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From making coffee and sweeping floors to credits with Taylor Swift, Imagine Dragons, and Ariana Grande... Travis breaks down the mindsets that have helped his career so far.
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Credits:
Guest: N/A
Host: Travis Ference
Editor: Travis Ference
Theme Music: inter.ference
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I've been working as a professional recording engineer in mixer for 18 years, and over
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that time I've gone from getting food orders as a runner at Capital Studios to
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working on projects for some of the biggest artists in the world. As an engineer,
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I've had four billboard number ones, multiple gold and platinum records, and
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over 1 billion streams. And I attribute almost none of that
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success to my skills as an engineer. So in this episode, I'm going to share
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with you what I've learned over the last 18 years. And as a
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bonus, what I wish I knew before I started.
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So the goal today is to hit you with as much information as I can
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in a fairly rapid fire format. And I've divided things up into the
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following sections. What I've learned about the art of engineering and mixing and this
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is not a tips and tricks section. This is like a big picture perspective
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on the mindsets that will help you have a long career in audio. What
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I've learned about networking and getting gigs, or not getting
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gigs, what I've learned about the music business and what I've learned about
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people, both myself and others. And finally, what
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I wish I knew before I started. So I'm going to be moving quick. If
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you want me to deep dive on anything, just drop a comment down below and
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I'll try to put together a video or a newsletter on it. So let's get
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into it. The art of engineering and mixing these are the mindsets that you
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need to have a career as an engineer. First, be the most
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prepared person in the room at all times. You must be prepared for
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anything and willing to try anything. The worst thing you could
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possibly do is be a barrier to someone's creativity. One of the reasons I
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excelled at engineering writing sessions is that I was set up so that anything
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the writer or producer wanted to try was doable with the press of a button.
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There'd be a mic for vocals in pretty much every room. Di setup, mini
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keyboard, ready to go. If there was a piano in the room, it was always
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mic'd. Ideas happen so fast that you have to be able to capture them
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quickly, which leads me to the next point, which is the music
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is what matters more than anything. There will be times when you
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have to record an instrument or a vocal with a less than ideal microphone or
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without the chain that you want. It doesn't matter.
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If the performance is great, then the recording is great. End of
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story. And while supporting the artist's creativity and enabling them to try anything,
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you are also responsible for setting expectations and educating people
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on the limits of the technology. The best example of this is recording
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multiple people in the same room. If the artist wants to record piano
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and sing at the same time, it is your job to explain to them what
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will be possible and not possible later in the process.
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Assuming that everybody in the room is as experienced in the recording studio as
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you are, is eventually going to lead to problems. This is another reason
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that session preparation is so important. Everybody needs to
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understand what the intentions of a session are so that it can all run
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smoothly. And when things don't run smoothly, you have got to be able
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to troubleshoot. It doesn't matter whether you are working in a classic studio like
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Abbey Road or a local project. Studio time is money,
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and I guarantee that downtime will be one of the top reasons someone does not
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want to come back to work with you. So to properly troubleshoot,
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you have to first remember not to lose your cool.
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Everything is solvable. You just have to work through things in
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steps. Don't try changing multiple things at the same time. That won't
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identify the issue and can sometimes even make things worse. So
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be methodical and you can pretty much solve anything. Next up,
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be a team player, and along with that, respect the work
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of everybody that has come before you. The goal of the project is to put
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out the best final product possible and drastically changing
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something because you think you know better than somebody that came before you in the
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process is going to work against that. Ego should be
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left at the door when you're working on a team, and this goes for people
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early in the process as well. If you are frustrated that you are
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recording something but not mixing it, do not get rid of all your
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processing before you send it off. If you sat in the room with the artist
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and shaped the tone of something using plugins, then people expect
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that sound to be the same on the next round of the project. The
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role you play in a project may not always be the one that you
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want, but you still have to play as a team member. You've got to
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practice. Engineering is a skill that can be practiced just like an
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instrument. If you have downtime, mix something, download some multitracks,
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or redo something you did years ago. Train your ear. Do stuff like try
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to identify the frequencies you want to take out before you go sweeping around and
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looking at the analyzer. Or compare different plugins, right? We all have
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like 14, 11, 76 plugins. Put them on the same source
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material level, match them and listen. What do you like about each one?
