Daily Inspiration: Meet William Binderup

Today we’d like to introduce you to William Binderup.

Hi William, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I began producing for a friend when I was in high school. I remember him bringing me along to a studio session at another friend’s house. It was a super small set up in a garage. Looking back it was a pretty awful setup, but I remember it being my first experience watching someone record and mix. I immediately became interested in that over producing. I started to record my friend as much as I could but I had no idea what I was doing. Once I graduated high school, I attended a community college and started taking a recording 101 class. By the end of the semester I had a D in the class, mainly because I could not memorize the names of the microphones. At the end of the following year, I decided to drop out of college. Through a friend I discovered a local studio in the Bay Area. I called the manager/owner of the studio and begged him to let me intern. I told him I would clean the bathrooms, scrub the floors, whatever he needed in order to just be in a studio environment. After a quick interview they agreed. I would sit in on sessions with the head engineer at the time, Todd Cooper and watch everything he did. After a short time, the head engineer, Todd moved off to LA. Another engineer named Curtis Bye, came into replace him and I was finally able to take on some small extra sessions in the B room. I owe a lot of what I learned to both engineers, they laid out a lot of the groundwork for me and showed me how to run sessions, what artists are looking for, and would answer all my questions. I remember at some point, Todd Cooper came back to visit the studio and he mentioned to me that he knew a mix engineer in LA named Erik Madrid, that was looking for an assistant, if I was living there he would have been able to connect me. At that point I feel like I had missed an extremely good opportunity. My wife was 6 months pregnant at the time in 2018, so I decided that I couldn’t let another opportunity like that pass me up, so we moved to LA almost immediately after that. I was working at Fedex at the time and had barely any connections in LA. To my surprise within 1 month of living in LA, that same mixer, Erik. needed a new assistant. The timing was crazy. Todd put me in contact with him this time and I secured an interview. I was extremely nervous because, in all honestly I moved out to LA really early in my career and did not know as much as I should have. Thankfully, I ended up getting the job as Erik’s assistant. I worked under him for a full year and that’s where I really learned the ropes and what it meant to be professional in this industry as well as how to move. Still to this day, his advice has helped me avoid a lot of issues I’ve seen other engineers run into. During this time as his assistant I was able too see how he mixed, worked with major labels, and navigated with different artists. After the year came up, I decided to go off and become my own freelance engineer. The first few years were extremely difficult. Trying to secure clients, making sure I was getting paid, and at the same time continue to get better overall. Over time, I gained more clients, was able to bring my rate up and work with a ton of amazing artists that I honestly thought I’d never get a chance to work with. I’m going on to year 8 of being a freelance mixer, so I feel extremely blessed since during that time I’ve seen lots of people come and go, so just still being able to do this as a full-time job and support my wife and 3 kids with this job is still so insane to me.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Anything worth going after and dedicating your whole life to is going to come with its fair share of struggles. In the beginning a lot of the struggles came from money issues. I always just thought of mixing and working in music was all about the art and never took into consideration the business side of things. That led to me being taken advantage of, not being paid on time (or at all), and not knowing my worth.
In the very beginning the tough part was working at the studio as an intern while also working a job on the side. I would leave to Fedex at 3-4am in the morning, work until 11am, go home and shower. Leave to the studio and stay until 11-12am that night. I was getting 3-4 hours of sleep every single night and that took a heavy toll on my mental health.
After moving to LA, and starting off freelancing, it became more about the finances. There wasn’t a solid paycheck coming in every 2 weeks, I had to fight for every client, session and dollar. I remember taking on a project at the time that I spent 2-3 weeks working on, and ended up not even getting paid for it. Basically wasting weeks of my time, especially when rent was due. Somehow between me and my wife we were always able to somehow figure it out.
Over time though I learned how to handle my business and finances so I wouldn’t be in that position again. I’ve also built up a client base that keeps me busy throughout the year

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
So I’m a mixing engineer. After an artist records a song in the studio they send me the files to mix them. I’m most proud of the fact that I was able to make my living off working on music. I enjoy my job and I feel extremely lucky that I get to this every day.
I think what sets me apart from others is how I’m extremely invested in my clients music, I don’t try to add my own sound or flavor to anything, I’ve learned to serve the song and what the client needs. A lot of my job comes down to being able to translate what an artist wants. Not everybody understands all the technical terms that come with engineering, however they are able to explain what they want it to feel like or what emotion they want to convey. I feel like I’ve done a really good job of being able to take those feelings and emotions they want in the record and bring it to life.

What does success mean to you?
Success to me is being able to make my living off music. It’s not about who I work with or being in rooms with big artists or celebrities. That was never the goal for me. Sure that’s a perk of the job, however if I get to wake up everyday, mix songs and my family is taken care of, then that’s all that matters to me and I’ve won.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/williambinderup
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/59dC6vGyAQ9Hu6Z13DLupd?si=e13368df70d64b38