Rising Stars: Meet Bobby K

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bobby K.

Hi Bobby, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I’ve been in Nashville for 11 years now, originally moving from the east coast. My initial dream was to be a session guitarist, but I was also already pretty deep into engineering already. I didn’t even really know what a “producer” was until my mid-20s. I guess I’m still trying to define it today. I had a college band that put out a few projects that I produced & mixed, but the real momentum in my career started with the first Dreamer Boy album, “Love Nostalgia”.

Zach and I were roommates at the time and it really was a 2-year labor of love. I’m still proud of those songs today when I listen back — there’s a special amount of imagination and carefree choices embedded in the music that I don’t think I could recreate faithfully. Our combined luck led to the music catching on pretty fast, and we found ourselves spending all of 2019 touring on opening slots and starting to write the 2nd album. Keep in mind I was still working part-time in a restaurant, living in a sketchy house and never having more than a couple of hundred dollars to my name. We were fortunate enough to secure a record deal around the start of the pandemic, which eventually led to a very delayed 2nd album, “All the Ways We Are Together”.

During the pandemic, I had also been mixing for artists remotely in my free time. Well, one thing led to another in 2021 and I found myself horribly burnt out on production and writing, suddenly now leaning more towards engineering and mixing. We parted ways and Zach moved to L.A. to get a fresh start. I’ve found a lot of joy in the past couple of years of helping artists finish their projects. There’s been a release of pressure and ego to try to perpetually outdo me, and I can instead just focus on doing good, reliable work. The cash flow and rights are a lot easier to handle in mixing, too. But I still miss the feeling of creating something out of thin air; there’s definitely a magic that exists in production and writing that I don’t quite feel anymore. Nowadays when I do produce a record, it’s often an artist bringing me a half-finished track and I help them get it to the finish line. This is often my favorite place to jump in; when there’s a proof of concept, but there’s still a large chunk of work and inspiration waiting to be uncovered.

Luckily for me, this is often the place where a lot of people get stuck. When I mix, people know that I’m really a producer deep down, and often times they leave room for growth in the track. I think that’s a great sign of trust that they’re still allowing elements to be malleable. Ultimately I would define my work as a “finishing producer”, delivering on mixing and technical elements but also capable of taking creative authority when the artist feels stuck with their music.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I touched on the burnout earlier, as well as the financial ambiguity of this career. Burnout comes when you’ve overworked your creative juices and feel like there’s no more inspiration to give. When that hits, I always think it’s healthy to take a step back. But you can’t always afford to just take a week or two off. It sometimes sucks knowing there will never be a salary, raise, bonus, severance pay, or whatever. All those facets in normal careers make the money feel more reliable. I occasionally wonder why my silly little brain couldn’t have fallen in love with something like accounting, or sales.

I guess there are just lots of difficult emotions I wrestle with since it’s a more untraditional career. It’s really strange, a lot of days I beat myself up, feeling selfish that I’m chasing something creative and fulfilling instead of a more stable job that can really provide. I mean, most days I feel like this job shouldn’t even exist. But I think there’s victory in that, too; I’m able to support myself off of what should have just been my weekend hobby. That’s pretty badass. I think gratitude can always flip these tough feelings on their heads.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
These days I mix about 99x more than I produce, but I still tell artists I work with that I’m approaching their music with a producer’s ear. I believe this is a unique angle to take because most mix engineers are focused on the technical refinement and execution of the track, but sometimes (not always) there’s still room for experimentation that can push the music forward. Especially in today’s pop landscape of really creative vocal effects and specific moments, glitches, or whatever, it’s fun to take risks or make suggestive edits to see what the artist/producer thinks.

Sometimes these are as big as flipping out drum samples or retracting an instrument, but most times it’s just one specific moment of ear candy in the track that wasn’t there before. Maybe the lead vocal glitches out for a second.

Maybe it’s helping a burnt-out producer reduce an overdense production. I often feel like this background brings two sets of ears to the table that allows me to fill a unique role most people didn’t know they needed.

What was your favorite childhood memory?
I cherish the early memories of first making music. My parents are musical themselves and had us learning piano from a young age. I remember picking piano practice in my free time (usually over video games) most days of the week. In high school, I almost never hung out with friends unless we were jamming or recording. Honestly, I was a major nerd.

Those early days of learning Pro Tools and making my first full productions were just full of bliss. I really do miss when my relationship with music was more 1 dimensional and purely just a loving passion. Things get trickier when you get older and have to make money to live.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @bobbyknepper

Image Credits
Adam Alonzo & Zach Kochoyt