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

Steven, looking forward to hearing all of your stories 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?

I started learning by just buying a few pieces of recording gear and reading everything I could find about the craft of making albums and music production. I was also lucky enough to have some folks that were very open with their experience and happy to share their expertise with me. I’m not sure I could have done anything more to speed up the process. It really is experience that is the greatest teacher, and it’s nearly impossible to fast track that, with maybe an extreme version of curiosity that is motivating you. I’ve found that a genuine curiosity and interest in learning is about the most essential skill you can have. It is what I look for across the board; whether you’re an artist I work with or a new intern.
As far as obstacles go, in the beginning I was my own worst enemy. I was probably insecure and desperate to be better. What I wish I would have know was that the best thing I could have done was to be surrounded by folks that were a few steps ahead of me.

Steven, 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?

My name is Steven Lee Tracy, and I am a music producer and owner of Saint Cecilia Studios in Tucson, AZ. I started writing and recording music almost at the same time I started learning to play it. For me those processes weren’t separate, but completely interconnected. These days I split my time between mixing other artists and producers music, producing artists here at my studio, and writing music for other folks in a variety of scenarios.
I think what I feel most proud of is that we’ve created a really safe spot for artists to figure out what they’re doing. With every album I work on, there is starting point and then a big no man’s land where you aren’t really sure of what you’re creating, and then the arrival and finishing up. It’s easy to start and it’s rewarding to listen back to what you’ve done, but it can be terrifying to be in the middle chunk where not all the variables are sorted out. I think we’ve done a good job of creating a spot for people to explore, grow, and feel safe not having all the answers.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

For the kind of work I do, it is almost always word of mouth. I’ve tried all sorts of marketing things, and at the end of the day, it only brought me clients that weren’t a good fit. I always have a current website that is easy to find, but the most rewarding work comes from folks that were referred by someone that had a good experience here.

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

The studio has been located in several cities prior to Tucson. Most recently I was in Portland, OR. I had the first part of my year booked out with a large project that, and as I got further into it, realized that the client was going to be a problem and I needed to fire them. It was the first time in my career I had fired a client, but I knew it was going to be months of problems if I didn’t. I was terrified as it was my whole first quarter and I had no backup. I wasn’t sure if I was going to have to close up shop, sell off assets, etc, but I wasn’t willing to let a client ruin music for me.
My solution was that I delivered groceries to cover my overhead and keep the lights on. At the time it was humiliating, but in retrospect I’m proud of that choice. It’s those kind of things that galvanize you.

Contact Info:

• Website: saintceciliastudios.com
• Instagram: @saintceciliastudios

Image Credits
Julius Schlosburg