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What do you not like? You can never stop getting better. This industry is far
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too competitive to get complacent. And lastly, the
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mixtape. To rule over all mixtapes, the sooner you
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identify the most important element of a song, the quicker you can
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carry the listener through the journey that the artist intended. Now onto what I've
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learned about networking and getting gigs. First up, there's good
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networking and then there's bad networking. I used to go to these post college
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networking events for where I went to school, and even as an unemployed
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22 year old, I could see how much of an absolute wank these
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things were. It would break down like this. 90% people looking for a job
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and 10% people with a job. And those poor employed souls
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would get bombarded with business cards. The desperation was
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crazy. And that's bad networking. Good networking
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is being yourself, meeting people authentically in real life.
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The relationships that you make at these events are likely just going to
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be transactional and fleeting, right? Everybody is just looking to get
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something real. Collaboration comes about naturally
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from real relationships. The best relationships you make are with
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people that you're working with. My network is made up of people that I've
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come up with or spent a lot of time with, either as friends or coworkers.
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So what if you don't work in a studio or live in a music hub?
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Don't let that be an excuse for not having a network. Reach out to
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people via email or social media. Try to foster connections with
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people that you think you'll resonate with. Don't reach out to
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bands begging to work together. A good network is not necessarily
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made up entirely of clients. It's important to have just music
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friends, whether you work together or not. That has been the biggest
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benefit of this podcast for me. I've met so many awesome people,
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many of which I now get to call friends. Having a network of like
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minded and supportive people around you is super important to your journey.
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Since I mentioned social media, it is a necessary evil. And I know so
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many engineers and producers absolutely hate posting on socials, but
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I think they are missing an opportunity, and it's not the opportunity that you might
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think. When I started in this industry, there were a lot more people
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going in and out of studios. You were interacting with people every day and
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it was easy to get to know someone. Now everybody's in their
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home studio like this, and we're all by ourselves.
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Social media has become an opportunity for people to get to know who you
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actually are and to determine whether you might be the type of person they
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would click with. Which is why when you post on socials you've got to
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be authentic. You cannot make a fake version of your
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life just to make you feel better because that eventually that will
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backfire. When it comes to getting gigs, the best gigs you get will be from
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word of mouth. It is also the hardest way to get gigs because it is
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dependent on doing a lot of work. You have to spend years doing
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great work for people before you will be anywhere close to a calendar
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full of word of mouth referrals to speed that process up. The most
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underestimated and misused tool is the follow up. Most people
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think of following up as an email that says, loved working together, let's do it
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again. But getting more work from someone is not necessarily the purpose
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of following up. If you made a record with someone, you're probably
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somewhat friendly with them. And like I mentioned earlier, a network of
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like minded and supportive people is key to your success.
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So fostering those music friendships will go a lot further than
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asking for more work. Remember, somebody may never hire you again, but
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they could be talking to someone else when they get your text and say, oh,
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you should work with this guy. Y'all would really click and that could be the
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gig that changes your life. The last thing to know about networking in this industry
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is that it is not a big industry. If you're outside
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a music hub like La or Nashville, you might feel like the industry is huge
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and that your town is the only place that the community is small. But that
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is definitely not true. When you're in it, you realize that pretty much
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everybody knows everybody else or is only one degree of separation away.
