Kia ora.

 

My name is Sam Johnson.

 

I’m a Londoner who had the good fortune to wash up in beautiful Aotearoa in 2017. I run my own studio, Rhythm Ace, in Oakura, just outside New Plymouth. 

 

My professional music career started at the fag end of the 1990’s when my band were signed to Fire Records and were lucky enough to record at Abbey Rd (a privilege I absolutely did not make the most of). Further projects on Sunday Best / Sony BMG exposed me to more and more recording situations and I quickly realised I much preferred the producer / engineer side of the glass. 

 

A love affair with electronic music caused me to sell far too many guitars to buy far too many Atari ST’s and 10 second capacity samplers before the balance was restored and, together with some friends and fellow producers I opened my first recording studio in 2002. Since then I've been recording, producing, mixing and engineering pretty much non-stop and am absolutely convinced it's the best possible way to live a life. 

 

I’ve had the pleasure of working with some ‘names’ like Nick Cave / Basement Jaxx / Zero 7 / Asian Dub Foundation / Dan Carey / The Bees but find just as much pleasure in helping new bands make the best possible work they can. The Taranaki music scene is keeping me incredibly happy and busy recording just about any style you can think of - and that is the real joy of the job for me - a different challenge every day. I have a horrible gear addiction, a perverse interest in tape delays and have realised that a good coffee machine is equal to a good microphone in the smooth running of a recording studio.