In my first blog post, I explained why sound matters now more than ever. And now, I want to tell the story of why sound matters so much to me personally. I’m often asked what led me to start a niche sound library company in an overlooked corner of the audio industry—and stay at it for over 22 years. The simplest answer is I did it, and continue to do it, for the love of sound.
The true inspiration, however, starts in the Amazon.
The first time I experienced the true power of sound was in the Amazon rainforest. I was 15 years old and had received a grant to spend one month with the Cofán people, deep in the northwestern Ecuadorian interior. I had the good fortune of being welcomed to participate in daily Cofán life, from foraging and hunting to homebuilding, cooking and community rituals, all which afforded me a deeper understanding of their relationship with their environment. What intrigued me most was how attuned my hosts—really my guides—were to the sounds of rainforest and how they used them in daily life. From the ability to parse out precise spider monkey locations amidst the dense jungle symphony, to predicting the timing of weather shifts, where to hide safely minuted in advance of peccary pig stampedes, to sensing subtle yet vital changes in the sonic landscape. These were some of the Cofán audio mnemonics that dictated their actions, movement, decisions, storytelling, memory, prediction, beliefs and beyond.
What felt like a magical auditory superpower to me was second nature and intrinsic to them.
And it showed me that sound isn't just expressive; it's deeply instinctive and fundamental to how we make sense of our worlds, both physically and in memory, culture, and imagination. Inspired by my experience in Amazon, I'd later go on to study anthropology at Brown University. Throughout my studies and career, I've always been compelled by what motivates people to take the actions they take, form the beliefs they hold, make meaning of their lives and, ultimately, what shapes culture—starting with sound.
Rewinding it even further back, I was always fascinated with technology and manipulating sound. At the age of 12, I took up turntablism. My gateway was Sesame Street and Slick Rick. I used to scratch Big Bird vocals on vinyl over the Ruler’s B-side instrumentals on cassette, switching between tape and phono buttons on one of those triple-decker stereo systems with the record player on top. While most kids grabbed a juice box after school, I was digging through crates, searching for new music—and more than that, for new sounds to manipulate. The more obscure, the better. It wasn’t just a hobby, it was a refuge. A place to get lost in the flow of discovery, creation and artistic expression.
I'd later move on to music production. I have this vivid memory of a chance encounter with Gerhard Behles (Ableton founder) and Ernst Nathorst-Böös (Propellerheads founder) in 2001, standing together outside of the NAMM show. We were all just starting out in our careers, sharing our passion for sound and our dreams for our businesses. I’ve stayed in touch with Gerhard and Ernst over the years and I have to credit Ernst’s generosity in always hooking me up with Reason NFRs, starting with version 1.0. What tells you something about me is that for my first instrumental album, I refused to use a single stock sample bundled with the software. Despite the time and tedium, I hunted for novel sound relentlessly and enjoyed deep satisfaction from the pursuit alone. I dug through dusty vinyl bins at flea markets, explored archives at libraries, traded underground producer kits on floppy disks, surfaced rare samples, gained access to private collections and recorded the world around me—all in pursuit of original source material to uniquely fuel my own expression through sound.
Leading up to Pro Sound Effects, I now realize that, ultimately, I derived my drive from creative friction—from bridging the gap between an idea, a sonic inspiration and its actualization through the speakers. For instance, if you've ever been mid-project and were searching for something oddly specific that you didn't have immediate access to, like bullwhip cracking, tiger copulation and arctic tundra ambience, you know how fast that idea can vanish and how easily finding that sound can derail your creative flow.
A major influence on my thinking and founding PSE, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Author of Flow), speaks directly to this delicate dance and the ephemeral nature of flow state creativity. I’ve always been captivated by the experience of how any one creative inspiration can so easily be interrupted and forgotten forever by the need to stop, to search, to record, and get distracted by finding that one element you need to proceed with your original idea and drive it to completion.
Collectively, these stories, from my experience with the Cofán, Sesame Street turntablism, my stubborn refusal to use stock samples, and the essence of Flow—all melded together to catalyze the founding of a company that is now world-renowned. A company forged in my early experiences, born in a 1-bedroom apartment in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.
When I zoom out and reflect on early inspirations, why sound matters to me personally, and the connection to why I founded PSE, it all boils down to empowering creativity. To decrease the time between an inspiration and its sonic actualization. To provide limitless source material for creative expression. To unlimit and unlock imagination through sound. To make it real. And ultimately, PSE’s purpose since day one, helping creators.r
Fast forward from 2004 to the present, and we’ve delivered on our purpose through over 1.2 million sounds spanning the sonic spectrum, created in collaboration with the Oscar®-winning sound artists and the world’s foremost nature recordists constantly pushing the limits of audio quality. We are relied upon on a daily basis by the most innovative sound professionals and teams in film, game, media and technology companies, and fuel the audio behind what you watch, play, listen to and create with every day. All along the way, I’ve kept the company fully independent and self-funded, so we can deliver maximal creative impact without any outside investor telling us how to go about it.
While PSE has achieved a lot on paper, I’m equally proud of our unique culture and devoted team. The majority of us have been with PSE for most of their careers. PSE is a reliable place to work, we’ve never had to lay people off and we intend to keep it that way amidst all of the challenges we face. We’re a team of creatives running a business in which creativity thrives. Our people are supported to live their best lives outside of work, prioritize their families and pursue their creative interests on their own terms. Many don’t know that I was a pioneer of remote-first work (as covered in chapter 4 of Tim Ferris’s 4-Hour Workweek), which makes our professional lifestyle possible. We believe in high freedom, high responsibility and prize our off-sites and in-person team meetings, which is where the real magic and connections happen. We’ve established deep roots in NYC, and especially at NYU Music Tech, the alma mater of many PSE team members.
Along my 22 year old journey, I’ve been fortunate to find an amazing group of passionate people who show up at work every single day for the love of sound. We are 20 people working with a growing roster of 50 sound artists and their recording teams collectively covering every continent. And together we are helping creators and technologists bring ideas to life on a daily basis, worldwide.
In the end, PSE is built by real people. There's nothing scraped, nothing auto-generated. We capture the sound of the world as it was, as it is and as it perpetually evolves. We are a living library that keeps our sound real and our purpose at the center of everything we do. This is why I founded Pro Sound Effects.
This is one chapter in a bigger story. Discover how Pro Sound Effects is protecting professional sound, supporting the people behind it, and building a better-sounding future.