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So you don't talk shit. Don't be dishonest, world get around
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next up, what I've learned about the music business and just business in general. So
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first off, if you're a music freelancer, you are an entrepreneur and a small
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business owner. If you are looking at yourself as anything else, you're never actually
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going to get ahead. The whole I'm an artist and business is the devil vibe
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is just not going to work. The brutal truth is that you cannot have a
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career in something if it doesn't pay your bills. And that's not to
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say there's anything wrong with having a normal day job and recording bands on the
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side. Lots of people do that. But if you ever want your passion side
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hustle to sustain your living expenses, you're going to have to learn about the
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business of it. Next up, since you're an entrepreneur now, you have to be confident
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in the value of your time and only you can set that I did a
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whole episode about how to best calculate your rate, which I'll link down in the
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comments. But in short, you need to understand how long an
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average project takes so that you understand what to charge. If you're
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paying your bills or would like to pay your bills engineering and mixing then you
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have to be sure that you're making a living wage from your work. The only
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way to do that is to understand how long a project takes. That also
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allows you to understand how many projects you can actually do. Having
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any amount of accountability in this industry actually goes a long way. I've
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heard hit songwriters complain about hit producers taking forever
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to finish something. When you have the cloud of number ones, you might get a
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little slack, but if you're working with independent artists and consistently missing deadlines,
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you will be losing clients. People are probably going to hate hearing this next one,
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but you've got to understand contracts don't ever sign
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something unless you've read it and understand it. Should you have a
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lawyer read it? Yes, but remember that a lawyer sees
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this stuff every day, and there's probably something in there that they expect to
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see and might assume that you also expect to see that you
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don't. So what I always tell artists I work with is the most important part
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of any deal you sign is the shitty part. It's great to look at your
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pub or record deal and see your vance, but what are you trading
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for that money? You have to understand all of the bad parts of everything that
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you sign along the lines of contracts. Do not leave conversations
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about money, publishing, splits, or royalties until after a project
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is done. You should not work on something without determining the rates
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first. If the artist doesn't want to talk about it, then you have to get
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with their team and have the conversation. Telling someone how much they owe
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you after you do the work is going to be a disaster, I
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promise. And likewise, going back to workout splits or points
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after the fact is also not going to work out in your favor. You need
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to become comfortable talking about business. Next don't be afraid
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to outsource things. Engineers tend to micromanage and
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refuse to let parts of the process go, but that can definitely hold us back.
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If you absolutely love mixing and tuning vocals and editing is preventing
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you from mixing an extra couple songs a month, why would you not
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outsource that to someone you trust so that you can do more of what you
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love? So as long as you're able to generate more money
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with the time you gain than it costs you to outsource the task,
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then you have a positive ROI and you should go for it. And speaking
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of return on investment, gear is fun. Plugins are
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fun, but what's the real ROI? Does buying a piece of gear actually
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make you more money? If it's a rack of mic breeze that allows you to
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do remote recording, then yes it does. If it's a vintage
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1176 that you'll use on a mix insert on one track. As much as
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I would love to encourage everyone to buy a vintage 1176, it's not
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actually going to make you any more money. So before you spend money on gear,
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just think about whether it's going to actually be a good investment. And lastly,
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there's almost no one in this business that I know that does not have
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good months and bad months. Just the nature of the way payments are
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processed by labels. You can work a whole month and not get paid for two
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more. And this is why you have got to be aware of your cash flow
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in and out, and plan accordingly. Try as best you can to
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save and invest. Remember that as freelancers, we are the
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ones that are responsible for our retirement. So the earlier in your career you get
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that mindset in place, the better off you'll be. So engineering is
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about people as much as it is the technical details, if not more
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so. This last section might be a bit touchy feely for some of you, but
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I think this is actually the most valuable stuff so far. So stick with
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me. In order to show up as your best self for the other people involved
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in a project, you have to understand yourself. And that takes
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reflection. It also takes time. It might take getting
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a little bit older as well. Stuff I've learned about myself over the years is
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one I'm a perfectionist and it's definitely held me back plenty of times.
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Putting something out into the world that I didn't think was perfect was super difficult.
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But ultimately, perfectionism is related to confidence and fear.
