It’s easy to miss the SoundGirls news and blogs, so we have put together a round-up of the blogs, articles, and news from the past week. You can keep up to date and read more at SoundGirls.org
https://soundgirls.org/event/los-angeles-soundgirls-social/?instance_id=1256
Have you ever felt overwhelmed with how many things you need to do and there is just not enough hours in a day? Looking at next week hoping it will be an eight-day week rather than seven? Hands up, I am one of these people!
Learning how to say no to things have been a bloody hard journey for me. I think learning how to say no and prioritise yourself is something that applies to both full-timers and freelancers.
Personally, I love doing different things. Djing, producing music, scoring for short films, etc. It is incredibly hard for me to manage all the things I want to do at the same time as I am working full time. Do not get me wrong, I love my job, and I would not have anything different (Except for maybe an eight-day in the week), but sometimes I just do not have the time for it all!
Not only do I want to do these other music-related things, but I also want to see friends, have fun, and exercise as well! Being able to cook food at home, have a day off, and just do absolutely nothing. The list goes on.
The truth is, all of these things will not happen. At least not at once. And we need to learn to accept this. I have accepted that there are different things at different times and stages of life! Some weeks I will have time to exercise and time to cook proper food that will nourish me. Other weeks I will eat fast food for a week, and the thought of exercising is just not happening. And that is OK!
The only way to manage workload is to try and plan ahead. Try and stay on top of things, prioritise what is important, what can wait, and so on. At university, I was taught the traffic light model. Some of you might be familiar with it, some of you might not be.
With the traffic light model, you put things into categories:
Red is off track and urgent.
Yellow is not incredibly urgent and is relatively on track.
Green is on track and projects can wait.
When I was taught this in university, everything felt urgent & off track in my life.
I just could not let go of the idea that I needed to do everything and everything at once. But now a couple of years later I truly understand the importance of this and the importance of saying no or “this can wait” to not burn myself out.
There are things in life we need to deal with urgently, whether it is your personal life or work-related. And we should deal with these things immediately! We might have gotten sidetracked, found the task boring or it just felt stressful to deal with it. But the longer we wait, the harder and more stressful it will be to deal with it. Ask for help if you need to.
I would say, look at your life as a DJ mixer. Just try to avoid going into the reds. There is nothing good happening there. Try and stay in the greens & yellows. Evaluate your life, where are you right now? Incorporate an admin hour or two in your day/week, so you can properly sit down and have a look at where things are at. When you take control of things in your life, you are less likely to feel overwhelmed, and you will make time for the essential things in your life. And the most important thing in your life should always be yourself and your well-being.
It’s easy to miss the SoundGirls news and blogs, so we have put together a round-up of the blogs, articles, and news from the past week. You can keep up to date and read more at SoundGirls.org
SoundGirls Members can receive a complimentary pass for Music Expo Miami – email us for code with your SoundGirls member ID
Music Expo Miami 2018
SAE Institute, 16051 W Dixie Hwy, Ste 200, North Miami Beach, Florida 33160
Saturday, March 24 10:30AM-5PM
What: Over 20 sessions covering songwriting, recording, mixing and mastering, business discussions covering artist branding, revenues, music showcase, beat battle and product demos.
musicexpo.co
Tickets: website: musicexpo.co/tickets
Facebook page: Fb.me/musicexposf
Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1760156890981845/
Twitter: twitter.com/musicexposf
Instagram: instagram.com/musicexposf
https://soundgirls.org/event/los-angeles-soundgirls-dinner-2/?instance_id=1255
https://soundgirls.org/event/los-angeles-soundgirls-social/?instance_id=1256
https://soundgirls.org/event/tour-harmon-with-aes/?instance_id=1254
For my March blog post, I’m going to answer two questions I was recently asked.
How do you manage performance while stressed/upset? Like today I played a show and I was really stressed all day, and I could really feel it when I was on stage. I was really still and didn’t move a lot and, I could feel it in my voice too. What do you do to kind of control that?
I’m really close with my parents but they’re a little bit unsupportive of my choice to go for music. My mom more than dad. So far I’ve gotten into all the colleges I applied for, and I also might be able to get a full ride to another school that used to be my top until I realized I didn’t like the programs there. My backup is either graphic design or entertainment management, both of which are at the college I want to go to. If I go to the school I want to go to, my friend and I are gonna get an apartment together and really work hard on building our band and putting ourselves out there.
