ARTISTS MUSIC

Discovering & creating an Artist’s individual sound & treating each song in a unique way, is what I do!

I specialize in CREATIVE ARRANGING and ORCHESTRATING and ANY and ALL INSTRUMENTATION is available to you and your songs!

My aim, with anyone I work with, is to not only find their own unique / individual sound as an Artist but to treat each song in a unique way. I try not to just add my own sound or vibe to the work I do. It’s with great detail and dedication I listen to a demo over and over, so many times to discover what the song is, and what the sound is. I work with the Artist and go beyond the artists’ abilities or imagination.

I do more than just production or mixing, I help an Artist create, orchestrate and arrange their vision. I’ve been doing music my whole life wether in a band, or as a solo artist and producing myself as well as other artists and so I’ve worked in all genres. I just really love music and what I can bring to a project.

Studio Notes & Artist Spotlights

Artist: Anthony Arya

Kenny’s Notes: Working with Anthony was really fun because he was so young, but also very dialed in and focused on the career he wanted. At 15, he was writing really great songs, had participated on The Voice, and was musically beyond his age as a performer. He already had the artistry to know what he wanted to sound like, and I had a great time helping him develop his ideas on the first 3 LPs and several EPs and singles. He’s also a really nice person, so working with him was easy. 

Produced, Orchestrated, Arranged, Drums, Bass, Backing Vocals, Organ, Mixed & Mastered by Kenny Schick

Songwriter, Lead Vocals & Guitars by Anthony Arya. 

Artist: Stella Miller

Kenny’s Notes: This song was done in collaboration with Steve Glaze at Tone Freq in California. Steve sent me a scratch vocal and scratch acoustic guitar and asked me to come up with the parts for this song. I came up with the drums first, as I often do, then added in the electric guitar parts and bass. When coming up with drum parts, I really listen to how the demo feels—both the guitar/keyboard and vocal. I make sure the drum part really grooves and outlines and highlights the feel of the vocal especially.  Went for an indie music vibe as requested.

Stella was great about sending me examples and a playlist of things she likes and to use as a basis for the overall sound. This song had a little more of a syncopated beat than her examples, which were more straight slower grooves, but the ideas she sent gave me plenty of food for building this. As is always important to me when I build tunes up, I made sure to follow the dynamic of the demo. Once I sent the parts to Steve, he had Stela cut final vocals and acoustic guitar.  

Produced, Orchestrated, Arranged, Instrumentation by Kenny Schick

Produced, Mixed & Mastered by Steve Glaze

Songwriter, Lead Vocals & Guitar by Stella Miller. 

Artist: EG Phillips

Kenny’s Notes These Are Burning Days: I’ve had the privilege of doing 4 EPs now with EG, and what I like most about working with him is his poetry. His lyrics are always clever and interesting, and he often has a unique and quirky perspective on subjects. EG makes sure I know the vibe he’s going for on each release, which is important as I do most of the musical elements of his songs along with a few folks I hire for specific parts. He gives me all sorts of samples and playlists to listen to that are informative when I’m creating parts, and I’ve enjoyed working with him in the studio capturing vocal parts. 

Produced, Orchestrated, Arranged, Guitars, Drums, Bass, Backing Vocals, Organ, Mixed & Mastered by Kenny Schick

Songwriter & Lead Vocals by Eric George Phillips
Fiddle by Amberly Rosen

 

Kenny’s Notes ‘Further Than I’ve Ever Been Before’: I’ve done several collections of songs with EG. I really like this one for its sort of chill verses, and choruses that grow bigger and brasher as it moves along. I took his demo and built the drums to the dynamics and feel of his demo… it has that sort of latin vibe that moves into a more raucous punky feel. We wanted accordion in this one, so we had my friend Peter Colclasure come up with those. 

I did the guitars and bass, and keyboards… for the solo, I wanted a melodic but quirky feel… channeling my inner Marc Ribot. When I was in the Bay Area, we booked out a studio and cut the vocals… I then added back up vocals. I mixed and mastered.  

