Whenever I’m out at a local show I always pay attention to who’s mixing.
Good FOH sound engineers are hard to come by. I get it. It’s not a glamorous job. It doesn’t pay well for most of the ladder climbing. And the hours are tough. You have to put up with all sorts of personalities with the bands coming through nightly. Of course, most house sound engineers don’t just mix for that one club. Many work at various ones around town. Many are musicians themselves who work on their own music during the day. And naturally, many tour.
Whenever I’m at a show and it’s a great mix, I always make a point to go over to the FOH at the end of the show and let them know. And if they’re local, I get their number and label them as “FOH” in my contacts for easy searchability.
And when in need, I hit them up.
A couple months back, one of my artists who I manage played a show at a small club in LA. We had the house engineer mix the set. We’re fortunate in LA that because of the plethora of excellent engineers, most clubs make sure to only employ great ones. There are exceptions, sure, and over the years I’ve called them out time and time again.
Don’t get angry at me. Challenge yourself to do better. Or ignore me. I’m just one asshole with an opinion. But if you’re wondering why you’re not getting more gigs, it may be because you need improvement and no one wants to tell you.
+Dear House Sound Engineers: We Love You, We Need You, Please Stop
So back to this local LA club gig. The mix was great! I was impressed. And I was about to go up to the engineer afterwards and let them know how much I dug the mix when my artist informed me that this engineer was a pain to work with. And they had “real bad energy.”
There is a disconnect with sound engineers and artists. Most (non-artist) engineers aren’t, shall we say, people persons.
They may be great at the technical side of the job, but that’s only one part of the job! You have to know how to communicate with artists and musicians. You have to be a decent hang, a great communicator, and by and large, not be an asshole.
It’s one thing to be a house engineer at a local venue. And it’s a completely other thing to be on tour with the band.
+9 Things Every Musician Needs To Know About the Sound Guy
So, yesterday when I was working with my artist to find a touring FOH and I suggested that engineer from that local club gig, they reminded me that “yeah they were good, but had shitty energy.”
When you’re on tour, everything is magnified. Intensified. You don’t want people with short fuses who don’t practice personal hygiene and are high maintenance. You don’t want energy sucks. You want good hangs who make life easier for everyone on tour. Especially for small tours where everyone is packed into a van.
Hired guns are interchangeable. That’s the nature of the gig. And if you are a hired gun who wants to keep the gig and get more gigs, learn how to bring good energy to every situation. Every night. Just because you made it ‘sound good,’ doesn’t mean you did a good job.
+11 Ways to Get Hired (or Fired From) The 2nd Gig as a Freelance Musician
Learning the engineering part of a live sound engineering job is just one part of the profession. If you want to turn this line of work into a career, it’s time to master the unwritten roles of the job description.
