Meet Luca Zadra | Audio Engineer & Music Producer

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

Hi Luca, we’d love to start by asking you about lessons learned. Is there a lesson you can share with us?
Of the countless lessons I’ve learned so far, working this unique and at times lawless land that is the music business, one lesson stands tall above others and it doesn’t have anything to do with music: be yourself and be confident in being yourself. Knowing yourself and having that confidence is what sells you to other people. If you can’t believe in yourself why should anyone else? Within that confidence you should have awareness of who you are which should then allow you to be yourself no matter how tense a work situation may be.
An impressive skillset or resume may get you in a room but what keeps you in it is your personality and how honest and genuine you are. People, especially artists, can sense your aura from a mile away.
Artists live on vibe, atmosphere and inspiration, which makes them really efficient at reading people’s auras, there’s no fooling someone so first and foremost you have to be you. Always.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
As a mixer, a lot of the work is balancing creatives and their ideas. I’ll get a song to mix from an artist that already has a strong vision for it and I need to first understand that vision so that I can bring it to life but then I inevitably bring my own vision to it in order to enhance the artists’. It’s making those two marry that makes a good mix engineer and boy did I take some Ls on my way to figuring that out.

The best thing about working with artists the way we do is that even when mistakes were made, they never were repeated and always served as a stepping stone to the next level. That’s important because the people we work with take note of that and keep us around and we inadvertently end up developing together into something greater.
Hard work, passion, consistency and being genuine are the best tools we have as audio engineers.

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?
There’s so many good spots but I would highly recommend Leo’s and Mariscos Jalisco for tacos, which are a must in LA. I’m also a huge fan of Thai food and my favourite dish is the Crab Curry at Summer Canteen in NoHo. Sooo spicy and so flavourful I get regular cravings for it. Dessert obviously has to be at Porto’s, I swear they can do no wrong… anything they do is always amazing but my personal favourite is the mango cake. It’s a work of art !

Stepping away from food for a minute I’m huge into hiking and my favourite one I’ve done so far is Mt San Gorgonio. It’s quite long, over 20 miles and climbs up to 11,500 feet but so worth it. I don’t think I’ve seen grass that green anywhere else in SoCal. It’s an excellent training destination for Mt Whitney, which I’m gearing up to do and is the tallest peak in the contiguous United States. Nature all around LA is gorgeous and incredibly diverse, definitely the highlight of this region for me.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I have so many people to shoutout so I’ll try to keep it down to a handful of people.

First and foremost my parents, because they allowed me to come to America to pursue this insane dream.

Then my girlfriend Nashi, because she’s been my side, supporting me and being a source of inspiration since long before we got together and moved to LA.

Colin and Diana McDowell, for first introducing me to this current music world I’m in and supporting my endeavours in it.

Last but not least my friend Shaan Singh, who I see as an older brother and has taught me so much and brought me to way higher levels in this industry than I thought possible.

Instagram: @lucaliptus

Image Credits
Tucker Fleming