“At the end of the day, it comes down to a simple philosophy - I'm there to make sure the artist is able to realize his vision, intensely collaborate in the creative process and have fun in the journey.”

In 2021 Sardina received a Latin Grammy Awards for Best Tango Album. 

In 2020 received 2 Latin Grammy Awards for Record of the Year, and Best Mariachi album. Also got one 2021 Grammy Nomination. 

In 2019 Rafa Sardina received a Grammy recognition for Best Latin pop Album and nominations for Alternative Album, and also got nominated for Producer of the Year at the Latin Grammy’s, and in 2018 got a Latin Grammy for Best Engineered Album & a nomination for Best Urban Fusion Performance.

In 2016 got a Grammy for Best R&B Album for D’Angelo’s “Black Mesiah” and received 5 Latin Grammy Nominations for Producer Of The Year, Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year, Best Pop Album, and Best Alternative Album, winning the Best Alternative Album Latin Grammy. 

Symphonic Soweto, a Tribute to Nelson Mandela' won the SAMA (the South African equivalent of the Grammy) for Best Adult Contemporary Album in 2018. 

Rafa Sardina is currently serving as Governor for the Los Angeles Chapter of the Grammy’s, as well as been appointed Chairman of the Producers & Engineers Wing at the Grammy’s in 2016, Trustee of the Latin Grammy’s and Vice-Chairman & Founding Member of the CPI (Circulo de Productores e Ingenieros), the equivalent organization representing Producers & Engineers in Latin America, Brazil, Spain & Portugal. 

He also served in 2017 & 2018 as the Executive Producer & Music Producer of the Latin Grammy’s Person of the Year dinner gala/show, honoring Alejandro Sanz and Maná for their outstanding careers. 

As a musician, engineer and producer Rafa connects easily with artists and has tremendous respect for creating a studio vibe that's performance-friendly for both new and established talent.

Rafa’s love for music began at an early age playing guitar and attending recording sessions in his native Spain. After four years in Medical school, Rafa chose to pursue his life-long passion: Music.  A live sound stint with folk, jazz and world artists in Northern Spain and South of France led him to the United States where he attended Full Sail University in order to expand his knowledge and abilities. He graduated with a Valedictorian Award for achievements and excellence. Soon after he landed an engineering position at the legendary Ocean Way Recording Studios in Hollywood and Record One Studios in Los Angeles. Rafa had the unique opportunity to work with world reknowned artists on a daily basis: from Natalie Cole to the Black Crows, Celine Dion, Greenday, Madonna, The Rolling Stones, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Frank Sinatra, the pre-recording of The Academy Awards and worked on numerous movies. Rafa’s intuition to move to Los Angeles proved to be one of the most rewarding synergies of his life.

Though Sardina is best known for working on pop, rock and R&B projects, he has recorded and mixed just about any genre of music you can imagine: orchestral recordings, big band, R&B, dance, gospel, soul, rap, choral, film/TV soundtracks and movie scores like “Any given Sunday”, “102 Dalmatians”, “Michael Jordan- To the Max”, “Biker Boyz”, Tyler Perry’s “Madea’s Family Reunion”, Johnny Depp’s “The Rum Diary” and many more. 

Over the years Rafa has developed professional and personal relationships with many artists that he has grown to respect. 
"At the end of the day, it comes down to a simple studio philosophy - I'm there to make sure the artist is able to realize his vision, intensely collaborate in the creative process and have fun in the journey.” 

Rafa founded Fishbone Productions in 2001. He built his studio “Afterhours Studios” from the ground up with artist’s need in mind. “Afterhours” was designed by Com-po-site architectural firm, who’s behind the design of very reputable studios like The Record Plant, David Lynch Studios and many other world-class facilities. 

The studio was retrofited in 2017 by DHDI’s Hanson Hsu with a new innovative technology called Quantum Acoustics and made it to Mix Magazine’s Class of 2017 list of most innovative studios of the year. 

“It helps me to be more flexible with today’s recording budgets and create a safe place for artists to work without having to worry about the clock,” says Sardina, who specified the acoustics and gear installation details of his studio in Los Angeles, California. He also frequents major studios around the world. “Basically, I go where the projects take me…”

Sardina’s Gear of Preference:  Solid State Logic (SSL), Augspurger Speakers, Avedis Audio, Bricasti, Focusrite, Sennheiser, Plug-In Alliance, McDSP, iZotope, Waves, Plugin Alliance, SPL & DUY Plug-ins, Neumann, and Apogee converters.