I was very lucky to have the opportunity to sit in on a recording session and interview recording engineer, Patrick Shekut, not too long ago. Watching him work was incredible.

He made sure that the instruments were in their best condition and took time to examine their sound before starting to record. He paid attention to details, and that matters so much.

Needless to say, I was impressed. We got to talk so I could get a chance to learn more about his life, both in a band and as a recording engineer.

Q: What band are you in?

I’m in Ghost Native.

Q: What genre is your music and why did you choose it?

We call ourselves Melodic Hardcore. We kind of adopted that name pretty much, we’re all attracted to the sincerity and the live organic performance of it.

It’s still heavy and still in the metalcore realm of music, but what we kind of strive for is creating a more organic emotional sound. It’s what attracted us to the Melodic Hardcore genre.

Q: What brought you together as a band?

We’ve been around for three years, but I've personally been in and out of bands for 10 years now. A couple of the members like Jerry, our guitar player, I've been in a previous band with, and the same thing with Karp.

We were all friends and would go to the same shows, so after my old band and I broke up, we reformed some of the members as Ghost Native. Other than a vocalist change, that's been the only lineup we've had in the past three years.

Q: What made you start a career with music?

It’s the only thing that's really spoken to me in a way that I felt like it's something that I want to do with my life. There are two different sides to that coin, producing bands and playing music. I've just known that for better or for worse it's the thing I want to do.

Q: Who runs the business side of things in your band, and what does that entail?

I do a decent amount, and so does Karp, our bass player. That is a huge aspect of what we do, definitely.

As we are starting to tour more, it becomes more and more a thing with tour managing, keeping up on merch, keeping up on social media constantly. Now, I work with management and a booking agent, so there is a lot of communication that happens. It’s pretty encompassing.

I think you need to be strategic about how you release things or how you appear online to people is super important because it's the first impression for a lot of bands. As you create a brand for yourself, it's super important to envision that. You really just want to play music, but to do it professionally is a huge aspect.

Q: Where do you get your inspiration from?

A lot of places, I was just thinking about this the other day when I saw Conveyor actually. Part of it I think for metal dudes, is they really enjoy gear and tight performances, and I think it's easy to get lost in that sometimes, instead of realizing that music is ultimately about creating an emotional experience.

For me, it’s just like relating to things, seeing bands, or listening to music that makes me feel something. I guess whatever that is, usually it’s more on the negative side.

It’s just kinda how I am, I like self-deprecating music and it's kinda how my brain works. So, music or bands that sound like that, or experiences in life too, lend itself to me to be inspired to create music.

Q: What does the writing process look like for you?

Usually, for our band, I’ll hang out in my studio, or "glorified basement," and just write out ideas. I'll sit down for like five hours and get one rough idea, program some drums to it, and formulate a scratch song in typically two weeks because I’m pretty meticulous

Once I feel happy with it, I’ll show it to the band, typically our drummer Shaun first, and go back and forth writing out the instrumental version. I definitely let him take creative reigns as far as the drumming.

Then once we have the instrumental down, we’ll move on to vocals. Ryan, our vocalist, will come over and we’ll hash out the lyrics together and the vocal placement. That's normally how it goes, depending on what we’re writing.

If we're just doing a single, that song you might put more attention to, but if you're approaching it from an EP or full-length perspective, you can record multiple songs at once, so it’s usually a little quicker.

Q: How many times have you been on tour?

Depends on what you consider a tour. I’m hard-pressed to say going out for seven days isn't a tour, it's more of a run. We’ve done that maybe four or five times and pretty much just hung out in the greater Midwest area at this point.

The future looks pretty promising for us, and that's pretty exciting to check out some new places. It's super rewarding to put in a lot of hard work. We’ve all really enjoyed it.

There's definitely kind of a worry going into it that not everyone is going to like touring, but even if it's a bad show, we all enjoy hanging out.

Q: Have there been any experiences that stuck out to you?

We showed up to a show in Missouri and the booking agent who -- I won't say whose name it was -- did not do a very good job and was hard to communicate with. This was one of our first runs so we wanted to do it for the sake of experience. We kinda just took an L there.

We got to the venue after a 12-hour drive and realized that the guy who was communicating with our booking agent wasn't there, and the bar just let us play in the basement.

