“Thousand Foot View” Experience

Hey guys! This week on my blog post I will be talking about my “Thousand foot view” here at Captivate Productions. I have logged over 100 hours this summer and have learned so much working with Phil. Every experience has been beneficial whether that is relationally or knowledge in the industry. I have done 4 gigs with Captivate and have learned how to communicate with clients.

The biggest thing that I’ve taken away is that no matter who your client is, you want to ensure that everything is communicated between everyone so that when the event comes up, it flows smoothly. You never want to show up to the gig and then have something unexpected come up between the two of you. Plus, when the event goes smoothly, whenever they have another event that need production, you’ll be the first that they reach out to.

Even though the music industry is full of cool people, there’s also a bunch of the opposites. Always expect the least when going into the event even if a contract is signed. You always want to give them your best, but never want to question the client about something from the contract unless it affects the flow of everything. Never rely on them to give you help, always look for your own stage hands that know what signal flow is and how to wrap a cable up. The worst part about an event may be the load in, but when an event ends late, you want to be out of there as fast as possible and experienced stage hands help a ton!

I have also learned that Phil and I have a ton in common which helps me out with my current careers. If I’m ever struggling I can just reach out to him and he’s able to help. So having that type of help, helps me to be successful in creating the decisions that lead to the next step in life. He’s also helped me get a production gig at a smaller festival but one that they want to be great. Whoever you talk to in life, I have learned that they are a connection and may even lead to networking. You never know who that person may know and the clients you could gain.

All in all… I am very pleased with my summer internship with Captivate Productions. I plan on working alongside Phil as much as possible, but still plan on having a full time job after this summer ends. I’m excited for what’s in store for my future because I have an amazing support group and leaders in my life. I couldn’t ask for more.

Thanks for taking the time to read this week’s blog. If you have any questions or comments, put them in the comment section below! Have a great rest of your week!

Halfway There

This week I will be talking about my experience at Captivate Productions. I can’t believe how fast this Summer seems to be going! I feel like I have learned so much and have been on my feet all day everyday. There is not a day I haven’t been working whether that was with my internship or my other jobs. But anyways, here are 3 things that I have learned here with Captivate over the summer!

The first and most obvious one is, always grow and respect your connections/relationships. The amount of gigs/shows that you can gain from communicating with industry friends goes a long way because you can both find ways to give each other an income. Never ask too much for a show because than it may seem douchey and can come off as disrespectful.

The second is to organize and keep track of your stuff. If you are always on the road, you may lose track of how many mics/cables you lost and then one show you won’t look prepared. It is always important to have an inventory list and to keep track of what you own. It also looks professional when someone asks you how many of something you may own and instead of going to count each individual one, you could pull up the document or paper and be able to tell them within minutes.

The third and last one is to be slow to listen and quick to act. In this industry you want to make sure you understand how the show is supposed to flow so that when time comes, you look prepared and ready. And if anything were to happen, you have to be quick to get everyone back on track whether that’s the schedule or how everything was planned out. And something else I’ve learned is to always take notes when it is for an event. That way it shows the manager that you are invested and wanting to give your best for the show.

Thanks for taking time out of your day to read over the 3 new experiences I’ve learned over my summer internship. Please feel free to ask any questions below in the comments or hit that contact button at the top right of this page! Hope everyone is doing well and ready for some shows to come!

The Music Boom

Hey all! I found this amazing blog post about the music industry and what’s in store after COVID-19. We were expecting a music boom to happen here soon but when the virus hit, that belief went away. But knowing that a virus will eventually be treated and controlled, there was something brewing in the future. It is said that by 2030, all projections of growth were upgraded by 25% which is huge! That takes the music industry up to $131 billion dollars! This is all made by the fact that people miss concerts and will sell out stadiums just to see their favorite band post a global shut down. If you want to check it out, here is the link! https://journalofmusic.com/focus/2021-music-boom-coming

Let me know your thoughts on this article in the comments below!