Produced, Orchestrated, Arranged, Instrumentation, Mixed & Mastered by Kenny Schick

Songwriter & Lead Vocals by Eric George Phillips (EG Phillips)
Accordion by Peter Colclasure

Artist: Christina Li

Kenny’s Notes: Christina was very young when I first worked with her on her first album, which she saved up money for to make—I believe she was only about 15 or 16 when we recorded her album ’Songs of Innocence’ in the living room of one of my guitar students—there was a nice Yamaha grand piano there, and Christina’s songs were mostly piano based at that time. 

What struck me about her was the maturity of her song writing—it was way beyond what most teenagers would write. At that time, I was doing a lot of mobile recordings and then bring the tracks to my home studio to finish up. One song on that first album made it onto the show ‘Dance Mom’s’. I’ve done some singles with her in the years since, and I’m always impressed with her writing and artistry, as well as her super solid vocal takes. 

Produced, Arranged, Drums, Bass, Guitars, Mixed & Mastered by Kenny Schick

Songwriter & Lead Vocals by Christina Li

Artist: ArtemesiaBlack

Kenny’s Notes: ArtemesiaBlack is a duo I do with my wife, who is an amazing song writer and vocalist. I did her/our first album remotely in Australia when I first met her, and it was her first time doing a serious recording. That album was mostly acoustic, and over the years, the music has become more atmospheric and dream pop. Sabine’s songs are moody and deep, and she delivers vocals of such delicate beauty, it’s a pleasure to create sound scapes around her vocal. 

It’s been fun to move through the duo, the Americana band vibe, and now to try some more experimental things that is more like the music that originally influenced both of us. We have released 3 albums and 2 singles so far.

Produced, Orchestrated, Arranged, Guitars, Bass, Piano, Strings, Drums/Percussion, Backup Vocals, Mixed & Mastered by Kenny Schick

Songwriter, Lead Vocals, Banjo Uke & Guitar by Sabine Heusler-Schick 

Artist: Chris Jercha

Kenny’s Notes: I have been working with Chris for many years now, and he is one of my favorite song writers… not just that I work with, but on the planet. His lyrics and musical ideas are always really creative. Chris is also a great instrumentalist, so his songs come to in a Pro Tools session with a lot of stuff in there already. Sometimes it’s hard for me to remember what I did vs what he did… haha! This song came to me with drum loops, and I believe the bass part is what was already there. He did horn and string arrangements as well, and I think he had some guitar ideas that were not keepers. 

As I always want to build to a solid foundation, the drum part was first to tackle. Using his ideas, but also listening to the feel of the vocals, I came up with this drum part that everything else could anchor to. I thought his guitar parts were ok, but I had some ideas, with the new drums in place, I thought would tie things together better. I did some editing on his string and horn stuff, and then then I used my string libraries on his midi… I think (though who knows) I may have put in a few additional things. The horn midi he used (that I edited for more realism) is in there, but I added real horns (saxes) in on top to really feel like a horn section and play the way only real horns can. You can hear all his cool keyboard parts throughout… the great piano and other things…. We put in orchestral stuff — bells, etc.—and of course I put in flute and funky guitar for the 70s section/outro. 

This one was an ‘everything including the kitchen sink kind of production. Chris then cut final vocals, changed some words and stuff (all the way up to the point we were about to release it). I cut back up vocals, and then he added another layer. 

Produced, some instrumentation, Mixing & Mastering Kenny Schick

Songwriter, Producer, Lead Vocals, Guitars & Bass by Chris Jercha 

 

Artist: Kurt Gundersen

Kenny’s Notes: I included this song from Kurt’s really great album, not only because it is the title track, but because it had some interesting changes in feel that had to be addressed. The demo came freeform, as many demos come to me… that is, they have no click track, and this one couldn’t have been played to a click, as the changes wouldn’t allow that with a simple click. When I get a song like this, I do map it to a grid, but it is more time consuming as I have to map it to a ‘dynamic’ grid that moves the way the song needs to move… in this case with time changes as well as tempo changes. Once I get that solved, I come up with drum parts that really follow the feel of the demo (unless we decide to change that feel, which we did not on this song). When all that was in place, I did the guitars, bass, pads, keyboards, atmospheric stuff. 

The music is then pretty much ready and I send it back to Kurt to put on his final vocal and acoustic guitar, which he recorded at his home in Maine. Once I got those tracks, I did the edits, and added in backing vocals and any additional parts we thought would be good. I then mixed it, which was fun, as the various ‘movements’ wanted different kinds of treatments… fun with echoes and reverbs!  Kurt’s whole album is great and worth a listen!! 

