MUSIC IS OUR HERO!
The MUSIC IS OUR HERO! Podcast is a creative hub where stories, artistry, and community collide. Each episode dives into conversations that inspire, empower, and spark new ideas—because art isn’t just what we make, it’s the community we build together.
Created and hosted by producer, engineer, DJ, and lifelong music advocate Drea Young, the podcast is dedicated to the indie community, as well as the people who bring it to life. With decades of industry experience—from graphic design to engineering in NYC to the live-event world—Drea brings an open-format approach, deep technical insight, and a genuine passion for supporting the people who keep indie arts and music alive. Her mission is to uplift, explore, and amplify community—one episode at a time.
MUSIC IS OUR HERO!
Creating From Every Angle: Jackson on Sound, Videography & Cal Blac
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In this episode Drea sits down with Jackson—chief engineer at Spit Philly, videographer, musician, songwriter, and the artist known as Cal Blac.
Jackson shares his journey and offers valuable insight from his experience behind the scenes, including what artists should know when working in the studio and on video projects. The conversation also dives into his own artistry, exploring Cal Blac and what the project represents to him personally and creatively.
Jackson has been putting in the work from multiple sides of the music industry, and there’s plenty to learn from his experiences, perspective, and approach to the craft.
Watch the MUSIC IS OUR HERO! full podcast interview with Jackson on YouTube.
Connect with Jackson!
Spit Philly Official Website, Cal Blac Instagram, Cal Blac YouTube
Produced, edited, mixed, and artwork designed by Drea Young
Theme song composed by Keith Moffett
Don't miss out! Follow MUSIC IS OUR HERO! on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and listen to our podcast on your go-to streaming service.
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#MUSICISOURHERO
Hey everyone and welcome to the Musics Our Hero Podcast, hosted by Grammy Award winner Radio. Each episode will dive into conversations that inspire and power and spark new ideas because art isn't just about what we make, it's about the community we build together. So grab a speed, get coffee, and let's grow in creativity side by side. The music is our Europe podcast for creativity, community, and inspiration comes to light.
SPEAKER_04Here I am today in Spitfilly with Jackson. Um Jackson is chief engineer here at Spitfilly. He's also an artist, um, a songwriter, a performer, a videographer, tons of things. So you stay pretty busy.
SPEAKER_02Yes, I do. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04What's your life outside of all this? Do you do much?
SPEAKER_02I don't have a life outside of this. I guess not. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04That'll that'll keep you busy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I pretty much uh engineer full-time here. Um I have my artist project, Cal Black is my artist project. Um, my middle name is Cal. A lot of people know me as Cal. Um so that's where that comes from. Yeah. Um and then you also shoot video, and then I do freelance video and photography work. So I'm just always bouncing around working on a project of some kind or another. Trying to make time for my own stuff all the time, too. And so how does that go? I don't end up how does that go? Basically, just whenever I have the time and energy to do it is when I work on my stuff. And right now it's just here. So I just mainly when I have some extra time and I'm here, that's when I'm working on my stuff. Yeah, yeah. Um, but yeah, cool.
SPEAKER_04Um, what made you have you always been into music?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Uh so musical family. Uh my mom is a professional singer. Um, she's sang in a bunch of groups. My stepdad is a country guitarist and singer.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02Um, that was just always around me growing up. And yeah, I was really lucky to have that. To have uh my stepdad always had uh guitars laying around the house. He would always be playing uh microphones, even a drum set. Like there was a drum set around my first instrument was was drums because I would love to go over to his house and play drums, and then eventually him and my mom moved together and then we had it in our house, and and so I was just always going nuts on stuff. And I got started recording, I got started recording really young. Like my first exposure to recording music was when I was like nine years old. Uh, and I barely knew how to play guitar.
SPEAKER_04What were you recording on?
SPEAKER_02Uh, it was a little tape recorder, four-track task hand tape recorder.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, and then later, later he got a digital one that was like an eight-track he would put an SD card into. I would like set up mics, and luckily he had a bunch of like SM58s and 57s. I would set those up around the drums. Had no idea what I was doing.
SPEAKER_04But those early days of not knowing what you're doing is like fun. Like it's when you're like being creative, I feel like. Like you'll find, you'll be like, Oh, I really like this sound. Like, how can I make this happen? And you're not technical because you don't know yet. So I think had no idea how to make special in that, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. Uh yeah, I definitely had no idea how to do anything, but I'm really glad that that was how I started because I learned the way I learned how to record was there was I wasn't punching in stuff, you know, I was recording the whole thing through all the way through. And I recorded hundreds of songs that way by the time I was 21. Wow, you know, and and like that was all I knew at that time. I didn't even really know much. I did some basic mixing stuff. I started in Studio One, but my main focus was getting a good sound, you know, before I even get into the Daw. And then I then I got Ableton. Uh how old was that? Game changing. It was like probably 10 years ago now. I got Ableton. Um kind of funny side story about that. I saw, if you guys know, uh people probably know FKJ, he's a kind of jazz pianist, sax guitar guy that does crazy performances in Ableton. Um, and uh one of my friends shared one of his songs um on Facebook. It wasn't that big song with Masago, it was Die With a Smile, the one of the ones off his album. He was performing in front of like this aquarium with like this huge backdrop, and he had this ultra simplified setup with just an APC 40 controller, um, his guitar, his sacks, and um, I don't think he even played keys in that one, but uh I just watched him like do this kind of sequence performance in Ableton where he had a backing track, but he was doing it, he was playing instruments to it, and he just did it in this really sleek, cool way. And it was that day, I think I was like 21 or 22.
SPEAKER_04It was your next one. It was literally that day.
SPEAKER_02I I like went and opened my first credit card with uh I think Guitar Center and just bought all the stuff that I thought that he had, and it was like the wrong stuff. I like bought the wrong stuff, but I did buy Ableton and a controller, and then I started going nuts with all that stuff, and that's kind of what led to yeah, you cut it yeah.
