Mentor Interviews - With Colin Bricker from Mighty Fine Productions
Tony: When did you decide that you would be a sound engineer? When did the career enter your mind?
Colin: I was about 13 years old and I always had interest in building speakers. In my bedroom, I would have a giant stack of car stereo speakers and cardboard boxes in my room. I was always interested in sound and I would take apart tape decks to see how they worked, though I wasn't always good about putting them back together again.
When I was 13 my mom hooked me up with a local sound guy in Greeley just moving gear, so I would just help them load up and set up and then watch them do the sound. Then, when I got into high school, I took over the sound system for my high school and did assemblies, graduation ceremonies, that kind of stuff. My band director even let me take the PA system home with me, so once I got my driver's license I'd throw it in my mom's car and set up for Denver rock bands and do sound for them.
Then I transitioned to being the main engineer for that same company I started working for. I tagged along with my buddies who also did sound and learned a lot from them, and that helped me to get to where I am today.
Tony: How did your school experience help turn you toward sound engineering?
Colin: I went to Greeley Central High School and my high school band director was very cool about teaching me and letting me figure out the electronic stuff. When I graduated from high school, I went up to Denver and went to CU Denver and graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Sciences and Technical Music.
Tony: What band was your first in charge as an engineer?
Colin: The first record that I was in charge of was with John Lindner with a band called Nnett King. I didn't do a very good job and it sounded super terrible. There was a place up in Denver that charged 15 dollars an hour to use the space, so I would bring in all of my own gear and just charge bands 15 dollars an hour to cover the cost of the space and record them. It was a great experience. This was in about 1993-94.
Tony: If you could choose one recording to redo, who would it be and what would you do differently?
Colin: Let me think about that. I think of recordings like a photograph, like a snapshot of a moment. So I don't think I would go back very much because recordings capture a sound and a place, where the only way to do that was by recording. We were just listening to the Czars; they aren't a band any more. But we can still go back and hear that moment when they were together and recording. And I like hearing where I was at as a sound engineer and where I was and what I could have done differently. I really like that it shows where I was in my progression of knowledge.
Tony: Tell me about one of the most difficult bands you've had to record.
Colin: Well all the big band sessions are difficult sessions. You really have to have it together. I was running 32 different inputs with 18 different pairs of headphones with the right mix that everyone wanted to hear. It takes a lot of preparation because these bands just want to sit down, right then, and start recording. You and Xandy were here for 3 hours and I was here for another 2 hours after that getting set up (for the CU big band), as well as another few hours in the morning. Those are challenging sessions.
Tony: How has the field of sound engineering changed?
Colin: Well the concepts of everything is still valid today. I've built on my experience and all of the things I learned back then is applicable in one way or another now. I don't calibrate tape machines now and splice them together, but the same concepts are there, just they're digital now. I haven't done that in years, but the same concept is there and it's still called cutting and pasting even though that's not what it is. When I started out, everything was analog and now everything is digital. There was some getting used to new pieces of equipment but the general concepts stayed the same.
Interview with Kevin Lee from Dazzle Jazz
Tony: How did you get into the music business?
Kevin: I don't know. I've been a musician since I was 13 or 14, so that's how it started. I took some gigs when I was 16 at a band that played in festivals. This band was self-sustaining and had a sound guy and a roadie, so the band had everyone we needed. So I did that, and through that I got interested in learning about audio and live sound. I thought I wanted to do that for a living, so I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do in music after high school.
For whatever reason, I really just wanted to be involved in music for the rest of my life. I went to college for one year and did well, but then an opportunity came to play in a band in Ohio. I didn't like playing in bars, so I went back to college in New Mexico. I got a general music degree, and then I played in groups and taught full time. Then I moved to Denver to study classical guitar, did that for two years, and got my bachelors. I wasn't sure what to do, but I found that the jazz people were "cooler" than the classical people and I liked jazz guitar better than classical.
Then I walked by Dazzle and came in, and Jeff Jenkins was here playing. I got to talking to people, and they said "oh, you should work here!" since I was a bartender interested in jazz. I started as a waiter and worked my way up. One thing led to another and then Tyler Gilmore, the music director at the time, left to get his masters. Steve Denny, the assistant, bumped up and I became the assistant. Them Steve left after two years and, by default I became the new music director.
Tony: What have been your other jobs?
