“I don’t think you can make it better, so go get you a Lavry gold.”
Mixing Engineer
Jaycen got his start at a young age working at MCA and Motown under the mentorship of his godfather and Motown Records President, Jheryl Busby. That was followed by brief solo stints at Sony and Red Ant. He ultimately landed a Marketing/A&R position at Dreamworks reuniting with his mentor, Mr. Busby. After being in the record business since he was 15 and looking for a new challenge, Jaycen was approached by MTV to work in new show development and programming for them. He jumped at the opportunity and quickly climbed the corporate ladder, handling advertising for its parent company, Viacom. After a few years, and still being very passionate about his new creative challenge, he still longed for the art form that once consumed his every thought. Eventually, Jaycen decided to take some (part-time) classes and enrolled himself in The Los Angeles Recording Workshop (LARW). “After my first day, I realized this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. The very next morning, I gave my two-week notice, Jaycen exclaims. He soon took the technical groundwork that LARW provided and landed an internship at one of the premiere mixing facilities in the country; Larrabee Recording Studios. This is where Dave Way, Manny Marraquin, Bruce Swedien and other great mix engineers had mixed countless amounts of hits. He was basically starting over from scratch. He knew to truly become one of the best he had to be around the best. “I was taking out trash, fluffing pillows and picking up food for the same people who I had once worked with as a music exec,” says Jaycen. “It was a different experience but you cannot cheat success.” Jaycen had the patience, the persistence and worked hard to learn everything there was about the craft. Work that didn’t go un-noticed. After moving from Enterprise Studios to Larrabee, Dave Pensado took Jaycen under his wing as his assistant in Larrabee’s Studio 3. This is where Jaycen developed his ear and studied at the foot of a master. Instantly, the two forged an amazing chemistry. Jaycen explains,“It started out with Dave asking me to start a few mixes. You know, taking care of the grunt work. For whatever reason, he believed in my abilities. We started collaborating on mixes and the rest is history.” Jaycen turned a simple internship opportunity into a stable working environment. Soon thereafter, going into business with his mentor Dave Pensado and starting The Penua Project (a play off each other’s last name). He later positioned himself as one of the top mixing engineers in the music industry, working with giants such as Sean“P Diddy”Combs, Beyonce, Christina Aguilera, Usher, Katy Perry, Rick Ross, Seal, Trey Songz, Whitney Houston, The Dream, Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, Jamie Foxx, TI, Rhianna, Chris Brown, Ludacris, Mary J. Blige and teen sensation Justin Bieber, among many others.