SPEAKER_04So the next question was gonna be like what artist or what situation kind of made you be like, all right, so that story is kind of like I guess an artist that made you be like, Alright, I need to figure out how to do that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. So, so I'm a guitarist first, and um Jimi Hendrix has been my number one like favorite inspiration of all time, like for a long time. Um, probably about the time I was 19. I really loved Jimi Hendrix when I was a little kid too. I would watch his tapes of him like literally rolling around on stage, you know. He like lights his guitar on fire, smashes his guitars, and does crazy stuff.
SPEAKER_04What does it happen to you at the festival? You almost could have lit on fire. Got electrocuted.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. We did we did I did play through a I I have this other thing as another story, but thunderstorms always seem to happen when I have a show. I don't know why this is, but yeah, it's like all the time. Uh I'm like draw inclement weather is like weirdly, like seems to be like following me around.
SPEAKER_04He there was a festival, Spitfilly did a festival last September, and he performed and amazing performance. That's when I was like, oh my god, this dude is sick. Like, you're sick, dude. But there was a thunderstorm rolling in and lightning, and it was raining. I was running the sound, and I'm like, at what point are we pulling the plug? His strings are electric.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah. We haven't pulled the plug. It was raining.
SPEAKER_04That was crazy. I was playing one of my songs.
SPEAKER_02I think most most people like that one. Yeah, it's one of my good songs, I think. And uh it was like during that song, I was like playing the guitar solo, shredding, and like the lightning was going crazy under this tent. It was pretty fun.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that was awesome. What led you to Spit Philly?
SPEAKER_02That's another story. Uh, well, so I'm from Washington State. I grew up in Olympia, Washington. Um, I lived uh after high school, I moved to Miami. Um, I lived there for only about a year. Um, I thought it was a really cool place to live, but uh it wasn't really like where I wanted to stay. So I ended up getting uh taking a job in Alaska when I was living in Miami. So I drove I drive when I moved to Miami, I drove my 2005 Nissan Ultima to Miami, filled with all the studio equipment that I had accumulated at that time. Monitors and you know, and Apollo and my guitars and keyboards, brought all that stuff to Miami. Um, and then I got the job in Alaska, moved, uh, drove my my Nissan back to Olympia where I grew up, dropped it at my parents' house, flew to Alaska from Olympia. Wow. And then uh I met my girlfriend there, Jules. Um she was also working at the lodge. She's she's from over here in Philly. Um, and so we ended up uh together after working there for the whole summer. Um, and then we moved uh back here after that. So for a third time at that point, I drove my niece on Altima back uh God bless that. US with all my no, I don't have it anymore. Uh it made three trips across the U.S. That's amazing. Um and then uh yeah, then we we got here and I basically was, you know, just doing odd jobs at the time, you know.
SPEAKER_04So you went from Alaska to to Philly, yeah.
SPEAKER_02From well, I moved from Alaska temporarily back to Washington and ocean shores. I had like another temp job I was doing there, um, like a carpentry job. Um, I'm not a carpenter, but I was working for somebody who was showing me the ropes and stuff. Yeah. And I did that for three months in Washington, and then we came back here to Philly after that. And when I got to Philly, it was like I had no connections here. I literally didn't know anyone here except for a couple of my girlfriend's friends who I had met, but no connections, didn't know any musicians, wasn't tapped in at all. Um so from there I uh well I just got a job first at UPS, and then uh after that I switched to Amazon and I was delivering for Amazon for two years, the first two years living here in Philly, um, and was starting my Cal Black project. Um and I met some friends, uh, shout out to Bugs, Sam, Mike Carney, uh those guys I met. Shout out to Aaron Hartman. Uh I met those guys through just like uh I actually just went to like a jam that somebody invited me to on Instagram um where I met some of those guys. Um and then after that, uh my friend Bugs asked me if I wanted to play a show. It was just this like 4th of July show, like right after COVID. Um and it was in a backyard. It was like just like a party with a half pipe in the backyard. And that was my first cow black set, and so I brought like all this equipment. Uh my setup's kind of crazy live, like it's just a lot of equipment for one person. Uh bring my my my rack Apollo um and I plug in my mic, my makes it easy for the engineer your setup. Yeah, yeah, for the for the sound. Although most people don't get it right, but uh in my opinion, like I a lot of shows I feel like the sound people like don't always get it right, especially if I have a live drums.
SPEAKER_04But at the time I didn't have any drums or anything, it was just well I think well I'm talking about when I did that festival, I think it was just the stereo out.
SPEAKER_02It was, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep, that's the most easy and simple way to to do it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um but yeah, so that first show was was uh just me, Ableton, um, my controller, um guitar, vocals, um, keys, like an analog synth. I'll switch back and forth from playing like synth parts to uh like piano parts and stuff like that. Um and because it's analog, it's this guy right here, this chord prologue. Oh nice because it's analog, I can like manipulate it on the fly. So I'll like be doing patches, opening filters, change, you know, modulating LFOs and that kind of stuff live, which is super fun.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, and then yeah, that's kind of like what can that so that was the genesis of my my music project and uh here in Philly. And then to answer your question about how I got to Spit Philly, um that was kind of like how I got in touch with like some musicians and actually uh oh there's a lot of rappers and stuff, uh kind of in that crew too.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, and then I found this place on Instagram. I just like saw um on Instagram, I lived just down right down the street at the time uh from here, and I was like, whoa, what's this new studio? I saw Drowning Fish, and I saw Spit Philly was a studio that was getting built, and I saw a picture of it, and all that was in here at the time was the panels were here, the floors were not done yet, so it was just some like half uh half put in floors that were like uh you the old crappy floors that used to be in this room. This room used to be like it used to look terrible, and now it's like a beautiful studio.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, so I got in right at the tail end of the build, uh, helped them finish the room, helped put in the the new floors and stuff and a few other odd things that needed to be finished, and then basically just got in hired as the f one in the first round of engineers here. Um, and then I was still working at Amazon at the time. Um, and then by some good luck, I actually got laid off at Amazon, and it was like just the right time for me to start hitting it hard here and trying to get this career going here.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, and that's what I did, and it worked. Uh, and and fortunately I had some friends and stuff that were um, you know, had like made made the kind of music that we record here is a lot of rap, you know, contemporary uh RB, pop, that kind of stuff, a lot of vocal recording. Um and yeah, I just I just happened to do well at that because I had honestly it was it was kind of easy compared to the way that I was used to making my own stuff and producing everything from scratch and yeah, um, so yeah, it was just the right place, right time, and and then later on ended up becoming chief engineer here.