Produced, Orchestrated, Arranged, Instrumentation, Mixed & Mastered by Kenny Schick

Songwriter, Lead Vocals & Guitar by Kurt Gundersen.

Artist: Raffy Espiritu

Kenny’s Notes: Raffy is one of the most prolific song writers I’ve ever met. He is just constantly writing songs inspired by things that happen in his daily life, or are derived from his perception of an experience. He writes many love songs, many songs inspired by politics and human interaction globally, and songs even inspired by the art and music of others. He is fun to work with as he gives me an extremely long leash and lets me just be inspired but the vibe of his demos when coming up with music for his songs. Raffy is very open to suggestions on lyric tweaks and form changes, and he’s just an all around nice guy who is fun to work with in the studio, and is open to my many performance suggestions with absolutely no defensiveness at all. 

Raffy is also a pillar of the Bay Area song writing community and can be found at all the open mics and other song writing events. His love for the art of music is inspiring. We have released 1 Album, 10 Eps and 3 Singles so far with me.  

Produced, Orchestrated, Arranged, Accordion, Bass, Piano, Clarinet, Backup Vocals, Mixed & Mastered by Kenny Schick

Songwriter & Lead Vocals by Raffy Espiritu

Artist: Sara Syms

Kenny’s Notes: Sara is a great local artist here in Nashville, and she is great to work with because she’s not only a great writer, but a great performer as well. She pretty much knocks out everything in one or 2 takes and is very dialed into what she wants her performance to sound like. Our music tastes and influences are pretty similar, so she just really lets me ‘do my thing’ in terms of production, and this is great as I feel I have no limitations or ‘rules’ to follow when I work on her music. It’s a very easy working relationship, and the creativity flows very easily and effortlessly. From her demo, I can just feel where to take it.

Produced, Orchestrated, Arranged, Guitars, Drums, Bass, Backup Vocals, Mixed & Mastered by Kenny Schick

Songwriter, Lead Vocals & Piano by Sara Syms

Artist: Julie Simpson

Kenny’s Notes: I’ve known Julie for a very long time, as I’ve been a friend with her husband Joe for years (he’s a great guitarist). In the last few years, Julie has had a prolific writing spree, and it’s been super fun because she’s doing stuff in many different styles, so working with her is definitely not boring! Ballads, rock tunes, funky tunes, jazzy tunes. 

Julie lives in California and is recording herself at home and learning a lot about self producing, so her songs come with a lot of parts in place already, and it’s my job to sometimes add things, sometimes just mix things, and in the case of this song, I believe it was the drummer (Mike Freitas, also one of my oldest friends and a super great drummer and musician) who had put in some horn ideas using midi. I took these ideas and arranged them into a final horn thing, and I took Julie’s midi bass part, which was great, so I played it pretty much note for note and just added the feel of a fretless bass.  

Produced, Orchestrated, Arranged, Fretless Bass, Horns, Mixed & Mastered by Kenny Schick

Drums & Percussion by Mike Freitas | Guitar by Joe Simpson
Songwriter, Produced, Lead Vocals & Keyboards by Julie Simpson

Artist: Brandi Starks

Kenny’s Notes: Brandi is just an amazing song writer, and she is a top notch vocalist with an outstanding vocal delivery. I don’t even remember how we met, but working on her songs has been a joy over the years. I always have fun coming up with instrumentals with loads of anticipation for how it will all sound once she puts her sizzling vocals and great lyrics on top. This song is definitely more on the rockin’ side of her really beautiful repertoire. Brandi lives in California and has released 5 Singles with me so far…

Produced, Orchestrated, Arranged, Drums, Bass, Guitars, Organ, Mixed & Mastered by Kenny Schick

Songwriter & Lead Vocals by Brandi Starks

Artist: Martha Groves Perry

Kenny’s Notes: I have completed 3 albums for Martha so far, and she has been a blast to produce for. She delivers her demos to a click to make my job easier, and is always super prepared for working in the studio, which is always a pleasure—just a few small suggestions from me and the sessions are smooth sailing. She is another artist who really lets me ‘do my thing’, and I can usually hear a way to go with her demos really quickly, as the feel is always contained within the delivery. She always reminds me I can go as “far as I want”, and that I’ve never crossed the barrier of ’too weird’ yet… I’ll always keep trying, haha. She also prepares me a very detailed explanation as to the inspiration for her songs, so that really helps me think musically where to take things. 

