Meet Harrison Whitecloud | Music Producer / Audio Engineer

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

Hi Harrison, Let’s talk about principles and values – what matters to you most?
The principle that matters most to me is commitment. In the world of music production and audio engineering, we require confidence and precision to complete a task in the production process correctly. These tasks periodically feel insurmountable. Especially if you’re limited on time, the quality of your equipment, and how prepared your client is.

That being said, commitment is the best tool for simultaneously ensuring growth in your skills, and results. Commitment will hone your decision making resulting in a faster, more efficient workflow. Most importantly it gets the job done, and out of the way for newer challenges.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
What keeps me busy is my work in the music production process. Writing, Demo-ing, Pre-Production, Recording, Mixing, and Mastering.

Producers have their own formula for doing things. What sets me apart from others is that I do whatever it takes to get the artist’s vision accurately represented for the listener. I’m not afraid to heavy-handedly use my tools and skills I’ve developed to get the song represented exactly the way it’s asking. That might look like something from destroying the vocal recording with compression / equalization to recording a sample of Smash Mouth’s song “All Star” and mangling it until you can’t even recognize it and using that to create sound candy to fill out a section in a song. (Yes this happened.)

Things like that make me most proud of my mixing workflow. Mixing is when you take all of your recorded audio and balance it between two speakers. With my tools and skills, I can mix a radio EDM pop song and then work on straight up death metal from hell without any issues.

I developed my experience with perseverance and a ton of help from family, friends and mentors. The studio life is expensive, has long hours, and meticulous tasks. It is almost never easy. Which is the best part. I overcome my challenges by committing, learning as much as possible, avoiding procrastination, and not being afraid to ask for help.

What I’ve learned along the way is acceptance. There’s nothing like being knee deep in production, and facing a lot of problems to help you zoom out to focus on the bigger picture. Which is there’s no such thing as a perfect song, performance, and production. So accept it for what it is. Do your best, and get it done.

I’m a music lover. It’s in my blood. I will always try to involve myself with it whenever I can. Which is why I started Whitecloud Audio. It’s a home recording studio with quality everything. I’m talking guitars, basses, drums, amps, cabinets, pedals, mics, preamps, compressors, eq’s, converters, etc. I can keep going forever, but the bottom line is I got nothing but the best for making your musical dream come true.

I’m just a regular dude who loves music working my butt off to reach my career goals.

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.
Day 1: Settling In

Today would be a bit more scaled back. They just arrived so I’ll let them rest a bit. Maybe a nice chill dinner at Rustic Root in downtown SD. Great food.

Day 2: Beach Day

Solana Beach and or Encinitas are wonderful spots for some sun and boogey boarding. Food options I’m thinking of are Hamburger Hut and or Biergarten in Encinitas.

Day 3: Movie Theater

We’d hit up Cinepolis in Del Mar area for the latest and greatest movie that might be out. Comfy chairs, good food and cocktails.

Day 4: Concert

Can’t forget about a killer show to check out. Preferably a heavy metal concert. North Island Credit Union Amphitheater and House of Blues SD are my go to. Beer, metal, and moshing.

Day 5: Hiking

There’s some great trails in San Diego, so we’d probably go hike Mount Woodson and check out potato chip rock.

Day 6: Chill Day

We’ve been hitting it hard the past few days. Time for relaxation.

Day 7: Julian

Julian, CA is a great tourist attraction in San Diego county. They have a variety of restaurants, and miscellaneous shops to enjoy. It’s always a fun place to explore.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There’s a lot of people that have aided in my success so far. Family, friends, and mentors. On the family side, everybody always supported. My girlfriend Dena, and mom Laurie are the first people to pop in my head.

On the friend side, I’m blessed to have too many to name off. But if there are two people in particular to name it’d have to be Andrew and Lisset Pittman for connecting me with shoutout. Thanks guys.

On the mentor side, shoutout to Studio West and the Recording Art Center for jumpstarting my career. Next are Chad Bamford and Evil Joe Barresi from Pro Sound Workshop. I was on my last leg. Almost ready to switch careers. That was until I took my first trip to train with Chad and Evil Joe. They reignited my passion for music production and audio engineering big time.

Website: WhitecloudAudio.com

Instagram: @Whitecloud.Audio

Image Credits
Portrait done by Tawny Osuna