Rich Kepler
Rich is an audio engineer, creative director and manager of The Killers.
Sound designer, producer, mix engineer - audio production
Latest inspirations?
Y2k shoegaze, new grunge, rural goth
Most surreal project?
Nurem (@nuremade) - creating the speaker for it, built it from the ground up, getting first art studio for it, painting it and selling it, the whole process!
Creative habits?
Continuing to learn new techniques and practicing, conversation and collaboration with people (always things to learn from others)
What is your creative process?
See or feel something cool, then immediately try to figure it out - reverse engineering something until it becomes something entirely new, almost luck
Open up program and pull out instrument, click around on synths, play until you find something and choose limitations (instruments), check reference to emulate a sound/emotion
Doesn’t currently feel confident to call myself a digital designer
What are the challenges in your creative process?
Could be more technical at design but don’t believe in spreading myself too thin, put the time
Currently using Picmonkey to design for The Killers
Work well with designers to use adjectives to get from point A to B, untaught way to explain things and navigate when something doesn’t look right
Map out your creative journey
(1) Pre-creation - 10% comes quickly, if I don’t act on it it’ll go away
(2) Creation - used to be 80, now 40-45% because of confidence on decision making
(3) Post-creation - 50%, working on how to best share things, what’s the story to tell (create something cool that will resonate with people) on Instagram - that’s where all the people I follow and talk to are on, and good personal inquiries/DMs sparks a conversation
Favorite design tools and why?
Photoshop, Illustrator - took classes in it, inspired by creatives /friends using it
Picmonkey - picked it up in high school on accident, super early on (web based Photoshop), rudimentary/basic but gets the job done, “shameful to say but it works”
Laptop - Logic pro X, sketch up for CADs, Final cut pro, OPS for analog/VHS stuff
How do you gather inspiration?
Screenshots but I never come back to them - Instagram, Twitter, sharing with friends
Pinterest if I’m trying to be intentional
Where/how do you do your best work?
In a recording studio or paid studio - gun to my head on time, under pressure with multiple people in a room producing and turning up the heat to get in the zone
How do you hope to grow as a creative?
Keep learning from people, never settle or think you know it all, everyone knows something you don’t!