Week 3 With Captivate Productions

Wow!! Have 3 weeks passed already?! It feels like I just started but also been working for a month now. I’m loving every minute I get to spend with Phil and what we get to work on together! We have been able to talk about our jobs and I feel like we are very relatable in many aspects which helps us both connect even more. Sometimes you have to take a step back and realize that it’s not all about the money, but about the connections and experiences you gain and learn from. Here at Captivate I have made several connections for it being only the third week into my internship.

This past week we went to a venue near the outskirts of downtown Columbus to help them with a problem they were experiencing. When we got there, they were saying that the right hanging speaker was dead and nothing would come out of it. We got their audio cart and started to plug the cables in when we realized that the right NL4 was completely loose. I took off the NL4 adapter, cut the bad cables out and re connected the wires for a more solid and covered connection. While I was working on the adapter, Phil was working on the rat’s nest of cables in the rack. As we began to test everything when we put it together, we did realize that the right woofer was blown and that they need to order a replacement.

With this opportunity, I was able to meet the person who runs the venue and she also looks for sound engineers for weddings, conferences, etc… Something I learned while helping this venue solve their problem, was to do it with excellence and go above and beyond what was asked of you. Cleaning and organizing the audio rack was going above what they asked us to work on and that makes Captivate look good while gaining trust faster. That also puts you higher up on the list of contacts to help with specific jobs/gigs.

Today, we were able to solidify 2 events in the coming months. The first one was a festival that my buddy DJ and I will be running in August. The second one is a pre recorded worship service for a church. I’m excited to help run a festival up in Marion, because it is the first festival I will be in charge of; and I’m excited to do the pre recorded worship service because I have experience in that atmosphere. I am learning how to create a contract for live events and corporate gigs.

Here at Captivate, I am learning new things every day and gaining more experience then I would have expected. The people I am meeting are super cool and fun to work with and I love gaining relationships in this industry. There have been multiple events to start planning and prepping for so we can give our best product to our customer.

First Week With Captivate Productions

This Summer, I have decided to intern with a production company here in Columbus. With this internship, I hope to learn more about the behind the scenes of a production company. It’s not just about the live shows/gigs that you get, but how you get them and prepare for excellence and success. Here at Captivate, I will be learning both the warehouse aspect and going live for gigs. In this blog post I will talk about 3 goals I have for this Summer internship and how I plan to use this experience after I graduate.

Goal 1: Gain relationships. In the music industry, to grow and gain jobs, you have to gain relationships, friendships, and they will get you work which turns into money. Here at Captivate, Phil-my boss, has many relationships not only in the Columbus area but beyond. If a production company can’t do a specific gig, they will recommend another one and there you will gain more connections and a possible gig annually.

Goal 2: Gaining gigs/shows annually. With Covid restrictions becoming less, this allows for more shows to open up. With a bunch of festivals, concerts, etc. opening up, they will be looking for production companies to make their show happen, to look good, and to sound good. With connections that I have, I plan on expanding those relationships and searching for people looking for production companies.

Goal 3: Knowing the BTS. When you don’t have a show or gig to run, you are planning, making phone calls, and organizing. In order to be successful in gaining shows, you have to know how to talk to people and make quotes. Then organizing your gear makes planning for next shows so much easier. I’m hoping that with this goal I will become a better planner, organizer, and people person.

With all of these goals, I think it is a good start for my own work habits. To be successful in life, you have to create goals and pursue them. I really enjoyed the first week with Captivate Productions and can’t wait to see what the future holds in store! Look this time next week for a new blog post about upcoming gigs! If you have any comments, type them out below!

Programming Your Mind For Success

The other day, I was watching a Ted Talk on how to program your mind for success. As an entrepreneur, I want to find ways to be successful, to always keep my head up, never have doubtful thoughts. Obviously though everyone has doubtful thoughts. But something that Carrie Green had said, was to take control of your mind and thoughts. Don’t let them control you. The more I thought about it, the more I realized how much our emotion can drive us for failure. So with that in mind, find things that encourage and build you up for success and makes you think outside of the box.

