Meet Aaron Nevezie: Music Producer, Mixer & Composer.

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

Hi Aaron, how do you think about risk?
All the biggest leaps of my career and by extension my life have been tied to risk taking. Starting with the choice to move to the USA to pursue music in NYC my career has been a series of risks that have most often paid off. Some of that is luck but I believe that putting yourself in a place to succeed and progress is usually associated with a willingness to step beyond one’s comfort zone. That can be financially, technical expertise, inter-personally or even just at odds with your expectations for yourself and career. One of the biggest risks I’ve taken was the expansion of my recording studio, The Bunker Studio in 2011. For various reasons we needed to move location and took on a raw space that was double the size of our original studio. With no real previous experience in construction we built out a two room facility over 9 months calling on the help of friends and draining every financial resource we could call on. Somehow we made it through to opening day and after almost 10 years in our ‘new’ space we have grown beyond our wildest imagining. I must note that I’m in some way able to take risks because I’m lucky enough to come from a supportive family, that even while worried about my career path always helped in any form they could manage. To know that if everything does crash and burn there’s a place to escape to makes the risk taking more manageable.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My life in music has had a number of unexpected twists and turns. It’s been a long road from jazz guitarist in New Zealand to studio owner/music producer in NYC. Everything has been driven by a need to make music and to interact with like minded artists. My openness to changing paths and trying new things has led me to many opportunities. I’m a partner in one of the largest NYC studios with a 5 room facility filled with vintage equipment and instruments. Building the studio from the ground up has been an obsession since we started the business in 2006 and watching it grow so far beyond our original vision has been incredibly gratifying. The studio has given me the chance to make records with many of my musical heroes and work with an incredible community of musicians. It’s been 14 years of reinvestment, personal sacrifice and long hours to grow the business to where it is today. I also stay creatively involved in number of other projects. My synth-pop duo with Jacque Ryal, under the name Ryal has been another organically developing venture. It’s allowed me to meld my love of analog synthesis and songwriting giving both of us a space to experiment and create. I’ve been working with legendary drummer Jojo Mayer in the band Nerve. This is another great place for me to expand my concepts for sound design and electronic music production. We’ve toured to some amazing parts of the world one of my favorites being our tour to Nepal and India where we meet some incredible people and ate the best food. I continue to release my own music with the most recent album Obsidian coming out in October 2020. Digging deeper into modular synths has become a focus and is a never ending world of sonic possibility. Finding the wonder and excitement of new approaches and instruments has keep music fresh for me.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Before the pandemic I would always take my visitors through what i think is one of the most amazing neighborhoods in NYC. Under the 7 train in Queens is Roosevelt Avenue where within a few miles you can eat food from all over the world. Taco, Nepalese momos, papusas, cerviche are all available on the street at food truck where people stand around and eat and shout over the noise of the elevated train. Jackson Heights is full of some of my favorite restaurants including Maharaja Sweets which has the best Samosa Chaat. A tiny Nepalese place around the corner, Tawa Foods has 4 tables and the best tali and nicest people. Down at the end of the 7 train is NY’s best Chinatown, Flushing. The New World Food Mall has almost too much choice but we almost always go for the hand pulled noodles from Langzhou or the lamb dumplings from the tiny place in the far back corner. Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My business partner in The Bunker Studio, John Davis has been a great friend and workmate for many years. His talent and intuition are always inspiring. He’s an amazing musician and audio engineer always excited to share his latest discovery and technique. We have toured the world, built studios, produced records, played and invested in a shared vision for longer than either of us would have expected.

Website: www.nevezie.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aaron_nevezie/
Other: www.thebunkerstudio.com https://aaronnevezie.bandcamp.com/

Image Credits
Imre Barta, Stew Laufer, Melinda DiOrio