Rusty Santos is a producer, mixer, and musician known for his work in indie and experimental pop.

My work is with the artist, an approach that invites collaboration.  My experience with music is shaped by subliminal influences. I create from within a dream state, seeking out where the acoustic (the outside world) and the conceptual (music production) intersect. The recording process, which I call electro-acoustic, can include composition and technical elements, but they are not the emphasis of my work.  For me, the technical represents instrumental and electronic sounds, a vocal performance, the acoustic, or anything captured by a microphone.  Whether the sound occurs on stage or on a recording, my task is to capture both the electrical and biological aspects to emphasize the human.  

Activating the listener's imagination is key. As sonic textures unfold, they act as my means of communication.  The goal is not to create ambient music; experimental records are made to engage the audience, to exist in the context of scenes, and as the fodder of our music communities.  I work with these scenes and also within them, and people are the stylization of sound itself.  The music of the scenes we inhabit begins as experimental; then, as it evolves, the most rarified sounds are absorbed by tradition.  For that reason, what I make is part of a cycle of folk music, even where it’s pushed to electronic extremes.  I intend to help artists make music for the sake of artistic evolution.  The recordings I produce are for anyone who has use for them.

Producer/Mixer REEL