When figuring out if I wanted to be an entrepreneur in the music industry, especially the live industry… I had to sit down and write down what my goals were in life and in business. Something that I truly loved doing and had a passion for. I love both the studio and live sound, but one has to be a bigger priority until, maybe, one day I can buy and own a studio. But for now, I decided that my top priority was live sound because one of my goals in life was to travel the world. To travel the world, run sound on tour, make some money and try out new foods, what else could I dream of?! Nothing sounds more exciting than doing all of that! With all these thoughts in mind, if you are having a hard time figuring out what you want to do as a career, take a step back and write down what your goals are on a piece of paper. Then find a place to put it where you will always see it and be reminded of what your heart desires. This will allow a spark to ignite the drive for your goals and make you think of ways you can get there with your career.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my thoughts on this! If you have any thoughts or questions, type them in the comment section below and get involved! I was really blown away from all of these simple little things because of how true they are! If you would like to watch the TedTalk, here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmfikLimeQ8

SXSW Panels

2021. The year of SXSW virtual conferences and zoom meetings. I am disappointed that I never got to be there in person, but I’m very grateful that we still have the opportunity to see some amazing people talk about how to be successful in their industry.

My first panel was CouRage talking about the gaming industry and what he focuses on during COVID times. The biggest thing that he said, no matter what industry you’re in,”Know your value!” If you are going to be an intern somewhere, you must know your worth! If I’m working with a brand, does it resonate with you? If you are promoting a product that you know isn’t healthy or doesn’t represent your brand, you should rethink who you are going to promote. And through COVID, gaming has been the biggest plug for people to connect and socialize since they can’t in person. Streaming/gaming is a big factor in drawing attention or bringing in others to socialize! I loved that even though I was watching a panel about gaming, everything he was talking about connected to any industry you are in! Definitely an informative panel!

My second panel was Steve Aoki talking about 5G and the future of music. Technology is becoming more and more relevant each and every year. It is how people connect to each other and 5G will be helping them grow even closer. With 5G, as a listener, you will be getting the best quality of the sound without any buffering and same for video-it should be 1080p or higher without any buffering. 5G becomes a big part of the music/video industry because people listen to music on their phones more than any other device, and they like to stream YouTube from their phones as well. With this said, it allows the viewer and listener to connect/engage in real time with the creators.

With all this said, I’ve learned a lot! Key points- Know your worth, know your brand, and always stay updated in the industry you’re working in. Especially in the music industry, as it continues to grow in technology, almost every year, we get new products for better sounding products! Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts on this blog post, if you have any comments, type them out below or feel free to email me!

2021 Grammys

Oh man… The 2021 Grammy Awards. Full of ups and downs, commercials every minute, and bad performances every which way. Disappointed that The Weeknd didn’t even win a Grammy or a performance for having the top song for over 51 weeks! Almost a whole year! As a live sound engineer I was expecting to hear some pretty dang good mixes from grammy nominated artists… Boy was I disappointed in that. I will say that the artists’ tracks were loud enough to tell that the band didn’t have to do much. And Harry Styles… Yikes, I expected a better vocal performance, but I guess it’s not all sounds with him. I personally wish that the Grammys were driven by actual talent and how the actual music sounds rather than how the artists get people to listen to their music visually. Yes, I’m talking about WAP… If you have to get half naked for people to “listen” to your music, you aren’t in the right industry. Anyways, congrats to Beyoncé for leading with the most grammys for a female artist, and look out! At this rate, Billie Eilish is catching up already! Hopefully next years awards are better, not so long, and are voted by actual talent.

The “Thousand Foot View” of SO.A.P

Man, I can’t believe how long I have been apart of the internship here at The Church Next Door. Every day I feel like I am learning something new and a way to work around difficult obstacles. In just 13 weeks I have lost count of how many problems I have fixed and sorted out to try and make it beneficial for the church. But without problems, there is not much room to gain anything out of something you enjoy doing.

