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Issue #133 – Student Successes
by L. Swift and Jeff McQ
When he first came to the Recording Connection, Oluyomi Osh had already achieved a measure of success. A self-taught music producer, he specialized in Afrobeat, had already accumulated a roster of paid clients, and had even done recordings for some A-list gospel artists in his home country of Nigeria. But he wanted to learn more of the engineering side, and he knew enough to know he needed to fill in some gaps in order to up his game. He also knew he needed time in the studio with a real professional.
“All the previous knowledge I had before was all self-learned,” he says. “I needed a hands-on approach like to see the process all the professionals went through.”
Oluyomi already knew about the Recording Connection from his research online, so when he made the decision to relocate to the United States last year, we were already at the top of his list. Even so, when he went in for his initial interview with mentor Jake Grotticelli at House Studios in the Washington, DC area, he was a bit overwhelmed.
“I was blown away,” he says. “House Studio is definitely a great place to study, to apprentice with…The people there, they are welcoming and they pay attention to detail, like they put you through the very process, they give you the time and all.”
It gets better. Oluyomi happened to start his apprenticeship at a key moment when Grammy-nominated R&B artist Carolyn Malachi was in the studio to record an album.
“That actually went a long way for me because I got to be in most of the sessions,” he says, “and saw what the whole process was like, Jake’s approach to recording and finalizing mixes and all. And I actually almost took part in the recording process…because she asked me to go do a voice over on one of the tracks. I was too shy.”
Oluyomi says watching his mentor work on the project was one of the keys to improving his own skills. For example: “There was Jake’s approach to setting mix bus processes which [I] had not previously ventured into,” he says. “Seeing him work the way he did actually opened my eyes up to his approach and how to put that into my own work flow.”
He also saw the importance of getting things right during the recording process, as opposed to the idea of fixing it in the mix. “When you have garbage in, definitely you have garbage out,” he says. “It all starts from basically your arrangement to the end process. From process to process, it all has to be on point.”
But perhaps the most valuable part of the process for Oluyomi was when he could take his own mixes in from his clients to have Jake work with him on them. “I already have clients which I worked with back home….all paid gigs,” he says, “so I got the opportunity to improve on my sound having those projects to work on…From time to time, I had the opportunity to be in the studio…my lesson days with Jake, and just do a few revisions on some mixes, and he told me, ‘Okay. Do this.’ And sometimes I get to hear what my mixes sound like there and make adjustments.”
It didn’t take long after graduation for Oluyomi’s training to pay off, as he had the opportunity to engineer some tracks for Nigerian gospel artist Frank Edwards for his album Frankincense. Within 24 hours of the album’s release, it shot to Number 1 on iTunes in Africa!
“I had the connection from back home,” says Oluyomi. “He knew that I already put myself into a professional program and called me.”
And Oluyomi isn’t stopping there. He’s jumping into his new, revitalized career with both feet.
“My immediate plans are setting up my own rig, setting up my own studio. I’ve already started the process,” he says. “And I’m in the process of registering the business name, as well. And I’m stopping my full-time job to make this full-time already. I’m already putting everything together.”
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