Tasked with exploring the life and work of a prominent mixing artist I have chosen a mixing artist whom I really admire, Smokeasac, real name Dylan Mullen. He is a mixing artist who worked very closely with one of my favourite artists, Lil Peep, before his death, mixing most of Lil Peep’s music and having an undeniable impact on the overall sound of his music. He has also worked as a mixing artist on his own music which shares a similar sound to that of Lil Peep. Smokeasac grew up in Boston and was exposed to music from an early age as his father was in the band C60. Wishing to be different from his father and brother, who both played in bands, he took up music production and rapping, posting his tracks online. He came into contact with Lil Peep when he asked if he could use one of Smokeasac’s beats, Mullen said yes and from this he and Lil Peep started working closely together, even living together to focus more on the music for a time. Mullen has said that during this time he gave up his own career as an artist to focus on the work he was doing for Lil Peep as he felt that the music they worked on together was ‘magical’. He worked as a mixing artist on Lil Peep’s albums Crybaby, Hellboy, Come Over When You’re Sober Part 1 and Come Over When You’re Sober Part 2, the last of which was finished and released after Lil Peep’s death. Mullen played a particularly large role in the mixing of this album, with the creative direction falling almost entirely to him, George Astasio and Rob Cavallo due to the tragic death of the artist. Since then he has worked as a mixing artist on his own tracks which up to this point have all been singles, as well as on artist Teddy’s music, all singles as well. The impact of his work on the genre of emo rap is undeniable, Lil Peep’s music was an almost entirely new sound at the time of its inception and has shaped a new generation of rappers since its release. There were certain mixing techniques which Mullen used which on this music that went a long way to helping to produce its distinctive sound. The mixes on these projects are very muddy, whilst still having the levels pushing Peep’s vocals to the forefront. This muddiness was intentional and one of the most distinctive aspects of Mullen’s mixes, it was supposed to emulate a drug haze so that the listener could feel the themes of the music more aptly, numbing everything in the track whilst still maintaining a sense of dynamics. Mullen achieved this through heavy use of reverb, with almost every instrument on the tracks, including the vocals, virtually ‘soaked’ in reverb. An interesting aspect of the mixing process Mullen used on the vocals was that he never used any auto tune, it was always reverb and occasionally distortion layered over the vocals, creating a much more unique and distinctive sound. Mullen also made heavy use of low pass filters throughout all of these projects, primarily on the 808’s and drum tracks used. Other effects Mullen used prominently were distortion on the guitars featured, heavy compression and use of delay on synths. Overall the effect that Mullen had on the sound of Lil Peep’s body of work and all the work influenced by it is undeniable and the use of his mixing techniques can still be heard in the emo rap being made today.