Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1515063
C I N E M A A U D I O S O C I E T Y. O R G 15 First, congratulations! I was so glad when I heard that you would be this year's Career Achievement Award recipient. Well, thank you. It's quite a surprise, but at the same time, I think it confirms a lot of effort on my part, and a lot of validation for me. Not that you need it, but you try your best. As creative people, we want to do our best and the validation might come. But the real confirmation comes from your peers. And I don't think we do that enough. I don't think we call each other on the phone and say, "Hey, I watched your show and it really knocked me out." I would like more of that. We're going to be competitive anyway. That's our nature. We're a bunch of overachievers, so we're going to be competitive. We're all creative and we care about the work that we do. But when someone calls you on the phone and says, "Hey, that was really good," then I think that's really the most special thing. And this award is like my peers saying, "Hey, you know what, you've been doing some decent work." I think that's one of the things that makes the CAS Award unique. We're all mixers. Nobody from another discipline is going to be voting on this. It's just your peers. So often we live in our own little bubble. It's work, work, work. We don't realize there's a world out there that actually is listening to our stuff. Yeah, and we need to be aware of that part of the equation; once it leaves our hands, it's out of our control at that point. So, how it translates is always up to the venue or the streaming service or the home box and what it's doing to your soundtrack. I remember when we were mixing Castle, I would go to ABC to sit in the engineering room and listen to what they were listening to just about every week. I would recommend to anybody who [mixes] to listen to their stuff after they've mixed it. Go to the theater or wash dishes with the TV on and see if you can hear the dialogue, because you will change the way you mix if you can't hear it. Tell me about your early days. I was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Maryland. I came out to Los Angeles to go to school at USC and graduated in 1983. I graduated on Saturday and went to work on Monday for free. I was the apprentice and Joe Wu was the picture assistant. He fired me probably three times before lunch that day. "You know, if this were a union gig, you'd be fired by now." But he taught me how to write big enough code on the edge of THE CAS CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD RECIPIENT: Re-Recording Mixer JOE EARLE CAS Joe Earle CAS boasts an impressive tally of nearly 40 award nominations and wins, including CAS Awards, Primetime Emmys, MPSE Golden Reels, and other industry accolades. His illustrious career features an array of top-tier projects with intricate sound demands, including the Ryan Murphy series American Horror Story, American Crime Story, Pose, The Politician, and Glee; acclaimed series Six Feet Under, Monk, Insecure, Dexter, and Roots; and films such as Monster's Ball, Boycott, and City by the Sea, showcasing his prowess and versatility in the craft. Earle, who currently serves as a Governor of the Sound Peer Group at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, has left an indelible mark on the field of sound. Throughout his career, Joe has nurtured and guided numerous sound peers, many of whom have evolved into leading artists in the industry today. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Joe to chat about his life in sound. b y B o b B r o n o w C A S