I used to sing along to Michael Jackson and Whitesnake in my bedroom at the age of 4 (I know, how eclectic!). When I was in seventh or eighth grade, my middle school vocal music teacher, Mrs. Collins, let me run the mixing board for the first time. It wasn't long before I convinced my parents to buy me my own board, a six-channel powered Crate mixer with a horrible built-in spring reverb. It was extremely basic, but I was in heaven. I ran sound for school plays, musicals, and even got hired to run sound for small local events and talent shows. My love for music had translated into a love of sound engineering.
As I entered college and computers became mainstream (I think I just dated myself), I skipped plenty of classes to sit in my dorm room and experiment with the capabilities of digital sound editing and mixing with a program called Cool Edit, which evolved into what is now known as Adobe Audition. I came home from school and got a part-time gig DJing at a local radio station called All-Hit 98.9. From there, I met a friend who told me about a job opening in the recording studio of an advertising agency. I got the job, and nearly twenty years later, I still love sitting down at the console and making sounds come to life, whether it be music, spoken word or sound design for video applications.
I'm very fortunate to have found a career that involves something that I love so much. I wear many hats as Audio/Video Producer at TAG, from copywriting to pre-production to lighting and videography, but it's still special when I close the door to the studio and get lost in creating with sound. It's an art form that many take for granted. I mean, when's the last time you came out of a movie theater and said, "Wow, the audio in that movie was mixed beautifully!"
Nonetheless, I understand the value of creating moods and emotions while bringing clarity and fidelity into the things we hear. It has an influence on people and often they don't even know it. Selecting the right piece of music or the ideal ambient background noise for a project can completely change the way the content is interpreted by the heart of the listener, and that's powerful. It's also a significant responsibility, and I am honored to be one of the people who gets to influence people in this way.
Learn more about TAG's award-winning Audio & Video Production team below!