SPEAKER_04And uh so what's that all like what's that like? What's what's the day in the life of the chief engineer?
SPEAKER_02Um it's just we basically have like a team of engineers who work here and we've worked out over time like how to make that work. Um when we started, we kind of just hired a lot of people and we'll kind of let whoever book here, and over time we've really um refined how we do that, and we really vet our guys now and like have a really um consistent um process for how we hire people. But I'm I'm kind of like in charge of just uh being the guy that sort of sets a good example for everyone else, is a person people can call if they need anything, if they have questions. Um I'm just kind of here every day. I'm kind of the go-to guy, yeah. And and then uh also just like we have meetings all the time, um, always meeting with the with the rest of the leadership and planning uh like what we're gonna do next. Um and then uh yeah, this isn't really part of my chief engineer role, but I also do the the content here, so I'll uh shoot and edit the videos that you see here on Instagram and stuff. Yeah. Um but yeah.
SPEAKER_04But they do really well.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah. They they they do pretty good.
SPEAKER_04I love those.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, people have fun.
SPEAKER_04What's to you like a common mistake that people might make when they come into the studio?
SPEAKER_02Um well, it depends, but uh mainly preparation is the biggest uh thing that I see. I mean, for some people, not being prepared at all is kind of their thing, and that's how they get stuff done because they're really good at thinking of stuff on the fly and being, you know, under the pressure of the they work well under pressure kind of thing, and and they can work without being prepared. But yeah, I would say most people that's not really the case, and what what I see the most of is like people not being prepared. So what I recommend to people usually is like have some way to record the idea before you come into the studio, even if it's band lab or just like a simple home recording setup and like record like a demo or something.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, you can't do it.
SPEAKER_02Try not to get too attached to it to the way that it sounds, so you don't get the demo itis thing going on.
SPEAKER_04Oh, then it doesn't sound right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, right. Like, you know, you don't want to run into a thing where you you just love the demo so much that you're never gonna replicate it. Um, you know, but usually that's not an issue. Yeah, just don't get it too attached to it as all. Don't listen to it too much. But but try out the idea, work out the parts, try out your layering, like what what other stuff you're gonna add to the song and have that kind of loosely planned out before you come to the studio.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And then when it comes to coming in here, just plan on record like getting the most out of your time, get your takes done quickly and efficiently, and then leave some time for the engineer to like do some some of their cool stuff too. And usually if if if we can strike that balance, we can get good results every time. Get a lot done. Yeah, bam, bam, bam. Right.
SPEAKER_04What's one piece of studio etiquette that artists should know?
SPEAKER_02Studio etiquette? Um, I say just like remember that the engineer is your friend and they want to help you, so there's no need to um also if you're working with a good engineer, like they're gonna be working quickly, they're gonna be doing their best already to be working as fast and efficient as possible. So don't rush them, you know. Um some people uh I work super fast, by the way. Like uh I'm I might be making it sound like like there's like it's slow or something, but just don't uh don't rush the process. Yeah, um usually you get more done if you don't bring like a whole ton of people into the room when you're trying to work and you're trying to focus. So like sometimes I think people come in and I'm trying to mix the song and there's like seven or eight people like all making noise in the room and stuff. Like if you want a good result, just come in maybe with just yourself and the engineer, maybe like one or two close people that you trust their opinion, you want their opinion. Other than that, maybe keep it keep it simple.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, unless you're just trying to have a party.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Unless you're trying to have a party. We do that too, you know. We have parties too.
SPEAKER_04If you want to have a party, like listening, you guys have like listening um like release parties?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah. We do different kind of stuff. Uh people will, if they record an an album or an EP here, they'll they can come and book a release party, and it's a great environment to like chill and really hear the hear the project, how it was intended to be heard, and it sounds obviously really good in here, so it's a great listening environment. And then yeah, we have other regular parties where people will just come in on their birthday or something and bring in 15 people and everybody takes turns recording on a on a beat or something, and that's a good time too.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that sounds like a good time.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Um, what's your favorite? So you do a lot of vocals.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_04Um, do you do a lot of other kind of tracking?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, it just depends on on the artists and what they need. Um, a lot of people nowadays, um, in kind of more modern genres, a lot of times they might have a producer that they like their, you know, their style already, and they might come in with stems to a beat or just the two-track itself, like a wave or something.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, and so in that situation, I'm working mainly on vocals, and I've gotten really good at you know, hyper fixating on the details of the vocal mix and just being able to focus on that alone has been really valuable for me over time to get really good with vocals.
SPEAKER_04Um, but yes, I you have like a go-to vocal chain, or does it every session? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yes, I do. Um, and it's not like it it changes, you know. I have a template. Yeah, I have a template and it just kind of has a mixture of different things that I tend to use a lot, um, just ready to go. So it's my mixing tends to be really quick because I basically just turn stuff on that I want to use and then I, you know, tweak the settings on them to to suit the performance, and then I'm hopping in and automating effects, reverbs, delays, uh, and then you know, just kind of fine-tuning it to the that person's particular.
