Meet Fili Filizzola | Mastering Engineer & Artist/Songwriter

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

Hi Fili, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.
That is a very good question. Risk is something we all have to take in our lives, at one point or another and in some cases, more often than we feel comfortable with. Despite knowing that everyone, in order to grow and succeed in any endeavor, needs to take risks, I believe in taking “calculated” risks. I believe there are degrees of “risks”. There might be situations where the risk is basically “make it or break it” or “win everything or lose all”, but I think there’s always a way to take the big leap or make a move in life while minimizing the risk.

For example, 5 years ago my wife and I decided to move to Los Angeles to pursue our goals in music. Our music careers weren’t really going anywhere while we were living in Denver and we felt like a move to somewhere like L.A. would open up paths for us. And it did! But that’s not something we were certain of or felt totally secure about. Moving to a big city like L.A. can be very intimidating and extremely risky. We didn’t have corporate jobs, so any move would essentially cut out any income we had at the time with music teaching and local recording clients and we’d be starting completely fresh with basically zero income upon arrival. Big risk? Certainly. So how did we minimize the risk? We made it a goal to have 4 months of living expenses saved up before we made the move. That way we’d have a 4 month buffer to make connections, meet people, and start over without needing to desperately say yes to opportunities and jobs that didn’t align with our goals.

What should our readers know about your business?
I am a guitarist, songwriter and mastering engineer. I write and produce with Kay-Kay Filizzola for our band 500 Year Flood, and I master music for everybody else!

I love doing both aspects of music. The songwriting/notes and melody side of music as well as the audio and frequencies side.

For my work as a mastering engineer, I have benefited immensely from my musical studies with the guitar, music theory, production, playing in bands, songwriting, etc. I think that experience helps me stand out in what I do. Although mastering is considered a form of audio engineering, to me, mastering is art. It can and should be musical. Years of experience with performing, arranging, and producing shape the way I listen and what I am looking to happen with a particular song. So, as a mastering engineer, when an artist sends me their song to “finish up” I am listening to it almost like an arranger would. I can be transparent if needed, or I can be “heavy-handed.” If something is getting in the way of the vocals and impeding it from coming through and shining, I can hear, like an arranger or producer would, what is causing that and target the specific area in the frequency spectrum, like an engineer would, that needs to be cleaned up in order to let the vocals shine. Same with any other aspect of the track. The translation between instrument and frequency/transient seems to connect easily for me because of all of the experience I’ve had in all other aspects of the music-making process.

The thing I am the most proud of is being able to work on music daily with incredible artists and creatives. It’s pure magic to be able to dedicate 100% to music and make a living in such a beautiful, inspiring, and challenging city like Los Angeles. Oh yeah, I’m also extremely proud of being nominated for this year’s Latin Grammy in the “Best Engineered Album” category. Last year I was nominated for the first time. We didn’t win but it meant the world to me to live that experience. I’m extremely grateful that I get to experience that all over again this year. Out of the 5 nominated albums for “Best Engineered Album” I mastered 2 of them. Impossible to put into words how happy and excited I am to get two nominations in the same category. It just makes me feel like the difficult choices I made in life pursuing a career in music are paying off and I am extremely grateful for the honor of working on music with other creatives.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Throughout my 5 years of living in Los Angeles I’ve had many friends and family members visiting and I’ve loved showing them my favorite spots. If it’s their first time in LA I love doing a day in the Santa Monica/Venice Beach area. We’d start the day having donuts at Side Car and then go for a walk to the Santa Monica pier. If it’s you’re first time in town you have to do it at least once. For lunch we’d go to Bay Cities Deli and have the Godmother sandwich (or the burrata caprese if you’re a vegetarian like my family members are). Then we’d head off for a bike ride along the beach to Venice Beach. From there we’d see the tourist attractions and then bike to Abbot Kinney and walk around the shops until we’re hungry for dinner. For dinner I’d have a reservation at Gjelina where we’d enjoy incredible food and drinks. Since we all have a second stomach kept just for dessert we would walk to Salt & Straw and end the day with an incredible Sea Salt with Caramel Ribbons on a waffle cone.

During the others days they’d be staying here I’d make sure to take them to Malibu and do a walk through El Matador Beach and then head to Point Dume for the incredible views. On our way home we would hit up Malibu Seafood for some of the best fried seafood they’ve ever had.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’ve had so many mentors throughout the years. People that have helped shape not only who I am but also my abilities and strengths in my music career.

My main supporter, partner and person I look up to is my wife, Kay-Kay Filizzola. She is an incredible singer and songwriter but most importantly, an incredible person. The support and encouragement I get from her makes all the difference!

Major shoutout would be to my mom, as well. The sacrifice she made to raise me and my siblings and the love, dedication and courage she had to have knows no boundaries. She is a role model in my life.

In the audio engineering world I’ve had a few very influential and important mentors. Pedro Peixoto and Adriano Aquino were friends that taught me a lot in the beginning and we now work on projects together all the time. And as I advanced in my career Mike Binder and later Dale Becker were also huge mentors.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fili_filizzola