Career Spotlight: Audio ProducerInterviewee Name: Stuart Hallerman How did you get into audio production?As a teenager I liked listening to crazy music, and at some point, I realized there was someone behind the scenes who was making those sounds happen. I didn't consider a music career because I didn't live in LA and didn't have any rock stars in my family. When I was at Evergreen College, a friend encouraged me to look for a niche role in the music industry. He pointed out that it wasn't all superstars and losers. There were many people in the middle ground who make a decent living. I tried sound mixing. I pursued my practice and my studies; I collected gear, and then I started my own business. I started in Olympia and moved to Seattle in 1990. The timing was good. The music scene in Seattle was poised to boom. Many other Evergreen students with parallel educations also found a place in Seattle music: starting bands, recording studios, t-shirt printing places. The deeper I committed my life, time and money to recording, the more live sound I was asked to do. As soon as I quit my job, all I had to do was music. I was invited on the road with Soundgarden, and for 3 years, I was on the road about half the time. I met a lot of people, made connections and got to see how record companies work by watching their experience. I enjoyed some credibility by being associated with them and got lots of mixing practice. But my personal overriding interest was recording rather than live sound, and I finally found a building in Seattle to rent. I handed in my regrets and stayed home after that. What do you most enjoy about audio producing?I like working with people, and I love music and technology. There's an infinite number of music production possibilities. I have great clients who I enjoy as friends, so that's great. As a gear-head, I enjoy all the tubes and knobs and lights and boxes too. Some bands I record don't go away 20 years later, and they become like family. What is most challenging about producing?The maintenance can be tough. I use a lot of vintage equipment, and finding parts and people who can deal with broken stuff gets harder all the time. There's a certain amount of bookkeeping that doesn't have much to do with what I care about in music. In any area of the arts, if you're independent, you have to deal with some of those issues. What's a typical day recording like?I arrive at the studio and take stock of where we are in the process of the record that we're making. I talk to the band and find out what they're ready to do and feel like doing. Is the whole band ready to play together? Does someone want to sing? Do they want to record parts? I work with the sounds in the music to make people happy with what they're hearing and make sure we're capturing it on tape the way everyone intends. I spend a few hours with tape rolling, making music. Hopefully, by the end of the day, we've made some progress. Are musicians hard to deal with?They're just like real people; everyone can be hard to deal with. Part of recording is psychology, getting everyone fed and relaxed, getting their body chemistry adjusted, including my own. Every artist has a different motivation -- why they wrote the song; why they're singing it; why they want to record it. You have to be aware of what the goal is and what's possible. Cajole the artist into giving his best performance. "Your voice sounded beautiful today, just sing it one more time." You have to know the artist's work enough to know that even if they did a good version, that there's an ideal version just around the corner. And to know when the artist is burned out, or you're chasing something you're not going to be able to reach. How can someone get production skills if they're not already in the business?Listen to a lot of different kinds of music, and think about how it made it from the musicians to the records. Talk to local studios, local bands, local producers and engineers, ask questions. Ask the band what it was like to be in the studio, ask if you can visit them in the studio next time. Be somewhat involved in the local music scene, because your initial clients are going to be your friends, people you just saw play. Go buy home recording equipment. Even though the equipment is different, the process of recording is similar. Any experience you can get inside or outside the studio is good. Record a lot even if you don't know what you're doing. Use your ears. Ask as many questions as you can. Go to the library and read all the books on recording. Go online and look at forums and mailing lists. Do anything with bands, do live shows. Listen and record a lot. It's a broad field. It's not just running a mixing board. It's how to run a business, how to clean carpets, whatever it takes to keep people happy. |
|---|