SPEAKER_04Do you have like a favorite plug-in or two?
SPEAKER_02At all? Uh yeah, I mean, I definitely have some favorites uh by category though, you know. Like my favorite compressors are usually like uh analog replications, like uh LA2As and 1176s are kind of my favorite compressors because they have that kind of old school color to them, which sounds great.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um so for compressors, I like those. Um, I also love like distressors really good, even though that's that's usually more on the production side, less I don't use that on vocals super often. But uh and then I love like Valhalla reverbs. Um, shout out to Ableton stock stuff too. Ableton stock actually has some really good, awesome stuff. The glue compressor is amazing. Uh even the the stock reverb in Ableton sounds amazing if you really know how to use it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Um it does come down to knowing how to use. There are plugins that do like create their own, but then it does come down to just knowing how to use. Yeah, totally. Yeah, because you could have all stock and still make a record if you're gonna do that.
SPEAKER_02I completely agree with that. Yeah, yeah. But I would be fine with just Ableton and no third-party plugins, but it's just nice to have it's nice because they put a different, sometimes like a shine, some plugins, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_04Like whatever. But um, so let's go back to your your songwriting. So you write your songs, right? Yes, yeah. What's that process like? Does it just come out? Does it happen over time?
SPEAKER_02Um, well, probably written like a thousand songs and I'm still figuring it out.
SPEAKER_04So they're kind of like pieces all over the place that eventually join together.
SPEAKER_02I usually start with uh something on an instrument. I usually start with a guitar part or uh a piano part or a synth part, um, and then write lyrics to that, or I might start a production. Um I might start uh you know recording almost like a a beat, but I hardly call it a beat. It's more like more like a song, I guess, but that's how I think about it. But then I'll write I might like listen to I might send it to myself and when I'm driving around in the car, I might like write lyrics, try out vocal ideas to that, and then I'll come into the studio and record vocals over it.
SPEAKER_04Um Does it make your brain tired ever when you're doing all the Hats.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's it's it's uh it becomes a problem. If if it was just like if I was just a full-time musician and I didn't have other uh people's work that I was working on at the same time, yeah, I could manage it. Um, but I kind of do struggle to to manage all of it together, just mainly because of time. Um, I just don't always end up with as much time as I would like to to work on my own stuff. Yeah. So it happens. That's the biggest drawback.
SPEAKER_04It happens when you're in that chair.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's the drawback. But the the cool thing is I get things to sound exactly how I want them to sound because I'm doing everything.
SPEAKER_04So that's it's a it's a And it's like you could out, but it's like why would I why would you outsource when you know what you want to hear and you know how to do it?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I mean I just think the the whole my Cal Black project is it's it's me, you know what I mean? And it's I might have someone else work on it with me on some point of the like rarely, but most of the time it's just whatever I wanted to come out, you know, or like whatever came through me, and then that's what the project is, that's what people know it for. So I I yeah, I pretty much just keep it just to me.
SPEAKER_04What's one of the hardest songs that you've written for yourself?
SPEAKER_02Is the hardest? They're pretty much all pretty hard. Um do you have a push? A push? Yeah. An Ableton push? Yeah. Yeah, I do.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, okay, yeah. Yeah, I have the push too.
SPEAKER_02Oh no, you know what? I sh I pawned it. I pawned it. Because I use an APC 40. Okay. Uh that's in a Kai controller. And it's I usually make I usually use it for live, not not as much for production.
SPEAKER_04Oh, so it does like the same kind of thing?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I use it to launch to launch clips when I'm performing. So if I want to start a song, I'll you know, launch the first part of the song, and then I have some other controls on there, like I have some reverb sends and some um some filtering stuff that I use on the controller. Um and then everything else is live instrumentation backing tracks and effects and stuff.
SPEAKER_04It's nice. Yeah. So I cut you off though on your songs, on your I said your hardest song, and then um you said they're all kind of hard.
SPEAKER_02A hardest thing. They're all kind of the same, they're all kind of a lot going on. Sometimes the hardest part for me is like um lyrics, because uh I just in order for me to feel good about it, it has to be something that uh means something to me, something that I actually want to say and I want people to hear. And sometimes I might not feel like anything I have to say is all that important, and so sometimes I just don't feel like I have much to say, and so but when I do say something, I want to really say it. So so I just put a lot of thought into my labour.
SPEAKER_04You ever just put instrumentals out?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, sometimes. Yeah, I I should probably do more of that because I could probably get a lot more music out if I didn't worry, but people always say, like, put vocals on your songs that they like and I like having vocals in my songs too, so yeah. Um, but it's a back and forth. I do release instrumentals for sure.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. What's your favorite song that you've written of yours?
SPEAKER_02Um I got a few. Um Shine On Through is a song that I've had for years that I actually wrote with my good friend uh Ryan. Shout out to shout out to Ryan back in Washington. Um and he he came up with the the guitar part actually, like, and we recorded it like an old version of the song, you know, probably six or seven years ago, and I I wrote the lyrics, recorded vocals over it. Um and I've waited, I've done like live performances of the song that you can find out there uh but uh never actually fully uh recorded it yet, which is kind of crazy.
SPEAKER_04It's been like seven years since the song was so you guys did like a a recording of some sort, you said, right? But you haven't like reproduced since no.
SPEAKER_02So what I need to do is like you know, really record it now. Um and I've just been putting a lot of thought over time into how to properly do that, whether or not I want live drums, um, and just how I want to record the guitars and stuff, and uh yeah, I I mean I just have other stuff that I want to do too, but that's that's probably my favorite. And then there's also uh a new one I got coming soon. Solace in the Black is gonna be a good song uh that I wrote on the guitar and then built out in the Daw. Um nice, yeah, and then instrumental stuff I love too. You know, I got one uh Elysian Fields that I've been playing forever that um is really exciting. Instrumental track, those are among my favorites, probably.
