Meet Ryan Bram | Producer, Recording & Mix Engineer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ryan Bram and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ryan, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking

I think being willing to take risks is essential for audio engineering and production. There are so many endless approaches to these things. Being willing to take a risk and experiment is paramount to finding your own sound and developing your craft in general.

That said, knowing HOW to take risks in the studio is equally important as your willingness to try them. Boil it all down, and we’re just working with sound waves, how they interact with acoustics and how they are captured. Of course, these things have hard set rules. It’s physics! Once you understand the rules, you can bend or break them. That’s the root of where creativity and artistry can be introduced into engineering and production. Without being willing to take risks and experiment, we’d have a lot duller sounding records. High fidelity ones maybe, but not original, exciting or creative.

Sylvia Massy is a perfect example of an engineer that fully understands the rules of recording, and will bend them any chance she gets. Her approach to “adventure recording” has been really eye opening for me, and has inspired me to try more creative techniques when the opportunity arises. While I don’t think I’m likely to suggest we run a guitar through an electrified pickle any time soon, I’m happy to throw up an unconventional mic or use some broken gear as an effect. There’s always the option to fall back on tried and true methods if it sounds like garbage.

In that respect, I don’t think there’s inherently as much of a risk in experimenting with recording and production in comparison to actually making it your career. It’s no secret that there’s significantly less money to be made in running a studio now than there used to be. Album profits aren’t anywhere what they used to be decades ago, thus label’s and band’s recording budgets aren’t anything like they used to be either. There’s also an incredible amount of competition in the novice/amateur level of recording as a result of how available and cheap home recording equipment has become.

It’s a pretty daunting scenario, to have to grow out of and separate yourself from so much competition. I knew about those risk factors when I started getting into recording, and how much opportunity there is to fail. It’s been a lot of hard work and some luck, but I’m grateful for making it to where I am now- to really be able to do what I love.

I actually originally went to college to become a software engineer. There was a clear, well paying career path there, but my heart wasn’t in it. It took a lot of trust from my family to support me in walking away from that, but I knew recording was the only thing for me.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

I’m easily most excited right now about the completion and opening of my new studio! It’s a huge step up in all facets, most importantly acoustics, comfort, and capabilities. Drums sound crushing in the new live room. Acoustically, it’s very controlled but explosive. Perfect for the variety of genres I tend to record. It’s also been a great change to be able to comfortably record bands live, something I didn’t get to do much previously. The very first session in the new studio happened to be a fully live project. I loved it.

In terms of what differentiates me from other engineers; For one, I think it helps that I currently play and have played in numerous bands. Being able to have the same musical vernacular and references as the bands you work with allows you to understand their vision more clearly and quickly than you might otherwise. I also suppose the degree of a nerd I can be about engineering might play a role. I’ll tend to find one aspect of the recording process and try to learn everything I can until my eyes and ears bleed. For instance, I’ve spent countless hours just on the recordinghacks.com mic database reading about mics, companies, their histories, then listening to comparison clips and videos for hours on end. When we were building the studio, I started reading numerous deep dive books on sound acoustics that had me brushing up on my calculus just to get through them. I rarely ever take a “do _____ ask questions later” approach to anything. At the very least, I think the mentality and obsession has afforded me an additional layer of confidence on top of having 16+ years of experience. The majority of music I happen to work with is heavy stuff.. death metal, hardcore, etc. But I feel just as comfortable working with most any genre. If it’s not something I’m familiar with, I’ll research it to death, then come ready knowing the right approach.

I also love finding out how other people have gotten their specific tones and effects. I then try to acquire whatever gear necessary to replicate it myself and have it available for bands to use in my studio. Pretty wide field of interest there, but I’ve mostly dove into how guitar tones I’ve loved were achieved. That was partly how my relationship with Gatecreeper began- I knew exactly the sound they were trying to achieve and being a big fan of Swedish death metal myself, I already owned the same pedal and amp combo used on the influential album Left Hand Path. We ended up using that very same rig on the first Gatecreeper EP. So being a huge nerd and fan of the genres you work with helps.

I’ve also gone to and played countless live shows. I grew up through our local music scene and it’s definitely helped me develop a really clear idea of how I want many of my productions to sound. I want to capture the raw energy of a hardcore show, the loudness and power of a metal show, and the intimacy of an indie show. I want the records I work on to invoke similar feelings of seeing the band live at their best.

Getting to where I am now, of course, wasn’t easy. Anyone saying they’re easily doing anything on a professional level is lying. On top of working professionally, I, as many engineers do, work independently. I don’t work for someone else’s studio. I don’t work for a company. I don’t have a business partner. While it’s great to be able to set your own schedule and do everything exactly how you want to do it, as anyone else with their own business will tell you, it comes with its own set of challenges.

One example is feeling guilty for any moment you’re not actively working. In a typical 9-5 when you clock out, the work day is done. You’re not bringing your work home with you, your days off are scheduled. On the other end of the spectrum, here I am, stressing about any infinite number of things I could be working on at the studio at any given time. Even when you’re all caught up on your mixes and you don’t have any recordings for the day, you could be cleaning up, working on new DIY projects, reorganizing and backing up files, testing if the new Pro Tools update will be a glitchy mess, making social media content… it’s endless. And it’s easy to start thinking at 8pm on what otherwise should be a personal day off, that if you don’t drive over to the studio and find something to do that you’re slacking off. It can be an unhealthy cycle of guilting yourself into overworking, or never letting yourself actually relax. It’s tough, and something I’m still working on.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.

Just like with any out of town band I’ve had in, I always make it a point to make sure we go get some excellent Sonoran Mexican food. Tucson is overflowing with amazing food. If they’ve never had a Sonoran dog, I at least make sure we go to Aqui Con El Nene, or BK Carne Asada. Taqueria Pico De Gallo is also another one of my favorites to take people to. If they’re vegan, Tumerico is a great choice.

We would absolutely go get coffee, probably a number of times. Tucson has a number of great roasteries. I often take people to Decibel Coffee Works, which is owned by my friends and fellow engineer Dana Fehr and Nick Hoenig.

I’ve never had a chance to take an out of town friend or band there, but I really enjoy going to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. It’s nicely tucked away in the beautiful Saguaro National Park, and if you go head out there at the right time, you can enjoy the sunset at Gate’s Pass. If they’ve never been to southern Arizona, it’s pretty incredible to see.

My good friend Eric Wagner knows all the good hiking spots, and I’d probably recommend linking up with him to check some of those out while the weather is still nice here. Everyone loves a chance to get out to Romero Pools.

I’m more likely to try to gather some friends together to all play some tabletop RPG dungeon crawling rather than go out for drinks. We have a room at my house just for D&D and tabletop gaming, and I’d gladly take a friend in from out of town as the perfect excuse to pull some dice out.

Also, if someone is staying for a week, chances are there’s a show we can go to.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?

My grandma Sonny left me her home to turn into my new studio when she passed. Without her and the support and encouragement of my parents, I wouldn’t be where I am now.

Our family friend, and the first engineer I interned with, Fred Porter. He encouraged me to keep going with recording, and actually gave me my first microphone. I still use it today as my talk-back mic.

I’m also grateful for all of the bands, artists and people I’ve been so lucky to work with. I’m fortunate to be surrounded by so many talented people, who push me to grow my talents along with theirs.

Website: homewreckerrecordingstudio.com

Instagram: behemothskin

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/homewreckersound

Image Credits
Pablo Vigueras Zack Hansen Matt Underwood