SoundGirls Presents Colorado Chapter Workshop
Angie Dickinson Mickle has graciously volunteered to host our January SoundGirls-Colorado MeetUp at her studio – the Zephyr Room.
The Zephyr Room is about as versatile as it comes – ready for voice-overs, tracking, mixing and even audio archive transfer and restoration (including wire recordings!). Come hang out, check out her space and, as a bonus, she’ll give us a little taste of analog editing with some of the many legacy machines she’s got.
This event is limited to 20 people. Register Here
I pick up my phone and dial the west-coast number listed for Vanessa Mering. It rings a few times, and I am welcomed by a cheerful greeting. Vanessa and I share a few pleasantries as we talk a few details about everything we’ll get to discuss. I adjust my rudimentary phone-recorder that is carefully balancing on a large conference table. The small room I’m in has cables and papers thrown about with a small cleared area where my laptop cautiously sits. I set levels and begin recording our conversation.
To introduce her, Vanessa Mering is a marketing strategist with 15 years of experience at leading audio technology companies. Over the course of her career, she has played a key role in launching a variety of industry-shaping innovations—from democratizing music creation at M-Audio/Avid, to defining the future of live sound with HARMAN. In her current position as Marketing Manager at HARMAN Professional, Vanessa spends her days introducing new products and planning campaigns for ten world-class brands including JBL, AKG, and Soundcraft. Passionate about seeing other women succeed in the industry, Vanessa is also the leader of the HARMAN Women’s Network chapter in Northridge, California. In this role, she’s dedicated to supporting the professional and personal growth of women at HARMAN, as well as attracting new talent to the company. In her free time, she’s active in other groups dedicated to building community and expanding professional opportunities for women.
HPro Installs: JBL and other HARMAN brands installed in houses of worship, sports stadiums, and other prominent venues
“I know I sent you about 900 questions…” we both chuckled. “…but we’ll play it by ear.”
What was your first job in the audio industry?
“So, funnily enough, my first job in audio was a random temp job at Alesis while I was studying at UCLA. I was helping support administration within HR during a summer break. I do, however, remember distinctly sitting across the wall from the marketing department and hearing how much fun they were having. I got to witness them being creative and collaborative, and that was my first time thinking that marketing seemed like an awesome profession.”
I respond, “It’s actually kind of hilarious how you end up in these random positions that can change your life. You have an entire career in audio technology because of a fun group of individuals on another side of a wall at some temp job one time.”
“It is so interesting,” Vanessa says. As we both get further into the conversation, you can begin to hear the relaxation in our voices. “I admire people who have a specific vision for their career from an early age, but that just wasn’t me. All I knew was that I loved writing and being around creative people, so I let my curiosity and interests guide me. It was a total coincidence that I came right back to the audio industry by landing my first full-time job at M-Audio a couple of years later! But I quickly fell in love with the creativity of my coworkers and our customers. I’m so grateful to that team for supporting me as I discovered my passion and started building my career.”
I’ve read about some of your work with the HARMAN Women’s Network Northridge Chapter. Can you tell me more about the organization and your lead in it?
Absolutely! HARMAN has campuses all around the world, and each campus has its own Women’s Network leader. So there’s a lot of autonomy in the role. I can drive initiatives that are exciting for this campus, and at the same time learn from what other women are doing on other campuses. I’ve brought in a couple of guest speakers to help with personal and professional development. I’ve focused on a lot of soft skills, like having a mindfulness meditation instructor come in.
“Ooohh!” I interject.
“She talked about the brain science behind mindfulness and how it can reduce stress and increase cognitive function, and all kinds of other health benefits. One of my favorite things I learned is that practicing mindfulness enables you to appreciate music even more. I’ve gotten to grow so much from this initiative, and have really enjoyed the opportunity to connect with women across different divisions, departments, and campuses. And men too! It’s awesome to bring everyone together to drive change.”
Tell me about your early days at M-Audio when recording really started to change.
I came into M-Audio at a really exciting time when high-quality recording gear could finally be produced at an affordable price point, and that was changing how music was being made. It was all about mobility. You could be on the road, be on the tour bus, be in a hotel room, be in your bedroom studio, and make really good quality music. So, it democratized the whole process. You didn’t have to have this massive budget to be heard. It was a really fun, exciting time to start in the industry and that’s a lot of what I fell in love with. We were enabling people to express themselves without a huge budget.
I was curious, other than democratizing music-making, were there any other projects that were super memorable for you? Projects that really stick out in your mind.
