ShoutLA ✸ Meet Harrison Long | Music Producer, Engineer, Mixer

Harrison Long, Co-Founder of Off Trail Studios, Music Producer, Engineer& Mixer

PUBLISHED: August 28, 2023

We had the good fortune of connecting with Harrison Long and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Harrison, why did you pursue a creative career?

I’ve always been deeply inspired by music and the arts. Growing up, I loved playing the guitar and I was one of those kids that always had headphones or earbuds on. I think appreciating the arts is something that truly defines our humanity, and the idea of pushing artistic boundaries seems to be a natural part of human evolution. There is something about music in particular that can really just put you in a certain emotional place. When you’re really into a song, you truly experience it as some sort of crazy mind control in real-time. To me that seems like a gift, and so I’ve always wanted to devote myself to this greater thing that is our musical collective consciousness.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?

Starting Off Trail Studios with my partner Rachele Liba has been an epic journey of challenges and rewards. The world of music is literally endless, and so it takes a lot of humility to be willing to constantly learn more and to keep up with the latest breakthroughs. I hope our dedication is what sets us apart, but these days I’m mostly excited by seeing the artists I work with grow and achieve. It’s such a great feeling when an artist and I can come up with something unique and exciting, and I get a lot of joy from sharing that with the world. Every artist is different, and so the biggest challenge is to come at each project from a new approach while still meeting our own high standards. We always try to keep in mind our values of creativity, authenticity, innovation, and integrity throughout our processes, and so it’s our aim to have our work reflect that. Overall, my favorite projects are when the artist and I can push each other to reach for those values, all while growing and learning more about music and ourselves along the way.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?

Being in Los Angeles, we’re incredibly lucky to have world-class entertainment available pretty much every single night. I personally love watching live music, so I’d just look up who’s in town and let my friend decide which artist or band they’d like to see. Seeing a top-of-the-line show at a larger venue is always a good and memorable time, but sometimes the smaller places are just as fun and have some great music too. It’s really down to personal preference what kind of show my friend’s in the mood for and who happens to be there that week.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?

I’ve been fortunate enough to have some amazing mentors throughout my career, but what really expanded my skillset was working in commercial recording studios in LA. Pretty much every time I’d go into the studio, I’d get to watch a new producer or engineer work on some incredible sounding project. Over time, I really learned about the standards of the industry, and I incorporated all sorts of tricks into my own workflow. Although making music is a creative act with no set rules, there’s always something new to learn from other people’s perspectives- especially if what they’re doing is totally working!