Produced, Orchestrated, Arranged, Sound Design, Guitars, Bass, Drums, Percussion, Mixed & Mastered by Kenny Schick

Songwriter & Lead Vocals by Martha Groves Perry

Artist: Joe Simpson

Kenny’s Notes: Joe has been a friend of mine since the 80s, and he’s an excellent guitar player—I even took some lessons from him back in the day! He is also a great song writer, and I’ve had the pleasure to mix his self produced songs, and sometimes even add stuff to the productions. He has a wide array of influences that are similar to mine—everything from guitar shredders, to Americana, to great bands like XTC (we did a trip to the beach back in the 80s listening to Skylarking all the way) and King Crimson—like me, a music lover with no boundaries really. I just really liked the raw crunch of this tune, and of course, Mike Freitas’ solid drumming. 

Produced, Mixed & Mastered by Kenny Schick

Songwriter, Guitars, Bass, Keys & Lead Vocals by Joe Simpson | Drums & Percussion by Mike Freitas

Artist: Kara Goslin

Kenny’s Notes: Kara remains one of the favorite artists I’ve worked with… I met her at an open mic in San Francisco, and her songs and vocal delivery just knocked me out… I approached her, and not long after, we made her first EP. We did 2 albums together, and I just love the music outhouse albums—every song is a gem, and the sound of her voice is just so unique and cool. Working on her songs was a joy in part because they were just so beautiful and moving to listen to… she’s one of those artists where the songs would sometimes bring me to tears while I was working on them. 

Produced, Orchestrated, Arranged, Electric Guitar, Banjo, Horns, Backup Vocals, Mixed & Mastered by Kenny Schick

Songwriter, Acoustic Guitar & Lead Vocals by Kara Goslin

Artist: Brad Sanzenbacher

Kenny’s Notes: Brad is a very clever songwriter—he is witty, smart, deep, heartbreaking… all those things. He writes songs I just enjoy listening to on many levels. Definitely in the Americana vein, it is always fun to come up with the music for his songs, as I spent quite a few years writing in this genre myself. This song is on the ‘funny’ side, and I posted it because it always makes me giggle… I am a huge fan of his serious songs too, and one of those will eventually be posted here. Brad has done 2 full albums with me.

Produced, Orchestrated, Arranged, Guitars, Bass, Horns, Drums, Mixed & Mastered by Kenny Schick

Songwriter & Lead Vocals by Brad Sanzenbacher | Fiddle by Amberly Rosen

Artist: Sean Lightholder

Kenny’s Notes: Sean is a great song writer and a fellow bourbon enthusiast as well… so we always have fun zoom calls together when working on music sharing new whiskey discoveries. Our musical tastes have many crossovers as well. Sean mostly puts musicians together for his songs and sends me the tracks to mix and sometimes master, though I do make musical contributions on some of his songs as well. 

All our work is done remotely, but we finally got a chance to meet in person when he visited Nashville awhile back. He is fun in that he always has several musical projects going on at once… his more serious solo stuff to his crazy/fun Irish band. Sean has done 1 EP of 6 singles with me so far…

Produced, Orchestrated, Arranged, Electric Guitars, Bass, Drums & Mixed by Kenny Schick

Songwriter, Acoustic Guitar & Lead Vocals by Sean Lightholder | Organ by Brad Barth | Mastered by Michael Romanowski

Artist: Mike Drew

Kenny’s Notes: Mike is one of the very first artists I worked with when I started doing production as a business, and we still do songs together! We met when I still lived in the Bay Area and he was just a young sprout. The first album we did was a mix of pop and country, but over the years, he’s gone the country route… with of course, some pop sensibilities thrown in. He is a joy to work with, and I know him so well at this point, I can get right to the heart of creating music for his songs. It’s very fun for me too, as, though I’m not a country writer, 

I have been fascinated with country guitar playing for quite some time now, and this music gives me the opportunity to put that studying and practicing to a good use. He is another one I enjoy having a whiskey with! Mike lives in California and has done 3 full Albums, 1 EP and 3 singles with me so far…

Produced, Orchestrated, Arranged, Guitars, Bass, Drums, Mixed & Mastered by Kenny Schick

Songwriter & Lead Vocals by Mike Drew | Fiddle by Amberly Rosen | Banjo by Dan Hochhalter | Backing Vocals by Sabine Heusler-Schick.