SPEAKER_04Nice. Um all right, so with recording, um, is there anybody that you've ever recorded that you couldn't believe you were recording them? Or something like that?
SPEAKER_02Like to just talent-wise?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, like oh my god, I'm working with this person. I didn't uh you know, this is amazing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, uh, I mean, honestly, a lot a lot of the people that I get to record, I'm just like blown away by their a lot of them are in Philly, their talent, yeah, yeah, totally. Um, I mean, I got a guy coming in today, Keel, uh Keelio is his his music. He's great. Um got uh Baby Spill is an incredible artist that comes in all the time. Um Ron Corona, uh Mike Carney, my good friend Mike Carney makes amazing music that we've been working on for years now. How long has Spip been here? And then five years. Okay, because I actually did. I had I had uh as as far as like bigger artists and stuff, I I did have Rob 49 in here one time, and that kind of blew my mind, but not because he was so good or something, it was more like uh he came in and then I turn around at the desk and I turn around again, and there's two guys with AR-15s standing there, like as bodyguards, and like his whole crew and stuff came in, and that kind of was like, Whoa, that's a little much, yeah. Right, it was yeah, but I guess you know, people like that roll around with their their security and stuff.
SPEAKER_04Does that make that yeah? I mean, that's a little intense. Yeah, I would be like, I don't know, I don't know if I'd want sessions if people had to bring those, you know what I mean? It kind of kills the vibe, yeah. I mean I understand, but that's a little crazy. Like, are we gonna get shot up during this session? Is that how like right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, I just kind of was focused on on recording, so I didn't think about it too much.
SPEAKER_04But yeah, yeah. Well, that's wild. Um, what's one of your most memorable sessions?
SPEAKER_02Memorable sessions. Um, I mean, the stuff early on that I did really uh because everything was so new and fresh at that time and so exciting, and it still is. But those like when I was really learning how to do this, uh that was like super exciting and figuring out oh, this is what makes things sound so good, you know, and like figuring out those things. When you're a sound junkie, one of my favorites one of my favorite sessions was when we recorded shout out to Mike Carney. We recorded his song Dreamcatchers. I think that was the first one we did here of his. Um and we just had all our all my good friends in here because uh he's like my close friend, and and all we have the same friend group and stuff, and we were all just hanging out in the studio drinking beers and uh recording music together. And um yeah, it was that was just like a great time. Those are my favorite sessions where they just feel like a hang and we're just getting stuff done and it's going well, and yeah, there's other things, you know, having fun.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. So has there ever been a funny or chaotic moment in a session?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, uh, those those happen like all the time. Uh trying to think of a good example of something funny that happens. I mean, funny, I mean, people have goofy takes and stuff, you know, like we'll laugh at a funny mistake or or a word where somebody said a word that wasn't supposed to be there or whatever. Uh but chaotic for sure. Uh sometimes, you know, when you get a uh a track where you have, you know, sometimes in a crazy session you might have 50 vocal tracks or more going on, and and that gets chaotic. Uh and if you ever run into an issue where like you're kind of maxing out your CPU and stuff, which usually I'm pretty good at managing all that stuff, but you know, sometimes crazy stuff can happen. Like worst absolute worst case scenario, like I've had situations where like I lost a song or something because of a crash. That's horrible. Um and it's not because it wasn't saved or something. Like I use this one plugin. If you use Ableton, you might know, but this one plugin, RX Voice Denoise, is an amazing plugin and uses it removes noise from a um uh signal.
SPEAKER_04Which we have it on this remote. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02We're we're gonna use it for this, but um yeah, it uh but it it's it's has this silly thing where it it disables the un undo function in Ableton whenever it's turned on, and it will also not allow the project to reopen if it crashes. So it's kind of crazy. Like I I have to turn it on at the very end. Um wow.
SPEAKER_04So if you crash right now, we would lose this.
SPEAKER_02Well, it's not on right now. I'll turn it on when we're you don't have it on.
SPEAKER_04Oh, I got you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I learned that the hard way, but I had a lot of time. We're gonna have a moment. Yeah. I've done probably, you know, in the thousands of sessions at this point, and uh yeah, I've I I've probably had two times where I had that plugin turn on and the project crash and we lost it. And I always make it up to people. I always, you know, that's my fault. So we fix it. Yeah, we always we always fix it.
SPEAKER_04They need to fix that. That's crazy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. I mean, there's all kinds of software uh incompatibilities with plugins and and software and stuff. Yeah, it gets crazy.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, but um, all right, let's go to uh video videographer now.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Um is when being a videographer, does that change how you ever like look at music?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, uh because it I mean, I would say it opens the possibilities up because whenever I'm thinking uh so when I'm making music for myself, I'm always thinking about how is this gonna work in a live context. So I don't want to just make something that just sounds good as a recording. I want to make something that that I can take out and play live in a way that makes sense for the way that I do stuff. Um so I'm always thinking about okay, I'm gonna play this keys part here, and my vocals are gonna come in here, and then I'll switch the guitar here and this synth part will go there. And and like I'm sort of mapping the song out in a way that it's exciting as a live performance. Um, and then when it comes to the video stuff, I'm also thinking about that. I'm like, oh, okay, this song would be good in in this setting potentially. I'm I'm thinking a lot about that now because I got a I got like a power bank thing that can power like all my equipment for hours at a time, and I so I can just take it off. Uh I well, I bought it um I'm just wondering.
SPEAKER_04Sounds like something I need.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, I bought it on Black Friday, so it was like 60% off for like $1,200. So they're normally like $3,000 or around there.
SPEAKER_04Oh man.
