PROFILE
Harrison Fine
By Andrew KingAndrew King is the Editor-in-Chief of Professional Sound.It’s an exciting time for the City of Toronto. The Raptors are NBA cham-
pions, the Leafs don’t suck, and some of the world’s most celebrated
artists are proud to call it home.
“All eyes are on the city right now, and it’s up to us to make this
moment in time one to remember musically,” says Harrison Fine, an
accomplished producer, engineer, musician, and proud Torontonian.
“It’ll take some work,” he acknowledges, but he’s more than ready to
do his part.
“I’m always seeking exciting new opportunities while working
as hard as humanly possible to create and produce more music, cu-
rate more events, and work hands-on offering new opportunities to
emerging artists and fellow producers/engineers,” asserts the owner
and operator of FINE Productions in the city’s Kensington Market
neighbourhood – “basically, doing my part in any and every way to
become an industry leader in what I believe is one of the best musi-
cal cities on Earth!”
While he was born in Toronto, Fine and his family moved two
hours northeast to Peterborough when he was 13. Though he was
always fond of music, recalling times when he and his friends would
spend their lunch breaks at a nearby church playing video games on
the projector and listening to punk rock through the giant speakers,
it was his introduction to the guitar in a 10th-grade music class that
ultimately set him on his current career path.
“My first writing assignment was to create lyrics to the melody of
‘Jingle Bells,’” he recalls. “I didn’t have any inspiration to write anything,
so instead my song ended up being about not having a song at all
[laughs]. But when the teacher chose mine to share with the class,
that was the moment I knew what I wanted to do.”
Shortly thereafter, he was playing in a band that quickly got to a
point that they needed to record. “I’ve always been autodidactic,” Fine
says, “so it was instinctive to learn the process of recording on my own.”
He downloaded the first DAW he could find – Cool Edit Pro
2 – and dove in. “I really loved the process, even early on,” he recalls. “I
remember stuffing my closet with blankets, thus creating my first iso
booth, and the rest is history.”
After high school, Fine had “no interest taking the normal path,”
so he enrolled at Metalworks Institute in Mississauga, ON to study engi-
neering and production. While he earned straight As, he never ended
up finishing the program, instead opting to “stay young a little longer.”
In 2008, though, he moved back to Toronto to pursue music
and study one-on-one under Bernie Cisternas at Number 9 Audio. He
took an internship at the studio right after and was collaborating with
Grammy- and Juno-winning artists like Holly Cole and Jane Bunnett.
“In truth,” he says, “I learned almost everything from those sessions.”
In 2010, he started his career as a freelance engineer and even-
tually opened his own space, Point Blank Productions, in downtown
Toronto. He made quite an impact on the city’s music scene in that
time, later earning NOW Magazine’s Reader’s Choice award for Best
Music Producer in both 2014 and 2015.
The following year, he was working out of Pawn Shop Studio
in Kensington Market on a weekly basis. “Not long after starting, Mike
[Langford, owner] confided that after seven years, he was leaving the
space and thought I would be the perfect fit to take over the history-
rich shell. How could I say no?”
And so, FINE Productions was born, serving as the professional
home for the multi-faceted creative force ever since.Currently, Fine is focusing much of his time on artist develop-
ment. “That incorporates my rich experience as both an artist/song-
writer and engineer,” he says, “which allows me to identify an artist’s
unique identity and bring it to life.”
Lately, that has included a lot of work in the pop, rock, and folk
worlds, though there isn’t really a genre in which he doesn’t have
some experience. He also still enjoys taking on select engineering-only
sessions and mixing projects when his schedule allows.
Much of his work revolves around scene-building, and the idea
that a high tide floats all boats. That’s why Fine is dedicating so much
of his time and energy towards enhancing the creative community
city-wide. One example is his participation in Kensington Market’s
Pedestrian Sundays festival, where the producer organizes and hosts
a stage to shine a spotlight on Toronto’s most talented and promis-
ing performers.
“Toronto is so culturally rich and diverse,” he says. “I love how
this city is evolving; there’s so much life and activity.” He has some
favourite hangouts – the beach or Bellwoods Park – but also enjoys
exploring the city and seeking out new places to eat and enjoy life.
He has also grown fond of leaving the city when the opportunity
presents itself. “I love heading up north and surrounding myself with
nature,” Fine discloses. “Give me a dock, a lake, a mimosa, and a book
and I’ll get back to you in a week!”
He’ll be plenty busy in the studio through most of 2019, which
will include work on his own musical output as Opus Eyes, his synth-
pop solo project, and with Neon Rust, his psychedelic folk/rock outfit.
“I’m excited to contribute to the music industry as an artist
again,” he admits – just another means of enriching his home city’s
creative landscape and adding to his impact on its one-of-a-kind
cultural character.