Production – Matt Holsen

Music Production

Some samples of my recording/production work. Excerpts in the video and full tracks in the player.

Over many years I’ve helped a lot of singer/songwriters make recordings. I built and ran a couple of small studios in Virginia and Maryland. I no longer have a full studio with isolation, but I’m still making tracks “in the box” in a small project studio. (My own tracks on this page are examples of “in the box” production. The Composition page has a bunch more examples.)

If you have that sort of project, give a listen to these tracks. If you think I might be the right producer for that project, please send me a note.

I did my first recording job way back in 1975: Harbison Bond and Goddard, a DC area acoustic rock trio. The sessions were in a bar, from just after after closing until dawn, with a Tascam 1/4″ 4-track. I’ve recorded and produced a lot of music since then. I built and ran studios in Herndon, VA, Arlington, VA and Riverdale Park, MD. I use better gear now, but what I learned in those 6am sessions in the Pour House Pub still holds: Recording and producing is about getting the best possible performance and, to get that performance, you adapt the recording process to the performer, not the other way around.

Some notes on the tracks above, and what the “producer” did for each:

The Lea cuts are from her third CD, “Great big World,” recorded in my studio in Arlington, VA in 2006. That was a collaboration. Lea had the last word but she gave me a lot of latitude. My job included picking most of the players. The drums and bass on these two songs were tracked while she was on tour in Germany. She left acoustic guitar tracks and scratch vocals, against a click. When she first heard what they did on Sky her reaction was: “I didn’t know that was in there….” Fine players, all.

Personnel on Xenophobia: Electric Guitar / Billy Kemp | Drums / Andy Hamburger | Bass / Gary Grainger | Acoustic guitar and vocal: Lea

The Tom Prasada-Rao cuts are from his third CD: “I Hear You Laughing,” recorded in my old studio in Herndon, VA way back in 1997. (I was still recording with ADAT’s.) Tom occasionally refers to me me as the producer, but that’s generous. I engineered and mixed, but I didn’t make any musical decisions. My job was to make things sound good and keep the sessions running smoothly. To get the best performance, we started by recording just his vocal and guitar, together and without a click track. Then we added everything else, including drums. You can do that if you have really solid time. The result is wonderfully live.

Personnel on Hear you Laughing: Guitars, violin, mandolin, lead vocal / Tom | Percussion / Jeff Berkley | Backing vocal / Merlin David

The Matt Holsen cuts are from my 2016 Album: The Horizon. That was an “in the Box” production. I arranged all parts and I played (or sequenced) and sang all the parts on every song, except some backing vocals. All 16 instruments on Icarus are virtual. Likewise drums and bass on Pompeii. Lena Seikaly sang the top two scatting parts on Pompeii and I sang the third part.

Icarus is my song, from 2014.
The Last Day of Pompeii is by the late Michael Peter Smith.