Branden Gieske follows his Passion and Wins

Branden Gieske comes from a musical family and has spent more of his life immersed in music than outside of it. The multi-instrumentalist says:

“I’ve been doing music my whole life. I’m French, and I lived in Paris for a good portion of my life. So, I grew up with the electronic, Deep House, EDM, Trance-style…When I lived in Paris, I actually DJ’ed for three years starting at 16 years old. So I would be DJing on Thursday, Fridays and going to school and all that. But that’s when I got really big in electronic style music, and that’s pretty much what I was producing at that time.”

When it came time to pursue higher education, Branden initially decided to major in Environmental Engineering and attended Colorado University in pursuit of a degree. Then he made a realization. Although his chosen profession was noble, it wasn’t what he really wanted to do. Music was still his lifeblood.

Branden discovered the Recording Connection soon afterwards. He enrolled and was paired with Ricky Rich at 713 Studios in Houston, Texas. Branden instantly fell in love with both the process of recording and the program. He loves the hands-on, in-studio approach. No books, no lectures, no competing with other students for the instructor’s attention. And he says, the learning is all in the doing.

“To me, it’s repetition,” said Branden. “When I first started going here, I was sitting in sessions with Ryan. Every time there was a session, I would get in the opportunity to get into it… Now, I’m really good friends with both the lead engineers. They know I do things for them, they do things for me. That’s how I learn. I’ll be like, ‘Hey, I got a question about this song I’m working on. Could you help me?’ So I’ll actually watch them mix my song and I can watch what they’re doing.”

The Recording Connection enables its students to follow their passions while building the skills and relationships it takes to sustain a career. Branden Gieske is a perfect example. Having just recently graduated the program, he’s been offered a position at Pyramid Studios in Tribeca, New York, where he’ll be engineering and producing.