TOLUCA LAKE, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 02: Michael Sticka, Jason Mraz, and Manny Marroquin attend GRAMMY ... [+]
Winner of an incredible 17 Grammys, and a 38-time nominee, Manny Marroquin could have just rested on his laurels and continued to work as one of the truly elite mix engineers in music today. His resume is loaded with the biggest names in music — Rihanna, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Linkin Park, John Mayer, Taylor Swift and on and on.
However, what we found when we met with Marroquin at Larrabee Studios is he is definitely not the type to slow down. If anything, Marroquin continues to thrive on learning and pushing himself. Which is probably the greatest reason for his massive success.
Just take Verse, his absolutely stunning L.A. restaurant/live music venue in Toluca Lake. A breathtaking room to see, hear and feel music, the space, perfectly designed for sound, was considered a gamble by many close to Marroquin. As he says, a lot of people might’ve thought it was a risky, even foolish, decision, for a “studio rat” to open a restaurant.
Now, on the night Sage Bava and I are there to meet with Marroquin, the superb L.A. jazz musician/producer Terrace Martin is holding court with a sold-out show. So, maybe Verse was a gamble, but as Bava and I found out talking with Marroquin, that is his nature.
We spoke with him about his musical upbringing, his philosophy of mixing, opening Verse, how he continues to challenge himself and much more.
Steve Baltin: What was the soundtrack to your life?
Manny Marroquin: I grew up around jazz. I’ve got pictures here on my wall. Buddy Rich was my idol. [John] Coltrane and Miles [Davis] were something that I studied. But I also studied Baroque in high school. I went to a music school where they taught us everything. I started playing drums when I was 12. I became a music nerd. I just wanted to learn it all. I went to school with some great musicians. Trevor, the guy that played drums last week, I went to middle school with him. Abraham Laboriel is the reason why I don't play drums professionally. Because he killed my drum career at 15 years old. He was so f**king good. I was like, "Uh. " And [then] I checked music production [chuckle]. From there, my teacher, my mentor, who is still an amazing friend of mine, his name is David Sears. I finished his production, and he goes, "Okay, now you’ve got to mix it." I'm like, "What does that mean?" He goes, "Now you've got to put it together." And he took the time to explain to me about Ramsa, 24 by 8 with a reel-to-reel beat track. And he just said, "This is how you do it. This is what you do." I was 15 thinking, "This is what I want to do for the rest of my life." And that was it. At the time, the stereotype would be the old white guy with long hair and a ponytail and a cigarette and that was the engineer. No one looked like me or sounded like me. I'm not even from this country. Naively enough, I didn't know what the hell mixing was [laughter]. I didn't even know it was a career. But I know the emotion I got when I turned faders and EQs. I can change the emotion of the song. That still blows my mind to this day. So, to say that I love what I do is an understatement because I can change emotions based on frequencies. It sounds obvious, but it's powerful when you utilize it the right way. And that's what we're here for. We're here to play with people's emotions and emphasize. I always say we shoot steroids on whatever that emotion is and exaggerate it, and that's it. People think mixers are fixers or it's a technical field, which it kind of is because we have tools that are pieces of the mirror. But I feel like it's more about getting emotion out of something. That's really our job. For the songwriter or creator how do we emphasize that emotion? How do we really emphasize the peaks and valleys? How do we make you hit replay? That's what I feel mixing is really. At 15 I knew I wanted to be a mixer and I wanted to be the best.
Baltin: You say at 15 you wanted to be the best. Obviously, you’ve had incredible success. But as you’ve gotten older do you also have a deeper appreciation for learning from others that have different skills?
