RC Masters apprentice Jake Kiyokane
As he works his way through the
Recording Connection master’s program,
Jake Kiyokane has already learned a key secret to getting gigs: be in the studio as often as possible.
After enrolling in the program, Jake was placed as an apprentice at
Serenity West in Hollywood, CA, a high-traffic studio that works with major artists like
Adele, Justin Timberlake, Wiz Khalifa, Florence + the Machine, and many others. Jake says he started his apprenticeship going into the studio once a week for his classes, but he decided to make himself more available.
“I started just putting myself out there more a little bit,” he says.
“Like just hitting them up more, like, ‘Hey, I’m available—you know, you can hit me up whenever you want and I’ll be there. I have time to be there if you need it.’ And then, yeah, they started calling me more and more. And then later, I was there practically almost every day of the week…I think they just found I was willing to put the effort in for it. I feel like they liked that from me, so they wanted to offer me more positions and all that.”
Control room in Serenity West.
Jake says his passion for audio engineering started years ago, when some friends of his started making music together and needed someone to record them.
“They picked me up Pro Tools,” he says,
“and they really needed somebody to learn how to record and everything. And then they gave that to me. I started messing around with it a little bit in my room in college, and from then it just set off. I would be up all night, until 5 a.m. just trying to figure out how to do something…I would skip classes just to play with Pro Tools more.”
His interest piqued, Jake decided to enroll in the Recording Connection, which gave him the hands-on training he was craving.
“[In] college, you go, you take tests, that’s it, you’re done,” he says.
“At least, out here, you’re connecting with people….It’s cool, a little bit closer. You have one mentor, and he’s just with you and he’s teaching you stuff.”
Working in the studio has only served to stir Jake’s passion further. After concluding the basic Recording Connection program, he stayed on at Serenity West for to take the Recording Connection master’s program, which he says gives him a lot more freedom to explore his interests.
“With the apprentice program, at the beginning, it was all the book, you know?” he says.
“And you’re just starting out, and you don’t really know what to expect from it. So you just go in, and you just learn what basically they’re telling you to learn. But then, when the master’s program came out, my mentor, Steve Catizone, would just tell me, ‘Hey, what do you want to work on? Or what do you like to do right now? What’s your interests?’ It’s what I want to do mostly.”
RC mentor Cameell Hanna and apprentice Jake Kiyokane
But here’s the payoff: Jake’s not just a student anymore. His willingness to be at the studio whenever he was needed is now turning into something more. His diligence has impressed studio owner Cameell Hanna to the point that he’s now being offered paid gigs, which is a pretty big deal considering the studio’s noteworthy clientele.
Speaking of which—working at Serenity West, Jake has had opportunities to assist on sessions with some pretty high-profile artists, including hip-hop producer
DJ Mustard and metal band
Anthrax! Jake specifically recalls watching
Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian in the studio:
“It was cool just seeing all his mic placements and all that,” says Jake,
“and just how important it is just exactly to get that right spot for the mic. He’ll walk all around the room a dozen times, just trying to find that one spot for the right sound for his drums, or just like setting up the amps a certain way in the control room and all that.”
Now finishing up his master’s program, Jake’s persistence, passion and availability are all paying off for him, and he is well on his way to a full-time career doing what he loves. His advice for other apprentices: Be in the studio, and stay when others leave.
“Just go, just try to get in there as much as possible,” he says.
“And stay as long as you can, because they’re going to notice your effort and how much you want to be there. And if you want to be there, they’re going to ask you to come more…I see a lot of [apprentices]. They’ll come, they’ll stay, stay a little bit, and they won’t do anything, then they’ll leave. And I’ll be like, okay, you’re missing out, you know? Because at the end, that’s when all the stuff happens. That’s when we shut down the studio. We learn a lot of other stuff…It’s very valuable just staying that little extra time just to get that knowledge.”
Now that Jake gets to spend most of his time in the studio—has he had his fill of it? Not in the least. Talk to him for a few minutes, and it’s obvious that he still lives and breathes it. Where does he see himself in five years?
“In the studio,” he says.
“That’s all I want to see in five years.”