But now that I have 2 weeks or so left with my internship, I want to think about what’s next in life and how this has helped mold my future careers. I am thankful to have had the opportunity to still be apart of the live industry during COVID-19 because it got completely wiped out and is slowly coming back. Here at the church I have been running sound through streaming platforms every Saturday night and have been running sound for outdoor events every Sunday. The outdoor event has been the closest I have to live sound with a congregation. For me, running sound isn’t as enjoyable without hearing the crowd’s reaction. You want to hear people cheer, clap, and enjoy what you are putting through the speakers.

The biggest things I have learned is patience, good cable management, routing, and that some equipment is not meant for outdoors. I am usually a patient guy, but there have been times I have had to wait for answers and last minute details. With all of this in mind, I believe it helps me know what to expect in a live aspect. Just because you run sound in a church doesn’t mean that everything is perfect and there won’t be any problems, it is the opposite of that. Problems and issues happen no matter where you are.

For my next experience, I want to learn the other side of the live industry. How to mix a safe but loud environment, better micing techniques, and how to use different brands of boards. If I learn the basics of all the industry standard sound boards, most places look for that kind of flexibility. Even some industry professionals have told me that is the biggest thing places look for in someone-flexibility. My goal is to be flexible, patient, have an ear for every genre and for every environment so that no matter who I mix, it will be enjoyable for everyone.

The biggest differences that I will experience in my next step will be how people react and work with each other. Most people here at the church are soft spoken and enjoyable to work for, while outside some people can be short tempered or not as understandable. But that is how the world can be too, so it is something good to cope with. I can’t wait to work with different people, sound boards, PA Systems, and for what’s in store for me next! Whatever it is, I have a good feeling that it’ll help me extraordinarily in the industry! I hope you guys enjoyed reading my blog, let me know what you think in the comments! :)

Instaband/Internship Progress

While we are 11 weeks into our internship, the students here at Groove U have been working hard alongside the artists that won our yearly Instaband competition. With Corona being a massive block in our road with studio time and scheduling for a music video, we have been able to get all of that worked out with our artists. Without their willingness to continue, we would not be where we are at now. I feel like everything that I have experienced at my internship, then going into the studio really have taught me to be versatile in any aspect of the industry. The more you can know, the better for possible future careers!

So far, we have recorded everyone’s songs except Kea Corso’s “Red Blue Yellow.” We are now at the point of post production and making it sound as professional as possible while still fitting to her style. Every student played an important role in getting this accomplished from it being the second years, scheduling and helping us with any problems in the studio. One thing I have learned from all of this is that assigning people roles is a huge part in getting something done well and in a timely fashion. My role was to help routing, recording and help with any of the post production. At first it was difficult with no one having experience playing along with a click track, but thankfully they caught on.

Right now we are planning on times to film Kea for her last song which she also wants to be her music video. Once we have a rough mix for that song, then we will start the filming of her music video. One big thing I have learned from this whole experience is that communication is key to getting everyone on the same page and on the same schedule. At the beginning, it was rough being on the same page and getting everyone in the studio to help with the recording process.

The whole process was very enjoyable and definitely a learning experience. I loved working alongside my peers because we all pushed each other and helped when we saw someone else struggling. It was a good time of learning the industry but also growing relationships with our friends. Definitely can’t wait to see/hear the finished product!

My internship has helped me more than ever about understanding how to route things on both analog, digital, and through a DAW. So when I went into the studio, even though it is a little different from other studios, it was a lot easier to understand. My goal is to be as versatile in the music industry as possible whether being a great Live Sound engineer or a great studio engineer. I love being in both atmospheres because I get to work on what I love! Being in live sound helps train your ear a lot more, so that when I mix in the studio, I can get a rough mix done in about 3 listen throughs on a song.

What COVID-19 Has Done To The Industry We Love Most

This week I read an article about how COVID may completely destroy the music industry. The headliner of this article drew my attention closer to read it because of how invested my career is in the Live Sound aspect of music. What the article was saying was that many rising and popular artists had many concerts and gigs already booked and that in one night, all of those hopes and dreams to play in those might just be ruined. In the span of one night’s decision, the whole music industry stood at a standstill. For most artists, concerts are their biggest supply of income and without those, they aren’t earning enough from streaming platforms. “Where would the music industry go from here?” most everyone was asking each other. No one knew, because no one had been prepared for a virus that completely stopped the music industry.