Marroquin: Yeah. I feel like any successful person in the creative field has to stay humble. Babyface told me ego, for him, was having a sheet in front of you, a white sheet that you can see through. It's something you can see through. You can see shapes, but you can't see details. That's the ego. As soon as you remove that sheet, then you can see everything. Now, you have full awareness of everything that's behind you, in front of you, everything. He described that as the ego. And I remember that. I can't get it out of my head because what he said is that when you have a sheet in front of you, you're not going to see who's passing you. You're just going to see things that are passing, meaning getting better than you because you stopped learning at that point. But having full awareness of your surroundings makes you want to keep learning and advancing your art form. I feel like when you have an ego, you think you're the best and you stop listening to other people. I describe myself as a freaking running back in the football team where my career is numbered. Running backs only have whatever amount of years because they get beat up mentally, physically [laughter]. I feel like we're the same. We're in a young men's game. So, you have to be young and thinking. And the only way you can do that is by just learning from everyone. I work with kids that are half my age, maybe even younger, that I have to be on the same wavelength with them. If I didn't want to keep learning, then I wouldn't be in the room with them. But I always try to learn something from everyone, anyone I meet. Consciously, I'm like, "This is what I've learned from that person." From everyone. If I spend enough time with them. Sometimes I notice how I don't want to be. It's like a muscle that you are training constantly on how to be better in general. But in this case, in the studio, I feel like I haven't even hit my peak. I'm like 30 years in with a ton of records. I feel like I'm still not even at the peak. I'm scratching the surface on the knowledge on something more internal than external. Not what you hear from the speakers, but what you put into it. I feel like you have to stay humble so that you can keep learning. The moment you stop learning is the moment you die.
Baltin: Where did Verse come into this?
Marroquin: Verse is a perfect example. It could be seen as the dumbest thing that somebody’s done. Maybe most of my friends thought it was the dumbest thing, but now they don't. Imagine a studio rat trying to open the restaurant. I mean, that, to me, sounds ridiculous. But again, for me, maybe it’s being naive or not naive, but just innocent thinking. Because I still want to keep that inner innocence as much as I can. And people were like, "Whoa." Because it's the hardest. But so's music, so is the studio business. My business manager said, "Don't buy the studio." I'm like, "I'm doing that." He's like, "You shouldn't do it. The Titanic is sinking." I'm like, "Well, buy low, sell high. Isn't that what everyone says?" [laughter] And it's the best decision I've ever made. One of the best. I just go based on my gut followed. I follow my gut and my heart. For better or worse. But I'll bid on that any day, rather than someone's perception or someone's opinion.
Baltin: To this point, it seems like it has worked out.
Marroquin: That's the same thing as Verse. People talk about culture, and here too, I have the best engineers, the best crew, the best tech, everything. Everyone's the best. It’s the same at Verse. I feel like you’ve got to build a culture that is infectious and fun. Nobody wants to show up to a place where they don't have fun. So, you’ve got to create an environment that's safe. And hopefully you’re having a little bit of fun. I'll come and play them a mix or whatever I'm working on, pre-shift, and they're like mind blown [laughter]. And then I tell them, "See, this is why you should be proud of where you're working, because it's the best experience in the world." Now, it may not be close to that, but I'm building that culture that you better think it is, because I think it is. If you think about it, and all of a sudden, the kid that's an actor that's never been an observer before takes pride in what he or she's doing, to me, that's the right culture because they believe that. I say 20 years from now, you're going to get a call. "Were you part of that Verse team in the past couple of years?" And they're going to interview you and say, "What was that like?" So, take pride in what you do. Whether you're doing dishes or playing drums as Trevor Lawrence is. I think that Verse has made me a better mixer because I appreciate it more. This is hard enough to do as a career. I go there and that's work. Here, I might as well put my feet up and they'll feed me grapes and fan me if I want [laughter]. This is heaven for me. And I appreciate it way more now because I've never had a job in my life besides mixing and being in the studio. This is the first time I noticed what a real job, what 99.9 percent of the population in the world's going through. It came at a time I really needed that inspiration. The theme for this is inspiration and keeping that innocence so that you can keep learning. And Verse for me did that.
Sage Bava: You say you’re, "Always looking for that?" How do you describe “That”?
