The player is loading ...
Struggling to set your rates? Follow the link below to get your FREE Rate Calculator Worksheet and watch the episode about how to confidently define your value as a music freelancer.
Travis discusses why he quit every staff engineering gig he had and how to know that you're ready to go freelance as a recording engineer, mixer, or producer.
📺 WATCH THE SHOW ON YOUTUBE 📺
https://www.youtube.com/@progressionspod
Connect with Me:
📬 Newsletter: https://www.travisference.com/subscribe
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/progressionspod
🎵TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@progressionspod
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/progressionspod
🌐 Website: https://www.travisference.com/
🙏 Leave a Review or Rating 🙏
Apple: https://www.progressionspodcast.com/apple
Spotify: https://www.progressionspodcast.com/spotify
📢 Our Sponsors 📢
Listen to Secret Sonics!
Sign Up for Complete Producer Network!
Credits:
Guest: N/A
Host: Travis Ference
Editor: Travis Ference
Theme Music: inter.ference
Speaker:
I want to make this video for. A while because I know how important going
Speaker:
freelance was for me. It absolutely changed my life. It could
Speaker:
change yours, too. And so because of that, I've bounced a lot of versions of
Speaker:
this around in my head, felt the pressure to make the perfect video.
Speaker:
But I think the reality is that I just need to share this because I
Speaker:
think it'll be valuable to somebody, even in an imperfect form.
Speaker:
Welcome back to the show. I'm Travis Farents, a Grammy nominated recording engineer and mixer.
Speaker:
And today we're talking about why I've quit every gig I've
Speaker:
ever had. So I spent almost six years as a staff engineer at
Speaker:
Capital Studios in Hollywood, an absolute, legendary, classic
Speaker:
recording studio. And I also worked on staff for several independent producers.
Speaker:
And don't get me wrong, all these gigs are dream gigs for
Speaker:
anybody, including me. And I did love them. But my goal was always
Speaker:
to be a freelance engineer and mixer, which I've now been fortunate enough to do
Speaker:
for. The last six years. So if that's your goal as well, stick with me,
Speaker:
because we're gonna talk about why I quit these gigs and how to know if
Speaker:
you're also ready. To make that jump to being a. Freelance engineer or
Speaker:
producer. But before we get into all this quitting. Right. Let's briefly talk about
Speaker:
why a staff engineer gig is such an amazing launching. Point for a
Speaker:
career. So when you're a staff engineer, you start at the bottom. You
Speaker:
are essentially assigned mentors because you get to work alongside people that
Speaker:
have. Done this for years, if not decades. A great
Speaker:
studio is great because of the staff, and those veterans
Speaker:
know that. So they are always ready to pass down their knowledge to you,
Speaker:
which is amazing. And you're not just going to learn from the staff.
Speaker:
A studio is a rotating door of people. You get the chance to work with.
Speaker:
So many different artists, engineers, producers. You'll get to see
Speaker:
different styles of production, different micing techniques, different
Speaker:
workflows. You'll probably work on everything from rock to pop
Speaker:
film scores to tv commercials. You'll see film shoots live in
Speaker:
studio performances. I mean, I could go on forever, obviously. You name it, it's
Speaker:
probably going to happen. If you work in one of these big rooms, the wide
Speaker:
range of things. That you'll be exposed to will help. You learn what you like
Speaker:
and what you don't like. And the more things you experience, the more options you
Speaker:
might see for your future. Right? You may have started in this business thinking you
Speaker:
wanted to record rock bands and then one day work on a film score and
Speaker:
realize that that's actually what you want to pursue now. That same wide
Speaker:
range of experiences that's helping you figure out what you want to do. It's
Speaker:
also shaping your sonic tastes. You'll pluck different tricks
Speaker:
from different sessions and different people, and over time,
Speaker:
you'll start to build that palette, that is your sonic
Speaker:
preferences, and that will give. You your own unique style. And finally, that
Speaker:
same rotating cast of characters I mentioned earlier, they will become your
Speaker:
client base. Because it's important, even as a staffer. To think of
Speaker:
the people you work. With as your clients. Having people
Speaker:
remember that they enjoyed working with you and to request to work. With you again
Speaker:
is one of the. First indications you'll get that you're doing something right,
Speaker:
something that could carry over. To a freelance career. So by now, you're
Speaker:
probably asking yourself, if being a staff engineer is so great,
Speaker:
why would you quit? Well, earlier I said that I had
Speaker:
quit working at Capital Studios, which was a little bit of a lie, because
Speaker:
I actually quit twice. And so I started my career
Speaker:
there. As a runner, the classic entry level position. Right?
Speaker:
After a few years, I realized that because it was such a great
Speaker:
gig, there was not a lot of movement, people were not leaving anytime
Speaker:
soon, and I wasn't going to wish death upon any of my buddies. So when
Speaker:
an opportunity to go work for an independent producer came up, I took it. Now,
Speaker:
I was grossly underqualified for the job at the time,
Speaker:
but I was. Good enough to get by. And I think the guy saw an
Speaker:
opportunity to shape a young engineer to do things the way that he
Speaker:
wanted them done. So we did a lot of music for film and tv, a
Speaker:
few big Disney projects, and a whole slew of songwriting sessions, all mostly
Speaker:
pop. And I was constantly given
Speaker:
new responsibilities, and if I handled those well, then he would just give
Speaker:
me more. And so it got to the point. Where I was recording, editing, and
Speaker:
mixing every project we did, unless the label wanted a fancy name
Speaker:
mixer. And it was great. I loved all of it. It was
Speaker:
amazing. Until I started to feel
Speaker:
unchallenged. We had such a routine in the way that we
Speaker:
worked that every day started to feel the same. Every EQ move started to
Speaker:
feel the same. The guitar sounds were the same, the vocal chain was the same.