I spoke with my employer at The Church Next Door to see what his opinion was on this article and what his thoughts were on the future of the industry. He told me that for now, all we can do is respect what the government is suggesting us to do and go at it from a day to day schedule. It is too hard to schedule around these times with anything changing in the span of one night. But for his stance on the article, he agreed with what they said about how it could have destroyed all of the music industry, but also would spark a fire for songwriters and those that produce in their “home studios.” He believed that music would move more to a streaming platform whether it was iTunes, Spotify or if it was done Instagram live etc. “Everything that will be done in the music industry will most likely be done over the technology that we are supplied with. But for the future of the music industry, I believe that the live industry may be destroyed for now, but you will see more music being made and put out there because of how influential music is during these trying times.”

This article was very informative and I enjoyed reading it and talking with my employer about it. Here is the link in case you were interested in reading it as well! https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/a32360709/coronavirus-music-industry/

3 Things I have Learned From The Church Next Door Internship

During these past couple of weeks, I have continued to stay hard at work. We, at the Church Next Door, are slowly trying to go back to normal weekend services instead of live stream only services. These past 2 weekends now, we have been doing a socially distanced outdoor service which have been very successful and have had over 215 people each service. As we continue to see success and more people coming, we draw nearer to opening our building back up.

3 big thing I have learned during this internship are: 1. Setting up/running sound in an outdoor service 2. The process of designing a new setup for church stages and 3. Creating a stage layout/diagram so that there is a template for new stages or input lists. I will explain each process and why I chose these 3 in the next paragraphs down below. But to be able to run live sound during this whole quarantine is very rare, so I am very gracious for this opportunity!

1. Setting up/running sound in an outdoor service. I cannot tell you how big of a step this was for me to take and how valuable it was for me to learn. Running sound in an outdoor environment is completely different than running it indoors for many different reasons. My biggest takeaway/experience from this outdoor service was planning ahead of time, making the scene for the X32 board, and getting all of the necessary speakers, amps, and cables prepared. If you can run sound outdoor and indoor successfully, then you are on a good start to a good career in live sound!

2. The process of designing a new setup for church stages. This one doesn’t have much to do with any live sound or music in general, but it gives me experience for my resume. I didn’t realize how much time it took to design a new stage and the thought process that went into it. The worship pastor, videographer, and I were in charge of this project and we looked all over google and youtube to find cool stage designs. When we found one, we researched what all needed to be purchased and what needed to be done to get it setup properly. We also discussed how much power they will need and if the stage provides the safe amount. My biggest takeaway from this experience was prioritizing and planning what needs to be done, how it needs to be done, and assigning jobs to certain volunteers.

3. Creating a stage layout/diagram so that there is a template for new stages or input lists. This may be the second most important thing I have learned how to do and why it needs to be done. I created a template for our stage layout and where the inputs/input numbers where located. Then I made a diagram of where the worship leader wants every instrument to stand. Then after I made that document, I made one more diagram of where the cables would be routed to and put an input list below it so when the time comes, I can plug everything in fast and effectively.

Contemporary Music Problem:

In contemporary music, James Brown is known for the “Greatest drum breakdown of them all.” Oh wait, that drum beat was actually a studio musician. But that studio drummer does not get any credit for that popular breakdown and James gets all of the credit. As artists recognized how complex and funky the drumbeat was, the more of them realized they wanted that in their songs. So there are two problems here: 1. The studio musician wasn’t accredited for the drum beat. And 2. drummers don’t get copyright, so anyone can use the same exact drum beat without getting sued or losing money.