Artist: Modern Dynamics

Kenny’s Notes: BethAnne and Randy are a husband wife duo who I met at an open mic here in Nashville… I handed them a card and we’ve now done 5 albums together. BethAnne is the songwriter, and her songs are rock with a theatrical thread in them. She loves western themes, ocean themes, ghost themes, and outer space themes… as well as love songs too. I always have a feeling of old movies and TV shows when working on their songs, and they are fun people too! Randy does a killer brisket on the smoker! 

The process I use with them is that BethAnne comes over and we just knock out demo versions of the songs… she knows the songs well and plays them pretty much exactly the same every time she plays them—She’ll knock out all the songs for an album in about an hour—just a single take. I just have her do it with no click so I can hear if there are any areas that I might want to slow down or speed up… her timing is great so I can line them up to a grid quickly. Then I just listen and start building the drums and bass around the demo. Once she’s happy with what I’ve put down, she comes back and puts down her parts, then I do any minor editing needed, Randy comes and lays down his parts, and at that point, I can add any icing on the cake we may need. I will often add just a few things like pad, keyboard parts, maybe an additional guitar part, and back up vocals. Their parts are all worked out and solid, so they make quick work of the studio part. 

Produced, Bass, Drums, Backing Vocals, Mixed & Mastered by Kenny Schick

Songwriter, Lead Vocals & Acoustic Guitar by BethAnne Weatherford | Electric Guitar by Rockin’ Randy

Artist: Yuvibaby

Kenny’s Notes: This song came to me via Steven Glaze at Tone Freq studios in California… he is the guy I use to record clients when I’m in the Bay Area visiting and working. He has a few artists he works with whose music he sends me to add stuff like horns and things. In this case, the song had a temporary guitar part in it, and they wanted me to record a final, as well as add in some beats and textures….Yuvi’s vocal was beautiful and haunting, so it was a treat to work on this song. 

Produced, Guitars, Pads, Cello & Percussion by Kenny Schick

Songwriter & Lead Vocals by Yuvibaby | Mixed & Mastered by Steve Glaze 

Artist: DB Walker

Kenny’s Notes: DB is a great guitar player and friend I met in the early 2000’s when playing in a house band for a TV show… we became great friends, and I often sat in with his band when I was still in the Bay Area. Though his main thing is ‘blues’, he is a very diverse artist with a lot of influences to draw from. He and I share a lot of musical tastes in common. This album was recorded in his home studio—he had me come and engineer the session and his band played live, some overdubs being done after the main tracking. I love all the songs on the album, but I love zoning out to this one. 

Produced, Engineering, Mixing & Mastering by Kenny Schick

Songwriter, Vocals, Guitar, Engineering by DB Walker | Drums by Michael Oliver | Bass by David Falzone | Keyboards by Lachlann Kane 

Artist: Tim Wolf

Kenny’s Notes: Tim is one of the first artists I worked with here in Nashville—he is a very prolific writer, and is always turning out new songs constantly. He comes from a business background and got into the music thing later, so he’s very organized and motivated by running a tight ship. He has all kinds of music as well—from pretty ballads to rockers, but has a love for blues-y stuff. This song is actually a lot different from his normal stuff, but we did a few really atmospheric songs like this, and it was really fun to do. Tim does the singing and quite a bit of the guitar work for his music, and then has me do drums, bass, horns, rhythm guitar, and that kind of thing, as well as the mixing and mastering. We have done 2 full albums together and a lot of singles. 

Born in South Dakota album is a Billboard Charting Album 2025

Produced, Textures, Percussion, Pads, Sound Design, Mixing & Mastering by Kenny Schick 

Songwriter, Lead Vocals & Piano by Tim Wolf

Billboard charting album Kenny Schick

Artist: Daniela Galasso

Kenny’s Notes: Daniela is a really fun artist to work with… like many of the artists I work with, she self produces/records, or teams up with various other producers (myself included) to help complete her ideas. I’ve worked on songs that she’s done with other producers as well, adding a few last elements and mixing. She has a cool dream pop kind of vibe, and likes to mix organic stuff with electronics and textures. I enjoy that she is very meticulous about her artistry. 

