Willa is a freelance studio sound engineer and producer, currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. She loves working with artists in the studio to carve out their sound and clarifying their stories. She will be blogging about her past and current experiences in the studio, and sharing her journey as she pursues her career goals.
Musings on the Role of Femininity in the Music Industry
There is a power in being a woman in the music industry. Being confident and secure in who you are provides a sturdy foundation for the rest of your work, whether you are a tech or an artist.Brace Yourself
Finding ME Time – Even 5 minutes is so important.A Little Dab’ll Do Ya… Bringing a Corporate Mindset to the Music World
CONNECTION. Keep meeting with, and talking to, as many people as you can, and build relationships. Every time you meet with someone, don’t necessarily expect to come out of it with a new job or opportunity. Hope to come out of it with a new friendship, mentorship, or connection. Ask them about their life, their ...Relocation Adventures
There’s nothing like fear as a motivator, and if you’re not willing to risk everything, then what’s the point, right?How to Turn an Unpaid Internship into a Compensated Growth Opportunity
Ah, the unpaid, post-graduate internship. You know the one I mean: the one that has no defined time period, expects you to work an undetermined schedule (yet still be able to commit to 30+ hours per week), promises great connections, will probably have you doing nothing but “gopher” work the whole time…Occupying Both Sides of the Glass
Becoming an educated listener and engineer has definitely impacted the way I look at my own music when developing my songs in a recording session. For one thing, not only am I analyzing the way everything sounds,So. When Can I Expropriate the Sound Guy?
While I was working at South by Southwest, I went to go check out a performance from a friend-band downtown. The bar was the usual dive, narrow and rectangular, not much in the way of sound equipment. While the friend-band was setting up, I noticed that the engineer was, to put it mildly, drunk as ...SXSW: A First-Time Tour Manager’s Guide
My official title for the week was “Tour Manager,” which confused me at first because originally I thought all that tour managers did was book shows (and I’d had about diddly-squat to do with that). But by the end of the very exhausting seven days, I figured out that the role of TM was ...The Art of Being an Evil Genius
There’s this moment that occasionally occurs when I’m working on a project in the studio. I like to call it “The Evil Genius Moment.” It happens when I’m sitting in a vaguely uncomfortable wheelie chair in a studio in front of the board, my elbows on the console, my head in between two speakers, eyes ...