My name is Paul Ashmore, and I was born in London, UK, in 1985. I have worked in the audio industry since I was 16 years old, and on 9 October 2012 I founded Audio Animals after spending years freelancing as a mixing and mastering engineer across a number of studios. From the beginning, my vision was to build something different: a studio capable of delivering exceptional mixing and mastering to clients anywhere in the world, regardless of their location, budget or level of experience.

Since launching Audio Animals, I have had the privilege of working on an incredible range of projects, from emerging artists and producers releasing their very first records to Grammy-winning artists, major international productions and some of the biggest films in Hollywood. One of the things I still enjoy most about this industry is that every project is different. The same level of attention and enthusiasm goes into an independent artist's first release as it does into a project that will eventually be heard by millions of people.

The idea behind Audio Animals really began in 2011. At the time, I was working in a traditional recording studio and could see the industry changing rapidly. Affordable desktop interfaces, increasingly powerful computers and better software meant more musicians were recording at home, and fewer clients needed to physically attend large commercial studios. I believed the future would be built around remote working and online services. When I suggested developing an online mixing and mastering service, the idea wasn't taken seriously. That ultimately gave me the motivation to pursue it myself.

When Audio Animals launched in 2012, we were among the early studios to build the business entirely around online mixing and mastering. Looking back, I was fortunate to recognise the direction the industry was moving and build alongside that change. The first six years were incredibly demanding. Almost everything else in my life took a back seat while I focused on establishing the business. There were countless late nights, very little sleep and an enormous amount of pressure, but that period created the foundations for everything Audio Animals has become today.

One of the moments that made me realise how far we had come arrived in 2014, when I was asked to work on audio for The Amazing Spider-Man 2. It was difficult to believe that something which had started only a couple of years earlier had already led to a project of that scale. That was followed by work connected with films including X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse, and opened the door to an ongoing relationship with major film and entertainment projects. I love seeing records I have worked on succeed, but there is something particularly surreal about hearing your work attached to productions being experienced by audiences around the world.

Another unforgettable moment was watching Beyoncé perform at the opening of Atlantis The Royal in Dubai, knowing that I had mixed and mastered audio used for the show. Those are the moments where you remember why all of the long hours were worthwhile. Even now, seeing Audio Animals attached to projects on that scale never feels completely normal.

Technology has always been a huge part of my obsession with audio. I don't believe a successful studio should simply follow what has already been done; it should constantly look at what can be done better. That philosophy is one of the reasons I have become such a huge advocate of the Solid State Logic Oracle console. For me, Oracle represents exactly where professional analogue mixing should be heading: the sound, workflow and tactile experience of a large-format SSL console combined with the level of digital control and recall demanded by modern production.

Both of our studios now revolve around SSL Oracle consoles, and they have become central to the way I think about the future of Audio Animals. I have always loved analogue equipment, but I am equally obsessed with efficiency, automation and complete recall. Being able to combine those two worlds without compromising either is incredibly exciting to me. Studio B in particular has been developed around the idea of a genuinely digitally recallable mixing and mastering environment, where analogue hardware can integrate seamlessly into a modern workflow. Building and refining systems like this is one of the parts of the business I enjoy most.

I have been fortunate throughout this journey to work alongside my cousin and business partner, Nick Burchall. We have worked together since the beginning of Audio Animals, and our different strengths have always complemented one another. After more than a decade of building studios, solving problems and developing the company together, there is a level of understanding between us that is difficult to replicate. Audio Animals would not be what it is today without that partnership.

But the biggest motivation behind everything I do today is my children. They are my inspiration and the reason I continue to work as hard as I do. Building studios, growing Audio Animals, developing new ideas and pushing myself professionally ultimately comes back to one thing: providing them with the best life and opportunities I possibly can. Success means far more to me now than simply building a successful company. It means creating security, experiences and a future for my children that makes every difficult day and every late night worthwhile.

I am incredibly proud of what Audio Animals has become, but I still don't feel as though the journey is anywhere near finished. I remain fascinated by where audio technology is heading, whether that is immersive audio, digitally controlled analogue systems, new studio workflows or technologies that haven't even been developed yet. I want Audio Animals to continue being a company that embraces change rather than reacts to it, just as we did when we decided to build an online studio back in 2012.

There is a saying I have always believed in: you become influenced by the people you surround yourself with. Surround yourself with ambitious, driven people and their attitude pushes you forward. I have always tried to apply that mentality to business, to the people around me and to the standards I set for myself. After everything we have achieved so far, I still wake up believing there is another level to reach.