Recording Connection grad Chris Litwin Opens Studio!

We all make decisions. Every day. We make little decisions and big ones. We make decisions that ultimately set us on a particular trajectory in life.

At forty-something, Chris Litwin had a good, stable job as a senior mechanic and highway supervisor. He’d also been playing music for decades. Music was and is a constant. Music is just who he is.

Then there was a newfound love of sorts. Something he’d found he was passionate about.  From just about the first time he set foot in a professional recording studio, Chris knew he had to learn more about the magic behind the music.

“I was recording at Carriage House in Stanford. I was blown away by how music is created, how it was processed. And I wanted to be that guy, having that album. That’s what got me hooked on it.”

Before he knew it, Chris was collecting gear and learning what he could on his own. “I started doing some recordings here and there. They weren’t the best, because I didn’t really know what I was doing.” That’s when he made the decision to study recording and take his passion seriously. The day job, however, was hard to work around. “I was going to go to IAR in New York City,” says Chris, “but it was too far and there was no way I could do it.”

So he went back to the drawing board. With Recording Connection he could drive in to a recording studio near enough to where he lived, and he could make it work with his work schedule. It could have been a common-sense solution—but it was so much more from the moment Chris shook hands with his future mentor, Grammy-winner Edwin Ramos. Speaking of which Chris says:

“The guy’s an absolute genius. I mean, it’s, you know, I hope to be somewhere in that, be like that, be like him. Maybe hopefully one day produce a Grammy album. That would be awesome.”

Edwin (ER Music in Waterbury, CT) has worked with Dr. Dre, Calvin Richardson, Kirk Franklin, and his work with Mary J. Blige earned him a Grammy. Edwin helped Chris ascertain what he already knew, what he needed to learn, and the things he needed to do differently.“I was compressing everything,” Chris says,” We were laughing one day and Edwin was like, ‘Bro, it sounds like you’re squeezing a 747 through a dime hole!”

As fate would have it, the Chris and Edwin formed a bond that proved to be rock solid. Chris took Edwin’s guidance to heart and really dove headfirst into the lessons and dedicated himself to learning as much as he could. Now he’s opening his own studio in Danbury, CT, dubbed Hat City Music Production. Chris is excited about the trajectory he’s set himself on now and he’s looking forward to engineering and producing a number of artists.

With a new career and plenty of possibility on the horizon, Chris is genuinely excited and grateful for where he’s at in his life right now. “I sit in my studio and I go, ‘I’m thankful for what I have.’ I’ve worked very hard for what I have, and I’m very thankful.”

Chris isn’t finished with his education either. He’s enrolled in the advanced audio program and will be apprenticing with Dan Milice of The Engine Room in New York City. “I’m looking to continue to heighten my education of the recording process and recording business,” he says. We believe him.