RSE: You’ve worked with Atmosphere and Rhymesayers for quite a while now. Do you recall how that connection was made? And what was the first project you worked on?
JOE: I was freelance engineering at a studio called A440 back in the day when I first met Slug and Ant. One of the co-owners of the studio, Christopher Blood, asked if I’d fill in for him while he was out of town, and that he had a record that they were gonna start working on. That record was God Loves Ugly. Spent weeks with them making a ton of songs, then Christopher came back into town and I handed it back off to him. A couple months go by and I get a call from Slug telling me they have some more songs to record and were wondering if I wanted to work with them again in the studio I was managing at the time, which was right next door to A440. That wound up being the beginning of the Seven’s Travels sessions. Eventually God Loves Ugly came out with songs we did from both sessions and that’s how everything started for my relationship with Atmosphere and Rhymesayers.
RSE: Outside of Rhymesayers, you have an extensive list of artists you've worked with. What are some of the most notable projects you've worked on?
JOE: Locally, because of my work with Rhymesayers and a lot of the artists on their roster at the time, I got involved with the hip hop scene in the Twin Cities and worked with acts like the Doomtree crew and did a lot of their records. Heiruspecs was another group I cut a few records with. Once getting established and a reputation I started getting national acts that would stop through while on tour – Snoop Dogg, Justin Bieber, and Elvis Costello’s band The Imposters are some notable, good experiences.
RSE: How do you feel the acts of recording, mixing and mastering play into the overall creative process?
JOE: A lot of times the ideas are laid out in front of you with the song itself, but how you capture the recording and mix it can really affect the outcome of it overall. It’s important to let the song speak and understand the feeling and message it’s saying and then make decisions in the recording and mixing process that help convey that message and emotion. If it’s a good song it will shine either way, but a bad recording or mix can take you out of the moment and distract from the intent.