As me and my employer talked, we realized that it stinks how people can replicate a drumbeat from another song and use it in theirs without getting held accountable for it, but at the same time, all songs now would be under copyright infringement. SO, in other-words it’s a good thing that drum beats are not under copyright because then musicians would have a small leash to build from. But at the same time, it was wrong that James Brown took credit for the drum beat. Yes it is his’ song, but no he did not make that beat up. That is like the lead vocalist taking credit for a bass lead that he clearly did not make.

I believe that there should be some stipulation from making drum beats/patterns, but finding a way to monitor every song from every band would be nearly impossible. And another question would arise,”Why drum beats and not chords, or bass lines or guitar leads?” So for now, I believe it is ok to leave copyright out of the instrumentations of songs, but creators of a specific part should be credited for their work.

If you want to see the article I read, here is the link! https://theconversation.com/funky-drummer-how-a-james-brown-jam-session-gave-us-the-greatest-drum-break-of-them-all-134493

Second Week of My Internship with The Church Next Door

So far, this internship has been full of experiences and strategies of how we can work with audio in live aspect while streaming to vimeo/facebook. With the way technology is advancing, the ways we are able to use it to our advantage is beyond our belief! I think that it is so cool how we are able to control what’s being sent to the live stream with using a bus mix, while the in the house it may have a different mix! That’s my favorite part of the internship so far, being able to learn different ways of mixing and how to have a good balance between live in person, or live in stream.

This past week we talked about prepping and preparing for an outdoor service our first week back in person. So I was given the task to take notes on the property and to see acoustically and power wise which side would probably best fit our interest. I mainly took pros and cons notes of the sounds I was hearing and things that stood out to me visually. I learned that listening and checking out the area before you decide on what you want is definitely a necessity! It really helped me to train my ears to listen to the environment and see the direction of the wind, sun, and if traffic would affect the service.

My next task was to listen to the previously mixed service and take notes on it. Overall the mix was good, I would have changed a couple of levels. But one thing you have to realize as a sound engineer is that we all have different ears and different things we like to hear. If you like guitars, you will most likely ride the guitars all of the performance. But in a church environment, the vocals have to be out in front of everything! That is a very important thing to remember if you are going to ever run sound for a church environment!

On Wednesday, we had another recorded interview, so the videographer gave me the audio to cut, mix, EQ, and master. I enjoy having the opportunity to use things I learned in the studio in my internship because then it shows them that I am flexible and can do more than run live sound. That shows me that I could make a good impression of my talents, I just don’t want to take it too far where I come off as a know it all. After I completed the audio, I prepared the stage for this weekend’s rehearsal: took down unnecessary cables, cleaned mics, gaffed some cables down, charged batteries, and prepared the X32 scene.

I look forward to next week because I will have a lot more to work on and prepare with the outdoor service closing in fast. It will be a good challenge for me because I strive to be the best at my job, so to run a service outside puts a lot of pressure on my ability to see what we will need PA wise and power distribution. Go check out my Instagram for pictures from my internship! Look at this time for another Blog post on what I did at my internship.

First Week of My Externship with The Church Next Door

For my first week of externships, it went better than I had expected. I kind of expected it to be slower especially during this time of COVID-19. I was able to accomplish a lot which I will detail later into this blog. A couple of my goals for this week were to get along with the staff of my employer and to build positive relationships. A couple other goals outside of building relationships was to get anything and everything my boss asked me to do done, and done to the best of my abilities. I want to take this time here to gain as much information and knowledge about the different aspects in the music industry as possible. Because as a prospective Live Sound engineer, you have to know different environments and genres so that you can keep a consistent flow of income going into your wallet.

A couple of my expectations for this week is to see the workflow of a church, see how they like to mix in a church environment, and how they handle streaming the mix to the online services. To set goals and expectations without perseverance will get you nowhere. So with these expectations/goals I want to learn as fast as possible and take notes on all of these. I personally like to transform my expectations and call them my goals because it forces me mentally to figure the answer out or get the job done.

Some Fears/Challenges that I have would be creating a mix for everyone to be content with and not too loud or quiet. Creating an environment with sound is difficult, so to find that happy medium and making it sound pleasing is my goal. A big fear that I have is messing something up on the soundboard that would ruin in ears, the live feed, and the house mix. A way to avoid that from happening is always asking questions and taking notes about their setup.