Kevin: One important thing to note is that, as a musician, you do a wide variety of things. There's never one thing that you're doing, you're basically freelance. Even now, I've been working here for 5 years and I couldn't do this job and make a living.
In terms of those multiple things you do: I've been teaching for several years and I've substituted for some college courses. I've done work at Main Street Music in Aztec New Mexico. I did a number of things for them, from teaching to repairs. I would re-string guitars and fix amps and effects pedals. And playing a lot of music, that's a way that you make money as a musician. I worked for a sound company for a while that did installations and on-site live sound where you pack stuff up and take it to places.
I'd work there Monday to Friday and spend days sorting cables into boxes when they didn't work. Then we would make cables for entire days and check them with a volt meter to get them fixed. If they were broken, we'd cut them and sauter them up to make new cables.
Tony: Tell me about the most difficult band you have had to work with.
Kevin: Well bands are difficult in a number of ways: production, personality, and logistics. Production-wise, sound-wise, there are people who perceive problems as a musician. You can always tell when someone is full of it and they'll say things like "it sounds like a cotton ball" and I was thinking "what does that even mean?" You just have to go where they can't see you and say that you changed something and they'll say it's much better. Perception is 9/10ths of truth. It's also hard when a lot of percussionists here because they always want everything mic-ed even when they don't need it.
Personality-wise, for a general rule, it's often female singers. I think that there's a correlation of them not being totally sure of themselves and them being difficult. These are the people who say that it sounds like a cotton ball. And when these are singers who are ridiculously good musicians, this doesn't happen. The other things is just not knowing what's going on with people, and you have to take that into account. You never really know who a person is and how they are, so you should just work with them to the best of their abilities.
One of the worst things, in terms of logistics, is having a blizzard. One time Sean Jones was coming into town on a delayed flight and he got in at the airport at 6 pm for a 7 pm show. He warmed up in the car while we were driving through the blizzard and we got there and he just hopped on stage and started playing.
Tony: Tell me about your biggest professional accomplishment.
Kevin: I think that the biggest one was taking Dazzle and making it bigger than it was two years ago. I mean this in terms of the people who want to play here. It used to be about trying to get people to play here, and now people want to play here. This is a culmination of lots of little things, like making the room better, making the sound better, making the piano and the sound better. This is what I'm proudest of in my career at Dazzle.
Tony: When did you decide that you would be a sound engineer? When did the career enter your mind?
Colin: I was about 13 years old and I always had interest in building speakers. In my bedroom, I would have a giant stack of car stereo speakers and cardboard boxes in my room. I was always interested in sound and I would take apart tape decks to see how they worked, though I wasn't always good about putting them back together again.
When I was 13 my mom hooked me up with a local sound guy in Greeley just moving gear, so I would just help them load up and set up and then watch them do the sound. Then, when I got into high school, I took over the sound system for my high school and did assemblies, graduation ceremonies, that kind of stuff. My band director even let me take the PA system home with me, so once I got my driver's license I'd throw it in my mom's car and set up for Denver rock bands and do sound for them.
Then I transitioned to being the main engineer for that same company I started working for. I tagged along with my buddies who also did sound and learned a lot from them, and that helped me to get to where I am today.
Tony: How did your school experience help turn you toward sound engineering?
Colin: I went to Greeley Central High School and my high school band director was very cool about teaching me and letting me figure out the electronic stuff. When I graduated from high school, I went up to Denver and went to CU Denver and graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Sciences and Technical Music.
Tony: What band was your first in charge as an engineer?
Colin: The first record that I was in charge of was with John Lindner with a band called Nnett King. I didn't do a very good job and it sounded super terrible. There was a place up in Denver that charged 15 dollars an hour to use the space, so I would bring in all of my own gear and just charge bands 15 dollars an hour to cover the cost of the space and record them. It was a great experience. This was in about 1993-94.
Tony: If you could choose one recording to redo, who would it be and what would you do differently?
Colin: Let me think about that. I think of recordings like a photograph, like a snapshot of a moment. So I don't think I would go back very much because recordings capture a sound and a place, where the only way to do that was by recording. We were just listening to the Czars; they aren't a band any more. But we can still go back and hear that moment when they were together and recording. And I like hearing where I was at as a sound engineer and where I was and what I could have done differently. I really like that it shows where I was in my progression of knowledge.
Tony: Tell me about one of the most difficult bands you've had to record.
