peritus said:
Lee,
How did you break into the industry?.. I'm 22, just like you and I'm very curious.. If you prefer, you can PM your answer.. I've been beating my head against the wall, figuratively speaking, trying to figure a way in.... Yet, it seems, you are in and in deep...
Thanks,
Joshua
Sorry I didnt catch the question earlier...
It's a good question, kina tricky to answer. I wouldn't say I broke into, but sorta ended up in it. Kind of like that movie "Thank you for smoking"...
Where he says,
"Well I didn't really plan on this job, I just sorta figured it out, got really good at it and now this is what I do."
My orginal intent at 20 was to move out to california, start a band and do the typical "persue the dream" thing.
The real explosion didn't really happen until the last two years. Half way through fullsail I met up with Mike Busey (Gary busey's nephew) and started up a studio with him. He had alot of insiders information in the radio biz, since he used to have his own show on Real Rock 101.1 here in Orlando.
So I picked up more interest in the business plus learned a lot of the business side of it. How to talk to people, how to call a bluff, figuring out who's a bullshitter and who's for real. All very credible skills to have as an engineer.
After that, I had a relative who was a record executive in the latin music world, so he took me under his wing. I admit it wasn't my style of music at the time, but the experience did a 180 on me.
He gave me all these massive projects to work with. I was a wreck at first, cause latin music is very complex stuff to mix and wrap yourself around.
But he saw that I had a raw talent, so he stuck with me. He could of easily got a hold of any number of world class engineers, but he wanted me to have that experience. So about a year and a half later, after all the monster engineers I had the privlage of meeting, producers I enjoyed (sometimes didn't) working with and musicians that I've had beers and learned from...it puts me where I am today.
So like I said, I wasn't finding it, it just sorta happened to me. If I wasn't persistent and not afraid to fail, then I wouldn't be doing it today.
Thats my story.
I couldn't give you advice on how to get your foot in the door of a studio, but I can tell you about how to survive in the audio production as per my direct personal experience so far. You might like some of it, and you might not:
1)
Choose your friends wisely. A smart man once told me, "if you hang out with retards, then you'll eventually be the same retard".
2)
Set a high standard for yourself. If you are lucky enough to get into a high profile project, chances are the margin for error is very thin. So you have to be on top of your game at all times.
3)
Learn to spot "dead ends" and "open doors". Working for some guy in his basement probably won't get you as far as working for people in legit places.
So if someone offers you a legit job that's close to what you wanna do, I suggest you take it. It might not be exactly what you want, but eventually it will lead to what you want. I would take a sound tech job at disney over a sketchy studio any day.
4)
Openmindedness and flexibility. Studio managers love this one. There's nothing better than someone who can say yes to any project he is given. So think about it from thier point of view.
You don't have to like the project, but at least you have a job and brownie points.
5)
Learn to be spiritual. Not religiously, but in your musical beleifs. This one seperates the "good" from the "greats". Any body can engineer a song and make it sound good, but there are musicians in this world that go *far* beyond that. Those are the challenging ones to work with, also the most exciting.
If you understand why music is the way it is, and why certain things are done and others aren't, then you can do amazing things behind a console.
6)
Refuse to be anything but the best. Face it, this is the most competative and most frustrating industry to work in. Period. You have monsters out there that will steal your clientel if they can offer the better deal. It dosn't mean you should step on people, but you have to play smart.
So you have to be extremely focused and you have to be hard on yourself. It's almost like becoming a monk. You have to refuse all outside temptation, forget about having a life and become "a man of the console." (instead of a man of the cloth, get it?)
I think this is the one I don't like to discuss openly. But I'm the type of person that can hear a mix done by a monster and then tell myself, "wow, this is good, but I can do it better". A not that I could, but by telling myself that, I modivate myself to mimick excellent work. That's how I've taught myself everything I know how to do in a mixing session. I listen, I question and then I mimick. Eventually when I have thier technique down well enough, I try to find out ways to do it better.
7)
Give yourself a break and take your time with everything you do. Sometimes you have to say, "FUCK IT!". Give yourself a week off from music. Relax the brain. There's nothing worse than a burnt out engineer. It pisses off the client, it pisses off the boss and it makes you look really bad.
Also, as Bob Katz once told me, "if it takes 6 hours to mix a song, then let it. Next time it will take 3."
8)
Learn to take massive blows. Sometimes there's gonna be a situation where everything goes to shit. The console burns out, the producer cusses you out, the studio is about to fire you and your ego is suddenly no where to be found. Depending on how you conduct yourself during those unfortunate situations, will decide if you come out on top or if you'll end up unemployed.
People in this industry will be very supportive most of the time. However, when money, egos, reputations and stubborness are on the line, attitudes do change.
I personally studder when things reach boiling point. Which is good actually, cause that forces me to shut up and concentrate on work.
9)
Always ask yourself questions. Every revelation started with one simple question: "why?" Never stop asking "why".
What it really comes down to is, you really have to want to do this to survive. There's nothing fancy about being an engineer. You might see big shots in nice looking studios, but in thier head, it's just another day of work. If you knew how many monster class engineers where insecure of themselves, then you'd feel a whole lot better.
Sometimes it can be too hard to handle, but you just gotta suck it up and see it through.
The best mixes in history have some element of pain and frustration behind them.
So the day someone really becomes an engineer, they silently take an oath to be a professional more than a fan. Of course, always be a fan of music, it's the best gift god and the devil ever gave mankind.
