Nick Norton here, music doctor.
I do a lot of different things in music and sound. One has to diversify to make a living as an artist! Fortunately I love and care deeply about all of my activities, because I hear and feel them all as expressions of the same passion—and really, they all use the same skill set.
As it turns out, communicating this effectively requires a whole website. You can scroll down a little to learn about my work, scroll down a little more to learn about me, and scroll down a little past that to get in touch.
Here are some things I do:
As a composer,
I write with synthesizers and symphony orchestras, field recordings and fuzzed out guitars. I believe music is a way of listening, and a composer's work goes far past notes on the page.
As a music editor,
I do the heavy lifting when it comes to making music work with film, helping directors, composers, showrunners, and producers realize their musical vision for their projects.
As a sound artist,
I make visual media feel more real than real, cutting and designing dialogue, sound effects, backgrounds, and foley to make your project sparkle (or explode).
As a producer,
I've helped artists and bands complete and release albums, EPs, and singles, and love to collaborate early in the record making process and shepherd projects across the finish line.
As a sound engineer,
I care a lot about making your show sound phenomenal. I engineer, mix, and record concerts whenever I get the chance, and am often at my happiest while tuning a PA system.
As a teacher,
I've taught production, composition, ear training, and rock history at the university level, and am currently a lecturer at Santa Monica College. I also teach privately over Zoom.
Of course this list is by no means exhaustive. I've spent days and weeks transferring and de-noising cassette tapes to digital, recording and editing classical concert videos, engraving sheet music, and field recording in nature. I've also spent time as a music journalist, founded and run a nonprofit performing arts organization, served as a forensic musicologist in a copyright case, and once built a two story surround sound system for a theremin player. If you've got a project you want to work on together, or need a hand with something musical, hit me up using the contact form at the bottom of the page and we'll get you sorted.
A little bit about me
I grew up playing guitar in punk bands and saxophone in school bands and singing in choirs. I went to college — rather a lot of it — to be a composer, eventually earning my PhD from UC Santa Barbara after an MMus from King's College London and a double BA cum laude in music and political theory from UCSD.
In school I got pretty into music technology and recording studio work, an interest that has enabled me to develop a rewarding and varied career making things out of sound. Up until the pandemic I ran a small live production company, and when live events ceased to exist I got into post production. My life-long relationship with film has me overjoyed to often work as a music editor, sound editor, or rerecording mixer on really interesting projects, and when Hollywood slows down I spend a lot more time producing records and mixing concerts. I currently serve on the Emerging Technology Committee of the Motion Picture Editors Guild (IATSE Local 700), and teach music production at Santa Monica College.
In music making, I find live performance insanely rewarding. In addition to engineering, mixing, and recording concerts, I perform as an electronicist and guitarist on my own and with bands, and love to write music for other people to perform as well. My album Music For Sunsets is available on all of the major platforms, and links to listen to my music are at notnicknorton.com.
Anything else? Hit me up using the form below.
Want to get in touch?
I'm pretty easy to reach.
Use this section of the site to send me a message. I'm based on the northeast side of LA if you want to grab a coffee and/or beer. There are social media links down below. Thanks for visiting!
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