I know at the end of the day it’s my decision but it’s difficult to discuss this with my family. All in all, I guess I know they just care and want the best for me and are coming from a good place. But it’s so difficult to face that, and it affects me a lot (especially performing). Did you have to deal with something like this?
I’m going to answer these questions together, as they are both about maintaining composure and performing well even under stress and sadness.
Yes. The late teens and early twenties are inherently chaotic times for most of us. The arts are scary to a lot of people for a lot of reasons, including issues of self-love, capitalism, and creative blockage. Often it seems easier for children of musicians to find their way into music, and I speculate as to whether this is a result of fewer barriers such as these.
As you say (and you are completely right), it’s your decision at the end of the day. If you can go to college for free and do not have another opportunity conflicting with college (e.g., an all-expenses-paid impending tour for your band), it is probably a smart choice to go to college. It’s hard to go to college for free in the US, and if you find yourself at a crossroads, you can always switch your area of study or leave altogether. At the end of the day, finding your path takes time and you will make mistakes. Period.
It sounds like the emotions or thoughts of people around you affect you strongly, and I think a lot of creative people have this trait. I definitely struggled (and still do) with navigating the feelings and thoughts of people around me, especially my loved ones. When I was in my preteens and teens, my biggest challenge as a performer was learning to stop worrying about what my audience thought of me and my songs. At this point, my audience was mostly my friends and family. I wrote a lot of songs about my parents, growing up in a small town, moving a lot (divorced family), and that sort of thing. People would cry, and give my parents the stink eye. I would be nervous to sing new songs that talked about this stuff, but I faced the fear and would do it anyway. I’m glad I did it, but it was not glamorous! It was terrifying and embarrassing, but also totally necessary.
Oddly, my parents never really confronted me about anything I said in my songs. In this sense, they were very respectful of my creative inclination. However, they were not able to provide me stability through high school, college, and after college. For me, these years were a hodgepodge of putting pieces together, and aside from my grandparents buying me a microphone for my birthday and my aunt paying for my college textbooks, every dime I spent was my own money. Any bit of space I’d previously been able to occupy in their homes all but dissolved as their own romantic relationships started to dissolve. I was stuck in the middle trying to figure out how to make my life happen. Both my parents felt awful and their home lives were coming apart at the seams. I felt terrible for them and wanted to help them, but also I just wanted someone to help me drive my stuff to my new apartment and walk it up the stairs, and maybe to help me put up curtains. Maybe eat dinner with me in my new apartment. I was barely 20 after all. With no one to do these things with, I did them by myself. It was sad, and exhausting, especially after it went on for years. Other family members would say things like “Well if you’re not feeling great, maybe try something else.” What they didn’t realize is that making music DID feel great; it was one of the ONLY things that felt great! But I was only able to do it after a 40 hour work week, after getting off the phone with a crying parent, after cooking and cleaning and paying all my bills, after dragging a desk up the stairs to my apartment by myself.
Really the thing that felt bad was getting through all of the chaos to put my life together in a way that allowed me to make music more often than not. I had to trust that this much was true.
It actually can get harder as you get a little older. Many, many well-meaning people will see your “musician lifestyle” as a lack of commitment to your own self-worth and life. Many will ask why you would do something that doesn’t pay very well, especially during the beginning years. I have lost count the number of times a well-meaning family member or friend has told me to “be ready to get a real job when the time comes.” The sting never lessens, but you indeed become less and less concerned with getting stung at all. So much of the life of an artist consists of stings. It’s part of the job. A lot of times, the discouraging family member is actually just worried about you. They don’t want you to go through all that pain and sadness.
At first glance, all this chaos may seem like something you should avoid. But, listen to other artists and musicians. Their stories always have chaos! They always have tough decisions. They always have shows where something is affecting their emotional state and they need to power through anyway. Channel all the bad stuff into your performance. Treat every performance as an opportunity to be your best performance ever. It’s a skill you must practice to get better at. Play lots and lots of shows and get feedback and keep challenging yourself. Work.
I have a joke I tell myself which is that “the life of an artist is a life of constant embarrassment.” No matter how successful you become, you will always need to take risks to make meaningful work. Taking a risk means there is a possibility you could fail. Furthermore, there will always be people who find a way to undermine you. There is always failure, there is always rejection, and there are always haters. There is always the fear that you may be misunderstood. Check out this interview with Janelle Monae where she talks about how she is afraid of rejection right now.
