On the Go With Jessica Berg

Music has played a prominent role throughout Jessica Berg’s life. From an early age, she was often singing solos in choir and performing with her cousin’s bar band near the family cabin in northern Minnesota. At age 14, Jessica began playing guitar and writing songs with her best friend, one of which they recorded for a class project, and this began Jessica’s fascination with the world of audio technology.

In high school, she would often hang out at a friend’s recording studio, and another friend gave her a Tascam four-track cassette recorder. During her senior year, Jessica began performing at open mic nights and was featured as a solo artist on a local radio station’s weekly program, “MN Homegrown.” For Jessica’s high school graduation gift, her dad brought her to a studio in the mountains of Colorado to record a three-song demo. Soon after that, she joined a band and began performing around the Minneapolis-St. Paul area both as a solo artist and in bands, all the while practicing and learning the art of four-track recording.

In 2002, Jessica decided to pursue her passion for audio and enrolled at The Institute of Production and Recording in Minneapolis, MN. Within her first year, she was offered a live sound gig working with Le Cirque Rouge Burlesque Cabaret Troupe. Jessica says, “Working with this group was the best way to cut my teeth in live sound. It was a theater-type crew, who rarely stuck to the script, and I was often working on crap gear that I had to make sound good. Sometimes I even ran lights. Everyone got paid off the door. It was awesome.” Working with the cabaret troupe led to another live sound gig working with Cuban jazz group Charanga Tropical. Both clients had shows regionally, so Jessica had the opportunity to work in a variety of situations with two very colorful and talented groups.

While still in audio school, Jessica began interning at A440 Studios, one of the last large studios operating in town and negotiated a paid assistant engineering gig for regional rock band Skywynd’s “Escape Plan” album. “The lead engineer had a young child at home so that he would leave every night around 5 or 6 and I’d take over. We were tracking to 2” tape and transferring into ProTools. I was in heaven,” she says.

Jessica also interned with legendary promoter Sue McLean, and would get paid work as a runner on her shows. Around this time, she also began running sound at The Dakota, one of the top 100 jazz clubs in the world. Jessica remained on the house audio crew until she moved to Los Angeles in late 2013. “It’s an international listening room – Meyer had tuned it, it was intimate, and many shows were so attentive you could hear a pin drop,” she says. “I’ll always love that room.”

Not long after graduating from audio school, Jessica would become the dub room engineer at a top voiceover studio, Voiceworks (now Audio Ruckus.) Since the studio operated nine to five weekdays, the owner offered up the keys, and Jessica would bring in her clients in during off-hours. She was also on the call list with the Local 13 IATSE stagehand union for a year or so.

In 2006, she became the full-time Concert & Events Coordinator for the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board, running four outdoor venues with over 220 shows between Memorial Day and Labor Day, including large community festivals and other park events throughout the year. Jessica says, “I walked into a 122-year-old tradition that had been a bit neglected, and I was determined to help nurture and fix it. Gear was broken, figurative duct tape left everywhere, people were unhappy. I was given a file box with a stack of papers and a bag of keys, a Motorola phone, an office in a historical building, and told to ‘go’ – so I did.” Over the next three years, Jessica helped raised support from within the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board, built a strong team of seasonal sound engineers, worked with local community groups to purchase new audio gear and introduced the concept of allowing Music in the Parks sponsorships to the organization’s Board of Commissioners.

During this time, Jessica also served as a board member of the Jackie Lee Robinson Foundation, who was one of the original founders of IPR, and in cooperation with the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board and other professional audio companies, helped to start the Ideawerks recording studio educational program in the parks. The program is free for youths aged 12-17. After her third season of running the Music in the Parks, Jessica decided to move on. Today, the Minneapolis Music in the Parks program has never been stronger and brings joy to thousands of people every summer.

During her time in Minnesota, Jessica received certification in Festival and Event Management through the University of Minnesota Tourism Department and was introduced to the Head of Production for the WeFest and the 10K Lakes festivals in Detroit Lakes, MN. The WeFest is the largest camping and country music festival in the nation. Jessica would start out working as a stagehand and work her way up to the Backstage Production Assistant. She was in charge of backstage production parking and would run sound for the VIP area near the backstage area, post- main stage show. Jessica has continues to work these festivals and says “We are like a big family, and I have learned what it takes to run a huge, multi-act, multi-day show. It reminds me why I got into the business in the first place – I love that crew.”

