We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kevvy a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Kevvy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Everything I’ve done as a career was something I fell into. When I was a little kid, I thought I would be an illustrator, and I drew and painted all the time, and was accepted into a fine and performing arts school in 8th grade. I made friends there who started a straight edge punk band and needed a bass player, so that’s when I started playing music and fell in love with the instrument. My mom wanted me to do some post secondary school badly, and so I went to a recording arts school to learn about audio production for music and film. From there I started a band and produced our album which got us signed in Japan and we toured the UK extensively. When it came time to make album two, we hired a producer named Dave Ogilvie, who had been a pioneer in industrial, rock and pop music and I began shadowing him in his sessions and helping out. I met my now manager Jonathan Simkin through Dave, and Jonathan started setting me up in writing sessions with artists he was managing, one of which was Carly Rae Jepsen, and we wrote tons of songs, a couple of which ended up on the album that had Call Me Maybe on it that was the biggest and most anticipated album of that year.

Some how in the midst of all that, I had become friends with a lot of stand up comedians and I asked if I could record a few of them. One of the first people was a comedian named Ivan Decker, and we put together an album and it won the comedy Juno Award (Canadas version of the Grammy’s). After that, Jonathan allowed me to start my own comedy record label under the umbrella of his and Chad Kroger’s label 604 Records, and we called it Comedy Here Often. Since then I’ve produced over 100 comedy records, and have produced the audio for a handful of comedy specials including Mae Marten on Netflix, Dan Soder and Colin Quinn. It’s a huge part of my life now.

I also joined Billy Howeredel from A Perfect Circle’s solo band on bass for a few things, who I met through our mutual friend Danny Lohner, who’s always so kind to suggest me for things he’s working on. He’s been a mentor to me for sure.

I think essential skills for all of this stuff has been being in love with the art form first and wondering how it all works. I was such a terrible high school student because I need to be hands on with things, I’m not a “listen to a lecture” kinda guy. When it came to being a songwriter and producer, it literally took me making a few years worth of bad songs to start to understand what really works for me, and that the artists voice is more important than what ever agenda I have as a producer. And when it came to making great sounding comedy specials and records, I tinker constantly with the process. I also recorded things badly a few times and had to rescue them in post, what a great lesson to learn!

Kevvy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

whoops! I did that in the last slide!

I think when it comes to discipline, I saw an interview with Jerry Seinfeld where he was talking about how he saw a bunch of construction workers going back to work outside in the rain, and he decided that he applied that kind of work ethic to writing and performing, there’s no way he could fail. So I’ve tried to treat my projects with the same attitude.

I feel like my strengths with clients, where I can solve issues, is I think I’m a great listener and I like to get excited about the concept of the project and talk it out theoretically before we start creating and working so that we’re on the same page the entire time, but also not be afraid to pivot if we find a better idea.

I’m most proud of my audio mix on Dan Soder comedy special “On the Road” because I feel like I executed my best work, that was the product of about 100 comedy albums worth of experience, and how great is that because he’s one of my favourite comics! In music, I’m most proud of my band Fake Shark’s recent album Afterglow because I think it’s my best songwriting and the production is my most cohesive. My lyrics are at their most honest, too.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

People need to support the artists they are fans of. Buy a ticket to their show, and go buy a piece of merchandise. It’s such a risky thing to bare yourself like that, and it’s crushing when you feel like you’re not being supported.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I like to think of myself like Hatori Hanzo from Kill Bill. I want my newest sword to the best one I ever made, and that’s the goal each time I create!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://fakesharkmusic.com
• Instagram: drkevvy
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@fakeshark/videos

Image Credits

Zach Vague for the first two, Alexi Johnson for the 3rd and 4th ones.