Every single person has their own struggle. It may not come early on—it may come later in a career. Regardless of when and what it is, it is meant to provide strength and wisdom.
Join our Colorado SoundGirls Chapter for a tour of KCSU radio station at Colorado State University. SoundGirl Hannah Copeland (KCSU General Manager) will give us a tour of their operation there and tell us about station and audio facilities at CSU. Then we’ll pop over to the newly-renovated Washington’s – a 900-capacity venue with a brand new state-of-the-art lighting and sound system – and get a tour from Production Manager, Kevin Gregory.
Fort Collins is about an hour north on I-25 from Denver. We’re hoping to get a crew to carpool from the Denver-Boulder area. Contact Anna Frick if you are interested in carpooling anna@airshowmastering.com
I discovered this book on a trip to Moog in Asheville, NC. After the incredible tour, I was drooling in their gift shop with a small wallet. It was this beautifully packaged book with a soft matte white hardcover that caught my attention. Vaguely waveform-like shapes and a subtitle that paired music with electronics led me to skim the summary. From there it checked the final box: a book written by an audio pioneer who just happened to be female.
Daphne Oram was an electronic musician and sound designer when these terms were in their infancy. She co-founded and was the first director of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, famous for the ethereal sounds of the television show Dr. Who and the radio drama Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Through Oram’s vision, BBC Radiophonic Workshop was an incubator for musique concrete, experimental compositions that focus on sound manipulation. Oram herself left BBC Radiophonic Workshop soon after its creation and pursued electronic sound synthesis in her facility and on her own terms.
There is a story behind the edition I acquired, and one can feel the love in its creation. This publication was commissioned by the Daphne Oram Trust and funded through a Kickstarter campaign. The manuscript was re-typed, the diagrams were digitally redrawn, and new photographs were added in addition to the originals. The new outside cover is unique unfinished paper with abstract designs, and while reminiscent of a textbook it is smaller and gives a soothing feeling. Inside the endpapers are dark green rastered photos. Daphne Oram’s portrait graces the front, and her studio is featured in the back. Each page is a thin cardstock that gives weight to the words printed. Topic guidelines are added to each chapter heading and reflect the style of writing within. A preface has been added that offers a fitting tribute to Daphne Oram, as well as preparing the reader for the mind from which the main text was created.
An Individual Note of Music, Sound and Electronics is written as a guide to understanding the philosophy of sound and its creation. Starting from the definition of sound, Oram leads the reader through the path of that note as an individual to overtones, chords, and various ways of creation. The final result is her Oramics Machine, a synthesizer that uses pictorial waveforms as the control interface. And like her device, An Individual Note combines different academic disciplines to reach the sonic goal.
Admittedly when I picked up this text, I had thought it would be filled with formulas and circuit diagrams. And while there is mention of Fourier and the basics of an oscillator, this is book favors humanities and art. Even Oram’s writing style is almost more poetry than prose with her use of alliteration, repetition, and metaphors. Nearly every single chapter had a reference to her coined term “cele” as a counterpoint to “elec” (electricity). These flourishes are interspersed in a stream of consciousness that does not reveal its goal until the last few chapters. Complex formulas and jargon are set aside in favor of the nuances of emotion and thought experiments. And some of those thoughts stretch too far in the realm of speculative fiction. In comparing resonance to consciousness and manipulation of it as a form of signal processing drugs become white noise. “You will be using white noise to overwhelm yourself…” Up until the end, I was impatiently waiting for the secrets to proficient analog sound synthesis and methods for tape manipulation. Instead, I found a succession of somewhat restrained nonsequiturs leading towards a creative thought process.
One cannot build the illustrious Oramics Machine from this book unless one has a background in Electrical Engineering, but An Individual Note can serve as a preface to experimentation with pre-made synthesizers. Often she refers to Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis, a text which feels anachronistic. “Wee also have diverse Strange and Artificial Eccho’s…” And Oram is not afraid to look into the past to find inspiration for the future. Nothing is off limits to influence the creation of sound. Daphne Oram does not write a how-to book, but a why-to. This is a text to inspire curiosity and to provoke new perspectives, as Daphne Oram did. And I guess I should co-opt a term from Oram herself and say that this book is a muse.
I have spent over seven years working in-house at nearly every major festival in the UK, and plenty of the smaller ones. Festivals can be some of the most rewarding shows to do, but they come with their own set of challenges. I hope this guide helps you to have a good show.