Jessica would go on to work for IPR as an Academic Coordinator and become a founding member of the Twin Cities Mobile Jazz Project non-profit organization, bringing jazz music and education to youth into underserved communities throughout the local region. She would also return to school and receive a BS in Media Business. She never stops learning and seizes the opportunities presented to her.

As a graduation gift, one of Jessica’s closest friends in Los Angeles bought her a one-way plane ticket and offered her a place to live. “I knew I wanted to spread my wings and get out on the road more. I loved what I was doing in Minneapolis and the people I worked with, but it is the biggest small town you could ever be from. I figured I’d give it hell for two years and see what kind of magic I could stir up,” she says. So after breaking the news to her jobs and making sure they weren’t left high and dry, then releasing an album/love letter to her Minnesota life, giving away her furniture, and shipping a couple of pallets of boxes via Amtrak, Jessica flew to Los Angeles on Halloween in 2013. “It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made,” she says. “As many wise mentors have shared – in this industry, if you either have a job or a place to live, you gotta make that leap.”

Soon after landing in Los Angeles, Jessica discovered SoundGirls while searching the term “sound girl” on the Internet. It was too much of a coincidence that she had started her website soundgirlproductions.com a year earlier, in honor of the endearing nickname given to her by fellow Dakota crew. Not only that, but Jessica had been involved with a few different “women in music” groups in Minneapolis, and she feels none had emphasized live sound in the way that SoundGirls.Org does. “I felt like I found my tribe,”

Quadron Tour 2014

Jessica would check out the site almost daily and one day, a job post flew by on my Facebook feed. It read – “TM/FOH needed ASAP…” and included an email address. I responded right away and two hours later I was in a meeting at the Avalon in Hollywood, where an upcoming concert was in pre-production.

The woman hiring for the TM/FOH position brought me on as her PA for the Avalon show to see how we would work together. When the Avalon concert was over she said, “OK you’re hired, we’ve got a lot of stuff to do!” I was on the road as TM/FOH with Quadron less than a week later, opening for Mayer Hawthorne. It was a dream come true.”

That one gig has led to the next two-plus years of mostly touring work for Jessica, and the woman who originally hired her became a mentor. When she got back from the Quadron tour, Jessica worked as a Project Manager at Biz 3 (a publicity company) for about six months, while running sound at a couple of local LA clubs and doing one-offs working with her mentor. Jessica applied and got on the call list with a stagehand company, which has led to a variety of different gigs throughout Southern California when she is off the road.

Dr. John

In late 2014, Jessica was offered a gig to be Dr. John’s tour manager during his US/UK Winter 2015 run. In the interim, Jessica accepted the gig of TM for Waka Flocka Flame. These two tours took up most of 2015, minus a six-week stint running monitors and working on the audio crew at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center.

After returning from Dr. John’s tour, Jessica knew she wanted to reconnect with the SoundGirls community and signed up for the group’s SSL Live Training at Rat Sound. She is excited to be volunteering with a growing organization and community that is achieving its mission – to help empower the next generation of women in audio, expanding opportunities for girls and women in the audio and music production fields, and sharing resources and knowledge through cooperation, collaboration, and diversity. Jessica shares, “SoundGirls is truly a haven for women in our field. I feel so fortunate to have found our community. The supportive vibes and being able to relate to each other is huge. It also led to my first paid touring gig out of Los Angeles, which has led to pretty much all the other gigs I’ve had since I left Minneapolis!”

Saint Motel Tour Crew

As of late, Jessica is continuing her professional adventures in the freelance TM/FOH/MON world, mainly as TM with Phoebe Ryan. She also works on audio crews with a few production companies when home in the Los Angeles area. While her career is a primary focus, Jessica said that this year she’d like to pick up her guitar a bit more, sing a little louder in the car, remember to take five-minute dance parties when needed, and help our SoundGirls.Org community continue to grow and evolve on a global scale.

What do you like best about touring?

Time and space seem to shift, and there’s a lot of magic that happens in that flow. The key is to not resist it. Touring reminds me to live in the moment and make ‘em count. What I like best about touring is that I get to work on my feet, literally and figuratively – tapping into all my life skills, knowledge and intuition to help make some really cool stuff happen in the moment. I’ve also met some amazing people while working on the road, and I’ve been fortunate to have worked alongside some incredibly talented industry professionals along the way. As an engineer and musician, for me personally, there are no other jobs that allow for such an exercise of the heart and mind quite like the ones in the touring industry. There is always something new to learn.