Speaker:
Everything was the same. And when I felt
Speaker:
like I was starting to just go through the motions, I started to think that
Speaker:
maybe it was time for a change. Because careers are about growth,
Speaker:
and growth. Comes from being challenged. I'm a big believer that when you.
Speaker:
Stop learning and you stop being challenged, you start to get
Speaker:
frustrated, and you may not identify exactly why you're feeling that
Speaker:
way, but it's because you're not growing. And this
Speaker:
is why I left capital the first time. I saw more potential for growth by
Speaker:
leaving, so I did. And when I felt that growth start to slow down,
Speaker:
I started looking for other opportunities. So if you're feeling this in your career
Speaker:
right now, I encourage you to look for a way to grow. Maybe that growth
Speaker:
is from moving on to be freelance, or maybe it's not quite time yet, because
Speaker:
it is a big jump. And in my case, it was
Speaker:
not quite time. It was instead time to go back to
Speaker:
capital. So I leveraged my years of pop vocal recording and mixing to get
Speaker:
rehired, but this time as a staff engineer. So they were expanding
Speaker:
the facility to have a few rooms dedicated to vocals and overdubs, and
Speaker:
hence were hiring more people. So it was perfect. It gave me the growth and
Speaker:
challenge I was looking for, and it put me back in the mix of different
Speaker:
experiences and different people. But over those
Speaker:
next six years, I'd find that there was something else that was missing that would
Speaker:
eventually drive me to quit again. I think it's safe to say that
Speaker:
what drew most of us into music to begin with was the
Speaker:
ability to express ourselves. For me, it was playing what I thought was cool
Speaker:
on guitar in my bedroom all night. Just turns out that I was a horrible
Speaker:
guitar player. But in the studio, I can still have that creative
Speaker:
expression, especially when I'm mixing. And that's what I
Speaker:
lost when I returned to capital. I was engineering great sessions, but I wasn't
Speaker:
mixing. And most of the engineering I was doing was the same one
Speaker:
mic, one player overdub engineering that I had been doing before. Now
Speaker:
I was for sure being challenged. The stakes were often higher. The artists
Speaker:
were usually bigger. But because of that, I didn't have the
Speaker:
freedom to always do what I wanted. Nor did I have the freedom to choose
Speaker:
the projects I wanted to do or to work the way I wanted. And these
Speaker:
things didn't bother me at first. I knew the gig I was taking when I
Speaker:
took it, and I loved it. But as I grew more and I got
Speaker:
better at my craft, I started to crave that choice.
Speaker:
I wanted to develop my own sound and build my own credit list with. The
Speaker:
artists that I wanted to work. With, things that every engineer
Speaker:
wants to do right, but they're also things that are generally out of your control
Speaker:
if you're on staff somewhere. So if you feel like
Speaker:
you've grown your skills to the point that you want to be making records your
Speaker:
way with the people you love working with, then
Speaker:
you're right where I was at this point. And I think this is one of
Speaker:
the biggest telltale signs that you might be ready to be
Speaker:
freelance. Because this feeling of not having the freedom to do what you
Speaker:
want, it's rooted in the fact that you've developed your musical
Speaker:
identity to the point that you have to live it. And it's that kind of
Speaker:
confidence that you need to be a freelancer. So what did I do?
Speaker:
I quit. I quit capital again. But yet
Speaker:
again, it was not to go freelance, which, looking back on, was
Speaker:
a mistake. I should have made the plunge, but I had to do one
Speaker:
more gig. And learn one more lesson. So, like a broken record, I
Speaker:
left capital to work for a producer. I was hired to run his label, Studios,
Speaker:
which on paper was an amazing gig, but in reality, it was not what I
Speaker:
wanted to do at all. And so I ended up doing this little side quest
Speaker:
for, like, six or eight months before finally realizing it was time to be
Speaker:
working for myself. Because despite the fact that I was running two rooms
Speaker:
and managing small staff, I somehow still felt unchallenged in this
Speaker:
gig. And even though I was in charge of the studios, I still
Speaker:
felt a lack of freedom. And this is when I realized that the true
Speaker:
core of my frustrations, the thing that had been festering behind the scenes,
Speaker:
is that I'd lost sight of my goals. That first time I quit
Speaker:
capital was the only time I was working towards the goal I mentioned in the
Speaker:
beginning of being a freelance engineer and mixer. All the
Speaker:
other choices I made after that were based on chasing credits or making
Speaker:
money. I was trying to gig hop into bigger records and waiting
Speaker:
for those credits to miraculously get me mix work, even though they were
Speaker:
engineering credits. Id mixed for years on the side. But when
Speaker:
youre on staff, you only have so much free time. And yes, I was making
Speaker:
a living working in music, but I was not working towards the things I wanted
Speaker:
to work towards. And that realization that I had been out of
Speaker:
alignment with my goal for. So many years was the final catalyst in going
Speaker:
freelance. So if you're still watching and you feel these things, you feel
Speaker:
that you are unchallenged and not growing and that you don't have the freedom to
Speaker:
be who you want to be artistically and that what you're doing is not in
Speaker:
alignment with your goals, then I encourage you to change that. And
Speaker:
it might be that going freelance. Could be the answer. You're looking for.
Speaker:
And if it is, and the thing that's holding you back is not knowing
Speaker:
what to charge, then check out this video I did about how to set your
Speaker:
rates.
Here are some great episodes to start with.
