed.
OR, do I take a chance and risk it all on the unknown path of the music industry?
I KNOW I made the right decision. Even though those first years were hard. Even though I was dead broke at times, surviving off frozen burritos and ramen. It was all worth it. Traveling to amazing places in the world, recording in Spain, London, Morocco, Canary Islands, Mexico, Peru… experiencing the cultures, the food, the wine, and meeting the most incredible people. I would not have had any of those life experiences had I stayed in the comfortable corporate world with a secure income.
As a creative, I don’t have a set income… I can make as much, or as little as I choose. I don’t rely on anyone else for that. I have that control. For most non-creatives, this is scary, unsettling and again, uncomfortable.
I met my ex-wife on a cruise ship, She was on a vacation.. with her entire family. We met, talked, exchanged numbers.. and 3 years later, we got married. We have two beautiful and amazing little boys.
She is an attorney… and she never understood my life as a creative. She appreciates and loves music, and appreciates my talents, but she doesn’t understand the life. The rush I get, the feeling of creating music and the excitement I feel in the studio. She wanted… ‘normal’. The 9-5 set schedule. The 2 week paycheck. And unfortunately, our differences ultimately became too much for us, and we split. I met her through music, as I was with musician friends on that cruise. She’s the best thing to happen to me, even though it ended in divorce. I learned a lot being married, and my children give me strength each and very day to move forward.
A creative must be allowed to think big. To dream big. Be willing to take those chances. A creative must accept the possibility of failing 9 times.. but knowing that success will happen on the 10th time.. and yet still knowing theres no guarantee of success at all. Its not an easy life, but for me, nothing truly good in life, is easy.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
While developing my App, I read the book, “How to Win Friends, and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. This book is fascinating and although it was written in the 30’s, it still relevant today because it touches the heart of who we are as people and how we think and feel. It helped me develop the ideas I had, into the philosophy of what Alchemix is, and how psychology plays such a huge part of how people become successful. Subtle, yet extremely effective techniques we use to enhance our human interactions. I highly recommend this book… for creatives and non-creatives as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: alchemix440.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joemarlett/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joemarlett
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-marlett-2b442a2a/
- Youtube: @alchemix440
- Other: www.joemarlett.com