What do you like least?

Being on tour can feel like living in a bubble. It’s important to stay connected to loved ones while on the road and take time for self-care. Post-tour depression is a real thing.

What is your favorite day off activity?

TMs don’t really get days off. I usually enjoy my off days playing catch-up on life and work, finding some healthy food, maybe get a mani/pedi, and taking a walk in some nature if I’m lucky. Sleep!

What are your long-term goals?

Health, happiness and love 🙂 To keep learning and evolving. To master the SD5 and do a stadium tour. To help make a difference every day, no matter how big or small.

What if any obstacles or barriers have you faced?

I’ve definitely felt the challenge of having to prove my worth as an engineer and tour manager – which, being highly competitive fields, felt more like an educational lesson than any kind of obstacle. Either I was learning or I was teaching someone else. I dug in, took initiative, asked questions, got up in there with the rest of ‘em, pulled my weight, sweat, smiled, and kept a positive attitude throughout. Was it easy? Hell no. But it has absolutely been worth it. The uncertainty of a sustainable career in the beginning of my journey was an obstacle of sorts as well, since everyone needs to eat and have a place to sleep at night.

How have you dealt with them?

I eat obstacles for breakfast. We wouldn’t be worth our salt as engineers if we didn’t. Every day on the job we are faced with creative problem-solving situations and asked to find the solution. Whatever perceived barriers or obstacles I’ve faced, I simply try to not put too much energy into the problem and instead focus on the solution. In the beginning of my career I worked whatever jobs necessary to survive and kept a low overhead, so that I could work with good people and take advantage of industry opportunities to further my skills. Perseverance, connecting with my network of supporters, and my belief in myself carried me through the tough days. Same goes for tour managers.

Advice you have for other women and young women who wish to enter the field?

Do it! It’s a life-long adventure. Prepare to be in it for the long haul. Be patient with yourself and ask lots of questions. There are a significant amount of men in the industry who are supportive of women working in the field – don’t let the haters ruin it for all the good ones out there. Embrace your gifts and talents and everything unique that you bring to the table. Remember that women scientifically have better hearing than men. You’ll have to passionately pursue your education, whether formally or in the real world because nobody is just going to hand it over. Stay hungry. Keep an open mind and explore all the possibilities.

Must have skills?

Must have skills include: a positive attitude, showing up on time, perseverance, having a solid understanding of signal flow, training your ear to hear different frequencies, time management, ability to take charge when needed, ability to troubleshoot technical issues, and/or find resources, remaining calm under pressure, and being able to maintain a professional demeanor. I think working in the service industry is the best way to prepare for working in the field, as you learn almost all of these skills but especially how to work with different kinds of people. Learn how to solder.

Favorite gear?

I’m admittedly not a gearhead, but I do love working on a large-format analog console. Don’t get me wrong – flying around on a digital console has its own particular merits and brand of swagger. However, having everything all laid out in front of me has a definite charm and feels like I’m working from a different place in my brain. My other favorite gear would have to include the SM57 and SM58 microphones – because if you can’t do a show using only these microphones then, well, I don’t even know. Sometimes that’s all you got to work with. I love em for their strength and reliability. An xlr sniffer/sender cable tester will become one of your best friends. My favorite tour manager gear is my portable printer, hands down.

Interview with Producer/Engineer Te’

The percentage of women continues to rise within working occupations across the globe, tech and the music industries both being included. But with women only making up 5% of music producers and engineers in the music industry, we continue to set the bar high by taking control of our own careers and using that hustle muscle to achieve success one goal at a time.

Producer Te’ is among that 5% within the music industry. A natural-born hustler who has set herself up for success. From songwriting to producing to engineering. She has done work with the likes of Anthony Hamilton, Matt Linsech, Jason Gilbert, Teddy Riley, Atlantic Records, Capitol Records, and more. Over the years Te’ has been open, honest, and willing to guide me in the right direction within my own career. I had the opportunity of interviewing Te’ touches on her journey thus far, being a woman in the music industry, favorite gear, and more.

What sparked your interest in audio technology? You have graduated with a business degree and were self-taught, something had to ignite a passion in audio.

