Draft:Laura Sisk

Laura Sisk is a recording engineer based in Los Angeles, California. As a freelance recording engineer, Sisk has worked with artists like Taylor Swift, Eminem, Shakira, Florence + the Machine, Lorde, and the 1975. She is the inaugural recipient of the Exceptional Ears award at We are Moving the Needle's Resonator Awards, which recognizes "a leading engineer whose technical prowess has made a noteworthy mark on the field this year."

Early life & Education

Sisk grew up in California. She played piano, clarinet, and the oboe, attending Marin School of the Arts. She first learned how to use a recording system in high school, when she and her friends needed to record audition tapes for all-state honors bands and orchestras.

Sisk attended Indiana University, where she graduated with a B.S. in Recording Arts Technology in 2010. Because recording students were involved in recording the performances for all students at the Jacobs School of Music, Sisk credits IU with providing her countless hours of practice in the studio, in genres like classical, jazz, opera, big-band, and ballet.

Career

After graduation, Sisk moved to Los Angeles to work with John Hill at Rodeo Recording in 2011, an experience she later described as "trial by fire and quick growth." The job exposed Sisk to a variety of studio environments around LA, as well as Hill's home studio. After leaving Rodeo Recording to go freelance, Sisk developed new industry skills focused around managing her own schedule, talking business, and selling herself to gain clients.

Much of Sisk's work is the outcome of her close working relationship with producer Jack Antonoff, who she met while working for Hill. [more here]

In the male-dominated recording industry, Sisk notes that her gender gives her a "unique perspective working in the studio," allowing her to "connect with artists differently and add diversity to the control room". She has also spoken publicly about challenges she faced as a woman in the recording industry, saying that "there is no denying that gender is an issue in the studio." After early experiences attempting to fit in professionally as "one of the boys," Sisk stated that she learned to "trust [her] bullshit meter" when it comes to navigating the music industry as a woman.

Artistry

Sisk has emphasized the role of noise in her production of Lana del Ray's album Norman Fucking Rockwell, stating that "A lot of the magic of this album is that listeners are hearing the parts pretty much as we heard them [...] We used a lot of full takes, and we kept in and even added noise to the recordings." While reducing any lingering background noise in the recordings, Sisk and Antonoff "realised pretty quickly that we were losing a little bit of the vibe. Historically, everyone was trying to get less noise out of the tape machine, trying to figure out how to get less hiss and so on. You couldn't pull out tiny clicks or room noise, or even someone talking in the background of a take. Now that we can, we're like, 'Hmm, that was actually pretty cool!'"

Sisk places great importance on early takes in the recording process, stating that "capturing the recording right after someone's written it and is feeling it the strongest is really important."On Norman Fucking Rockwell, Sisk recorded the vocals with minimal [analog?] compression, opting instead to [compress the vocals digitally in post-production], which made it "a lot easier to edit and also keep all the emotion and the dynamics of Lana's vocal." Most of the vocals were recorded in studio control rooms, which Sisk often prefers since they are usually bigger than a vocal booth, but smaller than a live room. Recording vocals in a control room also facilitates discussion and collaboration between producers and an artist, allowing them to speak freely between takes without relying on talkback.

Sisk credits session preparation as an important part of her process. In her words, "the first thing I do when I get to any studio is to start turning everything off that I don't need", a task that minimizes unwanted machine noise during the session. In addition to the technical details, Sisk places special emphasis on creating an environment where the artist feels comfortable enough to experiment. According to Sisk, "The vibe of the session is set by the artist [...] All you can know about someone before you work with them is where they've been and not where they're headed." Sisk has also emphasized the importance of the social role of the recording engineer, noting that an engineer's approach can quickly affect the outcome of a session. She has stated that she tries to be "ready for anything" while "quietly anticipating what's about to happen next" so sessions run smoothly. In Sisk's words, "You have to manage the room — without showing your work", so that when the occasional technical difficulty does occur, the session can still move forward productively.

Discography

	Artist	Year
The Tortured Poets D artment	Taylor Swift	2 [...] W
Batiste	2023
The New Look Soundtrack	Various Artist	2024
Feelings are Fatal	mxmtoon

Taylor Swift – The Tortured Poets Department

Bleachers – Bleachers

Jon Batiste – World Music Radio

Various Artists – The New Look Soundtrack

Jon Batiste – Never Went Away

mxmtoon – Feelings are Fatal

Taylor Swift – Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)

Taylor Swift – 1989 (Taylor’s Version)

Rob Grant – Lost at Sea

Maren Morris – The Bridge

Lana Del Rey – Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Boulevard

Taylor Swift – Midnights

The 1975 – Being Funny in a Foreign Language

Florence + the Machine – Dance Fever

Various Artists – Minions: The Rise of Gru Soundtrack

Taylor Swift – Red (Taylor’s Version)

St. Vincent – The Nowhere Inn

Diana Ross – Thank You

Lorde – Te Ao Marama

Bleachers – Take The Sadness Out of Saturday Night

Lorde – Solar Power

Clairo – Sling

Taylor Swift – Fearless (Taylor’s Version)

St. Vincent – Daddy’s Home

Lana Del Rey – Chemtrails Over The Country Club

Taylor Swift – evermore

Taylor Swift – folklore

Lana Del Rey – Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass

Carly Rae Jepsen – Dedicated

FKA Twigs – Magdalene

Taylor Swift – Lover

Kevin Abstract – Arizona Baby

Lana Del Rey – Norman Fucking Rockwell

Elle Fanning – Wildflowers (Teen Spirit Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Taylor Swift – Reputation

P!nk – Beautiful Trauma

St. Vincent – Masseduction

Bleachers – Gone Now

Lorde – Melodrama

Zayn x Taylor Swift – I Don’t Wanna Live Forever

How To Dress Well – Care

Fifth Harmony – 7/27

St. Lucia – Matter

Sia – This Is Acting

Eminem – Guts Over Fear

Troye Sivan – Blue Neighbourhood

Emile Haynie – We Fall

Elle King – Love Stuff

Cee Lo Green – Heart Blanche

Bleachers – Terrible Thrills

Carly Rae Jepsen – E-MO-TION

Taylor Swift – 1989

Broken Bells – After The Disco

Christina Perri – Head or Heart

Lykke Li – I Never Learn

Skaters – Manhattan

tUnE-yArDs – Nikki Nack

Mr. Little Jeans – Pocketknife

Shakira/Rihanna – Shakira

Bleachers – Strange Desire

Phantogram – Voices

Wavves – Afraid of Heights

Portugal. The Man – Evil Friends

Birdy – Fire Within

Sigur Ros – Kveikur

Fall Out Boy – Save Rock and Roll

Santigold – Master of My Make-Believe

Mayer Hawthorne – Where Does This Door Go

P!nk – The Truth About Love

Big Boi – Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumours

Theophilus London – Timez Are Weird These Days