SPEAKER_02Uh this you can get a cheaper one that's smaller. I just wanted the really powerful one.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Uh so yeah, I that was like an investment I made, and and uh it's it's awesome because you can take basically any equipment and just plug it in and have a power source anywhere you can bring this big brick. That's amazing. So I can go out in the woods and I'm gonna be doing a lot of stuff like that coming up. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So I love that. Uh do you find it easier to capture someone's voice or capture someone's personality?
SPEAKER_02Uh what's easy on video?
SPEAKER_04Like recording, yeah, video. Like what what's easy? What are people better at? Is there one that they're better at or not?
SPEAKER_02I'd say it's a similar uh I'm pretty dang good at capturing people's voice. You know, like I just do that so much. So I'm always super confident when people come in to record vocals because I just know like whatever they're used to, uh, I can either meet that standard or or exceed exceed it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And so uh that part is is pretty easy for me at this point. Um, even though it still takes effort.
SPEAKER_04Um it's it's as far as like the people themselves though, like if you're recording people, what are they? What do you find they're better at? Do you think they're better on the camera, or do you think they're better when they come to record vocals? You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_02Like they're view they're just it really just depends on the person, you know. Some people are more some people are more confident on camera than others, and some people are more confident in the booth than others. Uh so it it really just depends on their on them and what they work on, you know. Like I personally uh I'm not very I feel like I'm not very good on camera when it comes to like if I have to like if I'm doing a lip sync or something like that, like uh I just that's not really my strong suit. Uh so I I the way I get past that is by giving myself so much stuff to do that I can't think about the camera. So that's kind of my approach to like doing live videos, but when for other people, yeah, it really just depends on their confidence level. Uh and it can go either way.
SPEAKER_04What's one maybe piece of advice if because you so you record the spit things and you record video for people, right? Like what's what's something that people can do to be more prepared when they come to record?
SPEAKER_02Um just like just like in the in the studio, uh try like if you're gonna do a performance track for a song or something that you did vocals on, you want to like do a video for it, whether it's like a music video or or like a piece of vertical content. Um maybe just video yourself a little bit and and kind of see what you look like and see what what are you doing with your hands. How are you standing? What's your posture look like? Because you don't want to like go hire a professional videographer and then only find out what you look like on camera that day. So, you know, maybe just plan it out. It's totally gonna depend on the vibe of of the song and and who you are. And that doesn't mean you have to do anything at all. Your vibe might just be your hands in your pockets and you're just casual, you know, doing saying your piece. But figure out what your style is and then and then know that going into it. Yeah. You know, like uh someone like me doing your video can can give you tips. Um, but like ultimately, like you are your own thing, and you should know what that is when it comes to time to record something like that.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and if you don't practice, I I like that advice. Like, we all have cameras, so watch yourself, and then you can be like, all right, don't do that, do that, don't do that.
SPEAKER_02Right. Just practice, just like anybody. Just practice, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Um, what's something that excites you about the local scene here in Philly?
SPEAKER_02A lot of stuff. I love Philly. I I think Philly's a really cool creative area because it's a little cheaper to live than a lot of other, you know, metropolitan areas. And um I just think there's a cool grit and character and history to this city that I've totally like fallen in love with. Um I just love how on any given night there's always some kind of event going on somewhere, someone's playing music somewhere. Um, everything from you know the highest level stuff at at venues to like people doing stuff in their backyard where I started, you know, and like there's just like a whole spectrum of different kinds of uh creative stuff going on at any given time. There's studios all over the place, uh, you know.
SPEAKER_04Um and Spitzbike's been kind of like building its own community, I feel like, right? Oh, yeah, big time. Or how do you feel? I feel that way. Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, I think you guys are booked all the time, right? And you're building a spit two, right?
SPEAKER_02Yes. This is spit one. Um, we recently uh rented the room next door, it's the same kind of room, same size. Um, and we're gonna make spit two. It's gonna be really cool. Uh it's gonna have like a bar in there, a podcast setup, and a lounge, along with a whole uh recording studio, um, like a content area. And Jason is pretty genius at designing um studios, and he designed this one. He's also Oh, really?
SPEAKER_04I mean, I know he's part of it a lot, but I didn't know he's like the he designs it, yeah.
SPEAKER_02We I mean we have an acoustician who does who tells us where to put uh all the sound treatment, yeah, the acoustic uh panels. Um, but and then Jason um you know he consults us and asks us what we like and don't like, but ultimately he's he's designing the rooms and he's very good at it. Yeah, he does a great job. Yeah, he does.
SPEAKER_04Uh what's the best piece of advice that you've ever gotten in this along your way?
SPEAKER_02Oh, is it the best or the worst? Uh the best or the worst. I was gonna say, I was gonna say basically just never give up because that's like you just have to keep going if you if if you want to be in media.
SPEAKER_04Well, you personally though, like has anybody ever said something to you? Like, do you think that's what I mean?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean just just don't give up. Uh I guess um shout out to my friend uh Bruce, Bruce Brewer back in in Washington. He's a he's a good friend of mine, and he he says he says said a lot of things that have kind of stuck with me over time. Um and just just stuff on the along the lines of like only say what you need what you need to say and like let let things come through that are that are that's good advice that are truly you and what you truly need to to say, yeah you know, and like that's kind of been a part of my whole philosophy, like the entire time I've been making music. Um and yeah, I I guess yeah, that I'm trying to think of some other well, what's the worst piece?
SPEAKER_04Is there anything that's terrible that someone said to you and you're like, oh my god.
SPEAKER_02Plus, I was gonna say never give up. That might also be the worst advice because man, you get tired doing this stuff.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02And like where is it all leading?