Coming from a family of musicians and singers, music has been instilled in me since birth. As I got older, I became intrigued by the creative process and found myself reading the liner notes and researching how the music was being made. When I was 13 I got my first keyboard/workstation and taught myself how to compose & arrange instrumentals. In my freshman year of high school I was introduced to composing with computers and synthesizers and began making tracks on the Cakewalk program.

Many get there break into the industry with one aspect first. Did songwriting lead to producing, producing to engineering.. vice versa or did everything kind of evolve together? What was your specific process?

I definitely started writing first. I thought I was a rapper back in the day, so I would have notebooks full of raps, but never had any tracks to put the words to. When I started making beats my passion for composing/arranging evolved, but now it all goes hand in hand. I later bought Pro Tools and taught myself how to use it. I thought I was the shit, but my mixes were horrible back then lol. All in all, when people would come to record with me they would leave with a full record. I would have the tracks already prepared and when the artist got there, I’d write the song or co-write it with them. In some cases I would make the beat from scratch.

What obstacles have you faced and overcome building as a woman in Tech/Music business?

There was only one situation that stands out. I was applying at a major recording studio to be an engineer and I was told that they didn’t hire female engineers. According to them, from past experiences, females were just too emotional. I knew it didn’t have anything to do with me personally, but I was definitely dealt some unfair cards in that situation. In hindsight, it was a blessing because I wouldn’t want to work for a facility or brand who generalizes or has a stereotypical mindset. I just kept it moving to the next opportunity. Overall I am received well in my field. I am grateful.

How has technology affected the way you book and work with your clients?

Creatively, technology gives us more options and freedom to experiment until we get the sound that we need. There are no limits. From a business perspective it’s great because of social media, it allows us to expand our brands and attract new clientele.

As an engineer and producer do you take on work for hire gigs or are you employed with different labels?

If it’s an engineer gig, the producer will call me in for a session either with the artist or for a songwriting session. If I’m writing/producing I tend to work with anyone who is working on a major project. My management will book me a session with the artist, or the producer will call me in for a writing session to write for a specific project.

Do you own your own recording studio? If so what is your favorite piece of gear within your space?

I float around between different studios in LA, but I do have a small home set-up for when I need to work on material outside of the studio. My favorite piece of gear is probably the LA2A as far as compressors go….and I love love love the Telefunken U47 mic! From my experience, it sounds clean and clear on almost every voice.

Do you play any instruments? Or do you use more technology-based gear to create?

They say once a drummer always a drummer, although I am rusty now, that is my first instrument. I can maneuver around the keyboard enough to get the idea out. When I am producing or co-producing I like to bring in live musicians to play on the record. Although the digital world is great, I believe music still needs to have an authentic feel and bringing in live musicians achieves that.

Analog vs. Digital? What’s your outlook?

Both. With digital, your creative aspirations are endless, but as I mentioned before, I like my music to have an authentic vibe like the music I grew up listening to in the 90s, and that’s where analog saves the day. Blending the two together is the perfect match in my opinion. You have to know both, there are still some things that can’t be imitated, so being able to go back to the original source is crucial. But definitely need both.

What are your top five best moments in your career so far?

Wow I don’t know if I have five yet, considering my career is just beginning.

One is definitely being able to write, work and build a relationship with the legendary Teddy Riley. I grew up listening to him and his work, especially Michael Jackson’s “Dangerous” album which is my favorite album of MJ. It’s a huge honor to work with the man whose name was in the credits of the albums I was listening to and influenced by growing up. His stories about the music business are not only fascinating but extremely insightful and informative. I’m truly grateful.

Two would be meeting Trakmatik of Roc Nation; working with and watching him achieve greatness is inspiring. It’s a beautiful thing to witness someone close to you reach higher levels of success and inspire the next generation behind us.

The third, I’m going to have to get back to you on as my career progresses. Lol

What advice would you give to upcoming engineers and producers on staying up to date with technology and entrepreneurship?

Study the people that have come before you in your field. They’ve already laid the blueprint to success. Learn what they did and then add your own flavor to it to make it unique. Stay up on current trends but focus on creating what the next sound might be. Don’t be afraid to take risks because you never know what your ideas may lead to. On a more philosophical note, don’t allow any negativity or adversity to deter you. You were already born to be great. Always live within your elite self. Stay true to that and you will prosper and live the quality of life that you deserve. You will have doubters, but you will also have supporters and admirers that you are inspiring and may not even know it, so don’t quit. Be the example, you never know who is watching and using you for inspiration.