Vanessa chuckles a bit before listing off a myriad of amazing projects she’s been a part of, but one in particular stuck out…
There was a time when I transitioned from running the M-Audio content marketing team to acting as marketing program manager for several different brands at Avid. The Eleven Rack guitar recording and signal-processing system was the first launch that I did in my new role. This is where I was looking at the entire marketing plan and program and putting it together from top to bottom, overseeing a whole launch. The experience was really gratifying for me on a lot of levels. Professionally, I got to stretch into a more significant leadership position than ever before, and collaborate with a ton of different teammates to make everything happen. And personally, I’ve always loved guitar-driven music, so getting to reach guitarists was really fun for me.
Are you a musician? Do you play any instruments or anything?
“A few years after that project, during my time working at Line 6, I finally picked up a guitar. It was really cool, they had free guitar lessons on campus, so I would get to jam with my coworkers once a week. It gave me a much deeper appreciation for my customers’ and colleagues’ dedication and skill… it wasn’t easy for me! But I’m so glad I got a chance to learn.”
If you had a few pieces of advice for your younger self or young women in the field, what would they be?
“I often see women, myself sometimes included, hesitating or apologizing for asking questions. It’s important to put yourself out there, ask questions without apology, and get the information that is going to help you grow. Earlier in my career, I felt a lot of pressure to know all the answers or figure everything out on my own. Having the freedom and confidence to reach out is important. It builds community and team. And connecting with others is what makes life a lot more fun, so go for it!”
We thank each other for the time and conversation, some 40 minutes deep into discussions. We share a few more laughs, thank each other again, and hang up. I take a few minutes to simply digest everything we’ve gotten to chat about. I walk away realizing just how far-reaching audio technology goes. Before this interview, I never considered a marketing management position, but now it seems so obvious. There are a lot of ways to take part in music and audio. Never think you’re stuck in a certain position. There are women out there blazing trails and helping make monumental differences in this industry. And, It’s so great to hear that HARMAN and Line 6 are trying to not only be inclusive for women and personal and professional growth, but they also offer ways to connect to customers even more.
SoundGirls Presents Live Sound Workshop
Come learn about some basic live sound techniques. Workshop will be led by Beckie Campbell of B4 Media Production
Then join us for a SoundGirls Social after the workshop at Hamburger Mary’s at 110 W Church St, Orlando, FL 32801. 5:30 pm to ?????
A few years ago Anna Bullbrook, (Airborne Toxic Event and The Bulls) volunteered at the Los Angeles Girls Rock Camp and had a “ mind-bending experience of seeing women use rock’n’roll to encourage young girls to take risks, grow, and be more themselves in a really utopic, positive, and very thoughtful all-female environment. The experience changed my brain. The relief of connecting to a community of positive and pro-active musical women hit me like a wave”. Once Anna got a taste of what she calls “Utopia” she knew she had to do something to keep that feeling of community alive and continue to grow it, and so she started GIRLSCHOOL (This is why SoundGirls was founded).
GIRLSCHOOL is a music festival that celebrates women-identified-fronted bands and women artists. After spending a decade as a “sideman” in the alternative rock world, where you don’t see a lot of other women around—onstage or on your crew—I started to miss and crave the camaraderie of women. I mean, growing up in classical land, I saw women players everywhere and had a million girlfriends who also played instruments. It wasn’t this segregated thing.
With a production crew of all-women sound engineers, production designers, and lighting designers GIRLSCHOOL 2017 Festival featured; Chelsea Wolfe, The Bird and the Bee, Francisca Valenzuela (acoustic), Deap Vally, The Regrettes, Rituals of Mine, Summer Twins, Vox, Luna Shadows, KONA, Boyfriend, Pearl Charles, The Wild Reeds, Winter, Liphemra, Trace, Caroline Smith, Kid Wave, Starcrawler, Soto Voce, and DJ sets from Tamaryn, Mereki’s Club House, Bleached, Honey Power, Val Fleury, Linafornia, and Play Like A Girl.
The festival also included afternoon panels discussions and workshops with; Ruidosa, SoundGirls, Music for Pictures (Alicen Schneider, NBCUniversal), Own Your Own Voice (Kiran Gandhi), Women in Media (Andrea Domanick, Noisey), Women in Music (Jasmine Lywen-Dill, GIRLSCHOOL Co-Founder/WBR), Queer & Trans* Women Discussion on Sexualization and Media (Dannielle Owens-Reid), Radical Aliveness (Jennifer Huang), Ableton Controllerism (Laura “Alluxe” Escudé), Intersectional Feminism in Music (Mukta Mohan, MTV/KXLU), and Rock’n’Roll Camp for Girls LA.
