Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1314367
Fall 2020 – LOCAL695.ORG 23 Bruce Beacom performing at The Troubadour. April 2017. Photo by Reid Murphy At the age of twenty-five, I started my career, humbly in 1995 as a studio PA, at a recording studio in New York City called National Sound at the National Video Center. I worked my way up to become an Assistant Engineer; handling all the daily loads of projects to be mixed, creating music bed playlists to be licensed and used in editing sessions, extensive mic setups in sound booths for music, and voice-over recording sessions and handling duplication requests of all formats for nationally broadcast and syndicated TV shows. It was a great way to cut my teeth in the TV industry, but after three years of not seeing the sunshine, I knew I needed to be out in the fi eld. I left post and started ENG mixing doing corporate freelance work during the day and for four nights a week, I worked at a live music venue called 'The Living Room' in the Lower East Village, mixing three to fi ve bands a night. It was exhausting, but I was immersed in mixing on two separate fronts and loved it. In 2000, I moved back to Los Angeles, where I had gone to college, transitioning solely to mixing for unscripted and reality TV. Notable productions I've worked on are CBS's The Amazing Race (fi fteen consecutive seasons) for which I received three honorary Emmy certifi cates for my contributions as a Sound Mixer. HBO's Project Greenlight (Season 4) for which I was nominated for an Emmy for Sound Mixing, Bravo's Top Chef, ABC's American Idol, The Bachelor and Netfl ix's recent notable documentary, Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich. As a singer, songwriter, guitarist, I have produced two records, and I am currently writing material for my third. My band Boom-Trac by Bruce Beacom Living with Hearing Loss Attenuation, Isolation & Adaptation and I have performed regularly in LA at iconic venues such as the Troubadour, The Roxy Theatre, The House of Blues, The Viper Room and many more. If it weren't for my love of music, I realize I would not be a Sound Mixer today, as the two are inextricably connected and both rooted in the other. If anyone were to tell me at thirty that I would be spending the next eight years of my life losing ninety-fi ve percent of my hearing to an invisible hereditary disorder, and fi ghting to get it back, I would've never accepted the challenge. I had no choice though. With everything I've been through, I clearly understand that when a challenging event occurs in our lives, it's not the event that defi nes us, but how we choose to handle it. I chose to never give up hope, and I painfully learned what it means to become an advocate for myself, and to never stop searching for answers. Losing my hearing educated me to appreciate what I had lost, and to take nothing for granted. It taught me about survival through adaptation, by which I found ways to keep writing music and mixing sound. In the fi rst three-plus years of my hearing loss, I adapted to mixing by monitoring my headphones in a "mono" setting, and turning the volume up to a point that I could feel the vibrations. I developed a keen sensibility for paying close attention to the VU meters like never before. As for my music, I adapted by playing my acoustic guitar as an electric. I can feel the acoustic vibrate against my body, which puts me more in tune with the instrument. I still continue to play this way even after getting my hearing back, as it led me