Grace Royse FOH and Whitney Leigh Monitors.
Grace Royse has been touring for over a decade as both a FOH and Monitor Engineer and sometimes as the PM or SM. She has worked with Sublime with Rome, Fitz and Tantrums, Ms. Hill, The Dirty Heads, and Icona Pop.
Whitney Leigh works at The House of Blues Sunset and Saint Rocke (more…)
In my position, I spend the majority of my time teaching new students how to run the equipment we own. All the artists know they are coming to a college where learning occurs, and a majority of the audience members know this too. We constantly hear from artists that we have better equipment and are more prepared than the last school they were at, and I pride myself on that achievement. My expectations for a show are no less than what a professional production person would produce. (more…)
As I write this, I’m just over three-quarters of the way through a 60-day North American tour. My life in the past six weeks has revolved around spending anywhere from 3 to 12 hours a day sitting in a van, loading in, hopefully getting a soundcheck, waiting around for the set, mixing, and then loading out, all fueled by little to no sleep and a questionable diet. I might not be a doctor, but I know from personal experience that this lifestyle can take a toll on a person’s emotional and physical well-being. (more…)
Often in my job, I end up being the middle person. I don’t own the contract with the band, but I have to fulfill the requirements. Sometimes I get a say in what is allowed in the rider, other times I get to deal with cross renting items late in the game because I didn’t see the completed contract until the day before. I get to communicate with the band the possibilities for their show but must get all changes approved by the purchaser.
I’m sure many of you deal with people like me while on tour where others are in the same position as venue operators. I would like to point out that being the middle person has also given me an interesting aspect of my job that I tend to forget about the most: The Translator. (more…)
What goes into being a great tech that engineers request or want to work with? The fourth in a series of articles on system teching and what it takes to be a great tech.
UK based sound engineer Kim Watson has been a freelance audio engineer since 1999. She is currently touring with The Subways as a monitor engineer. (more…)
Fela Davis graduated from Full Sail University in 2002 and works as a live sound and recording engineer. Last year she started 23db Productions with Denis Orynbekov. (more…)
By: Victoria Boyington
Girl Power Staff
San Francisco, Saturday May 30th, 2015 
The 2015 Girl Power! Women Working in the Music Industry Conference was the place to be. Located at San Francisco State University downtown campus, founders Kerry & Gian Fiero, adjunct professors at San Francisco State University’s Music/Recording Industry Program presented this year’s theme: Profiting from your Network. (more…)
Andrew Miller lives in Los Angeles, CA, and produces music. He has a project called UUV. He also works in film and televison, as well with as other artists.. Andrew played guitar on the Dum Dum Girl’s first record and now tours as a guitar player with the band.
Andrew recently toured with the Dum Dum Girls and found himself as the only dude on tour. We thought it would be fun to ask him some of the questions women in the industry are often asked. They of course have nothing to do with his actual job or abilities. This piece should not be taken seriously, except to point out how ridiculous these questions are.
What’s it like to be the only dude on a tour bus?
Great. In practical terms, wouldn’t anyone rather share close quarters with women than men? Creepers aside.
Do they expect you to be bus dad?
Ha, I have no idea what that means, so probably not. It’s funny though, I can imagine a bus mom, the nurturer. Actually, Claire was obviously the bus dad.
Do you get all grossed out by the girl talk?
I do girl talk, it’s one of my favorite types of talking. What’s not to love?
Are there lots of guy groupies on the bus after the show?
No. The male groupies need to step up their game though.
Do people ask which one of the band members you are sleeping with?
I don’t think so.
Don’t you want to have kids?
That’s the idea.
How does your wife or girlfriend feel about you working with all these women?
I had a girlfriend when I first joined the band and now I don’t, so I might be the wrong person to ask. Touring is hard on relationships, obviously. But there was never an issue in terms of touring with women.
Do you still get to watch porn on a bus full of women?
Porn is welcomed and well regarded in Dum Dum Girl land. But I don’t feel like a tour van is an ideal place for porn, no?
I’m Kirsty, sound designer, sound engineer and voice artist, a native New Zealander now based in London, UK. I’m delighted to be joining SoundGirls.org as a new regular blogger. I’ll be writing about sound design, live and theatre sound, and what I’ve learned over my 14+ year career so far. For my first post, I thought I’d dive right in and talk about why you should always do the hard jobs. (more…)