Production Style
By using production practices from every era of recording, Will strives to make post-modern productions crafted with every decision being informed by the music at hand. When producing he brings an experienced understanding of the studio and session management as well as an ear honed on sound production and capture in less-controlled live environments. He brings these skills while making music with others.
Peggy Day. Studio dog.
About Prairie Gold Sound
Will and Chloe love making the recording process comfortable and effortless by practicing their old-timey hospitality skills while pulling inspiring sounds from the house's "middle room." The room's hollow wood floors and odd shape combine with the lovely mid-century wood paneling to create a lush, organic sound.
Will Flagg. Producer/Engineer.
About Will
Will is a producer/engineer based in Laramie, Wyoming. Equal parts musician and engineer, he combines his years of professional audio experience in both recording and live sound with a musical ear. His audio work began in 2007; in addition to freelancing he’s held full-time audio positions at a historic music-row studio in Nashville, TN and in University auditoriums here in Laramie. He’s also taught the Intro to Music Technology course at the University of Wyoming since 2016 and is currently working on a Master’s of Music in Vocal Performance from UW.
Formative Years
Will came up as an audio engineer straddling the recent shift in recording paradigms; he cut his teeth the old-fashioned way by assisting much better engineers than himself, but has fully embraced the democratization of recording that's happened in the last 10 years. His first full time job as a young adult was working as an Assistant Engineer at the historic Quad Recording Studios in Nashville, TN. After some time performing tape-to-ProTools transfers (including too many Waylon Jennings live four-track recordings to count) he graduated to Assistant Engineer.
The experience he gained while at Quad was invaluable; he worked to ensure sessions ran smoothly for Grammy Award-winning producers, engineers, and musicians at a studio with top-of-the-line equipment and a rich history reaching back to the non-traditional Nashville scene of the 1970’s when it hosted artists such as Neil Young (Harvest), Linda Ronstadt, JJ Cale, and the Flying Burrito Brothers. In his time there, Will was fortunate enough to work with Patty Loveless (on her Grammy-winning record, Mountain Soul II), T. Bone Burnett, Emmylou Harris, Vince Gill, Young Buck, and other world-class producers, engineers, and musicians. One of his primary mentors was George Tutko, a brilliant engineer who among other things we have to thank for the claps staying in John Mellencamp’s “Jack and Diane.” Working directly under this caliber of professional at a young age gave him a strong understanding of the of the record-making process.
Despite his success as an Assistant Engineer, Will soon grew homesick for Wyoming’s open prairies and his now wife, Chloe. He returned home and his audio direction followed the available work: live sound. He’s worked with sound companies across the state, doing sound at fairs, festivals, bars, and auditoriums. Live sound has deepened his understanding of sound production and capture in ways the controlled environment of the studio never did, and he now brings that back to the studio when recording.
In the last few years he has helped produce projects from the Woodpile (Hunting Hearts, EP; Man on a Hill, single), Shawn Hess (World Away), Whiskey Slaps (A Little More Whiskey), and John May. He’s recently fallen in love with crappy old dynamic microphones, found an obsession in the pedal steel guitar, and sometimes likes to build audio equipment. He’s currently working on his Master’s of Music in Vocal Performance at UW to continue his education which includes a BA in Anthropology from UW and a certificate from the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences in Tempe, AZ.