Anna has big plans for GIRLSCHOOL in 2018 with plans to bring the festival to other cities (stay tuned) and providing year-round programming. SoundGirls had such a great time being involved with GIRLSCHOOL last year, and we are eagerly looking forward to 2018. Check out last year’s scene report.
photo credit: Artemis Evlogimenou
Grace Banks is an independent studio engineer based in London, UK. She has worn many hats in the field including recording engineer, mix engineer, musician, producer, and composer. She is a multi-instrumentalist and has toured as a session musician in many bands. She plays keys, guitar, electric bass, percussion, and sings. She has also worked for the music label, Nonclassical, and Help Musicians UK, a charity that researches musicians’ needs, gives grants, and organizes competitions.
Banks grew up with a musical ear. She started studying classical piano at the age of four, classical violin at the age of ten, and taught herself guitar. She studied music theory through grade 8, too.
When I was a kid, I would make my dad play the piano so that I could record it on my tape machine, or I would get my toddler brother to perform into the mic. I was fascinated by music and by capturing performance.
As she grew older, Grace would record guitar and vocal harmonies on a four-track tape recorder. She began to perform at seventeen and was offered a place to study music production at eighteen. Although she had the passion to succeed and her mentors recognized her gift, the adults in her life steered her away from pursuing a career in music. And like many aspiring musicians, Grace was encouraged to try a different field. Grace began to work at an engineering firm having won a place to study Civil Engineering at university.
So, a month before Grace was supposed to begin university, she persuaded the music department to offer her a place. She concentrated on composition, orchestration, and theory and graduated with first-class honours.
She wanted to pursue studio work or a Masters’s in Composition after graduation but was unable to afford the education. So she moved to London where she thought there might be more opportunities.
I wrote to recording studios but got zero responses. I played gigs but, while the gigs I had done outside of London paid half a week’s rent, the ones in London wouldn’t give a free drink, let alone a fee. I busked on the underground until, one day, a man stole my money. I did a plethora of bitty jobs, before finding an office-based nine-to-five.
While working in an office by day, Grace was seeking out and studying with mentors in the evenings.
At gigs, I would head to the sound desk and ask to shadow the engineer. A couple of them agreed, and I am indebted to them for their patience and encouragement. At this stage, I was too terrified to touch the desk – so I would just watch and offer endless bar runs in the hope that they would invite me back. A year or so later, I got hired to tour as an instrumentalist. I would hover behind the sound engineer and pester him with questions. On my return, I set up a residency, booking singer-songwriters for a small basement bar – partly because I wanted a ‘safe’ place to get my hands on a PA and try mixing.
Then, one day in a rehearsal studio, a member of staff saw that Grace knew how to setup and troubleshoot audio gear and offered her a job. After a few months at the studio, Grace moved house and heard rumors about a recording studio on the same street. She sent a curriculum vitae (C.V), otherwise known as a resume, and coincidentally, the studio was looking to hire staff. The recording studio was interested in her background in classical music mainly, her ability to read scores and experience as a multi-instrumentalist – had stood out and impressed them. However, her primary asset was proximity to the studio, which meant she could (and did) come in at five minutes’ notice and lock up at any hour of the night.
Having begun applying for studio runner positions at 21, Grace finally got her foot in the door at 28.
People starting out in studios are often expected to work for free
One of the studios I first applied to wanted someone who could be available, unpaid, seven days a week – in London, especially, that is not an option for some. This kind of expectation precludes many from entry into this career
While dealing with these financial challenges, Grace often forfeited stability, relationships, comfort, and safety and she learnt to live on a shoestring budget.
I was homeless for a while – mostly couch-surfing with friends; government benefits tided me over. There can be a lot of shame attached to benefits, but they are essential for social mobility and are the unofficial arts grants.
When I eventually got work at a recording studio, the pay was about half of the living wage; also, the work was piecemeal, and there were no contracts. I found part-time, flexible jobs that I could fit around the studio. Needless to say, I had almost no social life for a couple of years.
Grace took responsibility for her education, writing regular ‘study’ periods into her diary, using books, YouTube tutorials, online articles, and real-life mentors. She made a list of skills she wanted to prioritize, such as drum-teching, guitar-teching, and mixing, with a sub-list of people who could help her improve each of them. Once she figured out her game plan, she would introduce herself to those on the list and ask if she could shadow them.
