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Rabbit in the Moon is an intense act that mixes cinematic electronic dance music with sound design combined with an unforgettable live stage performance. Their style of electronic music is favored by many for being original and timeless. We spoke with David, who handles much of the production and musical duties for the band.
We have worked with so many amazing artists, but one of my favorite was early in my career. It was having Butch Vig call us to remix his new band Garbage. As the story goes he was driving around LA listening to the radio and someone played a remix we did for Sarah McLachlan. He called the radio station and asked who did this remix, because he hated Sarah McLachlan but whoever did this remix made him like her and he needed to work with them. I ended up doing three different songs for them and they used one part of a remix as an intro for their live show. It was an amazing experience.
From our early inception, I have always written, produced, engineered and mixed our music and remixes. As of now we incorporate more collaborations with producers, singers and musicians to challenge and progress our original sound. I still do my own solo work and remixes as well. I work with other artists and singers to help produce or write their music while also helping to find their signature sound.
I just dove in. I played piano when I was a kid and my love for synths landed my in a few bands. Some of these bands made records and we worked with engineers in studios. I just picked things up from watching and asking questions. I would get positive feedback from the pros about the quality of my ears and my choices while mixing. That gave me the confidence to continue learning and mixing on my own…
I do believe in getting that serendipitous break which can happen more than once in your career. Heroes, man so many. But one of my favorite moments was when I first moved to LA back in 2006. The first week I was here I was asked to record some music for a video game that Nile Rogers was musical director for. I was already on cloud 9 he knew who we were and asked for us. When the track was done he wanted us to meet him at Dweezil Zappa’s house which is Frank Zappa’s old house with a studio in it. As the track started to play on the studio monitors, Nile got excited because I wrote this cool arpeggiation.. it had a kind of funky swing to it. He instantly picked up his guitar and started jamming to it. I was blown away to watch his music gift of creation live over something I wrote. Definitely a beautiful moment I’ll never forget. As artists connected by sound, we live for those moments.
I would say monitoring. There is nothing worse than feeling like your mixes don’t translate outside your studio. I’ve always seen studios that have 3 or 4 pairs of monitors and think.. that’s a little excessive huh? But no, it’s actually useful to use different monitors and headphones to complete a proper translating mix.
I’ve been using UAD plugins for over 15 years which are great. Izotope is always a must in the finalizing processes. A new favorite must-have as of late are Oaeksounds soothe2 and spiff. One is a dynamic resonance suppressor and the other works on transient control. Man those are magic when you just need to clean up those unwanted harsh sounding resonances or control the punch of your mix. With all this new algorithm technology it’s exciting to see where mixing and mastering will be in another 5 years… My other secret sauce is my Avalon 747sp. I love what it brings out in my mixes… They just feel better after a run through that box.
People always say, Just do you. But that’s not always that easy when you are starting out. I say copy the hell out of your heroes, and eventually you will discover yourself at the core of that. Being able to imitate and sound like your heroes will help you hone your skills of just doing the technical work it takes to write songs and produce music. Then you will have to tools to create anything your imagination desires.
Being an artist who plays shows and is traveling all the time, headphones became a necessity. No one you are sitting next to on an airplane wants to hear the amazing new track you are creating on repeat for 5 hours... lol. So not only do you have to find some you trust while mixing in the studio, but some you can trust when you can’t be in your own studio and have to produce and mix on the go.
Life changing, Mobile Mix changing. Like most producers/mixers you have various monitors to a/b your work, but Audeze is not only as good, they can go with you and make your hotel, or collaborator's studios always feel like home...
I've been completing music for my own solo endeavors as well as new music for the next Rabbit in the Moon ep on Insomniac Records Los Angeles...
As a kid before I knew what headphones were, I would take my parent's stereo speakers and set them on the ground of my living room and lay in between them to feel like I was living in the sound. Now using Audeze LCD-X, I feel like I've come full circle to the wonder and magic of that audio experience. Instead of car testing my mixes, I just floor test them.
