RC Graduate Garrett Pace
From a certain point of view,
Recording Connection graduate Garrett Pace might seem the least likely person to apprentice in a recording studio, let alone get hired by his mentor as a staff engineer. A classically trained singer and multi-instrumentalist with a bachelor’s degree in music from Western Carolina University, he seemed poised to go in a completely different career direction.
But Garrett wasn’t satisfied. Keenly interested in electronic music and dubstep, he wanted to be more on the industry side of things.
“Once I got done with college, I wanted to do something in this business,” he says.
“I was inexperienced, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do, but I knew that I wanted a job in that industry, for sure…I looked up online and I found Recording Connection. It was a good opportunity to continue my education because, to tell you the truth, even though I got my bachelor’s degree, I wanted to continue my education because I felt that I could learn more and be better at it myself.”
It turned out Garrett was in for a rude awakening. As he began apprenticing with Nick Chahwala of
Bravo Ocean Studios in Atlanta, GA, Garrett quickly felt completely out of his comfort zone.
Production Room in Bravo Ocean Studios
he says.
“When I started working at the studio, of course all the coworkers were really into hip-hop and rap, and they were all rap artists or they produced rap. And then there’s little old me… I’ve never really worked with rap ever in my life. I came from a classically trained school.”
His mentor, Nick Chahwala, picked up on Garrett’s lack of confidence and decided the best thing to do was to stretch him even further, challenging him to stay as far out of his comfort zone as possible. It was a lot to handle, and Garrett almost lost heart at first—but then his determination kicked in.
His mentor took notice.
“He was like, ‘All right, I’m gonna get on this track, I’ve got to provide a hook. I gotta record hip hop, I gotta mix hip hop, I got to record R&B, I got to tune R&B vocals,’ says Nick.
“It was really good for him.”
As it turned out, once Garrett got over the steep learning curve, his musical background ended up being an asset. Nick continues,
“He can record, he can produce hip hop, he can do country, folk, he can play instruments and all that stuff. So he was the key to everyone trying to put their songs together, that’s what I liked about Garrett…Of all the students that we’ve had, he’s been like the best.”
In fact, by the time Garrett was approaching the end of his apprenticeship, he found himself being offered a job by his mentor! Garrett remembers the moment he realized what had happened, and the sense of achievement he felt.
Control Room A in Bravo Ocean Studios
he says,
“and from there on it turned into a job opportunity, where [Nick] was like, ‘I actually enjoy your work. You’re doing quite a good job, and I like your creativity and everything, and you actually have a set of skills that we can use around the studio.’…When I shook his hand, it was truly an incredible feeling to have. I just wanted to tell everybody in my family.”
Now working as secondary engineer at Bravo Ocean, Garrett has found a career doing what he truly enjoys. His advice to others?
“If you’re in the situation that I was in, I almost gave up…But I talked to Nick, and it turned out actually one of the greatest experiences besides college. So my word of advice would be, don’t give up. Ride it until the end.”
(You can check out one of Garrett’s tracks in the Apprentice Media section below!)