Grace has experienced both the touring artist and the studio engineering lifestyle and said that she loves both. With touring, she enjoys the sense of camaraderie, the excitement of seeing new places and not knowing what’s going to happen from day to day. On the technical side, she enjoys logical thinking and the goal-based nature of the work. Unpredictability can be exciting, too; she could be called to Manchester one week, Portugal the week after. She also loves how she is continuously learning.
Every session I do and everyone I work with teaches me something.
Best of all, she loves working with amazing artists and having the opportunity to capture their performances so that the magic can be witnessed by others.
It feels like finding a beautiful gem and holding it up to the light.
I have just acquired a MoogerFooger 12-stage phaser which I am really excited about. The UA 6176 is my home workhorse. I have been doing a series of vocal mic shoot-outs with a friend who is also an engineer, which has been fun. Also, the Roland RE-501 Chorus Echo: it’s another world, and you can get lost in it.
In order to survive as a freelancer, Grace attends networking, technological, and industry events. She has also built good relationships with studios that give her regular work. Additionally, Grace pursues engineering along with other jobs. She still works as a session guitarist, which helps her recording work in many ways:
such as meeting musicians who might want a studio or engineer down the line, and improving my understanding of what musicians go through under pressure, how they communicate, and so on.
We asked Grace for tips for those SoundGirls and SoundWomen who wish to enter the field:
Grace’s long-term goals include more writing for and with other artists.
More on Grace – SoundGirls Spotlight Series
Profile By: Michelle Naziri (“Miche”) is a Liberal Arts-Engineering Studies student at California Polytechnic State University, concentrating in Electrical Engineering and Sound Design. Over the summer Michelle worked as an intern for VUE Audiotechnik under VP Operations and SoundGirl, Sara Elliott. As an intern, she got to help with prototype experiments, reverse engineer speakers, fix amplifiers, and help assemble and test loudspeakers and subs for the Kendrick Lamar, DAMN tour. Most recently, Michelle received an internship with RagHouse Radio as an audio technician for SoundGirl April Duran for her show on Authentic Culture Network in Sunset Gower Studios. RagHouse Radio, empowering women in music, sports, and entertainment.
In the future, Michelle hopes to continue working in radio, speaker production, and live mix for bands at concerts and festivals.
Sennheiser & Neumann are seeking two members of SoundGirls to intern with the company during the 2018 NAMM show. Interns will need to be available from January 25 – January 28, 2018.
Dates and Times
Responsibilities
Anaheim Convention Center North
Booth # – 14110
Payment will be a pair of Sennheiser headphones and microphone:HD280Pro and e835. You will also receive a letter of recommendation upon successful close of the show.
You’re also welcome to join Sennheiser for dinner each evening.
Please send a cover letter of why you would like to intern and a resume to soundgirls@soundgirls.org
Stealth Sonics (www.stealthsonics.com), a manufacturer of in-ear monitors, is looking for 4-5 interns to cover work shifts their booth # – 11248 in Hall E at this year’s NAMM Show, as follows:
Dates and Times
Tuesday, January 24 – Setup day. We’ll begin around 10 am. We’ll be setting up both the booth and our demo room.
Wednesday–Saturday, January 25-27th – Show hours: 9:30 am – 6 pm. Arrive at the booth by 9:00 am on the 18th and 9:30 am on the 19th.
Sunday, January 28th – Show hours: 9:30 am – 5 pm. Arrive at booth by 9:30 am. Dismantle starts at 5 pm.
Responsibilities
Compensation
1) $150/Day + U2 Universal IEMs ($249 value)
OR
2) C9 Custom IEMs (color of their choice, valued at $1,499)
Please send resumes and cover letters to soundgirls@soundgirls.org
SoundGirls Presents NAMM Mentoring Session
Join us for a Mentoring Session with Women Leaders in Professional Audio
You must be a member of SoundGirls, and you must register for the event. Space is Extremely Limited. You will receive venue address (venue is in Anaheim) with your confirmation.
This event will be a casual mentoring session – where you can get advice and answers to your questions. Groups will rotate between leaders specializing in Live Sound, Recording and Mastering, Broadcast Engineering and Professional Audio Sales.
