Ocean Waves Productions

ABOUT US

Carlo Variola – Producer
I started Ocean Waves Productions in 2013 after graduating from The School of Audio Engineering (SAE) in Liverpool. Before moving to the UK, I was living in my home country of Italy, where I was developing my craft as a songwriter, and performing as a guitarist and singer in local bands. At the time, audio engineering and music production was an unknown world to me.
When I moved to Liverpool to study at SAE my eyes opened to all the possibilities. It immediately struck me as the perfect city to be working on music, and to be working with musicians. I had never seen a city with so many music venues, rehearsal spaces and recording studios as Liverpool – the home of The Beatles. In Liverpool, unlike many other places nowadays, music was not only alive and well, but it was thriving.

I attended gigs, talked to strangers, and searched for local bands. I took every opportunity I had to meet with emerging artists and discuss their work and goals. After an initial meeting I would attend rehearsals to identify both the strong and weak points of the band to try and help improve on their sound and song arrangements. Once I had established a relationship and working agreement with an artist, it was all about getting into the studio to record. From there it’s a matter of following the production chain: recording, mixing, and last (but not least) mastering.

Source: Motor Museum Recording Studio in Liverpool, UK, Where we did most of our projects

While in Liverpool, I worked on Ocean Waves projects predominately at The Motor Museum Recording Studio and at Parr Street Studios. To get my name out there I decided it would be a fun idea to create a compilation album featuring some of Liverpool’s emerging bands. To generate more attention around this project, I thought it would be smart to reach out to an artist that was already well known; local legends Space. I was over the moon when they agreed to be a part of my project, and to be featured as the special guest on ‘Ocean Waves & The Mersey Sounds’. This project was a real turning point for me, and helped spread my work and the Ocean Waves name around Liverpool. By the time the album was done, and ready for release, most of the local artists and music lovers in the city already knew about it.
Beyond the city of Liverpool, I have also worked in Jamaica where I produced a song for an artist in Negril. In Jamaica the approach to music production was much different than the UK. It was far more instinctive and less scripted.

Source: Motor Museum Recording Studio in Liverpool UK

Ocean Waves has taken me all over the world, and moves around the globe with me. Currently Ocean Waves is operating in Brazil. In Brazil, I am producing Afro-Brazilian music in Afro-Brazilian communities. I am finding most often that the musicians I am working with here did not study music, in the traditional sense, but their commitment is undeniable. I continue to be impressed at the stamina of these musicians who are able to sing and play percussion for hours without stopping.
For me production has never been about only the music. A great record is about so much more. It’s about the people, their journey and the meaning behind the songs that make a record interesting, and special.

Source: Motor Museum Recording Studio in Liverpool UK.

Rob Small – Mastering Engineer


Rob Small is now in his 18th year of working in the music industry as an artist & A&R consultant, producer, sound engineer and mastering engineer.

He has had the pleasure of working & being credited alongside the likes of Daft Punk, Sony Music, Universal, and Defected Records but to a name a few, and has mastered many UK/World chart entries, such as Endor’s ‘Pump It Up’ on Defected Records, which amassed over 250,000,000+ global streams, 1.5 million downloads, 3x platinum in Ireland, 2x platinum in Australia and 1x platinum in the UK.

In his time as a mastering engineer, he has mastered over 50,000 records, 3500 vinyl releases, and is fully accredited in the Apple Digital Masters (formerly MFiT) program and is now known to have set the industry standard in mastering for digital labels across the world.

Source: Motor Museum Recording Studio in Liverpool UK.

James Mellor – Recording Engineer, Mixing


James began his career as the in-house engineer at our partner studio, Liverpool’s The Motor Museum, where he worked with artists such as Cast, Space, The Fall and Mike Scott while also producing local up-and-coming bands such as Life At The Arcade, Shy Billy and Jo Mary.

After relocating to London in 2017, James joined the Miloco team and began working at a wide variety of London studios, gaining valuable experience of vintage equipment and consoles.

Since then, James has engineered on sessions including Crystal Fighters, Ten Fé, Ama Lou, Slaves and Goldlink, all the while maintaining his passion for working with emerging artists – producing and mixing tracks for Paolo Post Future, Deliah, The Deep and Lilum to name a few.

With his background as a musician, James is able to work with artists to help them achieve their vision in a collaborative, approachable and efficient way.

When James isn’t busy on session, you’ll find him watching the football or scouting out new, exciting talent at local music venues.

Source: Motor Museum Recording Studio in Liverpool UK.

Martin Kuchta – Mastering Engineer


Martin became fascinated with sound engineering since his early teens when he assisted on a session in a national broadcaster recording studio. In his career he gained experience recording, mixing, producing and live sound engineering.

He also benefits from being an active musician which gives him a detailed holistic understanding of the music production process. His pursuit of the purest sound ultimately led him to establish Roughgrain mastering in 2014 with Ocean Waves as one of his first collaborations.

Source: Motor Museum Recording Studio in Liverpool UK.

Samir Leite – Recording Engineer


The SMusic Studio was founded in 2000 as a rehearsal space for a forró band called Gaviões do forró, in Natal Rio Grande do Norte, where Samir Leite and his childhood friends played as a hobby.

From then on challenges came such as maintaining the studio financially, and it was in that moment that the idea of renting the space to other bands came up.

At that time they started to offer recording services, so they started to operate in the area of multitrack recording with investments in modern equipment.

Then came the first change of headquarters because the physical space no longer supported the studio’s demand, so they moved from a 12 square meter room to a 120 square meter building, a space that has been occupied for over 15 years. Today the studio has three rooms and some great names of national music passed through there, such as singer Wesley Safadão, singer Henri Freitas, Giliard, Zezo potiguar, Tribo de Jah, José Orlando, singer Rosana, band Graffiti, singer Edyr vaqueiro, the singer Caninana among others of national fame.

Source: SMusic Estúdios

We are a nomadic récord label and if we like your project we can reach any destination!

We will be happy to listen to your music, send your demos HERE!