
Rafa Sardina - Producer/Mixer/Engineer
"I have been using Mogami cables for more than 20 years. After comparing them to anything else I can conclude that they are the best money can buy. That's why I keep choosing Mogami for all my studio needs."
-Rafa Sardina
Los Angeles based Twelve-Time Grammy® & Latin Grammy® Winner Producer/Mixer/Engineer Rafa Sardina has built an eclectic and impressive client list in the recent years: Stevie Wonder, D'Angelo, Elvis Costello & The Roots, Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Jordan Smith, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Placido Domingo, Celine Dion, Harry Conick Jr, Josh Groban, Mariah Carey, Shakira, Dr. Dre, Dru Hill, Armando Manzanero, David Morales, Jessy Moss, Luis Miguel, Paco de Lucía, Chris Botti, Susan Boyle, Katherine Jenkins, Zaz, Sheryl Crow, Soul Coughing, Beyonce, Beto Cuevas, Kevon Edmonds, Kina, Eric Marienthal, Juanes, Angie Stone, Calle 13, Illya Kuriaki & The Valderramas, Alejandro Fernandez, blues legends Al Blake & Fred Kaplan, Michael Buble, Juan Gabriel, Jumaane Smith, Jackie Evancho, Naturally 7, Michael Bublé, Jumaane Smith, Cristian Castro, Clare Fischer Big Band, Macy Gray, Robbie Williams, Alejandro Sanz, Natalia Lafourcade, Miguel and D'Angelo among many others. He has received over 40 Grammy & Latin Grammy Nominations for his work with artists such as Stevie Wonder, Lady Gaga, Luis Miguel, Clare Fischer Big Band, Illya Kuriaki & The Valderramas, Alejandro Sanz, Calle 13, and D'Angelo & The Vanguards.
In 2016 Rafa Sardina got abother Grammy recognition for Best R&B Album for D'Angelo's "Black Mesiah".
As a musician, engineer and producer Rafa connects easily with artists and has tremendous respect for creating a studio vibe that's performance-friendly for both new and established talent.
Rafa's love for music began at an early age playing guitar and attending recording sessions in his native Spain. After four years in Medical school, Rafa chose to pursue his life-long passion: Music. A live sound stint with folk, jazz and world artists in Northern Spain and South of France led him to the United States where he attended Full Sail University in order to expand his knowledge and abilities. He graduated with a Valedictorian Award for achievements and excellence. Soon after he landed an engineering position at the legendary Ocean Way Recording Studios in Hollywood and Record One Studios in Los Angeles. Rafa had the unique opportunity to work with world reknowned artists on a daily basis: from Natalie Cole to the Black Crows, Celine Dion, Greenday, Madonna, The Rolling Stones, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Frank Sinatra, the pre-recording of The Academy Awards and worked on numerous movies. Rafa's intuition to move to Los Angeles proved to be one of the most rewarding synergies of his life.
Though Sardina is best known for working on pop, rock and R&B projects, he has recorded and mixed just about any genre of music you can imagine: orchestral recordings, big band, R&B, dance, gospel, soul, rap, choral, film/TV soundtracks and movie scores like "Any given Sunday", "102 Dalmatians", "Michael Jordan- To the Max", "Biker Boyz", Tyler Perry's "Madea's Family Reunion", Johnny Depp's "The Rum Diary" and many more.
Over the years Rafa has developed professional and personal relationships with many artists that he has grown to respect.
"At the end of the day, it comes down to a simple studio philosophy - I'm there to make sure the artist is able to realize his vision, intensely collaborate in the creative process and have fun in the journey."
Rafa founded Fishbone Music Productions in 2001. He built his studio from ground up with artist's need in mind. "Afterhours" was designed by Com-po-site architectural firm, who's behind the design of very reputable studios like The Record Plant, David Lynch Studios and many other world-class facilities. "It helps me to be more flexible with today's recording budgets and create a safe place for artists to work without having to worry about the clock," says Sardina, who specified the acoustics and gear installation details of his studio in Los Angeles, California. He also frequents major studios around the world. "Basically, I go where the projects take me…"
Sardina's Gear of Preference: Augspurger Speakers, Avedis Adio, Bricasti, Focusrite, Sennheiser, Waves, SPL & DUY Plug-ins, Neumann, Apogee converters, and Solid State Logic mixers.
It was after meeting and working with Kim Fowley (Joan Jett, GNR) and Noizee (Marky Ramone) at the end of 2011 that inspired Sabrina to become an independent artist. She left her record deal and manager to DIY and shortly ended up back in the studio experimenting with melodic European and edgy American sounds. She got a band together and named it KingQueen after her "stage-name". She started co writing with her guitar player Dario Comuzzi. Rehearsals turned into songs and songs turned into their album "GET LOUD". They recorded the album on to a tape machine in a little studio in Norco, CA and the music was mixed and mastered in Italy by Frank Nemola (Vasco Rossi). In 2013 KingQueen won LA's Hard Rock Rising battle of the bands, (ended up in the finals, top 10 of the world wide battle out of 22,000 bands) and performed at Universal City Walk. Besides touring the U.S and opening for Steel Panther, KingQueen continuously played and packed many legendary venues around Los Angeles, CA such as House Of Blues, Whiskey a Go Go, Viper Room and The Roxy. They also got two nominations for best pop and rock song with "Rockstar" and "Chemically Imbalanced" at HMMA Awards.
In 2014 Sabrina Petrini locked endorsement deals with her favorite companies Mogami Cables and Audio Technica and became an artist at Roland US. She also became a voting member of the Grammy Academy and started collaborating with Italian DJ/Producer Dechard. Their first single "Fucking In Love" was released February 2015 and had 22,103 hits after less than a week on SoundCloud. She became a VEVO artist and released a music video for "Fucking In Love" early May which also got a nomination for best pop at HMMA Awards and was up for consideration for a Grammy Nomination for best pop duo.
Sabrina and Dechard's second single "Fade Away" won an Akademia Award in September 2015 for best dance/pop song and won video of the year at IndieNation Music Awards 2016. The song is also in the ad for Martian Watches music control. Both "Fucking In Love" and "Fade Away" are soundtracks for the newly released movie "Love Is All You Need" starring Briana Evian and Tyler Blackburn directed by Rocco Shields and can be seen at all major movie festivals around the U.S spring and summer of 2016. The movie has already won numerous awards.
Sabrina recently wrapped up in the studio with producer Gabe Lopez (James Brown, Belinda Carlisle, Universal), K.Chozen (Big Sean, Katy Perry), Ruifu Wang (Monkey Buisness Productions), James Krausse (Beyonce, Nick Jonas) and Dechard recording her upcoming solo album "I WILL. I CAN. I AM.".. Releasing this album separately from her band KingQueen using her full name, her audience can expect a focus on Sabrina's strong and edgy vocals taking a pop/electronic/urban direction and it's coming out spring 2016.