We’re looking forward to introducing you to David Gnozzi. Check out our conversation below.
David, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What do you think is misunderstood about your business?
Many things. For once, it seems like many people think all my studio equipment is a “cost” and I “spend” money but what they don’t seem to understand is that the equipment makes money. Otherwise mixing and mastering wouldn’t be my job but my hobby.
The equipment allows me to be faster and deliver better results, plus, I don’t really buy a tool hoping to make the money back, I re-invest the money I already made.
This, I think, it’s the way anyone should operate, and obviously, when you start you will, in most cases, have to out some money and invest in your craft, but one shouldn’t go overboard and get into a giant debt because if you do, you’re starting a uphill battle.
You’re most likely gonna have to take jobs that are not really good for your career long term, maybe you’re lowballing yourself and your worth because you need some fast cash. And that’s never a good starting point.
And granted my line of work is somewhat different from others, because it’s mostly skill based, but nowadays the entry point to start off is nowhere near as high as when I started two decades ago.
Another thing that I believe is very misunderstood is that if you’re not working with the top 5 musical acts in the world, you’re not “successful” or you can’t make enough money. Which is silly because it’s in the premise already: only the 1% of professionals work with the absolute top in the business, yet there are thousands engineers and mixers and mastering engineers living beyond comfortably, making a lot of money actually, working with all kinds of artists.
The last thing would probably be that if you’ve been successful in the past, the rest of the way is easy.
But while your track record is very important, you’re only as good as the mix you’re doing today, this client doesn’t really care how good the mixes you did a year or a month ago were, they care about today and their music.
So, in this line of work, you never relax, you become more confident and skilled and experienced, but you never relax.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name’s David Gnozzi, I am a billboard charting, platinum mix and mastering engineer and producer based in Los Angeles, CA. I am also the founder and host of one of the Youtube Channel MixbusTv (160+K subs).
I started my career in music as a professional musician, singer and songwriter for then dedicating myself to mixing and mastering and music production.
We should probably ask other people IF they find me or my story special or interesting, Especially after quitting being in the spotlight and going on the other side of the glass, I never thought I would somehow be back “in the public eye” so to speak. My drive was never fame or popularity, it was always improving myself and trying to be better at what I do every day. Then Youtube happened and that’s where I realized I could help a lot of people with my teachings and that developed into relationships with big pro audio companies and various collaborations.
But I actually don’t even like social media that much, or at all. But they are a necessary evil for any business, and I cannot deny the fact that there are big benefits in having a following but it isn’t “free”. it doesn’t just happen. It’s a lot of work and soon enough you realize you cannot do it on your own terms, you have to stick to what the platforms like otherwise your efforts are gonna be wasted.
What I mean with that is, you can’t just post whenever you want, or take breaks whenever you want, you need to be consistent and that becomes basically a second job.
I think if there’s anything people find interesting and unique about me and my story is that I am and always have been straight, honest and to the point. That and the fact that I am considered one of the most technically savvy engineers and teachers out there. So you have a no BS attitude and you can actually learn from someone who does what he teaches for a living, relatively successfully. But I was (still am?) the underdog. I started from literally nothing, from a place in the middle of nowhere and worked my way up and now I have a studio in LA and work with amazing artists. I think think this could be inspirational for some people, especially because the music industry is such a close circle.
Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What part of you has served its purpose and must now be released?
I would say the anger. Growing up in a small town, surrounded by small town mentality, you feel caged and at times hopeless because if you have bigger dreams for yourself, you get dismissed, laughed at, dragged down. And that turned into anger for me as a young man.
In that small town, It was unheard of anyone to have a successful career in the music industry, and you were surrounded by people who already gave up on their dreams telling you how crazy that idea was. And nothing kills a dream faster and harder than being surrounded by people who gave up on their dream already.
But that anger served a purpose for sure, because I used that as my drive to learn, to better myself, it taught me discipline. Every time I felt like giving up or I felt too tired to do what I had to do, I remembered all the people who said I wouldn’t make it, that it was crazy and I should have done something else, like “a normal person”
But now, and especially after finding my soulmate here, that anger is gone, and it’s been replaced with a sense of peace and calmness knowing that I did something nobody believed I could do.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.
If you don’t go thru grind and you have everything served on a silver plate, you most likely won’t appreciate what you have, and second, you won’t develop work ethic, discipline and a strong willpower which in my opinion are some of the most important quality a human being can and should have.
Because it doesn’t matter how successful you get, you will have to fight at some point, either to keep going up, or to preserve what you have and if you never suffered before, if you’ve never fell down before, you don’t know how to get up.
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. Is the public version of you the real you?
100%, or maybe 90%, simply because when you are somewhat a public figure, you quickly learn that privacy becomes an absolute necessity. Because some people are a bit weird, they can get obsessive, about you or your partner or friends and some other people will try to sabotage you out of either jealousy or just because they don’t like you, even if they don’t really know you. When people who don’t know you don’t like you is usually because – in their head – they’re in competition with you, and they’re losing.
So, yes the public version of me, what I show is 100% the real me, I just keep many parts of my life and myself out of the public eye for the reasons mentioned above and also because the way I am with my fiance Bella is obviously reserved only for her.
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. Could you give everything your best, even if no one ever praised you for it?
I’ve been doing that my entire life I feel. This is what I mean when I talk about discipline. Some people, and I feel like I belong in this category, fight battles no one knows about, every day.
And there are a lot of people like this, a lot of men do incredibly important jobs and society either take them for granted or even look down at them. There are mothers out there who do two jobs AND take care of their kids, there are heroes all around us who never get praised.
In my industry, so many professionals are amazing at what they do but they never get praised, they will never get an award, they will never get recognition.
But that’s why – if you’re lucky enough, like it happened to me – to find the person you’re supposed to be with, your soulmate, well, you realize those things are cool if they happen, but they won’t give you happiness. If there’s a hole inside you, they won’t fill it. Not the awards, not the money, not the cars.. And sure those things can and do make life easier, but on the other hand, very few things are sadder than not having anyone to share those wins with.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mixbustv.rewardmusic.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mixbustv/
- Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/davidgnozzi
- Twitter: https://x.com/MixbusTv
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mixbustv
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/mixbustv
Image Credits
Paul Archuleta