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Either you're too afraid of failure to move forward, or
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you aren't confident in your own work. And what helped me was
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starting this podcast four years ago and releasing something every
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week. So if you're a perfectionist, I suggest finding a creative
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hobby. Make some stuff, put it out in the world. The confidence that you gain
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will branch into everything else that you do. I also found that I love learning
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new stuff, and I also believe that people are just happier when they're exploring their
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interests and learning. I had a period in my life that I was often uninspired
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and pretty burnt out. And it was probably four or five years into my
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career, I'd been fortunate in the fact that I was doing a lot
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of engineering for pretty big projects. By the time I was 25, the first song
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I had a mixed credit on was a number one album. And I think that
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early success made me feel like I knew what I needed to
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know already. And then if I just did the work, I'd become a huge
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mixer. Which wasn't true, obviously, but that period of
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uninspiration definitely quickly came to an end when I started exploring
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new stuff, started getting into production, I started making music again, and
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I started this podcast. So I now know that I thrive on learning new
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things and applying non music concepts to my music career. Next up is setting
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boundaries. There's a belief in the music industry that we all have to be available
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at all times. And while that can definitely help you early in
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your career, it will also eventually lead to burnout. For
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more than a decade, I kind of just viewed myself as a service provider
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and not as a collaborator. Because of that, I felt the need to
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serve at all times and putting up boundaries with
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clients was just not going to be an option. But once you start thinking
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about the value that you bring as a collaborator and the downtime that you need
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to be the best for those people, then you'll become okay with
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setting boundaries. And you know what? Your clients will
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respect them. I know that you think I'm lying and that they won't, but
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they will. When my daughter was born, I took four weeks off, and every single
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job that came my way during that time waited all four of those weeks. I
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didn't lose a single gig. So try boundaries
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next. Youve got to prioritize health. For most of my career, the number
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of hours I worked was like a badge of honor. I think thats the case
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for a lot of us. And I even got to the point of having a
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doctor tell me the solution to my elbow pain was a surgery to move a
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nerve. And I didnt do that. Nor did I stop working 16 hours a
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day. I just put up with the pain and moved on. Now
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I exercise. And guess what? All of those aches, as well as a
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great deal of stress, magically gone. The
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hectic lifestyle of the recording industry does not make it easy for us to take
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care of our physical and mental health. So if you want to perform at
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a high level for a long time, you have got to take
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that stuff seriously and make time for it. And lastly, I struggled
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with believing that I was successful. Some
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classic imposter syndrome I was trying to fit into some
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predetermined mold of what success as an engineer meant instead of
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setting my own definition. And once I realized that I was
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going to make my own path and that my journey would never match any of
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my heroes or any of my peers, that's when I felt good about
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what I was doing, and I became truly confident in my work and
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ultimately more successful. So, as promised, a quick bonus
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section of things I wish I knew before I started working in
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studios. One, you've got to be an advocate for yourself.
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When I started at Capital Studios, I thought if I worked hard, then I would
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just magically be taken up through the engineering career hierarchy.
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But hard work is simply not enough. Nobody else is going to put
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you in a position to succeed except for you two.
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Positioning matters, and what I mean by that is you have to be aware
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of what your goals are and reflect to be sure that you're in a position
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to be able to hit those goals. If you want to be a film composer,
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don't go on the road doing live sound. If you want to record pop songs,
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don't work at a scoring stage. I've quit great gigs because they were not
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in line with where I wanted to go, and it's hard, but you will
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bounce back and you'll be happier for it. Number three, have
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patience. It's going to take a lot longer than you think it will. There is
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no overnight success. It just looks like there is because we don't see all
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the hard work it takes to get there. And four, you
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cannot quit. I've said this on the podcast so many times, the music industry is
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about being the last person standing. Eventually you will
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be busy because you'll be good and you won't have quit.
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And if you've been at this for a while and you're feeling totally burnt out
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right now, check out this video about how my burnout actually saved my
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career.
Here are some great episodes to start with.
