Miles Comaskey on almost getting fired on his first day with Tony Maserati

Miles Comaskey is a producer, mixing engineer and songwriter who, fresh out of college, found himself working for Tony Maserati, one the industry’s biggest legends in mixing. He’s also one half of Gold Glove, his The Prodigy-inspired music project. He tells Headliner about nearly being fired for wearing cut-off jeans on his first day working for Maserati, working with Pussy Riot, and how Waves plugins fit into the equation.

Comaskey’s career so far has seen him work with Selena Gomez, Gwen Stefani and Carly Rae Jepsen as some of the biggest names in a glittering career, but he is the first to admit that if it weren’t for getting to chance to intern with and then work for the Grammy-winning Tony Maserati (Beyoncé, Jason Mraz), he wouldn’t have these kinds of credits to his name.

“I was failing all my biophysics classes at college,” Comaskey says. 

“So I swapped over to studying music production. I would make beats for rappers in Philadelphia. When I graduated, I got Tony Maserati’s email and contacted him about 20 times. He finally responded and offered me an internship, and I dropped everything in Philly and moved to L.A.

“I learned very quickly that I knew nothing. I thought I knew a bunch of shit. I didn't even know how to use Pro Tools, really. I turned up fresh from the Philly hip-hop scene in cut-off jean shorts and some stupid t-shirt – Tony had Alicia Keys in that day and said, ‘If you ever turn up for work like this again, you can’t come back!’ 

When the internship was ending, one of his assistants quit. So Tony gave me the opportunity to be his assistant, and I got to work with him for six years, which I feel so fortunate for. He's a great teacher, and a great mentor.”

Since going it alone as a mix engineer, one of Comaskey’s favourite projects has been working with the Russian feminist protest band Pussy Riot, whose activism against Vladimir Putin has seen them spend extended periods in Russian prison.

“Nadya (Tolokonnikova) is incredible. She's like a superhero. Me and Owen Hobson, my production partner produced Hate Fuck, and produced and mixed a few other tracks on the Matriarchy Now album. It was an incredible experience.”

Comaskey gets a similarly warm feeling whenever he reflects on one of his longest-term working relationships, with American emcee Big Freedia. “Working with Freedia is so much fun. Because there are no rules really. We'll just be blasting music through the speakers and give her an SM57 and say ‘go!’ Recording with her is like a crazy block party.”

To call Comaskey an engineer only paints half the picture; he’s also one-half of Gold Glove, who used their Pussy Riot contact to remix Toxic for the Russian collective, and have also released two singles.

“Me and Owen (Hobson) didn’t like each other back in the day, because we were both making beats in Philly for rappers and saw each other as competition,” he laughs. 

“But then we met and realised we should just make stuff together! Besides doing loads of production together, we had all these songs we made together which I sing on, but we couldn’t pitch them to anyone, because they’re too alternative and a little emo. Releasing them has been so much fun.”

Comaskey is a long-term user of Waves plugins, which almost landed him in hot water with his mentor, Mr Maserati. “Back in college, everyone had cracked Waves plugins,” he says. 

“I was constantly using Waves. When I first showed up to one of Tony’s sessions, he asked if I had his signature series, and I said, ‘I do, the cracked ones!’ This was before I knew what I was doing. I was throwing on the signature series guitar plugins on random things, and that's what I like about Waves. It's super intuitive. Because if you’re a beginner, you really can just throw their plugins on and you will achieve some cool sounds without having to think too much about it.”

And while it was surreal to go from using the Maserati Signature Collection to having the man himself as a mentor in the flesh, “it was so cool because I could see why he made these plugins and what he was trying to replicate. I like all of the Waves Signature stuff – I love the Jack Joseph Puig ones, which have a ‘magic button’. I don’t know what that means, but it sounds cool!" he laughs.

Like many mix engineers, Comaskey certainly has a set of go-tos from the Waves selection. “I use their Doubler all the time,” he says. 

“You can do some great augmented-pitched vocals with it. I do a lot of vocal chops, so the Doubler gets used a tonne for that. And it’s generally great for getting some width and depth when I’m mixing. I’ll even use it as a send, to add some dimension to a lead synth. And I always use the API EQs on drums, especially snares. I really like the top end with those. It’s not too drastic, just a nice little crisp touch.”

And Comaskey feels alone in that “everyone seems to use Antares Autotune. I don’t like it! I’ve come across a lot of issues where it won’t recall correctly, or will just stop tuning completely. I’ve never had any issues with Waves Tune Real-Time. And I love that I can track with it too. I love those new BB Tubes plugins from Waves, they are awesome also. You can get some solid saturation from those.”

When Headliner asks how the rest of the year is looking for Comaskey, he simply replies “Big Freedia! 2023 is gonna be Big Freedia’s year. I’m not sure how much I can talk about it, but I have a lot of stuff coming out with her and it’s incredible.”