Jeri Palumbo, a broadcast engineer, audio mixer and RF (radio frequency) tech
Jeri is a broadcast engineer, audio mixer and RF (radio frequency) tech who, for the past 25 years, has specialized in working on high-profile sports shows. Jeri is a technical whiz and a regular on the frontlines of events like the Super Bowl, NBA, NHL playoffs and most recently the World Series. Jeri is part of the RF Coordination Team each year for the Rose Bowl. She has also worked entertainment broadcasts including The Oscars, The Tonight Show, American Idol and others.
Karrie Keyes – Monitor Engineer for Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder – Executive Director and Co-Founder of SoundGirls.Org
Karrie has spent the last 25 plus years as the monitor engineer for Pearl Jam. Karrie started out doing sound for punk bands in Los Angeles in 1986 under the tutelage of Dave Rat of Rat Sound, where she spent twenty years helping to establish the company. She was able to gain an immense amount of hands-on experience and technical knowledge at Rat, which eventually led to her becoming the monitor engineer for The Red Hot Chili Peppers from 1990-2000. She first met and started working with Pearl Jam who opened for RHCP on their 1991-1992 Blood Sugar Sex Magic Tour. She has worked with Sonic Youth, Fugazi, and Neil Young.
Erika Earl – Director of Hardware Engineering for Slate Digital and Slate Media Technology
From pulling out the soldering iron to setting up microphones around a drum kit, Erika Earl brings experience from all sides of the professional audio business. Her understanding of audio electronics was earned through more than a decade of experience repairing, servicing, and performing quality control for a wide range of top manufacturers, including Tube-Tech, Drawmer, Focusrite, Daking, Bock Audio, Avid, Little Labs, and many others.
She has also engineered for studios and run FOH throughout Arizona and California. Erika served as Head of Technology and Chief Technician for LA’s landmark studio The Village. When she’s not thinking through a schematic or evaluating the subtleties of a tube compressor, you’re likely to find her sifting through her collection of vintage records and rare books.
Leslie Gaston-Bird Vice President for the Audio Engineering Society’s Western Region & Associate Professor of Recording Arts at the University of Colorado Denver
Leslie Gaston-Bird Vice President for the Audio Engineering Society’s Western Region & Associate Professor of Recording Arts at the University of Colorado Denver. Leslie is also proud to chair the AES’ Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She has almost 30 years of experience in audio for film and video, music recording, and radio. She graduated from the Audio Technology program at Indiana University in 1989. She also holds a BA in telecommunications and an MS in recording arts. She has worked for National Public Radio in Washington, D.C., Colorado Public Radio in Denver, as recording engineer for the Colorado Symphony and as a sound editor for Post Modern Company in Denver. She has performed soundtrack restoration on films from the Sony/Columbia Pictures archives and is one of the pioneers of a music video production style she calls “Music Video Vérité”. She runs her own freelance audio post-production company, Mix Messiah Productions, LLC. She is also a Fulbright Scholar.
Katy Templeman-Holmes is the Director of Marketing for Professional, at HARMAN
At Harman, she has held several roles including; as a Product Manager based in Switzerland, running US Sales for Recording & Broadcast, training FOH & monitor engineers taking consoles on tour, running product development for a handful of different industries, and Director of Solutions and Marketing for Hospitality and Broadcast.
Grace Royse – Live Sound Engineer and Production Manager
Grace Royse is a Live Sound Engineer and Production Manager with 11 years of experience in world touring.Clients include Sublime with Rome, Fitz and the Tantrums, Maintaining a background in studio productions, business management, and artist development, she has mentored several young men and women over the years, all successfully working within the industry today.”
Vanessa Silberman is a National DIY Touring Singer (playing over 330 shows in 2015-2017), Guitarist, Songwriter, Record Producer-Engineer-Mixer, Independent A&R and has an Artist Development Label called A Diamond Heart Production (Down & Outlaws, The Punch) from Los Angeles. She was also the founding member of the LA band Diamonds Under Fire (2002-2013).
Jett Galindo Audio and Vinyl Mastering Engineer at The Bakery
Jett Galindo is an audio & vinyl mastering engineer from The Bakery, located on the Sony Pictures Lot in Culver City. With credits spanning different genres and legendary artists (Bette Midler, Nile Rodgers, Colbie Caillat, to name a few), Jett carries on the legacy left behind by her late mentor, mastering legend Doug Sax of The Mastering Lab.
A GRAMMY Voting Member (P&E Wing) & Latin GRAMMY nominee, Jett is also an accomplished soprano who specializes in choral ensemble music. Jett also devotes part of her time writing for SoundGirls and volunteering for Berklee College of Music as an Alumni Ambassador.