Step one: Be prepared. You should always have a clear, up-to-date stage plot and channel list (make sure any colour-coding works in black and white. They won’t get printed in colour). Send them, and a show file for the in-house desk if you have one, to the festival in plenty of time. I’m talking weeks, if not months. It’s no good sending your advance in on Friday morning when the gear left the warehouse on Tuesday. Try your best to keep your information accurate for that particular show, too. A lot of festivals will be run on “festival patch”: every band shares channels for similar instruments (e.g., kick drum inside mic is 1, guitars all go in channels 13-16, brass in 25-30, etc.), which means someone will have been tasked with going through everyone’s advances to figure out how to fit everyone in (another reason to send it in early!). If you turn up and tell them you were only touring the 37-piece children’s choir for your headline shows you will have caused a lot of hassle for nothing. It isn’t usually a big problem to add an acoustic guitar, but inviting the mariachi band you made friends at the campsite last night to join you for a few songs might not be possible. Even if the stage is running “1 to 1” (every band is patched according to their channel list), the more accurate your information, the more the stage team will be able to help you in advance.
Step two: Be prepared. Check what the weather is meant to be like, then bring layers and waterproof clothes anyway. Figure out how many socks you’ll need for the duration and pack twice as many. You won’t always have access to running water. A lot of festivals provide alcohol gel instead of taps, and they might not get refilled regularly. Bring your own sanitiser, wet wipes, toilet paper and diarrhea medication. If you have a uterus, bring sanitary products that don’t involve… well, you know. Pack plenty of drinking water and snacks; even though you’re with an artist, you might not be given more than one meal for the time you’re there. If you have any dietary requirements, make that evident as soon as possible and have a contingency plan in case the message doesn’t reach the caterers/runners.
Step three: On the day. Be prepared. Set off as early as possible. Traffic can be absolutely awful getting into a festival. Leave literally hours earlier than you would normally. Make sure you know which gate you need to head to, which may not be signposted. Allow for a long wait to get your passes at the gate. Bands have missed their set because they only got to the site for the time they were meant to be setting up. Being five minutes’ walk away from the stage is by no means the same as being five minutes from the stage!
When you get through security, head straight over and talk to the in-house team. Don’t be surprised if they don’t have your up-to-date spec, even if you sent it ages ago (but thanks for trying)! There are so many different layers of organisation and management involved with a festival; information sometimes falls through the cracks despite people’s best intentions. Keep a few printed copies with you, and have your show file on at least two USB sticks. I guarantee you, you will leave one in a desk somewhere and not notice until the next day, and you might be in a different country by then.
Check with the stage manager whether there’s space to unload and set up your gear. The earlier you get ready, the more time you’ll have to line check and fix any problems. It’s tempting to reward yourself with a few beers in the dressing room after the painful journey onto the site, but that might delay the running of the stage, and you’re risking wasting precious set time fault-finding. Get everything ready and check when your line check slot is (either just before your set or often during the changeover before yours if they’re using a rolling riser and double desk system). If you haven’t used the in-house desk before, you can ask whether there’s any time to play with it before your set. If they’re running two desks at each end, you should have at least the set before yours to get used to the layout. If not, it’s no big deal, because you checked out the offline editor for it beforehand, right? Because you’re so prepared?
Arrive back for your set in plenty of time. If possible, smuggling some cakey treats out from artist catering for the stage crew will win you major brownie points (especially if they are brownies). If you’re still unsure how to use the desk, or anything else, there’s no shame in asking the in-house engineers for help. It’s what they’re there for! No-one’s used every desk out there, no matter how experienced they are. Your host should be more than happy to help, and even show you some of their favourite tips and tricks if there’s time. It’s also very common for engineers to cover for each other over festival season, so it might be your first show with this band, and that’s fine. These experienced engineers can spot a bluffer a mile away, and if you’re too proud to let them help, they’re well within their rights to step back and watch you crash and burn. No-one wants you to have a bad gig though, so make friends with them early (hint: brownies)! If you’re mixing FoH from a tent or tower, walk outside of it at least once. It can sound completely different in the crowd compared to by the desk, even with reference monitors, so don’t just mix for yourself in your little bubble.
