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Issue #54 – Job Opportunities & Student Successes
by L. Swift and Jeff McQ
Hadley: We have one room completely up and running with a console, two computers, and all of the hardware synths. It’s decked out so we’re able to take on clients and students. But it’s still just the one room out of the three that we’re going to have.
RRFC: So you mentioned that you’re over there working with Doug. How do you two break up the work flow?
Hadley: Well, what’s really cool is obviously Doug is our head producer. So I like to split up our work in the sense that he’s very much on the creative side whereas my role is more administrative. I’m more taking care of the day to day operations of the studio, managing calendars, making sure that Doug knows exactly what he’s going to be working on each day and who’s going to be coming in and who’s paid and who’s unpaid, and things like that whereas Doug is doing a lot of the actual hands-on creative work production-wise.
RRFC: Do you think it’s important to free up the creative part of the team to do just that, be creative?
Hadley: Yeah, I think that it’s absolutely essential to let the creative side worry about that and keep a level of organization so that everything just continues to move. It’s all just little gears and a clock, and I try as hard as I can not to throw a wrench in it.
RRFC: We totally hear you on that. Do you ever get to step in and do some work on the creative side?
Hadley: Yeah. We’re doing a small four or five part video series documenting the whole build out of our facility, which will go live. I’ve been doing the production for a lot of the music of the episodic content for it, so I’m definitely still getting in there and doing a decent amount of production myself, which is awesome. Working in this facility, I’m able to sit there and learn all the manuals to all the gear that we have. As the manager I also want to make sure that I really know every single piece of equipment that we have and how it works. In case somebody doesn’t show up, I can still go in and help a client operate the room.
RRFC: Right. Do you think you would enjoy the business side of it as much if you hadn’t already gone through the program and learned every in and out of it? For example, do you think you would get frustrated if you didn’t already know what the equipment was?
Hadley: Most definitely because what it all comes down to is the passion for the craft [and that] is what I have first and foremost. I’d say that it would make quite a bit of difference because I wouldn’t really know what it was that I was even managing work production-wise. Does that make sense?
RRFC: Since you trained as an engineer, and now you’re on the business side of it, so when someone comes to you and says, “We need this $3000 microphone,” or whatever, you’d probably be more prone to understanding and saying, “Yeah, I think we do need that.”
Hadley: Exactly. Yeah, exactly.
RRFC: So you apprenticed with Steve Sundholm at Kung Fu Bakery in Portland, OR. Anything you can tell us about your experience apprenticing with Steve?
Hadley: Oh rad. Cool. Steve is awesome, dude. He’s such a character. I think the thing that really worked out is we both have kind of a weird sense of humor and we just really got along. What was cool was he would let me go to his wood shop and help him build things for his studio. So he was above and beyond a hands-on mentor which was really cool. He even gave me some leads on where to start looking for some freelance work and things like that. He was definitely instrumental in my becoming established down here [in LA] which is really cool.
The only advice I can really give is you have to make yourself available and you have to be tenacious. What I always tell people is music, audio, film, any of the creative paths that one can take in their career, it’s never an easy out. For some reason, sometimes I feel like people think, “Oh, I’m just going to pick up a laptop and I’m going to be the next Skrillex and it’s not going to take any time. I’m just going to do it.” But that’s not how it works. And you really have to be very tenacious. You have to work at it every day.
We couldn’t agree more. Thanks to Hadley, Doug, and the team at Abstract Recording Studios! We can’t wait to see what you guys have in store!
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