Te’ was one of the first people I reached out to when I had the idea of starting a blog. She motivated me when things didn’t go as planned. She always reassured me that I can obtain success, ONLY if I wanted it bad enough. Thank you, Te’ for always being a positive influence. I hope we both can inspire someone else to follow their dreams. Until next time, I encourage all of you to fight against the odds and go for what you want. No matter what career path you choose, don’t let anything hold you back #BeGreat

You can follow producer Te’ journey on Instagram via @officialte & on Twitter via@_itsTE_

Teaching to Empower

How do you teach the basics of sound reinforcement, when you still find yourself learning from the shows you work?

This was the question I was left asking myself after I was asked by the City of Ottawa’s Community Arts and Social Engagement program to develop an introduction to sound course for women.

My background in sound is diverse. I worked at a community radio station as a teenager, and then I taught myself how to record when my band needed to make a demo. I moved on to working in live sound in my early 20’s when some local sound techs to let me shadow them. I never went to audio college. When I had a question, I read up on what I could find online or asked fellow techs. It was definitely a slow process – I don’t think I knew what I was looking for when I EQ’d a room for that first year of working shows. From working with different co-workers and touring techs, it quickly became obvious to me that there were many different schools of thought in how to approach mixing in a live venue.

As great as it was to ask questions to fellow techs, I sometimes found it intimidating to admit I didn’t understand a concept. I was a young woman, new to the industry, and with very few female audio techs to look up to. I could count on one hand the amount of female audio techs I’d worked with before moving to Toronto. It’s not that I prefer learning from women, but as volunteering for Rock Camps for Girls has taught me, it’s that it can be nice to learn in an environment where you are not shamed for asking questions. It’s these thoughts that helped me frame my course plan.

I wanted to make sure women with little to no experience running a sound board would feel comfortable doing an equipment rental, setting up a PA and running a small sound check after completing the one-day class. Perhaps a bit ambitious considering similar classes tend to run a week or more, but I had faith in my participants.

Preparing for that first class, held in August 2015, was daunting. I came up with a basic manual and a course agenda:

We would spend the morning talking about the equipment needed to set up a PA
I’d set up a PA in front of them
Participants would get in groups of 2-3 and set up their own PA
We would then go over tech requirements for different kinds of artists
Finally, we would set up a PA at a small arts space and sound check a band

I was fortunate that my first round of participants were fairly experienced – mostly musicians, and even some women who had been through a music industry arts program in college. They seemed to absorb the material, and the soundcheck portion of the class went fairly smoothly, except for one crucial point: the difference between gain and faders. As we’d been using small powered mixers without faders for part of the day, I could see where the confusion was coming from. From having had a few bad experiences with over gaining and feedback, I’m always wary of my gain pot. I also don’t subscribe to the idea that it’s always necessary to hit -0dB levels on every input: sometimes, your source is just too quiet and it’s best to try and get it as close as possible and pull back before feedback. This is definitely something I learned through experience, which I tried to convey to the participants.

That first session received a positive response, and the city brought me on for another class in November 2015. With the help of the assistant teacher, Lesley, I re-worked some of the sections of the teaching manual. Version two of the booklet was definitely more concise. The second round of participants ended up having different backgrounds in audio and music than the first group, which lead to the class schedule needing to be slowed down. This taught me as an instructor that although you can prepare a lesson plan, you never know how well your students will absorb it until you start teaching them!

With that lesson in mind, I re-worked the class yet again. The winter 2016 edition of “DIY Intro to Sound Class for Women” was split into 2 days, making the weekend portion slightly longer, which gave me more time to cover materials. We moved the soundcheck practical portion of class to two days later, which would hopefully give participants more time to process what they’d learned. This proved to be a double-edged sword– the weekend portion was more relaxed, but it was difficult for some participants to make time to come to the weekday class. In retrospect, I like the condensed class better, as I found it was easier for students to stay in the groove, even if it was a long day.

