When I was an teenager my family moved my sister and I into a log cabin up in the middle of the Redwood forest in California. We were pretty secluded and had to find ways to entertain ourselves. One day it was raining outside so we were stuck in the house. Seeing that we were miserable my dad started going through his record collection and put on a record. I remember stopping whatever I was doing at the moment as soon the first song started playing. What was this kind of music I was hearing? It sounded so different from the country music my mom had always played for us. Turns out it was grunge rock from the late Kurt Cobain. I was instantly hooked. Hearing that album actually changed my life. From that point on I wanted to know everything about music. I would listen to songs over and over again until I knew every single lyric. I would break it down in my head a different way every single time to hear every single different instrument.
Fast forwards a couple years to when I worked in a little pool hall called Mr. Ques in Lancaster California. I knew our boss very well, and he knew my love of music. When he started booking bands I would always work the beer booth, which was awesome, because I got to watch the shows for free! After every show he would take me aside and ask me what I thought of the band, and whether he should have them back. Now, they would always bring their own sound guy, so a lot of my decision would be based on that. I mean who wants to hear a live band with crappy sound?! No one! Especially not me. So if I couldn't hear the band cause the singer drowned them out, or I couldn't hear what the singer was saying because the band was entirely to loud, I would tell them I didn't like them. Even worse, was if the band couldn't play their instruments, or the singer sang completely off key. Doing this for about a year fueled my love of music even more.
I never really had one kind of music that I didn't like. Just bands and/or artists, because of this many of my friends would always send me their music to listen to, and want to know what I thought of it. Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I'm an extremely honest person when you ask me my opinion. So, if I didn't like it I'd let them know. Whether it be the music itself, the lyrics, or any kind of combination. Yet I never thought about getting into any kind of sound engineering or audio production. That was until I moved to Vegas...
One night I went to a club with my friends and was approached by a gentlemen that was here for CES. We started talking about audio technology and he told me that he was a lyricist. Which of course I laughed at, just for the simple fact that the city is saturated with "music artists". The next day he sent me some of his stuff to listen to, and it was really good! We kept in touch once he left for Austin and he continued to send me his music to listen to. Some of it I liked, and some of it I didn't. After about a year of him sending me his tracks to critique he asked me how I wasn't involved in the music business in some way, shape, or form. A light bulb went off...why hadn't I? It was my first love, my main passion, so why? While still in the military I started looking for tech schools for audio production. Every one that I tried to get into the GI Bill wouldn't pay for because it was just a tech school. Till one day, one of my DJ friends posted a post on Facebook about how he was going to the Art Institute of Las Vegas to look into their Audio Production program. Within a week I made an appointment to go in and check out the school and their program. I was ecstatic to find out that the GI Bill would pay for it! After years of searching I had finally found a way to go to college for what I loved, and get a degree out of it.
I am now coming up on my first year enrolled in the school and am happy I made the decision to enroll. I have already learned so much, and met people that have helped me to not only love music even more, but respect how hard it is to run the equipment to make it sound good to an audience. It has forever changed every live show that I have been to, or will go to in the future. I am constantly looking to see how many microphones they are using, what kind they are using, where they are located on what instruments. Sometimes I even catch myself watching the sound engineer more than the actual band that I paid to see. It has also made me agree to go see artists that I wouldn't normally go see, just to see the difference in how their sound is set up.
I can not wait to graduate and travel around the world with an artist, and give the audience the best sound that they can possibly get.
No comments:
Post a Comment