Meet Zach Tuch | Music Producer and Mixer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Zach Tuch and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Zach, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
As a music producer and mixer, I felt it was incredibly important to start my own endeavor early on. While I’ve been recording bands for about 15 years, I’m only 5 years into my post-college professional career. It’s pretty nerve-racking, however last year was the first year I started to feel like I really got on my feet as a business owner. While I could have always gone to work as a house engineer at one of the large studios around LA, providing me with a bit more stability, I decided producing was far more important to me. I wanted to help people shape their music in distinct ways, song write, and only work on the types of music that I wanted to work on. It was all of this that inevitably led me to conclude that I needed to work for myself.
About 5 years ago, I moved home from New York after attending New York University. My mentor owned his own private studio that he produced artists out of and I spent a lot of time using it whenever he wasn’t there. The unit next to his was vacant and I decided to rent it and put a small studio of my own in there. We designed it to work perfectly with his existing studio and built it over the course of a a 5 month period with the help of a few friends. It was a pretty grueling 5 month process doing all of that construction. I love the fact that I work out of the space that I physically created every single day, but I would never do that again.
It was important to me that I get to be creative in my life. I was drawn to producing and recording very early on and am grateful and thankful that I get to own my own business and do it everyday!
Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
When I was a young kid I asked for a microphone and an amplifier. Looking back on it now, I have no idea why it was so important to me, but I needed it. My parent’s surprised me with a little Fender practice amp, a Shure microphone, and an XLR cable right around my 6th or 7th birthday. It was the most important thing in the world to me at the time for some reason and I was infatuated with it. I used to refuse to sleep with stuffed animals, clinging to the XLR cable to provide me comfort as I fell asleep. If my mom tried to take it away from me for safety concerns, I would cry uncontrollably.
At the age of 7 I started piano lessons, but really wasn’t a huge fan of the instrument, so I gave it up around 2 years later. I started guitar at age 10 after seeing a really awesome Fender strat in an Even Stevens episode. I played with friends in various elementary school bands which was awesome. This was a pretty pivotal time for me as these were the years that truly shaped my music taste. My brother gave me a mix tape of Blink 182 and various other Pop Punk bands and I became obsessed. I got a hold of the Blink album “Enema of the State” and listened to it about 4 times a day – every single day – for 1 year straight. I started listening to some heavier music at this time as well like Slipknot and Mudvayne.
My brother got me a used drum set for my Bar Mitzvah and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I played those drums every single day throughout middle and high school. I was in a series of Metal bands in high school which is where I started recording and producing. I wanted all my bands to sound like those I heard on the radio or on Fuse TV, so I began pushing myself to learn. My senior year of high school was 2010-2011 and it was the year I decided I was going to be a music producer for a living. This was the year I reached out to Daniel Braunstein. He gave me recording lessons the entire year before I moved away for college, effectively becoming my mentor and the most important person in my life. I started school at LMU by the airport, but I felt like it wasn’t the right fit for me. I transferred to NYU where I completed school. It was the most incredible experience and I loved every second of it.
Once I graduated I built my own studio and started producing and mixing artists full time. It took me a few years to really get it off the ground, but I feel like I’m finally here. It was an extremely difficult process. I had to learn a lot still but I also needed to make money. The job is extremely time consuming. The process of getting my schedule down has literally taken 5 years, but as of last week I finally found something that works incredibly well for my life.
Overcoming the challenges of starting my own business and being a creative for work has been the hardest part of the job. Being a producer can be incredibly stressful and take a lot out of me, so it’s been massively important to try my best to exercise and take days off whenever possible.
The biggest part of overcoming things when they get tough is reminding myself that producers I look up to had to do the same thing at one point in their lives. Once I overcome an obstacle, it becomes a tool on my tool belt to use in the future. Whenever I see something that resembles the obstacle,I know exactly how to work it and the best ways to overcome it. I try to remind myself of that anytime a new obstacle presents itself – It’s sort of a fun challenge.
I guess the thing I want the world to know about my “brand” is that I put extreme amounts of hard work and care into every project. Everything I work on gets treated with the same amount of love and respect. Doesn’t matter if it’s a larger artists or a local band – you’ll get 110% of me every single time.
If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Bay Cities – Some of the best sandwiches in LA. Oldfield’s liquor room – Great bar I used to hang at every night with my friends when I was home from college.
Phillipe’s – THE original French dip sandwich. No debate.
Zuma Beach – One of the better beaches in LA.
Bigg Chill – Best frozen yogurt and vegan cookie dough you’ll ever have.
Dayglow or Maru Coffee – My two absolute favorite spots for a cup.
Tito’s Tacos – Unreal tacos.
Leo’s Tacos – Unreal tacos.
I basically just eat.
The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Daniel Braunstein – my mentor, best friend, and business partner. When I was a senior in high school in 2011 there was a Metal band out of the valley that was starting to grow rapidly called Volumes. I loved the band’s music and wanted my own band to sound like them. I found Dan’s name on their myspace and messaged him as he was the “Producer” in the band. Throughout my senior year of high school, Dan gave me recording lessons and showed me how to mix and master music.
I went to college the following year, but remained good friends with Dan. After moving back from New York, we began hanging out again and the rest is history.
We currently have our own separate private studios right next to each other where we work with our own clients. He continues to mentor me every single day and I would be absolutely nowhere without him.
Website: www.ZachTuch.com
Instagram: Zach_Tuch_