Daily Inspiration: Meet Tuviel Levi

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tuviel Levi.

Hi Tuviel, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My passion for music began as a very young percussionist and multi-instrumentalist while visiting Nigeria, West Africa as a teenager. The “Heartbeat” of Africa strongly influenced me during this extended stay where I would join local drum circles and collaborate with traditional West African folk musicians, many of them masters, learning various indigenous rhythmic styles of Nigeria, West Africa.

Years later I started interning, then assisting on recording sessions at Rich Bitch Studios (Black Sabbath, Steel Pulse) in Birmingham, England. While there, I had a chance encounter with renowned keyboardist Selwyn “Bumbo” Brown, one of the founding members of the legendary GRAMMY award winning Reggae Band “Steel Pulse”. My brief friendship with him and Steel Pulse’s lead singer David Hinds encouraged me to pursue production in a more professional capacity.

After returning to the U.S., I attended and graduated SAE Institute in California with a Bachelors of Science in Sound Arts & Audio Engineering. I then began producing and composing for other independent Reggae artists. A few of my compositions garnered top 10 radio placements in the Reggae genre in New York, Florida and Jamaica.

While in Berkeley, California I got married and we had three boys. At a certain point, we decided to move to Boulder due to the higher rated school systems and the similarities to the Bay Area in California. My wife had spent some time here in her teenage years and always loved the vibe, so we made the move. Eventually we purchased a property, which had an RV and boat storage/barn and after a couple years settling in, I decided to renovate the Barn and build Interplay Recording &amp; Multimedia <www.interplay-recording.com>. I opened Interplay Recording about a year before the Pandemic started.

I do a lot of Audiobook recording, mixing and Mastering along with Podcast production and mixing to fill in the gaps when musicians are saving to record their upcoming albums. I still produce and mix for other artists under my production company “RockSteadyRecording”. Some of the amazing artists I’ve produced and mixed for include “X-Factor” finalist Chris Rene, GRAMMY award winning drummer/singer Bradley Brown, Meta Dia &amp; The Cornerstones, Adam Barnes, Michelle “Songbird” Gordon, Earl Zero, Tony Chin, Revelashan, President Brown, Jabesh Dta and Queen Makedah amongst others. I’m currently working on a few EP’s and singles with two international artists and will be releasing an instrumental Reggae album by the end of the year, which I am really excited about! </www.interplay-recording.com>

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Honestly, running a studio has been quite challenging as a result of the Pandemic. I started to feel the effects of COVID on my business almost immediately. There were no large gatherings after all so bands just weren’t booking the studio. Many studios closed as a result of this and almost all the Live Venues I know of were shut down for a couple years during COVID. Some individual artists like singer/songwriters would book the studio and we would mask up which worked out fairly well since I have a large space with a well treated ISO booth but this couldn’t sustain a studio completely.

At that point in time I really started looking for other forms of recording to sustain the studio and got into recording audiobooks and later Podcast production. I also started freelancing for a Global Audiobook production company that does turnkey work for major publishers like Harper Audio and Penguin Random House (PRH), along with some other well known publishing companies.

I think musicians are still really struggling right now and currently the entire audio community is a bit frightened by the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its impacts on the music industry. I’m really hoping to find new ways to take advantage of AI technology in my own productions but haven’t really explored it in any depth.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I always dabbled with music technology as a kid. I had many professional musicians in my family growing up and would hang around them and watch and learn. I had a cousin who was a few years older than me and he was the original drummer for Kirk Franklin’s seminal Gospel band in New York. I believe they won a GRAMMY for one of those earlier albums he drummed on. My drummer cousin was someone I truly revered. Super talented guy!

I had other cousins who played Keyboards in bands and in their choirs so I’d always tinker with the synths during rehearsal breaks when I was around. I also loved drumming on my cousins drumkit in New York but that was a little hard because I wasn’t very good at the time and drums are loud and annoyed the neighbors! Lol.

Anyway, this love of “tinkering” with technology led me to eventually work for an aircraft maintenance facility overseas, after I’d served in the Air Force as an F16 mechanic. I eventually got my FAA license as an A&amp;P mechanic (Aircraft &amp; PowerPlant Mechanic) and it was after that period that I moved to California to learn Audio Engineering on a deeper level. All the while I was composing songs and collaborating with other musicians on small projects in some capacity.

While in California, I was in a band that played a bunch of the larger Reggae festivals like Reggae on The River, Sierra Nevada Reggae Music Fest (SNRMF) and the North West Reggae Fest in Oregon. We actually got to open for Marcia Griffiths and Judy Mowatt of the I-Threes, Bob Marley’s original backup singers. That was amazing!. I have a poster from that show that’s framed.

Cali was a hotbed of music at the time I was living there and there were artists everywhere, collaborating and writing and performing. I think that spirit sort of stuck with me, always writing and always trying to hone the craft in some way. I think what sets me apart from others is my non-traditional approach at times. I sort of adhere to the James Brown approach to music i.e. play every instrument like its a percussion. Haha. That’s the West Africa connection coming out.

I also tend to infuse my productions with a lot of melody and always try to do something different on each production whether that be infusing something jazzy, or sneaking in some Middle Eastern instrument etc. Many artists I work with have commented on how they love the melodic aspect to my compositions, for Reggae in particular.

How do you define success?
I’d say success is being able to live and thrive off doing what you love. I can’t say I’m there yet but I do get to do what I love in spurts so that’s a huge blessing and what I mean by doing what “I” love, it means getting to work with inspiring artists and create something from nothing and then look back and say wow that was really uplifting and energizing and an overall fun learning experience, challenges and all!

Pricing:

• I charge $80hr for recording time (this includes Podcasts and Audiobooks)
• I charge between $300 – $450 per mix depending on complexity
• I charge between $300 – $500 for a ground up production (Roots Reggae)

Contact Info:

• Website: www.Interplay-Recording.com
• Soundcloud:  https://soundcloud.com/user-384417100/sets/rsr-original-reggae-riddims

Image Credits
All photos taken by me (Tuviel Levi) except the last one with me and Nancy, Award winning Voice Over actress – I’m wearing sage colored shorts and a linen shirt with Crocs in that pic just for identification. That pic was taken with an iphone by Nancy’s friend who was at the studio visiting.