He helped mix Taylor Swift’s ‘Red.’ Now this Grammy-nominated sound engineer calls Aptos home

To get to Math Bishop’s studio, you will snake into the woods of Aptos. The redwoods will crowd up next to your car as you white-knuckle a couple of hairpin turns. You will cross a bridge covered in moss. The road will not always be paved. Sometimes it will be a bit dark as the thick tree cover blocks out the sky. It will be completely quiet.

When you arrive at Math Bishop’s studio, Bishop — an ex-Los Angeles hipster — will usher you into another completely quiet space. His studio is warm and remote, nothing too flashy: just a couple of keyboards, one of his daughter’s Sonny Angel figurines and a Tiffany box holding the Grammy nomination medal he received for his work on Taylor Swift’s “Red.” 

For over a decade, Bishop worked as a mixing engineer in L.A. before relocating to Santa Cruz County during the pandemic. He earned an Album of the Year nod in 2014 for “Red,” and his credits include rock records from U2, The Killers and Two Door Cinema Club. He most recently worked on Modest Mouse’s latest album, “An Eraser and a Maze,” which came out in June.

Bishop said Santa Cruz was the perfect place for the next chapter of his life — his dad “era,” you could say. 

“I loved L.A. for what it was, but my family needed something different,” he said. “L.A. culture was very hustle-y, and it worked for me at the time, but I wanted something that felt a little more authentic.” 

One of the greatest things Santa Cruz has afforded him is time. Working remotely has allowed him to focus on his family, work on his house and connect with nature. 

“If it gets overwhelming, I can step outside and just take 15 minutes to go feed my chickens,” Bishop said. He’s also worked on building outdoor stairs, cutting pieces of wood and arranging the steps leading down to his coop. “I love being able to find places where you can slow down. When you come back to the studio, you have a fresh perspective.”

Bishop grew up as a “weird art kid and music nerd” in Stockton, and he spent vacations camping at Sunset State Beach in Watsonville. 

“Santa Cruz was like the promised land,” he said. “I’ve always had this romantic relationship with it being this really special place, and it’s come full circle being here now and raising my kids here.”

He moved to Los Angeles as soon as he turned 18. He spent nine months at the Los Angeles Recording School, which he admitted was “useless.”

“But it did give me this false sense of confidence, which was really, really helpful,” Bishop laughed.

It also helped him land an internship at a recording studio. He started with coffee and driving duties, which quickly snowballed into editing and sound engineering.

In 2012, he happened to intern for sound engineer Josh Newell, who knew music producer Jacknife Lee, who knew Gary Lightbody, who knew Taylor Swift. 

While Bishop was working with Lightbody’s band, Snow Patrol, Swift came into the studio to record “The Last Time” with Lightbody. The song became track 10 on the hit album “Red,” which was nominated for Album of the Year. “It happened so quick,” Bishop said.

“It’s crazy how much weight working with an artist like Taylor Swift carries,” Bishop said. “She’s super talented. With the writing process, there’s no smoke and mirrors to any of it or a formula at all. It’s just, let’s see what happens and hope for the best. You go with your intuition.”

While that collaboration earned Bishop his Grammy nomination, he admitted that working with bands like Modest Mouse and The Killers has been his “peak.”

“I grew up listening to them, and being involved in their creative process and seeing it was amazing,” Bishop said. “Especially with Modest Mouse, they make music that they are inspired by and they are excited about, and it just so happens that other people like it, too. That’s the best art, where you’re just doing what inspires you.”

Bishop said most of his collaborations come by word of mouth, which can be stressful when things are slow — though not right now, because he’s “in the swing of school mode.” Artists typically send Bishop files of their vocals and instrumental elements, and he gets to work layering the tracks and balancing them out.

“The mixing process is often overlooked because people see it as a technical thing, but it’s so creative,” Bishop said. “I’m making decisions based on what the song is giving me. If your song isn’t perceived sonically how you want it to, it’s not going to connect in the same way.”

His newest project is a rap album, a little outside of Bishop’s typical indie rock space. One notepad by the desk in his studio bears a simple instruction: “More fucked up,” a note he got from the artist.

“From a technical standpoint, the song is completely wrong. There’s nothing in that mix that is technically right. I’m driving it to the point of distortion,” Bishop explained. “The exciting part is knowing how to do it wrong in a way that sounds good. It takes a long time to get to a point where you’re comfortable and confident to do the wrong thing because it just feels better.”

Overworking a song, Bishop said, can also make it sound “too pretty.”

“I think that comes with years and years of listening to music and being a fan of music, and then working and understanding how great songs are made. Everyone knows what a great song is, but making one is a monumental task — the writing, the melody, the mix, the engineering — every aspect takes a lot of work to get there.”

His instinct to stop chasing perfection in favor of trusting his gut extends to the slow life he’s built in Aptos over the past few years. And while he holds a lot of love for what L.A. brought him, there are things Bishop doesn’t miss at all: “If I need to run out and get something, I don’t absolutely dread the drive anymore. It’s 10 minutes to Aptos Village.”

Now, Bishop wants to make deeper connections with the county’s music scene and find new collaborators closer to home.  

“I feel like I’m still just scratching the surface of Santa Cruz. I’m looking forward to getting to know the community and the music and everything that goes on,” Bishop said. “I’d love to work with more local artists.”

He’s always looking for new talent to work with, whether he’s attending local shows or just scrolling on Spotify. His liked songs seem like a pretty good indication of his new work-life balance: up-and-coming musicians Remi Wolf and Tiny Habits sit side by side with the Laurie Berkner Band, whose songs he uses to lull his daughter to sleep.

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