I am a record producer, mixer, composer and songwriter based in Seattle, WA. I own and operate a studio here called Thud.

My very favorite thing in the massive universe of creativity is making inspiring music and sounds with good people. That might be engineering for studio recording sessions, producing entire albums, mixing albums or singles, co-writing and collaborating on new ideas, creating bespoke sounds or programming virtual instruments.

I created the Gravity Production Music label in 1998 and later sold it to Warner Chappell, conceived and produced Velocity Production Music for FirstCom Music in 2001 and later sold it to Zomba/BMG (now part of the Universal Production Music empire), and launched the BurstLabs.com catalog in 2007 which was rebranded as Mixtape when I partnered with Extreme Music a year later (Mixtape was acquired fully by Sony/ATV in 2010).

In 2010 I launched a music licensing and publishing venture called The License Lab. We currently produce 10 unique labels of production music which are distributed worldwide through Universal Music :

Analog Champion, Dancing About Architecture, Eyeballs & Eardrums, HypeKit, LMNTL Records, Modus Operandi, Organic Spark, Picture Puncture, Three Ingredients Or Less, and UNDERscore

I believe great music can be made on all kinds of tools, from your phone to a full blown pro studio. Analog gear and tape, software and plugins. Those choices matter a lot less than the music itself.

My original recording studio Wire & Vice is located in a 1930s-era post office near Harley Davidson and the original Miller brewery just outside Milwaukee, WI. Proud of the fact that we hosted a diverse range of musical artists over our 20 years there, from Rihanna and Eric Benet, to Chester French, Maritime, and Skillet. Very happy to report that as of September 2021, I’ve sold the studio and the building it is in. You can read a bit more about that here: Tosa’s World Class Wire & Vice Recording Studio Is Changing Hands.

Over the years, I’ve mixed music by artists such as Collections of Colonies of Bees, Over The Rhine, Amos Lee, Field Report, Dramatic Lovers (f. The Promise Ring, Maritime, and Decibully alum), Blitzen Trapper, Crowded House, Nick Lowe, Alec Shaw, Dead Horses, Strehlow, Abby Jeanne, David Choi, Zan Fiskum, and Ryan Higa. Mixing remains my favorite part of the music making process. I am usually booked out a few weeks to a couple of months, so please get in touch as early as possible if you’re interested in including me in your upcoming releases.

I have also composed and/or produced thousands of cues currently being used by such varied clients as Apple, Nike, Google, Microsoft, GM & Gatorade, virtually all of the top shows on HBO, ESPN, CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox, and all across the globe in tv, radio, advertisements, videogames and film. There’s a partial list of placements here.

If you’re interested in working together, email remains the best way to reach me.

site photo credits :
Wrenne Evans, Lauren Johnson, Andrew Feller, Erin Leverence, Daniel Holter