Ali “A MAC” McGuire has worked worldwide on albums, International/ US Tours, and charity projects alongside internationally recognized artists. Ali required recording, mixing, production, and live sound skills through a combination of experience and certification. Ali has worked with such artist as Fetty Wap, Post Malone, Hed PE, Big Daddy Kane, Dick Van Dyke, Whitney Peyton and more. Ali recently moved from Philadelphia to LA to take her business, Amaculent Entertainment LLC, to the next level. Ali is currently working out of a few great studio’s and venues in LA; recording, mixing and producing for the next generation of artists and more.
Sara Elliot VP of Operations and CoFounder of VUE Audiotechnik
With more than 20 years of experience in professional audio, Sara has held strategic marketing and operational positions with numerous sound production companies including Burns Audio, A-1 Audio, and PRG. Sara also served as Director of Marketing and Sales for Live Sound International Magazine and ProSoundweb.com, two of the industry’s most respected news and technical information sources. Sara brings to VUE Audiotechnik a wealth of industry relationships and a deep understanding of business operations.
Fela Davis Sound Engineer and Owner of 23db Productions
Fela Davis is a co-owner at 23db Productions based out of New York City. She’s a graduate of Full Sail University and has over a decade of experience in audio engineering. Her past experiences include working with industry powerhouses Clair Broadcast and House of Blues. When she’s not mixing or mastering songs for 23db Productions, she’s mixing front of house engineer for the 5-time Grammy award winning jazz artist Christian McBride, and Grammy-nominated Ottmar Liebert.
Claire holds a Bachelors degree in Music Technology from Hertfordshire University in the UK. She has 8 years of professional touring experience as both guitar/backline tech and as Tour Manager. She now lives in Los Angeles, having relocated from London and tours exclusively as a guitar tech. She has a business in the UK providing storage for bands and local companies in London, and previously provided rental sprinter vans.
Catharine Wood Recording – Mix Engineer – Owner Planetwood Studios – Catharine is a Los Angeles-based composer/producer/engineer with a recording studio in Los Angeles. With a background in audio post-production for commercials, Catharine engineered on the first iPhone commercial among hundreds of national and international campaigns – including the Geico Caveman and Priceline Negotiator spots. As a mix and mastering engineer, she has engineered on over 300 commercially released songs – including her own custom compositions which have aired on NBC, ABC, BBC, ESPN and more – both nationally and abroad. She is a GRAMMY® Voting Member and Producers & Engineers Wing member. Catharine currently holds a position on the LA Recording School’s Recording Arts Program Advisory Committee and is the former Director of Southern California for the West Coast Songwriters organization. She is a voting member of the Society of Composers and Lyricists, a Board Member of the California Copyright Conference and longtime professional member of NARIP and AIMP. Her company, Planetwood Studios, LLC (parent company of Planetwood Productions, established 2002) specializes in producing singer-songwriters and providing engineering, production and composition services to the TV, Film and Recording industries.
Tiffany Hendren Live Sound FOH and Monitor Engineer
Tiffany Hendren is a monitor engineer at The Pageant in St. Louis and the House Engineer for the Del Mar. She tours as the FOH Engineer for “A Silent Film.” She has been involved in sound professionally for around seven years, full-time about five. Tiffany is the Co-Director of SoundGirls.Org.
Jessica Berg – Tour Manager and Live Sound Engineer
Jessica is a freelance TM/FOH/MON engineer and is currently touring as the TM for Phoebe Ryan. Jessica is SoundGirls.Org’s Director of Development. She is honored and 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.
Daniella Peters – Head of Sales and Management Team at Rat Sound Systems
Daniella has been with Rat Sound for over 15 years building their sales dept from a concept to a multi-million dollar part of their business. She started off her career working for an international cosmetics company doing their live event production. She then transitioned to HHB Audio and Ashdown Music, Emap Performance (Kerrang and Q magazines) in London and now with Rat Sound.
She is passionate about women’s issues and spends a good portion of her spare time using her production skills to produce and host music and fashion fundraising events for various women’s non-profits.
Mary Broadbent is a Tour Manager and Backline Tech. Mary is the Tour Manager and Backline/Guitar Tech for The Mowgli’s and The Staves. She’s also worked with Chris Isaak, Fitz and the Tantrums, and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. Most recently she jumped behind the soundboard for the first time on tour with Wrabel as TM/FOH.
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.
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.