SPEAKER_04But it's a leading, it's a it's uh it's a burning passion. Yeah, like you wouldn't I I don't think you can function without all these projects.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Like what would you do? I don't, yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_04I guess working for Amazon. Yeah, or yeah, I probably something, but like you have the creator, you have a creator in you, so yeah, never give up is horrible, but for people that have it in them, they can't give up. There's you don't have a choice.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, and I'm only kidding by saying never give up is to is bad advice, but like if you really never give up, it gets pretty hard. Yeah, you know, if you keep trying to get better and better and better every day.
SPEAKER_04It's crazy too, with uh, because technology is always advancing. And um, as far as like with computers, you know, about software updates and all that, just just keeping up with all the times and all the music and whatever, right? Like it's a lot.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it can be a lot. It is a lot right now.
SPEAKER_04I mean, it's kind of Ableton's been around for a while, but from that jump from you know, tape machines to digital to this, is it's just always who knows where it's going.
SPEAKER_02But I can't tell you how many hours I've spent just like tearing my hair out, trying to figure out, you know, the solution to a technical problem that I'm trying to figure out, whether it's something that I want to do in a on stage or something I want to be able to do in the studio, and and uh even and just like random hiccups, random technological issues that you run into, uh, you know, and trying to just accomplish whatever you're trying to accomplish. I've spent so many hours just like not knowing how to solve a problem, just trying to do it, you know, and like for a long time I didn't have a desk, so I just had like my two keyboards and like a my laptop like on a stand or even like on on the ground on my audio interface, and I would be like hunched over, like with my neck crane down, like just like my guitars on and I'm trying to produce at the same time, and I'm just like in all this physical pain while I'm trying to like make something and it's just like getting in the way. Yeah, and like yeah, so I've I've spent a lot of time.
SPEAKER_04And then when like technical things, if you can't like hear something or yeah, you remember those moments? Now you probably know how to fix all those things, but like remember in the beginning days, if like if you don't know like about sample rate matching or yeah, just little things that you don't your settings, like and you don't know that.
SPEAKER_02Before we had AI to like just solve that stuff really quick, too. I know, which that stuff's great, I have to say, like Google AI in particular is really good with if you don't know how to do something technically, uh it can answer a lot of those questions.
SPEAKER_04It is great, it saves a lot of time. It does because like when you before it was like Google search and you have to do all that reading and taking all that time, but yeah, with AI, it's just like finds all the information in a second and sends it over and you're all right, cool. You know, what's the difference between an artist that um succeeds and an artist that gives up? Have you seen have you seen anybody like ah, you know, screw this or whatever, or do they keep going?
SPEAKER_02I don't know if I've ever like heard someone say, I give up, I'm done, but I have seen people, you know, that had potential that uh, you know, just didn't want to keep giving their energy to something they weren't getting anything back from as much as they would like. Um, and I battle with that myself constantly. Um but um yeah, I think the people who succeed uh tend to be people that have good support around them, people that have people that are helping them with their mission, and people that are you know being honest with themselves about how dedicated they are to this. Because if you want to do if you want to do music, you you have to. Go all in on it. You can't really have it be you can have it be a side thing and have it be something that still is fulfilling, brings things to your life. You play shows people might even love and listen to your music. But if you like really wanna, you know, take it to the next level, you really have to uh make that your number one thing and and go all in on it. And you have to have support. You have to you can't do it all yourself. You gotta have a team have your people, whether that's an engineer like me, or maybe you maybe you're like me and you you produce and engineer your own stuff, you still need people to help you make videos. Uh, you know, like I can shoot stuff myself, but it really helps when I have friends that can come and help me out, or uh, you know, people that can help you make connections, people that can help you get in your your foot in the door in the industry, whether it's shows um or you know, promotion or that kind of thing. And and I'm I'm lucky to have great people around me that get can help me. And I think the people that I watch that uh that tend to do the best and are the most enduring over time are are people that A are honest with themselves, they know what they have to do, they know it's not guaranteed, and that it's if it is to be, it's up to me.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Uh and you know, up to them, I'm saying. And and so people that are honest with themselves and understand that, and then they have the they also are not trying to do it themselves all alone. They're finding actively finding the people around them that they need to to help help carry the burden because it's it it's it's a pretty hard thing to do.
SPEAKER_04And it's like a tough, I mean you gotta really you gotta really be in it, like because because people want to get paid everywhere. So like to really build that team, I mean, I don't know. I guess that's where unless you have you know, if you have money, that's great. Yeah, otherwise you have to find people that will believe you and believe in you in the beginning and maybe do some stuff at a cheaper rate or something like that. Yeah, until you build, you know what I mean? No, a hundred percent work together. I mean, I think there's a lot to a team and and it it does make a difference. It does make a difference. If you have a team, you can focus on your artistry.
SPEAKER_02I think I especially when you're when you're young, uh you know, when you're in your in your teens and twenties, uh, you know, like find other people around you that are that are also excited about what they do.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And uh, you know, and like like you were saying, like, just want to help because they think it's cool and they think it's fun.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, which everyone's learning.
SPEAKER_02Do things together. And if you're not just making it all about yourself, you know, like maybe there's you can help them with something in return or whatever it is. But I think there's a lot of people out there, uh young, excited people out there. It doesn't have to be some, you know, you don't have to go find some professional out there that is just like a uh absolute pro at what they do and have them be your person. You can, you know, like that's great. And if you can hire that person or whatever it is, great, yeah, that's awesome. But they don't have to be those people, like just find the people that are excited about what they're doing and and really enthusiastic and want to do this and and make those people your people and do it together as a team, as something that benefits everyone.