Produced, Drums, Loops, Percussion, Strings, Bass, Guitar, Pads, Mixing & Mastering by Kenny Schick 

Songwriter, Lead Vocals, Guitar & Piano by Daniela Galasso

More Artists Music I’ve worked on

Alex Stanley
Aly Kahn
Amy Obenski
Anthony Arya
Arion Salazar (Third Eye Blind)
ArtemesiaBlack
Bad Dogs Sit
Barbara Wyeth
Bill Cope
Black Sea Surf
Bobby McFerrin (vocalist & grammy winner)
Bonny Getz(June)
Brad Sanzenbacher
Brain (Primus)
Brandi Starks
Brandon Walker
Brayden Curry
Brenda Hammond
Brian Lawley
Brianna Houghland
Caitlyn Fong
Callai Hibbart
Cap & Ian
Casey Bogdan
Chad Sellers
Charles Gillingham (Counting Crows)
Chris Jercha
Christina Li
Christopher Sharron
Christopher Thompson
Cinder Ernst
Cliff Rawson
Cola
Curveball
Dan Rubinstein
Daniela Galasso
Dave Miller
David Peel
David Stewart Bowers
DB Walker band
Derek Haugen
Devan Denton
Dot3
DubCongress
DubFX
DubNation
Dusty Moon
EG Phillips
Elisabeth Carlsile
Emily Hough
Emily Zisman
Eric Acha
Erin Bentley
Francis Williams
Frank Caruso
Fred Juhos(Fredo Jay on FB)
Fungo Mungo
Gail Weisman
Gary Nobile
GC Cameron (Temptations & The Spinners)
Glenn Schoonmaker
Greg Camp (Smashmouth)
 
Guilded Splinters
Hens Teeth Music AUST
Hershel Yatovitz (Chris Isaak’s band)
Hoopty Funk
Iari Melchor
Ish
Ismael Villanueva
Jailbait Babysitters
Jay and the Po Boys
JC Lodge
Jenny Maybee
Jim Boyers
Joe Simpson
Joel Evans
John Honningford
Josh Friedman
Judy Mowatt (Bob Marley)
Julie Simpson
Justin Hinds (Godfather of ska)
Kara Goslin
KC (The Voice Australia)
KC Branscomb
Keif Jones 
Kevin Gilbert
Kurt Gundersen
Kurt Porter
Layal El-Baradei
LeGrand Hutchings
Letha Weapons
Levi J
Luciano (Jamaica)
Mandolin May
Martha Groves Perry
Mary Nash
Michael Urbano (Smashmouth, Curveball)
Mike Drew (Mike Drew Band)
Mike Freitas
Mick
Mira Goto
Modern Dynamics
Moxtra (company jingle)
Nell Maynard
Neosoreskin
Pato Banton
Patrick McCauley
Patrick Russ
Paul Felton
Paul Michaels
Peter Colclasure
Peter Schaffer
Phil Bearce
Pigeon English
Platinum Music UK
Priscilla Ederle Shaw
Rachel Efron
Raffy Espiritu
Rain Cruz
Randy Fredrickson
Ray White – Frank Zappa
Richard Adoradio
Rick Merritt
Robert Chung
Robert Perala
Rosemary Austin
Ruth Gerson
Sabrina Signs
Saints & Sinners
Samantha Margaret
Sara Syms
Sarah Nepita
Scott Bell
Sean Lightholder
Sidewalk Frank
Sig Knapstead
Sister Carol
Sister Double Happiness
Small Town Story
Smoke Ring Halos
Southbay Dub Allstars
Star LaMoan
Stella Miller
Steve Funderburg
Tariq Tayab
The Brownies
The Devil’s Sunday Best
The John Singer Band
The Legendary Stardust Cowboy
The Ten Thousand Ways
The Vanities
Tim Abbott
Tim Wolf
Time Spent Driving
Tom Nelson
Tyke James
Vic Martin
Vivienne Castillo
Willy Rolland
World Entertainment War
Yami Bolo
Yvonne Kerno
Zamba