Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/830490
40 S P R I N G 2 0 1 7 C A S Q U A R T E R L Y there is dialogue going on, but people are going into the gym—opening up the door between the hallway and the gym. When the door was closed, I eq'd one fader for ambience and band to sound like they were on the other side of the door. When it opened, I had a second fader adjust to the eq to make it match the door position. Then I chased the door. One of my favorite things was that, during the rehearsals, Mark would sometimes be looking to see if he had an open mic—but it was my stuff he was hearing. That let me know that I was in the ballpark. I take it Grease was a fun show to work on? Honestly, Grease was one of the best experiences I've had pro- fessionally. Having the TV, theatre, and film worlds converge to do this one show—with everyone working together to find the best way of doing something for the benefit of the show— it was awesome. Mark mentioned a similar sentiment. Yeah. It was really a great experience. So what other projects are you up to? Well, I usually end up doing about 20 different shows a year between awards shows and studio shows. This year, World of Dance went into a Super Bowl pre-show, the Grammys, and then Love Connection. I did America's Got Talent auditions for the month of May and callbacks happened at the end of April. I'll be on the Billboard Music Awards mid-May. Before we wrap up, I have to ask: Under your name on your email signature, it reads "Single Batch Coffee Roasters." What is that about? Well, I've been a coffee fiend since I was 14. Over the years, I've had a lot of bad coffee but, every now and then, I'll have one and think, "Why can't I have this all of the time?" A friend introduced me to the idea of "fresh" coffee—right from the roaster—since most stuff we get in stores is actu- ally months old. I started roasting batches in a popcorn pop- per. Since then, I found some vintage, 120-year-old, gas-fired coffee roasters with perforated drums and had a machinist friend and I rebuild them. I went to a roasting school in Mill Valley that taught me a bunch more and now I can control what is in my cup by how I roast. What a fun thing to have a passion for! Having that kind of serious equipment, do you sell your beans? Every morning, I make a two-liter carafe that I can drink and share at work. I'll also bring along 10-15 bags—and I've gotten a lot of people hooked! And while I can't be avail- able every day to roast because of my real job, I launched the SingleBatchCoffee.com site so folks who have tried it and would like more can get some—even though we may not be working on a job together for months. PABLO MUNGUIA: PRO TOOLS PLAYBACK MUSIC MIXER You're being honored here for your professional audio work, but you also took the role of Director of Berklee's Master of Music in music production, technology, and innovation in Valencia, Spain, this past fall. How is that going? It's going really well! Thanks for asking! It is a tremendous experience to work in the vibrant campus in Valencia, Spain, where the four masters programs in scoring for film, television and video games, contemporary performance, global enter- tainment and music business, and my own program interact and cross-pollinate ideas. The students in all four programs are constantly collaborating on projects, concerts, and new technologies. It is great fun to see the students' ideas come together and bear fruit! Your academic background is in materials and engineering (with degrees from MIT and UT Austin). What was the initial interest that led you to pursue that field? Well, I was always very good at math and science. My favorite subject in high school was physics. I never thought that I could make it in music, so I naturally gravitated toward a career in science. At MIT, I was introduced to materials science my freshman year and, although at first I wasn't crazy about it, I came to love it and majored in it. Then I went on to start my PhD in materials engineering at UT Austin. It was then that I switched directions, and got my master's instead. How did that lead to you eventually attending Berklee and receiving their professional degree? I had a great thesis advisor in Texas. His name was Al Tasch. I'd never met anyone as motivated and genuinely excited about his field as Al was about what we were doing. Whatever he was drinking, I wanted some of that. In that interaction, I learned the difference between doing something you're good at, and something you're passionate about. It's easier when you're passionate because it doesn't feel like work. A death in my family and the end of a relationship provided enough of a pause for me to step back and take stock. I realized I didn't have the passion my advisor did, and looked for what it was that I did in my free time. I found that recording and music were something I kept going back to year after year when I was on vacation from whatever I was doing at the time. That was the key. I made a bet against myself that I would only go to music school if they accepted me and if they gave me a scholarship—to know that they were willing to invest in me as well. I looked in a career book in the library before Google or the internet was around, and found that Berklee was the only college that taught music production. I was also in a hurry, I figured education was going to be the fastest way to get there, since I had already spent 10 years pursuing science and didn't want to waste another minute. And after Berklee, you landed a job at Westlake Audio. That must have been a great introduction to audio engineering as a career. Westlake was great. After you leave school, you think you know how everything works, but really, it's in the studios, in front of musicians, with the clock running that you really learn how to record, mix, and produce music. Westlake is also awesome