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Issue #55 – Mentor News
by L. Swift and Jeff McQ
When it comes to learning from top music industry pros, you don’t get much better than Recording Connection mentor Mark Christensen. His many years in the music industry have given him experience on both sides of the aisle, so to speak—both on the studio side of music production and as a recording and touring label artist. In 1996, Mark established Engine Room Audio in New York City from the ground up. Today, Engine Room is one of the best and busiest recording and mastering studios in the world, servicing such clients as Trey Songz, 50 Cent, Kylie Minogue, The Killers, A$AP Rocky, The Ting Tings, Sia and a host of others. Even so, as busy as the Engine Room gets, Mark still takes a personal interest in passing his knowledge along, and personally mentors all the students we send to his studio.
Under Mark’s mentoring, Recording Connection apprentices get plenty of opportunities to grow and connect to the industry while learning from the best, which is why the Engine Room is understandably one of our most in-demand mentor studios. In a recent conversation with RRFC, Mark talked about the advantages that apprentices have by learning on-the-job, and provided key insights into how students can make the most of those advantages.
RRFC: What was it about Nacor as a student? What did he do that made you say, “I want to hire this guy when he’s done with the program”?
Mark: He just really spent a lot of time soaking up all of the material. He’s very self-motivated, spent a lot of time researching the various topics. We would study a particular topic in the class, then he would go off on his own and do a lot more internet research, do a lot of reading. It was clear that he was learning really quickly, and he had a really good command of all of the material…He was a responsible guy, really knew what he was talking about. He was just one of those kids that really was able to get a grasp on the reality of how to work on sessions.
RRFC: Any other standout students? What made them stand out?
Mark: Christian Albrizio is [also] good…He’s just another dedicated kid who was definitely willing to attend almost anything I suggested. He would just soak up whatever information he could. That’s a common trait [of successful students]. We send out these emails to the whole student list. We’ll be like, “Hey, there’s a tracking session on Saturday that you are welcome to attend if you want to.” It tends to be the kids who show up to almost everything you invite them to. They have that attitude of wanting to learn anything they can learn.
Audio engineering started out as an apprenticeship model, right? You learn to be an audio engineer almost the same way you learn to be a blacksmith. You have to hang out with the blacksmith and figure out how he does stuff. That’s how you become a good audio engineer, too. You have to be willing to put in the time.
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