Toronto’s Harrison Fine of FINE Productions doesn’t just usher you into the studio and produce you. He wants to know what makes you tick and why you create the music you do. The award-winning producer, engineer, mixer and songwriter wants to get personal.

“What I do as a producer is focus on elements of the song, the purpose, reason it exists and a lot of creative elements others might miss,” Harrison says. “When I take on a project, I get intimately connected to it because I strongly believe if you’re not connected to what you’re doing, how is that going to be picked up when a person listens to it?”

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A recording artist himself — presently readying a new electronic solo project under the alias Opus Eyes— Harrison is well-connected in the songwriter and indie music community, voted Best Producer in Toronto from NOW magazine. Within that world, he takes time to pick the right artists to produce, assessing their lyrics, arrangements and instrumentation. “I do a lot of pre-production,” he says. “If you don’t have good stuff to start, you can’t get good songs in the end.”

Harrison’s interest in music began in grade 10, in his hometown of Peterborough, Ontario. He picked up guitar in 2001 and after a few years of playing in high school bands got hooked on home recording. In 2005, he attended Metalworks Institute, a school held at the world-class studio facility in the Greater Toronto Area and later took a one-on-one course at Toronto’s Number 9 Recording School.

Paired up with jazz artist and producer George Koller, Harrison worked as an assistant engineer on the World Jazz For Haiti charity album, featuring such names as John McDermott, David Clayton-Thomas, Holly Cole and Jane Bunnett. “I don’t focus on jazz, but it influenced my style as a producer — knowing when to leave mistakes in, not over-producing,” he explains.

In 2009, Harrison started focusing on his songwriting and bringing that strength to his clients. Operating out of his four-room Point Blank Studios, Harrison built a client base of local acts, such as Carl Lorusso Jr. and Dante Matas. Today, he works out of two studios — the Pawn Shop in the thriving singer-songwriter community of Kensington Market and his own Studio Fine, where he’s presently producing Alissa Vox Raw, Brendan Albert, Derek Mok, Myke Mazzei and Carmen Toth.

Harrison has been building a name for himself ever since, earning NOW magazine’s Best Producer in Toronto nomination in 2013 and winning the title in 2014. His FINE Productions has also expanded to included two podcasts: Out of Phase showcases talent from the GTA and covers everything from gear to business, and Get Your Mic On features a weekly guest co-host to get a fresh perspective on the Canadian music industry.

While he continues to nurture and shape the sound and songs of other artists, the producer/songwriter is recording solo material for Opus Eyes, singing, playing, producing, engineering and mixing all the tracks. “It’s part singer-songwriter, part electronic, and theatrical too, so part ambient,” Harrison says.That’s just the direction Harrison is going as a solo artist. As a producer, he works with everything from folk to reggae, all with a pop tinge. “It doesn’t matter what the genre is, I do tend to add a popular sound,” he says. “I do go for the single.”