Ever wonder why our records sound good? It’s because of a guy called Shawn Hatfield out in the Bay Area.  I first met Shawn years ago on the internet when I used to hang out on IRC in a chatroom with a bunch of other producers called #// (slash slash). He used to teach me crazy music science in MAX/MSP over a chat window just because he was a nice guy.  We kept in touch and when he opened his mastering business we started working together. He’s mastered my albums Flowers and Solar Life Raft as well as most Dutty Artz stuff in the past few years. He does a great job and is just a generally cool guy.  Recently he sent me an email with a link to an online fundraiser he is doing to help his father Jay Hatfield who is battling cancer.  If you are like me and most of the people I know and don’t have a square nine to five or work for the government you know how fucked up the health care system in this country is and how expensive it can be.  It’s not fair that someone should have to go through an incredibly draining battle fighting a disease and then have to go bankrupt afterwards to pay for their treatment.

Shawn has set up an online fundraising page to raise funds for his father’s treatment here.  He’s also a badass mastering engineer who you can hire to make your music sound awesome here.  In choosing to be musicians and work in this business we give up a lot of the stability and safety that people take for granted in normal life, things like health insurance. If you can relate maybe chip in a few bucks or hire Shawn to master some of your music.