Once you’ve finished the show of your life because you were so on it because you were so prepared, all you have to do is grab your USB stick and headphones (don’t forget to bring your headphones by the way. Seriously), pack your gear away and celebrate! Please don’t skip straight to celebrating; there are lots of other bands to get on and off the stage, and there isn’t space to leave your gear set up until you feel like taking it away. So after a grueling 20-minute loadout and thanking the crew, you can kick back and enjoy those well-deserved beers (or soft drinks if you’re the driver) before heading to another field to do it all over again.
More info on working festivals
Working Coachella and Surviving Festival Season: How Two Monitor Engineers Approach Festival Season
Coachella Music and Arts Festival: Two Companies that Did!
Rat Sound Answers Your Questions about Coachella
It’s easy to miss the SoundGirls news and blogs, so we have put together a round-up of the blogs, articles, and news from the past week. You can keep up to date and read more at SoundGirls.org
SoundGirls Members can receive a complimentary pass for Music Expo Miami – email us for code with your SoundGirls member ID
Music Expo Miami 2018
SAE Institute, 16051 W Dixie Hwy, Ste 200, North Miami Beach, Florida 33160
Saturday, March 24 10:30AM-5PM
What: Over 20 sessions covering songwriting, recording, mixing and mastering, business discussions covering artist branding, revenues, music showcase, beat battle and product demos.
musicexpo.co
Tickets: website: musicexpo.co/tickets
Facebook page: Fb.me/musicexposf
Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1760156890981845/
Twitter: twitter.com/musicexposf
Instagram: instagram.com/musicexposf
https://soundgirls.org/event/alberta-soundgirls-chapter-launch-social/?instance_id=1223
https://soundgirls.org/event/orlando-soundgirls-social-2/?instance_id=1224
http://www.ta2music.com/podcast/episode-1-susan-rogers/
Years ago, I got burned by some friends who hired me to work for them then fired me months later out of the blue. It was the most surprising and crushing experience of my career. There’s been plenty of times I’ve had people say they’d hire me then didn’t (that’s normal). I’ve been turned down for work by friends before and that’s ok, too (it’s part of the business). This was different because I was working and completely confident in my job. I had dropped most of my other clients and gigs to work for them, too. When I was fired, I reached out to everyone I used to work for, but it was too late. I had already been replaced, or they didn’t need anyone.
Being unemployed is a mental game. You’d think it’d be time to relax and enjoy some freedom, but it’s totally the opposite. I felt rejected. I questioned my skill and ability. I felt silly for not having a backup plan. I had seen friends, and colleagues go through periods of unemployment but thought I was immune to it because I was a hard worker and always found something else. I realized my whole career I had a false belief, “You can achieve anything you want if you work hard enough.” I think women hear this message a lot: “You can do it all.” For the first time, I was trying really hard, and it didn’t get me anywhere.
I hit a tipping point when I finally had to admit: “I can’t do it all, and I can’t make it happen.” Something about saying that lifted a huge weight. It was then ok to share how scary it was to be out of work and how much I doubted myself after being fired. I was so humbled by the generosity of friends and connections. One friend went so far as to get me an interview with someone she met a couple of days before.
It took a couple of months, but I started getting calls for work again and eventually got a couple of job offers. My chops came back quickly, but something was different about it. Since I wasn’t trying to “make things happen” all the time I was more relaxed. I don’t know what changed, but I could work faster, more efficiently, and communicate better. I felt more appreciation for every opportunity I was given.
At the time, one of the things I was most bummed about was one of the projects I didn’t get to work on with my friends. It was a major tv show with big names and a lot of buzz around it. I thought I lost a once-in-a-career opportunity. A year later, that show had poor ratings and got canceled after it’s first season. Meanwhile, one small gig I landed while I was unemployed went on to win a Golden Globe. I had no idea I was working on something that would be significant while I was doing it.
I haven’t talked to my former friends since getting fired, and it doesn’t matter. The experience made me realize how much I value honesty, transparency, and openness in any relationship. There’s politics in business, and sometimes decisions have to be made that hurt people you care for. How someone chooses to handle it is the true sign of their character.
Before my unemployment, I would have said success was a measure of what I worked on. I wanted to work on great projects, win awards for my work, and have a reputation for being a “great” mixer. What I’ve since realized is all those things are subjective. Success doesn’t have to be based on what other people think of you or your work. It definitely doesn’t have to be other people judging you for what you work on (or don’t work on). Today, I view success as a reflection of character. It’s something you can “make happen” every day.