This is Scott Wiley...

musician, producer, engineer, mixing artist, studio owner, potsticker enthusiast

photo by Natalie Haws

This is Scott Wiley. He produced, engineered, and mixed Valley of Annihilation. He owns June Audio Recording Studios.

I first met Scott when I was a teenager, sixteen maybe, and my friend Andy Brohard was working as an engineer with Scott in the first iteration of June Audio. I knew who Scott was because as a Grade A music nerd I was obsessively listening to every local album and poring over all the credits and liner notes; he was on a lot of them. All of my favorite albums were Scott productions. His band Sunfall Festival was my favorite local band. So when I went into June Audio after-hours one day to record a song demo with Andy…and then Scott came dropped by unexpectedly to pick up some gear…I was completely starstruck. I was meeting a celebrity. Oh, how times change! (kidding)

Cut to 2009. At this point I had worked with Scott on a few different compilation albums as a guest artist and we were friendly but mostly I was intimidated by him. I got a call from Scott asking me if I was interested in joining in on a session with a bunch of local music folks that I admired to make a gospel roots record. That was the easiest yes of my life because I so badly wanted to work with Scott. If Scott had said, “Do you want to come play on this album with a quartet of clowns jumping on clown horns with pogo sticks.” I would have said “OMG. I love clowns. Count me in.”

In that session (the real one, not the clown one) the band The Lower Lights was born and somehow I got lucky enough to spend the next decade-plus really getting to know Scott as a producer, engineer, and bandmate. All these years later, I’m even luckier to get to call Scott my friend and mean it.

As I was preparing to record this new record this year, I tried a few different recording methods just to shake things up and see if something clicked but quickly realized that the only person I wanted to work with was Scott.

He always knows how to make a song better, make it more dynamic, structure it for emotional impact, give it magical moments. He’s willing to try anything new and interesting and weird if it serves the song.

I love that he’s absolutely meticulous about the sonic quality of every sound. He’s a truly brilliant engineer and can create wild and wonderful textures using inventive methods of mic-ing, or gear, or FX, or literally any trick in the book. (At one point he was recording Aaron’s drums with red Solo cups on the mics.) The breadth of what he knows about audio recording is staggering.

There’s also no one that mixes like he does. He’s not just an engineer, he’s a mixing Artist. Listen to Valley of Annihilation with headphones on and you’ll hear what I mean. What he’s doing is sophisticated and brilliant; it elevates the song into an experience.

But more than all of that, Scott is just a deeply good man. He’s kind, one of the funniest people I know, and so generous.

When I was looking for a producer for my first record in my early twenties, I had a meeting with Scott. I was working at a retail music store in the local Provo mall and he and his bandmate George met me on my break at the food court to talk about making the record. I was so nervous and trying not to disassociate by fixating on the vortex of the Hotdog on a Stick hats. During the meeting, Scott mentioned an album that he thought might be a good point of reference for my production. I hadn’t heard it. So he said, follow me, and we all walked to the local FYE store (do those still exist?).

He bought the CD for me…to keep. That might not seem like a big deal…but it was HUGE to me. I grew up in a family of eleven children. Money insecurity was the soundtrack of my childhood. The budget was tight, well oiled, and every penny accounted for. At that point, if I ever spent money on anything that wasn’t a necessity, it was because I had worked to save up for it. He didn’t buy it because he wanted me to hire him or feel obligated in any way. He didn’t care. He just wanted me to hear this cool album and be inspired by it.

I doubt he knew how impactful that was to me. That’s just one generous moment in about a million I can think of off the top of my head.

He’s also honest to a fault and I find that to be such a refreshing quality. He will not blow smoke up your ass. So when he says he loves a song or idea, he truly means it and when he doesn’t, you know it too. Clarity is kindness.

He’s also such a supportive husband and friend to his powerhouse wife and partner, Sarah (a true power couple!) And he’s the most loving and supportive dad to his five kids. I love watching Scott’s kids interact with him because it’s so obvious how much unconditional love exists there. They adore him.

I just deeply love this friend of mine and working with him on this record was such a dream. I always felt safe and valued and I knew he would always give 100% to make sure I had the best record possible.

Sorry, is this getting sappy? You should also know he doesn’t like coconut and that’s just weird. Weird weird weird. So weird.