Kelly Sayer, the young and passionate recording engineer at KIDinaKORNER studios, discusses who inspires her to keep striving for success in a male-dominated industry

Who can aspiring female engineers look up to?

Every engineer has role models that they can aspire to be like. And as a Berklee College of Music graduate who works for a Grammy-award winning producer, I’ve been lucky to learn directly from some of my own. The trouble is that, since there are so few females in this industry, it’s no surprise that most of our role models are male.

Aspiring female engineers need successful female role models

Since women seem to need to work twice as hard to prove ourselves as we start to break through the prejudices of the engineering world. So I want to give praise to two of my own greatest inspirations, in the hopes that their successes might inspire some of the other determined women out there.

Leanne Ungar:

In an interview with Tape Op in 2002, Leanne explained that music is an emotional art that desperately calls for the participation of more females. With over 30 years of experience as both an engineer and a producer, Leanne’s remarkable discography prove that women can break the mold.

She is best known for the seven albums that she produced and engineered with Leonard Cohen as well as having worked with Laurie Anderson, The Temptations, and Tom Jones, to name just a few.

As my professor in college, Leanne encouraged me not to connect every struggle I face in the studio with being a girl. She reminded me that there would be difficult sessions and difficult people, who might even be equally as difficult towards a male engineer, but at the end of the day, it is going to matter most that I can believe in myself and be proud of the work that I create.

Susan Rogers: Another highly successful woman in the industry, Susan is internationally recognized for her work with Prince on albums such as Purple Rain, Sign o’ the Times, Around the World in a Day, Parade, and The Black Album.

From establishing herself as a tech in Los Angeles to solidifying her reputation as one of the most successful recording engineers in the world, all the way to acquiring her doctorate in music cognition and psychoacoustics, Susan has not let the bias’ of the industry slow her down for even one moment.

When seeking production advice from her on an EP that I produced earlier this year, Susan told me to let the song drive me – the arrangement has to serve the song (and often, the vocal), not detract from it. Her philosophy also reminded me that if you keep your focus on the music (which is what drew most of us into this line of work, to begin with), everything else falls into place. When you are making good music – music that you love – that’s what really matters and prejudices that might usually get in the way of the creative process become irrelevant.

These two incredible women are both examples that show how we as women can defy the odds and make a name for ourselves as successful engineers if we set our minds to it. And there are many others like them. So I encourage you to go out and seek female role models, whether you know them on a personal level or not, who can inspire you to keep pushing boundaries and persevere they way that they did.

“I like to approach engineering from the eye’s (and ears) of a musician. Having trained as a singer myself, it has been invaluable for me to know what it feels like to be on both sides of the microphone”.

To Find More Role Models and Inspiration Check Out SoundGirls Profiles on the 5%

Kelly Sayer is a passionate audio engineer, songwriter, and vocal producer. Originally from Cape Town, South Africa, she is currently based in Los Angeles, where she is employed as head engineer for platinum-selling record producer Alex Da Kid.