As I told my students, no amount of class time can replace experience: the city of Ottawa has been working on internship opportunities for class participants so that they can put the skills they’ve learned to use. Live sound is tactical, and you have to work different shows with different artists to develop your own toolbox of tips and tricks. I also subscribe to the idea that to stay on top of your craft, you must constantly be pushing yourself to learn new things: although I have been working full time in live sound for close to 3 years now, there is still so much I want to know!

I am now working on part two of this intro class, aimed at women who are looking to further their skills and find work in live sound. This will be hosted in early summer at one of the city’s theaters and will give students the chance to work in a real venue, with pro-audio level equipment.

Which leads me to ask: what are some of the most important lessons you’ve learned working in live sound? What resources (books, websites, videos) helped you? I’m looking for help and input in the continuous development of my curriculum. Feel free to reach out if you have resources or tips you’d like to share.

Thanks to Caleb, Allison and Karen at the City of Ottawa Community Arts and Social Development Program for their support in creating this class.

Being The Boss (Even When You Aren’t) – Part 1

Have you ever had a boss that you absolutely despised?
Someone unorganized, impatient, and short-sighted?
Didn’t make you enjoy your job, did it?

A quality leader can make or break any business or project. As the boss, you are the face of the team. What your team does reflects on you, and vice-versa. If you’re unorganized, or don’t know your crew, or have no goals, how can you expect to lead anyone anywhere? A leader needs to have many positive qualities in order to be successful.

Get to Know Your People

You don’t need to remember your technician’s great-aunt’s birthday to know them. Learn their strengths, weaknesses, what they enjoy about work and what they don’t, who they work well with, etc. It also doesn’t hurt to get to know them outside of work-themed bullet points. Are they married? Do they have kids? What do they like to do outside of work? Get to know them as human beings, instead of just employees or teammates.

Some of my worst managers knew a lot about me personally but nothing about me professionally, so they didn’t place me where I needed to be. Others were familiar with me professionally but not personally, so they weren’t sympathetic to anything that may have been happening outside of work. Find a balance. You don’t have to be best friends, but you should at the very least acquaint yourself with them on a basic level.

Push Them

An important part of any job is growth opportunity. Without growth we are stagnant and begin to lose interest in learning. When I stop learning, I get bored and enthusiasm dies, which causes my performance to suffer. Even if you aren’t 100% comfortable letting them do something, let them do it. Watch over them, supervise, make sure they don’t destroy something or kill someone, but let them dive in. Sometimes, being thrown to the wolves is how some of the most valuable learning happens.

Personally, I love being pushed past where I thought I could go. I find this idea especially important for young women because we so often tell ourselves we aren’t good enough or aren’t ready for something when we are. Each person deserves to learn and grow as a human and as a fellow worker in the industry. With that being said, it’s a fine line between pushing them to succeed and pushing them right off the cliff. If you place your team members in situations they can succeed in, not places they’re bound to fail in, you have that much less to worry about.

Communication

Like all relationships, communication is key. I cannot stress this enough. If you don’t efficiently communicate with your team, your leadership means nothing. Part of communicating well has to do with knowing your team, as we discussed before. Some people respond well to straightforward directions (i.e. “go there,” “do this,” “do NOT do that”). Other people need a little bit of an explanation (i.e., “go there because”, “do this while”, “this causes that”). Some people work in an entirely different way. You should know how each of your team member’s understands tasks best. I can tell some of my team members a very general idea of what I need to be done and they can fully transition that into a finished task. Some of my other team members need an exact list of every single thing that needs to be done to finish satisfactorily.

Another part of communicating well is listening. Communication is a two-way street, you know! Make sure that you hear your crew, and that they know you are hearing them. I ensure that everyone is comfortable coming to me and asking a question or asking for advice. I would much rather answer the same question 10 times than have someone go in confused or accidently irreparably damage something. If a crew member needs to know something, or they’ve got a problem with a co-worker, or an outside client is acting disrespectfully, I want to know. We can’t fix or address what we don’t know. Open communication lines.

Next blog will continue part two of this series on how to be an effective leader!

Woman Up

“Woman Up” is a guest blog from Becky Pell, freelance sound engineer, yoga teacher and writer. This post originally appeared on RocknRoll Yogi.

It’s an inescapable fact that the music business is a male-dominated industry. Lately, I’ve noticed a springing-up of more discussion groups and surveys focusing on the roles of women in touring, and why there aren’t more of us. As you’d expect, I get asked about it a lot.

