Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Rob Hinton. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Rob 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?

Doing it as much as possible and experimenting to try and gain some sort of expertise and lean on-the-job by actually doing it, not just talking about it. Also, trying to work with as many different people as possible. I always learn something new working with artist, producers & engineers, songwriters, etc., I’ve never worked with before. Early on, I had an internship in a working recording studio while in high school in Dallas that turned into a job.

Later on, I moved to Los Angeles, attended the Musicians Institute recording engineering program. Before I completed that course, I was hired on to one of the bigger studios in North Hollywood.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

(I kind of approached some of these questions on the previous page, just let me know if you’d like me to reword anything to be more relative)

What I do in the studio is pretty much all about problem solving, whether it be dealing with the gear itself or the artist’s wants & goals, certain sounds and the overall sonic picture or vibe of the material. Producing also adds the job of dealing with song writing & arrangement and being a little more directly involved with the artist and the music itself.

The main goal is to really try and get the overall sound the artist wants as well as what I’m hearing in my head. Sometimes that can be a struggle and sometimes it comes together fairly easily.

I tend to be the most proud of the latest project, as most of us tend to do. For me, it’s the Bull Y Los Bufalos album I just finished mixing and the various other projects I have done with Bull over the last few years. I’ve got a few new projects I’m working on at the moment which should be completed by the end of the year I’m really excited about as well.

As far as any kind of ‘brand’, it’s really just me and what I do, but I have built a great little recording facility in Austin, Texas kind of out in the country, named Mesa Recording Studios, that I love working in and it gives me the luxury of recording & mixing the way I like to operate.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I’ve actually been really reinvigorated and re-inspired over just these last couple of years working on the new music projects & artists I’ve been involved with recently. Also, making a trip to Nashville earlier this year along with Bull really kind of blew me away. The city is all about the music industry and it’s really exciting to me. It kind of reminds me of when I first moved to Los Angeles before the industry took a tragic turn in 2003-2004.

I almost attended Belmont University in the 90’s, but I decided at that time, it wasn’t quite right for me for a few reasons. Looking at it now, it’s quite impressive.

Continually learning and working with great artists, songwriters, & other producers whom I want to work with & strive to work with is the driving force in my creative journey. That and always trying to out-do myself on each project I approach.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I’ve been doing this since the 90’s professionally and even earlier than that just experimenting with Tascam Porta Studios and things like that. Whenever I think about walking away from it, I can’t. I have stepped away for extended periods of time before over the years, but I always have more fun when I come back and I’m having more fun than ever now.

The amount of time I’ve put in to various projects over the years, the number of albums, singles, live albums, tv theme songs, soundtracks for movies, whatever I’ve done… I’ve had the revelation recently that the goal is to get to a point where you aren’t really thinking about all the technical stuff, you just lean back on your experience and be creative and have fun with it. The projects always turn out better that way in my experience.

People fall away in this industry, but I can’t. It’s in my blood.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mesarecordingstudios.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rob_hinton_mesa/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MesaRecords.RecordingStudios/