For the first week of my externship, it went really well! I built good relationships and got a lot done. They were having a problem with the stage lights splashing onto the back wall and had asked me to buy, cut, and paint wood to block it from happening. So Monday and Tuesday I bought the wood, painted it and cut it up. On Tuesday I took it into the church and drilled it into the wall as an overhang. It was successful! The lights had a good angle on the back wall until halfway up which is where the projectors would be projecting an image or video.

They had me go in on Wednesday as well to help setup, teardown, and eq audio for an interview. The audio ended up being about 5 minutes long. We used Rode mics to capture their voices for the audio recording which also captured the room reverb which gave me a good challenge when EQ’ing and cutting the audio clips up. It ended up sounding professional and my boss was pleased when he heard what the final product sounded like. So far, my externship is going really well! Stay tuned to hear what I do for the upcoming weeks and look for a vlog soon!

Podcast W/Mark Lee Townsend

This past week I was able to speak with Mark Lee Townsend on Facetime and we were able to talk some business and production. The podcast is up on Soundcloud, go take a listen because if you are interested in the music industry, what he had to say was very useful to the industry. Let me know down below in the comment section what you thought about what we talked about or if you have any questions for Mark!

Production: Woodshed

This week on the woodshed was production. Joey from Oranjudio will be speaking with us on how to avoid obstacles and how to be successful. A couple things I took away from production is that it really makes you train your ear to listen for specific things and it can also numb your ear if you listen to it for too long. A couple ways to get better is listen to some of the best produced songs and listen to what they did on the production side of things. If you have a producer you know, talk with them if you are stuck because they have been in your position and know how to avoid those types of potholes. A couple questions I’ll ask Joey are: How do you manage your time between family and working on clients, and what are the biggest things you deal with in production because it can be taken differently between multiple different bands?

Engineering: Woodshed

This week in the Woodshed we learned and talked about engineering. As someone working on an EP, all of this caught my eyes. I want to become a better engineer, songwriter, and producer so that not only my music sound good, but future artists that I may work with. My goals are to have a better trained ear for EQing and mixing in the studio, and in Live Sound. But to gain that, you have to do it a lot. You have to exercise your ears to what is a good sound, and what is not. So this week some questions I might ask are, how do I better develop an ear for mixing and EQing? What should I do if my brain has completely lost focus on the task at hand? And what should my workflow look like during this quarantine? Thanks for taking time to look at my blog! Stay healthy and stay tuned for the release date on the EP I’m producing right now!

Songwriting: Woodshed

During my time in quarantine, I’ve been trying to make some more songs with the time I have. But after the first week I hit a brick wall because I pushed myself so hard. But I have found ways to avoid hitting that roadblock again. I have to plan out when I am going to write, work on school, or do anything else I have going on in my life. When you plan a time for something, you will have more of a passion to do a good job. So I have set a goal during the quarantine to finish songs that I started instead of start a project and then scrap it. The feeling you get when you finish a song is so accomplishing that it is hard to not want that. Yes the internet could help you find ways to better manage your time or help you to write better songs, but the sources that I found that are more reliable is to talk to other songwriters. Nick helped me realize that during this time I need to push myself to continue to write, but not to the brink that I will lose the passion of songwriting. If you need to talk about anything during this time, click on the contact button above! Stay in tune for some music to come out soon! :)

What I’m doing during Quarantine

Well, you see… I had a lot of other plans especially traveling and networking, but now, I’m forced to stay home and work. Even though I am still able to work both jobs, my hours were cut back extensively. So during my free time, I am working hard on a new single called “Fall” that I will be putting out here in a couple of weeks. And when I’m not working on that, I work on homework I may have forgotten or try to watch videos of things in the music industry I strive for. Especially now, think about what you want to do, why you wanna do it, and strive after it. There is no better opportunity than now to figure out what you want your future to look like! I just can’t wait to get back to my normal life and start running live sound again!!!