Sam Kumar Tandon
Mastering engineer at Rose Quartz Mastering in San Diego, California
When I was in high school I wrote to a few musicians I admired to ask how you go about making a life in music. I had a rather specific life in mind. I was going to play guitar, and by skipping class to practice, I figured I was well on my way.
My first instrument was actually tabla. I started at five with Pandit Abhijit Banerjee, whom I still think of as my first and most influential teacher. He taught me a respect for music that borders on the religious.
I found another kind of education at sixteen working at a smoke-stained studio in Pacific Beach. I talked the owner into taking down two walls so we could put on shows in the biggest rehearsal room. I booked the bands (including superheroes like DANGERS and Ramshackle Glory), then ran sound and worked the door during their sets.
Elo Ememe, a producer who made records for his clients there, taught me how to record drums with the few microphones we had. By my senior year I’d started a small label of my own and couldn’t afford studio time. When the Epicentre, the Mira Mesa venue I grew up going to, shut its doors, I bought its front-of-house rig, Midas console and all, for $800 and built a studio at home. John Hobdy, who ran sound there, taught me a great deal about audio and helped me find my footing in mixing. People like them made time for my questions, so I’ll make time for yours.
After high school I recorded local bands for a low hourly rate while making records of my own, and before long the bands were asking me to mix too. I also ran sound at a church under a touring FOH veteran, who taught me signal processing tricks I still use in mastering. In 2018 I started mastering.
Early on I could hear half a dozen things I wanted to change in any given mix. These days I’m more interested in what the song is communicating. I want that message to hold up anywhere and everywhere the record is heard, long after I’m gone.
Two of the musicians I wrote to as a teenager were Nate Bauman of The Band Royale and Chris Collis of TTNG. In 2025 I had the joy of mastering The Band Royale’s single “The Well.” The following year Chris and I mastered TTNG’s Juggling Moves (Beginner) together.
Music saved my life more than once when I was young. I hope a record I master finds somebody else when they need it.