There are some brilliant organisations, like Soundgirls, who support the ambitions of budding young female sound engineers. I really like their proactive approach of inspiring the younger generation and sharing knowledge – knowledge which is valuable irrespective of gender. Soundboys would do well to check out the articles on the Soundgirls website for practical know-how!

But some comments I’ve read on Facebook (in response to very sensible questions about how, for example, other women have handled a situation) worry me. It’s great that there’s somewhere we can discuss the stuff that concerns us. But I see some women getting hugely up in arms about the attitudes of some guys, and wasting time dissecting their behaviour/comments/ignorance; time which, to my mind would be better spent just proving them wrong!

I absolutely identify as a feminist and a strident one at that. But…. I don’t know if continually highlighting the thing that makes us different is helpful. Your life consists of what you pay attention to, after all. If you’re determined to be offended and outraged, you won’t have to look too hard for material.

But equally, if you’re looking for opportunities to educate the old, mostly male, guard; to inspire and surprise and change attitudes….. Here’s your chance!

I’m hugely supportive of younger women trying to break into a tough but brilliant career. I’m hugely supportive of younger men trying to do that too.

The advice I would give to a young woman wanting to do my job is 99.9% the same as that I’d give to a young man, and I think that the more we draw attention to the fact that *drum roll* THERE’S A WOMAN ON THE TECH CREW!!!!, the further away we push ourselves from our intention of acceptance.

What creates happy, peaceful communities? Integration.

And what causes wars? Segregation. ‘We’re different.’ It’s obviously an extreme example, but I hope you see my point.

There will be people – ok, guys – who want to make a drama out of you being a woman and belittle you, and who feel threatened because the world is changing. But trust me, if someone is being a jerk, it’s not because of your vagina. It’s because they’re a jerk. Or having a bad day. Or whatever. You know what you do? You deal with it and you move on. Dismiss it. Don’t give it more energy than it deserves. That’s how we change attitudes – by not letting the jerks win.

Women in a lot of places in the world have a seriously raw deal. But that’s not what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about emancipated, educated western women with choices. With personal power.

The behind-scenes music business is tough, irrespective of gender. Only the deeply committed get anywhere. It’s long hours and hard work and rejection and uncertainty and insecurity. It’s also a great many brilliant and exciting things that make all of that worthwhile. If you’re the kind of woman who gets offended by swearing; who expects special treatment; who doesn’t want to get her hands, either literally or figuratively, dirty; it isn’t for you.

But if you’re a woman who has a thicker skin than that; if you can brazen out any stupid comments and learn how to come back with a witty retort; if you’re willing to get amongst it; the music industry needs YOU!

We need you because when the people who got here first – the boys – see that having girls in the playground isn’t a problem, guess what happens? It isn’t a problem! But like all ground-breakers, it’s up to us to educate them. Is that fair? No, probably not. But are you going to sit around complaining about life not being fair? Or are you going to change things with your actions?

(Or, as an ancient proverb has it – will you be the person who wants to wrap the world in soft leather to make it comfortable to walk on? Or will you put on your shoes?)

The best advice I can give a budding young lady roadie is to just GO FOR IT. Dream big. Don’t give your gender another thought, because a guy certainly wouldn’t, and you are every single bit as capable and worthy.

Are we seriously going to let what we’ve got in our pants be a defining factor in whether we pursue our ambitions and live our dreams? Come on girls. Get real.

Woman up.

Independent Contracts – The Business Skills You Need

As a sound technician (sound engineer, mixer, editor), there’s generally two types of gigs:

Working for someone else’s company. They’ll contact you to book the job; You show up and do the work.

Working for yourself. Someone hires you to do a job, but you are responsible for everything that goes along with it (from staff to equipment).

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Navigating a New Building – Planning the Build.

Over the last four years, I have been a part of the planning and designing committee for a new student union. Over this journey, I have learned many things when it comes to building a new structure and that the process can be very complicated and messy. If you ever get the opportunity to be a part of the planning process for a new venue, do it. It will be an experience you may hate at times, but it is rewarding. It has been a great learning experience. (more…)

Norah Seed – Finding your Dream Job

By Toni Venditti

Norah Seed is an audio engineer who has worked in Live Sound for over 25 years. She has worked in theatre, television, and AV. She currently heads the audio department for the Shell Theatre in Alberta, Canada.