What 15 Years in the Studio Taught Collarts Music Production Lecturer Luke Cincotta About People
Audio & Music Production lecturer Luke Cincotta has spent the past 15 years behind the desk with some of Australia's biggest names, working closely with Karnivool, Tina Arena, The Amity Affliction and Courtney Barnett, while also spending time alongside international producers like Mike Fraser (AC/DC, Metallica, Aerosmith) and Will Putney (Gojira, Northlane).
Now, he brings all of that into the classroom at the Australian College of the Arts, teaching the next wave of music production and audio production students everything from technical craft to the harder to teach stuff: reading a room, managing egos, and knowing when to push and when to hold back. We sat down with him to talk about the sessions that shaped him and what he wants students to walk away with.
Learning From the Best
Luke cut his teeth at Melbourne's Sing Sing Studios, assisting on a Tina Arena session produced by Dann Hume that dealt with deeply personal material, a song Tina had written about her son. Watching Dann hold space for that emotion while still keeping the session moving taught Luke something no textbook could, that producing is as much about people as it is about the technical side.
It's a moment that's stayed with him for a reason.
That session and subsequent conversations with Dann really drove home how important the interpersonal, non technical aspect of producing really is, and I still think about that session a lot to this day.
That lesson kept resurfacing. Engineering on Airbourne's Breakin' Outta Hell alongside “legendary” producers Mike Fraser and Bob Marlette, Luke spent three months watching two of the best in the world sweat over details most engineers wouldn't even clock. It reset his sense of how high the bar actually goes, and gave him the confidence to trust his own instincts on every project since.
The advice that's stuck with him more than any other came from mentor Forrester Savell: "If a musician leaves your sessions a better musician than when they came in, you've probably done a good job, and you'll probably work with that person again."
It's part of why Luke has picked up various instrument lessons over the years, learning firsthand how different musicians think and the language they use to talk about their playing. The goal, he says, is helping people achieve "the best they can and exceed their own expectations."
Genre Doesn't Matter as Much as You'd Think
Between Karnivool, Airbourne, Courtney Barnett and Tina Arena, Luke's worked across genres that share almost nothing on paper, and he reckons that's exactly the point. Rather than chase what a genre is supposed to sound like, he focuses on how a song feels and what it's trying to say, then makes the calls, sonic and musical, that get the artist there. It's the same mindset behind his time working alongside international producers like Will Putney and Kato Khandwala (The Pretty Reckless, Blondie).
For me, my job is to understand what the artist is trying to achieve and make the right decisions to help them reach that goal, both sonically and musically.
Bringing the Studio Into the Collarts Classroom
That same philosophy runs through Luke's music production classes, where technical skill and real world experience get equal weight. In one recent session, a band performed live in the Collarts auditorium while a student mixed the show remotely from Mexico, working off a low latency stream and talking the band through takes in real time, while other students ran the same gig in person as stage hands and monitor engineers back in Melbourne.
His Trimester 5 classes go further, with full day workshops where working musicians come in to record real songs and students run the session, DAW and all. Handing a first timer the reins to give a professional feedback on their takes is intimidating, but Luke says even the quietest students find their footing by the end of the day.
Luke says the feedback he’s had on these classes “in terms of how they affect students’ satisfaction and pride in their own recording sessions has been something that’s made me really proud.”
Proud Moments And Changing The Course of an Album
For pure fandom, nothing beats engineering Karnivool's All It Takes. Luke's been a Karnivool fan since he was a teenager, so working under the producer of their earlier albums, and eventually spending a couple of months in Perth engineering their most recent record, was a dream come true.
His most recent favourite tells a different story about trusting your instincts. Verticoli's Milk and Honey almost didn't make the album at all. However, Luke felt like this wasn’t the right call. “I loved the vibe of the demo and pushed the band to continue work on it, leaning into the rough around the edges vibe,” he says. He pushed the band to keep working on it, and it went on to become fans' favourite song on the album and one of its most successful singles, picking up plenty of radio play in America.
In a moment of serendipity, Luke says the final guitar solo was actually a joke take the guitarist did during pre-production that they could never replicate, so they kept it as is.
Advice for Students Chasing a Career in Music Production
Luke's biggest piece of advice for anyone starting out skips the technical side altogether. As recording gets more accessible to everyone, he says creativity, instinct and the ability to manage people, egos, nerves, schedules and budgets, are what actually separate the professionals from everyone else. Curiosity and persistence will take a student further early on than how polished their mixes sound.
His own closing advice is blunt, get into every room, conversation and situation you can, and take it from there. It's advice he pairs with a line a drummer once told him, one he still repeats today: "the way to make a career out of something like music is to just not stop doing it, period."
Ready to Start Your Own Career in Music Production?
Collarts students learn music and audio production directly from working professionals like Luke, using the same technology employed in real studio sessions. Explore our Music and Audio Production courses at Collarts.