Colin: Well all the big band sessions are difficult sessions. You really have to have it together. I was running 32 different inputs with 18 different pairs of headphones with the right mix that everyone wanted to hear. It takes a lot of preparation because these bands just want to sit down, right then, and start recording. You and Xandy were here for 3 hours and I was here for another 2 hours after that getting set up (for the CU big band), as well as another few hours in the morning. Those are challenging sessions.
Tony: How has the field of sound engineering changed?
Colin: Well the concepts of everything is still valid today. I've built on my experience and all of the things I learned back then is applicable in one way or another now. I don't calibrate tape machines now and splice them together, but the same concepts are there, just they're digital now. I haven't done that in years, but the same concept is there and it's still called cutting and pasting even though that's not what it is. When I started out, everything was analog and now everything is digital. There was some getting used to new pieces of equipment but the general concepts stayed the same.
Interview with Kevin Lee from Dazzle Jazz
Tony: How did you get into the music business?
Kevin: I don't know. I've been a musician since I was 13 or 14, so that's how it started. I took some gigs when I was 16 at a band that played in festivals. This band was self-sustaining and had a sound guy and a roadie, so the band had everyone we needed. So I did that, and through that I got interested in learning about audio and live sound. I thought I wanted to do that for a living, so I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do in music after high school.
For whatever reason, I really just wanted to be involved in music for the rest of my life. I went to college for one year and did well, but then an opportunity came to play in a band in Ohio. I didn't like playing in bars, so I went back to college in New Mexico. I got a general music degree, and then I played in groups and taught full time. Then I moved to Denver to study classical guitar, did that for two years, and got my bachelors. I wasn't sure what to do, but I found that the jazz people were "cooler" than the classical people and I liked jazz guitar better than classical.
Then I walked by Dazzle and came in, and Jeff Jenkins was here playing. I got to talking to people, and they said "oh, you should work here!" since I was a bartender interested in jazz. I started as a waiter and worked my way up. One thing led to another and then Tyler Gilmore, the music director at the time, left to get his masters. Steve Denny, the assistant, bumped up and I became the assistant. Them Steve left after two years and, by default I became the new music director.
Tony: What have been your other jobs?
Kevin: One important thing to note is that, as a musician, you do a wide variety of things. There's never one thing that you're doing, you're basically freelance. Even now, I've been working here for 5 years and I couldn't do this job and make a living.
In terms of those multiple things you do: I've been teaching for several years and I've substituted for some college courses. I've done work at Main Street Music in Aztec New Mexico. I did a number of things for them, from teaching to repairs. I would re-string guitars and fix amps and effects pedals. And playing a lot of music, that's a way that you make money as a musician. I worked for a sound company for a while that did installations and on-site live sound where you pack stuff up and take it to places.
I'd work there Monday to Friday and spend days sorting cables into boxes when they didn't work. Then we would make cables for entire days and check them with a volt meter to get them fixed. If they were broken, we'd cut them and sauter them up to make new cables.
Tony: Tell me about the most difficult band you have had to work with.
Kevin: Well bands are difficult in a number of ways: production, personality, and logistics. Production-wise, sound-wise, there are people who perceive problems as a musician. You can always tell when someone is full of it and they'll say things like "it sounds like a cotton ball" and I was thinking "what does that even mean?" You just have to go where they can't see you and say that you changed something and they'll say it's much better. Perception is 9/10ths of truth. It's also hard when a lot of percussionists here because they always want everything mic-ed even when they don't need it.
Personality-wise, for a general rule, it's often female singers. I think that there's a correlation of them not being totally sure of themselves and them being difficult. These are the people who say that it sounds like a cotton ball. And when these are singers who are ridiculously good musicians, this doesn't happen. The other things is just not knowing what's going on with people, and you have to take that into account. You never really know who a person is and how they are, so you should just work with them to the best of their abilities.
One of the worst things, in terms of logistics, is having a blizzard. One time Sean Jones was coming into town on a delayed flight and he got in at the airport at 6 pm for a 7 pm show. He warmed up in the car while we were driving through the blizzard and we got there and he just hopped on stage and started playing.
Tony: Tell me about your biggest professional accomplishment.
Kevin: I think that the biggest one was taking Dazzle and making it bigger than it was two years ago. I mean this in terms of the people who want to play here. It used to be about trying to get people to play here, and now people want to play here. This is a culmination of lots of little things, like making the room better, making the sound better, making the piano and the sound better. This is what I'm proudest of in my career at Dazzle.