The next two blog posts are going to be a bit long. Ideally I would have started this blog three years ago so I wouldn't feel as if I needed to condense the important details that have gotten me to where I am today into two blog posts. If I blogged every small event that lead to large life lessons one at a time it would take forever, not to mention that cliffhangers at the end of each post would become annoying to bear. On the other hand if I attempted to do it all in one I'd either have a novel that would have most of you with visual problems from staring at the screen for so long or I'd have a half assed version of what took a while to accomplish. Well, let's get started.
Remember earlier when I said I was very shy about solos? Right, well that did not go away overnight. For a long time I told everyone around me that all I wanted to do was produce music, learn what goes on behind the scenes. Well, I went to Carnegie Mellon University, searched around and inquired 'til someone finally gave me the answer I was looking for. Music Technology and Production is what it was called and music production is what I learned.
By the time I learned that there was a program in which I could study and learn the methodology behind recording, producing and editing music it was a few weeks before the end of my freshmen year in college. There was nothing I could do at this point but to wait 'til the following academic year to enroll in classes where I'd work directly with a sound board and other artists. So what's a girl to do, oh I know! How about I bug everyone I know in Miami (where I spent my summer vacations with my family) about getting me in contact with a studio for me to work in. I didn't care if I had to clean the bathroom to get a sneak peak into the studio - well, that's not true, I'd mind a little...okay maybe a lot - but the point is I was willing to get in and be surrounded by the environment. I kid you not I once interviewed at a recording studio that told me I'd be cleaning bathroom most of the time while occasionally getting in on sessions and I wanted that internship, but that's another time.
So, I'll save you from reading the boring 'he knew her who knew him who knew them' schpeil and cut to the chase, which is that I got in contact with a man named Hal Batt. Hal owned a small studio in North Miami called AfterHours Studios and for some reason he took me in to intern with him. The only reason I could see him taking me is because he saw my passion otherwise how was I genuinely going to help without any knowledge of how to use all the very expensive equipment with all the nobs and buttons. I felt like I was in a cockpit of an airplane staring down at the soundboard awaiting me. Not as if I was going to be able to even touch the beautiful buttons before learning how to get my hands dirty learning all the background work first.
Fortunately, I am quick learner. In just two weeks I was helping out with setting up and tearing down sets in the booth and the control room for multiple sessions throughout the day. For those of you who still believe that recorded music is like live music, boy will you be surprised with what you're about to read. It's public knowledge, but simply most of us are ignorant to the truth that marketing the music is sometimes more important than the music itself. It's really a fascinating process in which all the different instruments that you hear on a record are recorded separately on their own track. It took us a whole week to get one song completed with horns, piano, voice, guitar, bass and drums because each instrument was recorded on it's own day.
To put it quickly I ended up working there a lot that summer and even became a vocal coach for some of his artists working directly with them during their recording sessions. I believe that as a vocalist myself I was able to form a connection where the artist felt comfortable working with me as an engineer, an advantage that I've found has stuck with me and continued to use in the future. One of my biggest advantages being my ability to communicate in Spanish because in Miami there are a lot of people that want to sing in Spanish even though they don't speak Spanish, but it'll sell more, right? And that's all that matters. This handy language knowledge comes to use later, as well.
Back at Carnegie Mellon Sophomore year I was told that I still couldn't take my recording classes because I needed to take Music Theory Prerequisites ... I guess the best things are worth waiting for. Fortunately, I passed with flying colors and broke my professors and classmates expectations about how well singers were with music theory. It's an ongoing joke that vocalists are the worst at music theory and practice, but I was one of four students in the entire class, as well as the only vocalist, that earned an A that semester. To those around me there was nothing that could be said about me that was stereotypical.
Another year and no recording experience, so I decided on a different route and applied for an internship with Sony Music Entertainment. You're thinking 'Yeah, Right... Like she can get an internship on the first try with one of the four biggest labels in music'. Well, before I continue, I should mention that though I only applied to Sony BMG, I must have applied to well over 15 positions. I specifically remember having dinner with a family friend after two months of no response from Sony. Over the two months of no response I had been offered countless internships with Citbiank, PNC and other similar financial opportunities. It's true that I love math and my econ major but I wanted to use it in a different way. So I held out, hoping for it to pay off with word from Sony. At this dinner reunion I will never forget being told "You had offers given to you already and you didn't take them? ... That's stupid! You're stupid!" Of course I was offended but I was 20 years old and didn't really know if I had made the right decision since all my friends had their internships set and I was only one still waiting for a miracle from a one in a million chance. Offended, I left upset and feeling doubtful. Two days later I got a call to come in for an interview at Sony Music Latin. A week later, and I was hired as a summer Intern with Sony. I hardly ever spoke to the family friend again, but I repeatedly used to think about what I wish I had said to defend myself from such narrow-minded thinking. It's that kind of doubt that I can't let guide me or stand in my way of what I want. If you're not with me, then I can't afford to waste my time with your negativity because I have places to go a future to make.
Working at Sony as a Digital Marketing Intern was amazing. I wish I could go into the nitty gritty detail of what I worked on and the projects that allowed me to learn even more of how the music industry is shaped and how much effort is put into the smallest of details to ensure an artists success, but I fear I'd only get into large trouble with such a private and well known company. What I can say is that I made a lot of friends and the work environment was amazing. The meetings were eventful and I learned more than I thought I could have ever taken with me to have in the future. Even better, now it was on my resume and I had that background that tied my Econ and business studies along with my passion for music. I was only too excited to get back to school and learn the next part of the 'behind-the-scenes' process that I had been waiting for since two years back.
Finally, junior year at Carnegie Mellon University (2010-2011) and I made sure I was the first to sign up, plus I had priority being an upperclassman. I now sat in my first recording class. The second half of this story is where it really gets good and where I honed in on my new found ability to be a leader in the engineering chair. It just came too naturally to ignore.
1 comments:
I didn't know you interned at Sony! That's awesome!
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