Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1545099
M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S 21 I argued so much during sessions that eventually, none of the staff engineers wanted to work with us anymore. That accidentally became the beginning of career number two. I already understood tape machines, drum machines, synths and sequencers. My biggest hurdle was learning the patch bay. Once I figured out how to route signal through a studio properly, I was off and running. Soon other bands were asking me to produce and engineer their records as well. One of my favorite memories from those days was teaching myself how to edit two-inch and half-inch tape with a razor blade and splicing block. One weekend, I stayed in the studio from Friday afternoon until Monday morning fueled entirely by coffee, cutting together a club remix by hand—reversing drum hits, flying vocals around, inserting tiny pieces of blank tape to create stutter edits. Looking back on it now, it really wasn't all that different from old- school film sound editing. Eventually, Colortone signed with a subsidiary of CBS Records, and I had the opportunity to work alongside producer Glen Ballard (Allanis Morrisette, Michael Jackson, Wilson Phillips). I learned an enormous amount from watching great producers and mixers work, and I carried those lessons with me into every chapter that followed. After years of touring, recording, and surviving life in bands, I realized something important: the studio engineers always seemed to have steady work, and when one project ended, they simply moved on to the next. They also seemed slightly less likely to want to kill their coworkers. Begin career two. I was eventually hired by Battery Studios in Chicago, owned by the Zomba/Jive group, and later became chief engineer there. That experience changed my life. I soaked up everything I could from artists, producers, mixers, studio designers, and equipment manufacturers. It was like attending graduate school for sound every single day. After a decade in Chicago, I moved to New York City to work as a freelance mixer. By that point, I had been fortunate enough to work on many gold and platinum records and eventually, earned a Grammy for mixing "I Believe I Can Fly," which was featured in the film Space Jam. That project also became my first real exposure to surround sound. I was asked to remix the song in Dolby Surround, and the experience completely changed the way I thought about audio. Suddenly, sound wasn't just coming from two speakers in front of you—it could fully immerse you. From that point on, I wanted every one of my mixes to feel like a movie. While living in New York, I had the chance to work with incredibly talented artists and producers, including Sting, Ric Ocasek, Britney Spears, Max Martin, and many others. But the music industry was changing rapidly. File-sharing and home studios transformed the recording world, and eventually, the collaborative energy that I loved about making records began disappearing. My wife and I eventually moved to the Woodstock area of Upstate New York, where I converted an old barn into a recording studio and started a small record label. Not long after that, a local film company contacted me about recording score for one of their projects. Those sessions changed my life. For the first time in years, I found myself surrounded by creative people working together in real time again— directors, composers, producers, musicians, editors—all collaborating toward the same goal of serving the story. I recorded score, worked on loop group sessions, and eventually, began mixing score and mixing films in 5.1. That became career number three. Several years later, we moved to Los Angeles so I could fully pursue post-production sound. I started out with a small 7.1 mix room in Burbank, working with independent filmmakers, and wearing every post audio hat: dialogue editor, sound designer, re- recording mixer. I did conforms and assemblies. I showed up in Burbank and Hollywood with resumes in hand, attended every industry event I could find, and reached out to organizations like Motion Picture Editors Guild, Motion Picture Sound Editors, and Cinema Audio Society. Along the way, I met generous mentors and new talented friends who helped me translate everything I had learned in music into the language of post- production. What I love most about post is that no matter how much you know, there is always more to learn. New tools. New workflows. New ways to create emotion through sound. Every day, I try to learn something new. And through all three careers, I'm still following the same rule I learned at 15 years old; playing drums in those little Chicago clubs: Story is king. Leave space for the storyteller. Support the emotion. Never overplay. "Those lessons stayed with me through every phase of my career—whether I was playing in bands, engineering records, mixing music, creating sound design, or working in post-production. Story always comes first."