Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1057439
16 F A L L 2 0 1 8 C A S Q U A R T E R L Y S coring mixer Greg Hayes has a diverse résumé of film, television, game, and commercial music credits. His career shows how an open mind and perseverance, when coupled with strong engineering knowledge, can help you win over clients—and even gain the support of a CAS Career Achievement Award recipient. MF: You're based in California. Is that where you are originally from? GH: I was born in California and lived there until I was about 12 when my mom and I moved to Nashville. She worked for a businessman who was backing an artist who got signed to a development deal in Nashville. We talked about it and decided to give Nashville a shot. Did you have a music background? I played guitar and started writing and eventually, even had a couple of cuts. How did you get introduced to the engineering side then? When I was in high school, an artist my mom was working with was recording at George W. Clinton's Bayou Recording Studio, and I was able to attend. I was blown away. At that time, Bayou was the "go to" place for larger name country artists and had a steady stream of artists from other genres coming through as well. I started interning there and did so for two years while I was in high school. This was back when interns did everything—kind of like an actual apprenticeship. I learned so much and, by the time I graduated high school, I was assisting and even engineering sessions. I still have my first check for being an engineer; $80 for running a vocal recording session! (laughs) With things going well in Nashville, how did you end up coming back to California? I was working on an album of standards by actress Greg Hayes in Village Studios' Studio D b y M a t t F o g l i a C A S An Interview with Greg Hayes