Interview With GRAMMY-nominated Producer & Mixer Dave Cerminara

Meet Dave Cerminara – the GRAMMY-nominated Producer & Mixer who is behind many of sublime alternative rock records from artists such as Father John Misty, Bartees Strange and many more.

Here, Dave tells us about the key ingredient to a rewarding studio session, his eclectic credits and more.

In 2022, Dave received his GRAMMY nomination for his engineering and mixing work on Father John Misty's fifth album 'Chloë and the Next 20th Century'.

"Not an easy record to make, but definitely one of the most rewarding. Josh [Tillman] and Jonathan [Wilson] are two of the most talented people I know, and Drew Erickson's an arranger savant, so I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend lockdown."

2022 also saw him produce and engineer on 'Farm to Table' – the second album from critically acclaimed artist Bartees Strange.

"Bartees is a real one! Super adventurous in the studio and open to all kinds of ideas, which always makes for energetic, rewarding sessions."

This rewarding sentiment also materialised with his experience working on Khalid's sophomore album 'Free Spirit', which was released in 2019.

"The whole experience was really a 'right place, right time' sort of scenario."

2020 found Dave collaborating with American noise rock band HEALTH on their record 'DISCO4+' – a session full of endless joy and laughter, which is a stark contrast to the raucous nature of their sounds.

"I love those guys. It's all jokes and ripping on each other in the studio...maybe not what'd you'd expect given the heaviness of the music."

In 2017 Dave made his move to LA and worked on Foster The People's third album 'Sacred Hearts Club', which resulted in a lifetime friendship...

"This was right after I moved to LA and one of the first projects I did with Lars Stalfors, who's been a real surrogate older brother to me – professionally ever since."

We asked Dave if there are any albums he worked on that he is really proud of. It's understandable that he is in high-demand with these phenomenal accolades;

"There's so many...I'm really proud of all the records I've done with Jonathan Wilson, his two solo albums especially. The NoSo album I mixed is a really important one to me, as is Will Sheff's record 'Nothing Special'. I like bouncing between genres – so going from something like a Flyte album to Paris Texas is fun for me.

He also then revealed to us his favourite record in which he was not credited on.

"Let's go with Scott Walker's 'Bish Bosch' because it's so ridiculously psychotic and weird. I don't even know that I necessarily like it, but I'm so glad it exists."

As we wrapped up this interview, Dave shared the reason behind his love for the vinyl format. Like many of us it comes down to the joy of new discoveries.

"I think I'll always buy used vinyl. It's not a sonic thing for me – I like the process of discovering new records that way. It's just more fun."

(Photo: Supplied)