GEORGE SEARA
“Whether you’re a musician, engineer or producer, we all have doubts at certain times…”
Having played guitar in numerous band setups, mix/recording engineer George Seara decided from an early age that he had a passion for getting the best out of those he worked with. Following his enrolment in a music recording course at Ontario’s Fanshawe College, Seara spent time in Portugal working in a range of studios before settling in Toronto to work under the tutelage of infamous recording engineer Mike Jones, later serving as chief engineer at Phase One Studios for more than a decade.
With a background in computer science, Seara was one of the first recording engineers in Toronto to start using computer-based technologies. This knowledge gave him the edge when finally deciding to go independent as a mix engineer. His meticulous and detailed approach to mixing led to a Juno Award in 2012 for Recording Engineer of the Year and multiple Grammy nominations for his work with Canadian singer/songwriter Shawn Mendes. Throughout his career, Seara has also worked with 50 Cent, Drake, Rihanna, Herbie Hancock, Ed Sheeran, Sting, and on Michael Jackson’s Thriller’s 25th anniversary album recording.
You started off as a guitarist rather than a singer/songwriter. Did that give you a head start in terms of becoming knowledgeable about recording?
I think it did, and my initial foray into recording was exactly that. Being a guitar player in teenage bands, I’d use rehearsal spaces, jam with different musicians and delve into the art of recording and going into studios where I could observe how things were miked up. I wanted to be a singer/songwriter, but like most people began to think that being a professional musician or artist would be quite a challenging proposition. I had
