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Chris Finster talks Bridge City Sessions and his creative process

Portland, Oregon-based musician and recording engineer Chris Finster is not one for mincing his words. Having gone from playing “badass riffs” as a young guitarist to being one of the most in-demand metal producers in his local area, he caught up with Headliner to discuss his work with Bridge City Sessions, his creative process, and how oeksound soothe2 makes his life considerably easier…

Finster has been recording himself on four-track since the mid ‘90s, but back then he surely could never have predicted the position he finds himself in now – as a full time mixer for live music platform and popular YouTube channel, Bridge City Sessions.

Bridge City Sessions was founded around the idea of helping musicians get their music heard through a live in-studio show. Finster and his colleagues set up the mics, put cameras on the band, polish things up in editing and post-production, and then promote the audio and video as much as possible.

“I do that week-in, week-out,” Finster tells Headliner. “We just did an online festival aptly named Bridge City Fest, which was 35 bands each doing 40 minute sets, mixed in something like a two month period. It was pretty intense, but pretty cool.

“I’m also working on my own record right now, and I’ve got a singer involved called Uta Plotkin – she was the singer of a local doom metal band called Witch Mountain. The way I’m producing it is more like Evanescence-style stuff, and it’s turned out better than I would have ever expected, so I’m stoked to put that out.”

If a song comes out how I had it in my head, that's fine by me. Ultimately, the listener is the one that needs to benefit.

In his teens and early twenties, Finster played in a number of local bands before ending up in Amongst Us, whose heyday between 2002 and 2008 saw them become the most popular metal band on the local scene.

“I liked playing shows, but I didn’t like any of the other stuff because I have some pretty bad anxiety problems, and I would just drink my way into being okay with this shit. Having to drink a lot just to feel cool eventually wore me down, and then other problems compounding that meant that it became really not that fun. I love making music though – that part never changed.”

While his musical sensibilities mostly lie in metal, Finster has also produced a slew of pop and acoustic records, and says he is open to working in different genres.

“When I’m making a track, whether that be on guitar or keyboard or whatever, it has to start with some sort of emotional content that spurs me on,” he explains. “Once that’s there, I can usually get something done relatively quickly as far as the skeleton of the song goes.

“When it comes to working with others, these days I really want to hear demos, and what it is they’re trying to get across. If I think it’s a track that’s worth chiselling into, then I’ll do it, and from there it may come to a situation where I’m literally playing all the parts, and they’re just singing or something. As long as it comes out how I had it in my head, that’s fine by me. Ultimately however, the listener is the one that needs to benefit.”

Finster proceeds to tell Headliner how he first became acquainted with oeksound plugins, specifically soothe2, and how it has revolutionised his workflow:

“When I first got into Bridge City Sessions, I came up with a sauce – I could put pretty much any band through this mastering chain, top-down style, and it would crush,” he recalls. “A bass player from one of the bands we were working with asked to see my chain, and in exchange he said he’s got the inside line on a new plugin ‘that you fucking need.’”

It turned out that said plugin, oeksound soothe, was exactly what Finster had been needing for a long time: “Everybody needed it, right?” he ponders. “I think I use it a little differently from others. I use it the conventional way here and there, taking out spikes once in a while, but mostly I actually still notch because I’m just an old fuddy duddy. I’ll put it on fastest attack, fastest release, and then I’ll open the width all the way and put it on hard mode. I jack it all the way up to get a frequency range that I want to kill, and just have it perma pressed; then, I’ll dial the wet/dry in.”

Having recently been appointed mixer for the Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Finster has got more than enough on his plate to keep him busy. He also recently produced vocals for instrumentalist Keith Merrow’s newest release, which charted high up the metal charts – another feather that Finster has added to his cap this year:

“It’s busy times; I need to finish everything I’m doing right now for sure, before I take on any more things!”

You can listen to the full interview with Chris Finster on Headliner Radio, here: