Focus: Glam Hock

Who are you and where are you from?
I’m Wayne and I’m from Darlington, but now I live by the sea in North Tyneside with my girlfriend Jo and my dog Bruce. 

What is it you do?
Primarily, I produce and mix music for bands and artists. I’m also a songwriter, always writing new music just out of habit. Recording my own stuff between work projects. I’ve also started helping people figure recording stuff out via a Youtube channel. Basically just answering the questions that I was asking when I was starting out. 

How long have you been doing it for?
I’ve been playing an instrument since I was a pup, 13 or 14 and probably recording since then too. But it’s only in the last few years that I started taking it seriously and turning something I love into what I do for work. 

What inspires you?
Musically, my current favourites are Mac Demarco, Beak>, The Goon Sax (R.I.P.), Khruangbin, Sleaford Mods, Fontaines D.C.

I’m heavily into The Fall and I can’t decide whether I love or hate Mark E Smith. The term genius gets thrown around whenever his name comes up and I’m just not sure about that. The songs are fantastic, but was he just a bully? I’m on the fence. Thankfully I can separate the music from the creator.

I’m inspired by underdogs and defiance. Identifying what’s wrong with something and making a conscious effort to actively rally against it. It’s important to do that these days, there’s a slow creeping force that’s succeeding in taking that away from us.

People that motivate me are Hideo Kojima, Nigel Godrich, Stewart Lee, I’m a sucker for creatives who do things their way.   

Tell us about your work/music?
I mix songs for artists/bands. I do production work too. I’m obsessed with recording sounds, manipulating them and figuring out why they sound good. 

I love the process of getting to know and working with an artist to pin-point the vibe and sound that they had in their heads when writing, and translating that into a recording. There’s no ego in it, it’s just helping people make art that they’re happy with. 

There’s also no better feeling than handing over a finished mix to an artist and it being exactly what they wanted. 

My own music (Glam Hock) is a by-product of the above, while I enjoy the validation I receive from people about it, I’m not trying to achieve any popularity with it. It’s just there, it exists, I exist, it’s my output to the world and it makes me happy. So I might as well share it and hopefully some people will enjoy it. If they don’t, I’m gonna keep making it anyway because it’s what I do. 

Lately I’ve been collaborating with a few different artists from around the globe. Myk Robinson (a drummer and Youtubeman from Tennessee) played on a track a few months back, and Torsten Winzel (bassist for Love Forty Down) played bass on my new release “Our House”. 

I’m really proud of this track “Our House”. Musically and lyrically. It’s just simple and to the point. The lead melody on the chorus came from me trying to play the theme from M.A.S.H. (Suicide is Painless) on the guitar and getting it wrong. I sent this track away to be mixed by Benedikt Hain of Outback Recordings. I needed some objectivity and the guy is a wizard. I love what he did on the mix.

What have you got coming up?
These are exciting times for me. I’ve found myself as part of a growing network of people that I admire and respect and from that I’m finding interesting new projects and work. 

I’ve just started work as a content editor/creator for an international coaching programme aimed at self recording artists, which I’m very proud to be part of, they’re doing god’s work. Alongside that I’ve got some more production and mixing work coming up with artists that I love. I’m a lucky boy.

As far as my own music goes, a few more collaborations.

I’ve got this song that I’ve been sitting on for over a year now, it’s called Don’t You Love Me Anymore?, it’s got a kind of Pet Shop Boys/Radiohead/New Order vibe going on, but it needs a female voice on it. I’ve tried and I just can’t do it justice with my own voice. So I’m gonna spend some time finding someone with the right voice and see if they’re up for collaborating with me. I can not wait for it to be out in the world. 

Where can people find out more about you?
Our House – Glam Hock: https://soundcloud.com/glam-hock/our-house/
My Linktree: https://linktr.ee/waynecoulsonmixing