We were part of the touring package before the bands and played for maybe 10 other people. Which happens a lot when you’re starting out, but what was crazy was that Citizen and Turnover were playing a sold-out show above us.

We had no idea that they were playing that day. We sorta know the guys in Citizen so they let us hang out which was cool, but a sold-out show right above us was kind of funny and a lesson for us to make sure shows are always booked.

Q: What has been your favorite place to tour?

Chicago. Chicago is awesome. I had a really good time there.

Q: Can you explain the recording process for someone who isn’t familiar?

I think there are two kinds, modern recording and purist. There's a lot of different aspects to how you record music, and it depends on what kind of band you are.

One of the two extremes is that a band shows up, plugs in their instruments, there are a bunch of microphones, and you record the live music on the spot. That's just about capturing musicians doing their thing, like the Steve Albini approach.

The other extreme is a more meticulous, multiple day approach. You track each instrument separately and are very detail oriented. Typically, you lay down scratch guitars, drums, then real guitars, real bass, and vocals. Then you make sure each instrument sounds as idealized as it can.

After that, you move on to the mixing and mastering process, which is complicated in itself, I could talk about it for hours. There's definitely a reason you go to school for it.

That's kind of the basic version of it and there's a lot of crossover between techniques. It’s always a fine line to walk as an engineer and it's always something you gotta ask yourself: Am I trying to make them sound better than they are or am I just trying to archive them?

Q: How and why did you become a recording engineer?

It spoke to me because I enjoy being there when a band's song comes together, the creative process, and seeing other people's creative processes. I also enjoy sharing information and I feel like it's a great way to helping bands.

There's obviously the profit aspect of it, but it's a great way to provide for yourself and still be involved in something creative with music.

Q: How many bands and what kinds of genres have you worked with?

I tend to work with things in the more organic realm. I haven't done much with Rap, Hip-Hop, or EDM. I normally work with the Rock or Metal genres, those are more my niche.

My studio is more geared toward that, but really I'm capable of anything and I would like to work with more styles.

A few months ago, I got to work with a Blues band which was different and challenging because was more of a Steve Albini approach, like I was talking about earlier. You just capture what they’re doing and sit back. I definitely like to try new things

Q: What would you say your gear staples for equipment are for recording?

I mostly work in a box for the moment, so everything is done on my computer basically. I have a lot of guitars, basses, cabs, etc. I record out of ProTools and have a decent set of monitors.

I use a Kemper Amp Profiler and have acquired a lot of different mics over the years but mainly use digital software.

Q: In your opinion, what skills and qualities are required to be a good recording engineer?

Being very malleable to different situations is important. I think if you want to be a successful recording engineer, it requires an intense work ethic.

I forget where I read this, but it's one of the most highly failed jobs people attempted. Largely because the hours aren’t very forgiving. Like some days can be 12 hour days where you’re just sitting in a room with the same people or by yourself constantly.

I think being very thorough is extremely important. There's a psychological aspect too where bands will come in with different personalities and different egos and you have to adapt to those situations and be easy to get along with.

You need to know when to push people and when someone's had enough. Always try to improve and learn more, don't become complacent.

Q: How do you go about marketing your band and what kinds of social platforms do you use?

We’re on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Spotify, all except for Snapchat. We all have personal Snapchats, but I barely use it, it’s weird. I love Snapcash though. All the music distribution sites you can think of, we go through Distrokid to distribute our music.

Q: Do you have anything in store for the future?

My studio, Underhill Recordings, will have a website out soon. That will be up with all my available mixes and information on how to contact me. I'm definitely looking to work with more people.

Ghost Native definitely has some pretty exciting things in the works for 2018. We have tentative plans right now, new music, tours, all the usual band things, but it’s all exciting.

Q: Do you have any tips for aspiring musicians?

I can speak for bands, I think a lot of them don't stick it out long enough. I see a lot of talented musicians that just give up. A lot of successful touring bands are that way because they have been doing it for years.

The guys that succeed keep doing it and keep pushing to go farther. You need to do this because you want to and you love music. It very rarely takes off right away and you need to keep pushing yourself.

People get discouraged too easily, they do something for a year or couple months and it doesn't pan out how they want to, so they get discouraged and stop doing it. The reality is that to do anything well, it takes a long time and you have to be a long-term planner.

if you consistently put in the work and play music every day, over the course of years that's going to really show.

*Answers have been edited for length and clarity.