Marroquin: Again, inspiration. I could go on a hike. I just got back from Jackson Hole and I went to Yellowstone. I saw a waterfall, and I stayed and stared at a waterfall for an hour. People came and pictured it and I couldn't move. It was powerful. I don't know how to describe it, but that, to me, is like the older and wiser me. I take it, put it in a bag and put it in my pocket because I'm going to need that inspiration and I'm going to pull that out when I really need it. It's what I think a drug would do to you, get you in a different mind space when you need it. That's really important. I feel like that for me, knowing how to think from the left brain and the right brain, we subconsciously do it all the time, but to be able to do it on a conscious level is really powerful. That means that I need to flip the switch and I need to be in this brain right now. How can you do that? And it took years for me to practice. I'm looking for those moments to help me when I am flipping the switch to that right brain. I need those moments. Again, it could be from nature; for some people, it could be a film, it could be a playlist, it could be anything. It could be a flower, a speaker. It doesn't matter, whatever it is to help you, inspire you when you need that, is crucial. And everyone does it on the subconscious level. But when you're conscious about it, and for me I know what wine I can drink and I know what mood I'm going to be in when I go in the studio. Again, it's in the back pocket when you need it, you pull it out, and you have enough of those the next thing, you have a 30-year career at a very high level. Because it's not easy. It's one of the most challenging fields. What is success? Some will say, "I want to sell out three nights at SoFi.” Some people would say, "Success, for me, is having a number one song on iTunes or whatever that is." "Success, for me, is getting a $1 million record deal." So, we all have different versions of what success is. So success means nothing. If you think about it, we should be asking what makes you happy? I think that's a better way to say it.
Baltin: What is your definition of success?
Marroquin: To do what I love to do. I'm living the happiest life. You pay me to work on your music and you pay me really well. Are you kidding me? No one bothers me. Every room in here is my baby. And it's a little piece of my heart." Verse is a little piece of my heart. I don't do anything in life anymore unless I'm passionate about it. To me, that's success and that's happiness. That is the ultimate success.
Bava: I love this idea of flipping the switch to different brains. And I wanted to ask about the importance of creating different spaces.
Marroquin: Yeah, every space has its own personality. I love how a physical space can make you feel something. And that's what good architecture will do. Good designers will do that. We've all walked into a house and if it's well designed, and it doesn't have to be expensive, but it's very tastefully designed, you feel something. I've always felt like any room that you walk into, you should have an emotional connection to that. Because it's going to be inspiring for you to do whatever you're doing. So, this room started with this wing back. My friend found it on eBay or something. I love the wing back. It looks old and worn. This room was about the inspiration of having almost like a man cave. I always described it as being in Liverpool, in the fricking basement of someone's house, smoking a cigar and having a whiskey. But that's an emotion. You may not get that, but at least somebody will. So, every room you go to has got that. Because I do feel like it's important for you to walk through a space and always feel inspired, that's really the goal for Verse too. Every little thing at Verse has got a story that's tied to me personally. The panels are a dream that I had. It took me two years to find an artist to do that. Some of the lights are asymmetrical. And people have come up to me, like, "Why would you do that?” Because the creator was a former model turned welder, a friend of ours. She's so talented. I wanted her to do some lights, brought her to the studio, played her some songs, goes back, sends me a photo of this thing that she created. And all the different levels represented the meter bridge. Nobody knows that. But I know that and love it. So, all the lights that you see above the bar represent different levels of music in my studio.
Bava: I want to go back to your mind-f**kery of mixing. I like that concept. It's so nebulous. Within finding yourself in that nebulous space, was it an experience or was it a specific project?
Marroquin: There's a technical side of that, and then there's a non-technical side. The non-technical is the 10,000 hours, maybe 30,000 hours. It’s just repetition, trial and error. Seeing what works, what doesn't. I always say whenever I work on the song, if it makes my body feel something, if it makes me want to do this or even cry, whatever that emotion it makes me, I know I can sell that Eskimo a fan. I know that and that’s years of trusting yourself. Now the technical side, whenever I do a panel, the first thing I always do is I go, "Okay, everyone in the room by a facial expression, show me what 1K means to you." And mostly they're mixers. They all make the same f**king face by the way. I go, "Show me 10K." And their body language actually lifts. So right there, before I even talk about anything else, I prove that frequencies have different emotions. So when I want something to be maybe more aggressive, I know what that is. These are very broad strokes. Every song, no matter if it's a ballad or a metal song, they have to have good and evil. So, you find what that means in the song. I try to always find the good and I emphasize the good and I emphasize the evil. So that's the technical mind-f**kery that's happening. And emotion, “Is the mix supposed to choke you? Is it supposed to hug you?” I always describe it as a rollercoaster as well. I'm like, "You go on the rollercoaster.” A rollercoaster is a perfect example of giving you enough of a thrill that you're engaged, the ups and downs, the thrill, when it slows down and then speeds up. All those are things that we do in the mix. I want to do that. I want the release. This is my verse, my chorus, my bridge. And if you think about it that way, all the answers are there.