SPEAKER_04And with it being, you know, 2026, it's like the options to make that happen are so possible. You know, 30 years ago, you couldn't just set up a phone. I mean, cell phones weren't even out probably 30 years ago, they're just coming out, you know. So there's all the resources. So you just gotta, and we and and now you can learn. I mean, information is more than ever at your fingertips. So if everyone's dedicated, sounds fun. I'm thinking about just being a little kid, and like not a little kid, but like yeah, you know, 16 and 20s, because I was that was that was like the late 90s, early 2000s for me, so it was like a different world. I was just getting rid of my four-track probably and buying like Pro Tools 2, you know. In this building, so a lot of the people that watch this podcast or listen to this podcast, um, I've been at Drowning Fish plenty of times, and I did not mention that Drowning Fish is partnered with Spitfilly, and it's all in the same building here. Um, the live room and the control room to Drowning Fish is right next door, and then there's Spitfilly, and now there's gonna be Spit 2. Um, so you guys are kind of taking over this building, and the people that are all that I've met involved in this whole thing are like the best. Like you guys are all the best, and it's amazing because it's like it can only get better, and Philly Philly is amazing. Like you said, there's so much talent and so much work. So when you meet a group of people like you guys and Jason and everything that are like so driven by the community and by being good people and actually making good art and the egos aren't in the way, there's no, you know, maybe Jason's a little crazy sometimes, but he can be. It's fine. He started this madness. Um, so I just want everyone to know like if if you need any work when it comes to, you know, like a lot of like he said, hip-hop, uh, RB, pop, all that kind of stuff, vocal recording, Spitfilly is a spot. Drowning fish is a great spot too. I I think um, you know, you could go there. It's more live instruments and things like that. They have all the outboard gear, all that, all that good stuff, which is good for vocals too. But it's like a different kind of budget a little bit because there's more, there's more high-end stuff that comes with driving.
SPEAKER_02There's more steps that need to be taken too much. Yeah, and more steps.
SPEAKER_04But definitely whoever needs to ever record uh or do video, you shoot awesome video. Um just come to this building. It's amazing here. Uh what where do you see or where do you want to see yourself or spitfilly or anything like that? Like, let's say in five years.
SPEAKER_02Well, in five years, we want to have uh multiple spit locations in various different cities, you know. Um, you know, and I would say in five years, like ambitiously, we want to have five locations, you know, like in different places. But uh this stuff takes time, it takes a lot of work, um, and we just build it brick by brick as we go. So, you know, on the spit side, yeah, definitely want to expand and be present in other cities other than just Philly. Um, and with my own stuff.
SPEAKER_04That's so possible. It's such a great name.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, totally. That was genius. Yeah, and I mean I think we just make something that uh we make a really chill place for people to come in and feel comfortable and feel like they're getting taken care of. And that's kind of the whole like ethic behind Spit is we want people to come and know that they're gonna get taken care of, and it's gonna be consistent, and they're not gonna get varying results, you know, depending on when they come or whatever. You just you get your your engineer that you like and you lock in with them, and you're gonna get the same results, you know what you're getting, you know.
SPEAKER_04Do people bring their clients here, or do you guys have people hit them up, hit you up, and then you kind of disperse the work for the engineers?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean it's both. It's uh we have uh so like when we hire a new engineer, what we tell them is Congratulations, you have a room to work out of. Um now, you know, it's time to like get some clients, and or maybe they have them already and they start bringing them in. Um, and then we also have a mentorship program um to help people do that. So we have like workshops every week where we talk about everything from mixing techniques and studio etiquette to like client acquisition and how to work with people and how to be just how to be a good person that people want to work with. Yeah. Um so like we try to offer resources um on that front. And then yeah, then we have people calling the phone and uh booking sessions randomly, and when that stuff happens, we uh we dish out the sessions to whoever is you know a trusted engineer here who uh who um I love that is ready for it, and we we give it to them, and or maybe it's me or maybe it's someone else, but yeah, that's how we do it.
SPEAKER_04I love that. Do you want to do any plugging as far as your artist project? Spit, where can we find everything?
SPEAKER_02Uh sure, yeah, yeah. Uh well, if you want to book Spitfilly, you can just go to spitphilly.com. We have uh video options, set uh recording studio options. Uh you can just book however many hours you want, you know, select your engineer and lock in. Feel free to book me if you want to.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, or we also have a list of engineers on the website. You can check them all out. Um, and then yeah, I'm I'm cal black on Instagram. Um, that's c a l dot b-l-a-c. There's no K in black. If you spell Cal Black backwards, it spells Cal Black. That's how you know. Uh, and that yeah, that's where you find all my music too. It's all under Cal Black on all platforms. Uh and this year, uh follow me on YouTube because I'm gonna be doing a lot of YouTube live stuff this year.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_02Um that's kind of my plan for what's next. Uh less less focused on on Spotify singles and stuff like that, and more focused on like longer live instrumentation stuff uh that you watch on video and listen to. So that's kind of what I'm thinking about right now.
SPEAKER_04Um anything else before I ask you the the final question of the podcast that you want to put in because you got you have he actually has a session in like 20 minutes.
SPEAKER_02Uh feel free to hit me up. Let's work.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. So okay, so the last question is how is music your hero?
SPEAKER_02Uh music is like the guiding light around my whole life. It's what you know, it's everything that I do comes back to uh music as the center point. You know, uh every decision I make, everything that I do is always like how is it how is that gonna move me forward? Um and how's that gonna help me be a better artist and a better professional for those that I work with? Um so I guess that's how it's just like basically everything in my life.
SPEAKER_04It brings out the best in you in a way.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, it does. It does, because it's a really challenging thing to do, and and I have to bring my best to it in order to do well at it. So I just give everything I can. Uh I used to spend all my money on it too, you know, and like now, fortunately, I have a lot of the stuff I need now, so I don't have to do the money.
SPEAKER_04That's when you know you're winning. Yeah. You know, it's you're you're paying the bills and doing what you love. Yeah. So that's great. All right. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to sit and talk with me today. And um, that's it.
SPEAKER_00Thanks. Until next time, keep creating, keep connecting, and keep building together. Remember, we're in this together. So let's keep each other shy alive.