Customer Spotlight: Horatio Emm

One of the best parts about working for Sweetwater is getting to know our customers and hearing about their unique musical journeys. Whether we’re helping someone just starting out or working closely with the industry’s top professionals, we value each and every interaction and the wealth of creativity our customers exude. But every once in a while, we learn about someone whose journey inspires us because of the positive impact it has on the world. Horatio Emm is just such a story.

Horatio Emm is the alter ego of a Louisiana-based, multitalented musician, songwriter, producer, and engineer. His ability to churn out great songs in an extremely wide variety of genres is astounding. And he makes them all available for free on his website, Horatioemm.com.
Emm originally built the website to be his own personal distribution platform, offering his music to anyone who might enjoy it. But within months, the site grew into a global arts community that consisted of graphic designers, musicians, and other artists from diverse cultures, such as the US, Serbia, Georgia, and Russia.
Horatioemm.com is a shining example of Emm’s goal of bringing people together through free access to art and music. And it’s that selfless attitude and passion for putting others first that quickly caught our attention. It’s also why we reached out to him in an effort to learn more about why he creates and distributes his music so generously, how he built a team of artists from around the globe, and why he finds that Sweetwater plays a vital part in it all.
The story and purpose behind Horatio Emm is fascinating. Tell me where the idea came from.
I’ve been writing music for a long, long time. And I wanted to create this alter ego, because when you’re an amateur musician, it’s always, “Oh, he’s the high school football coach who has the band.” I don’t want to be that. I want people to say, “He’s a musician.” I want to present something that is the music. So my anonymity is very deliberate. This is my musical Haven, which I keep separate from other things. It frees me up to do whatever I want.
The alter ego lives on your website, Horatioemm.com. Talk to me about the site.
The impetus for the site was to be able to develop a place to see if I could communicate with other people using music. And, obviously, it’s free. It’s not commercial. I’m not trying to sell anything. It’s just the music and how people connect with it.
The site was really kind of crappy looking at first. And then I got some artists involved to create some original artwork. There’s a picture on the homepage of people at a party that’s a really good image. That was made by a guy named Gaga, who is from the country of Georgia. I thought that having some original drawings and so forth that could relate to the songs would be a nice touch.
Also, artists named Sanja and Adam have helped me a lot to make the site look and flow better.
Speaking of Gaga, Sanja, and Adam, the way you’ve built the team and showcase it is incredibly unique. How do you find the people that have helped out with the site?
I’m searching Google and I find this site called Freelancer. Freelancer is full of freelance artists from all over the world.
The first person who helped me was a woman from Georgia named Tamar. She did some art for me. And she had a friend, another Georgian woman, Keto. And Keto knows this guy Gaga. And they all live in Tbilisi, Georgia. And then Adam and Sanja live in Serbia. They’re all super nice people.
It’s interesting because, what did I know about Serbia? Nothing. So it’s fun to get to know them and their perspectives.
Gaga, for instance, wants to be a comic book artist. That’s what he aspires to do. Maybe someone will see a thing he did on my site and contact him. To me, that’s a bit of an ulterior motive, getting exposure for some talented people.
That’s a pretty incredible way to support artists around the globe.
It’s interesting because we’re used to being around Americans all the time. They have a whole different existence. It’s not easy living in Serbia, from what I hear. It’s raised my appreciation of how lucky we are to be living in the United States.
What about the future of the site? Do you have any long-term goals?
I guess one thing that I’d like to do is collaborate with people. I’d like to have people contact me to work on a song. But I don’t have any illusions of some “success.” To me, success is people listening to you and liking it, whether it’s a lot of people or it’s a few people. And maybe I can help others make their own music.
A big part of Sweetwater’s culture is serving others. According to the “Principles” page on your site, you share that passion. Talk to me about how you’re using music to bring people together.

I think there’s a couple of reasons for that. One is to remind me to keep my head about me and to be respectful of the musicians and people I’m dealing with.
Let’s say, I’m going to collaborate with an artist. I want them to know up front that I want to treat them with respect. Even though I’m hiring you, I don’t want you under my thumb. In some sort of way it does help nice things happen.
Also, we’re doing this because it’s creative and it’s musical. And it’s family friendly. I don’t want to be worried if someone’s eight-year-old kid is listening to the songs. So I’m making nice music for everybody.
Let’s talk a bit about your music. You’re great at capturing a wide variety of sounds and styles. What is your writing and recording process?
Well, I thought about writing a song for a Bond movie, and that suggests what the song will be. And I did one that is a disco song. I simply said, “I wanna write a disco song. How would that go?” So that was the process.
Often artists feel that they have to fit into a certain genre. But it seems you are able to be inspired and follow that inspiration in a pure way.
What helped me a lot with that was to say, “I want to write a theme song. What if I wrote a theme song for a sitcom?” Themes for sitcoms are a very different type of music. So I could explore different types of chord changes and different sounds. That was my aha moment. I could write music in a lot of different styles that I hadn’t before.
As such a prolific creator, are you passionate about the gear you use?
No. I would say if I could have an engineer do everything for me, I would [laughs]. I’m not constantly craving new recording gear.
I have a lot of gear, and I think I have some good stuff that’s really helped me. But I think I’m like a lot of the people who do business with Sweetwater. We don’t have the $150,000 home studio. We’ve got the room in our house where we try to make the best of things.
You don’t need all that if your arrangements are good, the basic sounds are good, and the quality of your tracks is good.
That said, are there any pieces of gear that you find yourself going back to over and over again?

As with anybody, I have my favorites. But to me, the less cluttered your tracks are with plug-ins and stuff the better you’re doing. I think it’s the arrangement that’s so important in making the tracks sound good. It’s putting the parts in the proper place so that the music can breathe and the arrangement can work. And then if the sounds are good, the production is easier.
That’s why I always use the same things. I use a Mojave MA-300 mic. I use a Golden Age Project Pre-73 preamp, and I use a Warm Audio WA-2A optical compressor. That’s my chain. Everything is going to go in there. That’s the heart of it. Everything that’s recorded goes through the Mojave, through my preamp, and then goes to my optical compressor. And everything that’s recorded direct goes through the DI on the Pre-73.
And then with mixing, the big thing for me has been the iZotope Ozone mastering plug-in. It has helped me a lot. And then there’s the Waves Abbey Road TG mastering suite that I use a lot.
And all of this came from recommendations by Sweetwater Sales Engineer Aaron Smith.
Tell me about your relationship with Aaron?
I would say Aaron has helped me with every important purchase. For example, I started with a different compressor, and it wasn’t working out. It had all the things, the ratio, the release, and all that. I found it baffling to make it do what I wanted. That’s when he said, “Well, why don’t we try an optical compressor?” And how he advised me with the Mojave mic was a quantum leap. Aaron has given me tons of advice and even helped with some of my mixes.
The other thing with Aaron is all of the things he’s told me not to buy. He says things like, “You don’t need that; you’re wasting your money,” or “What you have is fine.” He’s saved me a lot of money! He gives some very good, specific advice and does a great job.
Sounds like you’re happy with your interactions with Sweetwater. But what was it that drew you to us in the first place?
The corporate culture of Sweetwater caught my eye. I knew something was going on that was beyond normal companies. That interested me. I’m impressed with Sweetwater, the principles behind Sweetwater, and why Sweetwater is so successful. I can’t say enough good things about what you guys do.
How can people support you, your site, and your vision?
Listen to the music and enjoy it. Send me a note if there’s something that you hear and think, “Gosh, I like that. I want to use it for something.” If people enjoy it, that’s all I want.
And if someone wants to hire me to write a theme song, great [laughs].

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