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Cause aint nobody got time for Amateur's
Unknown Speaker 0:00
You're listening to local programming produced in KU NV studios. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5. Jas and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.
Unknown Speaker 0:16
This is talking with the pro professional. This is talking with the pros with me just be I speak to the professionals in the world of audio to gain an insight into what it takes to become a pro talking with the pros. Today we have Matt as our guest, alongside my wonderful co host Paulie. Let's go welcome everybody. Hello, hello. My guest Yes. So Matt, tell us who is Matt profession of audio. You're doing a lot of things. And I want to hear about everything that you've got going on. Sweet.
Unknown Speaker 0:58
Well, yeah, I'm born and raised in Vegas. I got an audio a few years ago, or at least Pro Audio live audio. And lately, I mix it a few different places I mix at Sony's rockin country, Sony's North 40. I work. I work at Vic's jazz club as well. It's all under the same kind of umbrella. But I work at the usual place, as well. It's kind of one of my favorite gigs actually. Shout out Carlos. Great venue. You should go there to see a show sometime. Oh, I like that place. Yeah, it's one of my favorites. I kind of bounced around between maybe four or five venues only work about 10 to 12 days a month, honestly. But it's really fun, super rewarding. And I love mixing. I love dialing in a good mix in and feeling comfortable about it. I love when a guest comes up and he's like, Hey, this sounds really good. What kind of board are you using? That's my favorite. I'll start talking a lot about it, talk their ear off and then perhaps even detract from the show because I won't stop talking about it. That's great. But yeah, I've been at it for about two years, as far as getting paid to do it. But I spent many years beforehand, trying to learn how to make a drum kit, you know, looking at random audio gear with my computer, and just mixing my own silly demos, punk songs, that kind of stuff.
Unknown Speaker 2:10
Wow. Okay, so is that the genre you're currently doing right now? In music.
Unknown Speaker 2:16
That's the genre I make. I make like all rock, high energy like pop punk stuff. But I mix for a few different bands in town as well. Which I really love doing. Hunters briefcase, Audrey Possehl. I'm hopefully going to be doing an album with the band Sunday morning, which is some high school kids who are super talented. I'm really excited about them. Song, right. Sunday morning. Yeah, but it's like Sunday morning. MO You are n ing like more? Yeah. Very interesting little play on words. So yeah, I've been really trying to get around and mix for other people in town and kind of just like push the art out in Vegas, because I think we have a great scene out here. And so I'm really happy to kind of jump in and maybe, you know, provide some good mixing for people, I really want to push the standard up. Because you know how many local bands we've heard with silly, goofy recordings in their garage and two microphones and stuff. I love that you're
Unknown Speaker 3:10
supporting local artists. Yeah, that is so cool. You're going out of your way to support the art. That's really cool.
Unknown Speaker 3:17
Well, 100% I'm in I'm going to be into like, I'm just as much in the scene as everybody else. And that's how I met all these people. So I feel like the best way to be part of the scene is to just invest in it, and help people out and it'll come back, hopefully. And if it doesn't, well, no worries, I still had a lot of fun mixing stuff for people. And I love feeling proud of a mix. At the end of the day. And I love when the song feels like it's become like a part of me even though I didn't write it. Yeah. Nice. Yeah, yeah,
Unknown Speaker 3:44
I love that you're out here, providing audio and just bringing in elevating their music from the source. Right. So it really takes a whole production to bring that all together. Oh,
Unknown Speaker 3:58
yeah. Yeah, 100%. You know, and now we can do it with a home studio, we can, we can do whatever we want. And I really enjoy that much about it. Something I kind of specialize in or try to is like, vocal production, book engineering, and then just mixing the whole record afterward. That's a whole different process in itself is working with a vocalist because I'm a singer too, but it helps when someone comes in and they'll feel comfortable or whatever. And I can kind of help them ease their fears get the best performance out of them. That's like one of my favorite things to do. And it's also what I have available to me right now. Like, I don't have a full studio setup yet at my house to do full drums and all that stuff. But I can do everything else. So it's really nice to kind of bring people in there. Like we have these drums and we don't know what to do with them.
Unknown Speaker 4:40
See your performer also.
Unknown Speaker 4:41
Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 4:42
well, you're an artist. Yeah, that's so cool.
Unknown Speaker 4:44
I'm in a band. I'm gonna shout us out right here. Quick plug High Sierra Club. Let's go.
Unknown Speaker 4:49
Let's go me okay,
Unknown Speaker 4:50
we've been around for five years. We're a pop punk band all rock emo stuff. We got a show coming up. February 17. That rock stars of tomorrow. It's a music school. It's gonna be All ages show with a charity raffle. We have live art. We have vendors, food vendors, the whole thing come in, I plan to that one with Shana from Black Sheep booking and my friend Kirsten who works for Life is beautiful. So that's been a really cool team is that this event I'm really excited for it started out as like this weird big idea. And I always have really big ideas and no follow through. So I'm really happy I met them, because they helped me push it the rest of the way. And, yeah, it's gonna be really, really cool. There's so many items being donated, I think rocks as of tomorrow is doing like a free month of lessons. We have tickets to omega Mart, we have tickets to the punk rock museum, we might have some signed vinyls and things like that available for raffle as well. And an art piece from Eric Mazola, who's an artist around town here too. So it's gonna be a sweet raffle. And we're donating all that to the foundation to assist young musicians.
Unknown Speaker 5:47
So that is, I'm really excited about it. That is exciting. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 5:52
I'm really, really excited. And just back to what you said about being insane. Invest in it, you're
Unknown Speaker 5:58
involved in it, you're meeting people, you're networking, and also, you're building your circle of people to support you. That's really huge.
Unknown Speaker 6:06
And what I love that you bring Matt, and it's something we've talked about before with those who have almost like a dual experience in the world of audio, they have them as a musician and an artist, and you being a musician and an artist and a vocalist. And then kind of interesting with the performer and getting like that relationship built. So it's really comes down to Can I trust this guy, and then you bring in that extra comfort to assist them in what they want to bring in their sound and in their artistry.
Unknown Speaker 6:37
Right. So what was the catalyst for getting into audio? What What got you in audio?
Unknown Speaker 6:45
Well, I had a passion obviously for songwriting. I was in a band while still am. And doing all the studio demos that I did when when I write my own songs. I eventually stumbled across one of my close friends, Adam Lerner, sorry if I said his last name on the podcast, and nobody want me to do that. But my boy Adam, he mixed us out to Verna Costera, a long time ago, and we kind of just hit it off. And he offered to teach me some stuff. But he actually didn't mentor me for the longest he showed or he introduced me to a guy named Justin Centeno, who has been my mentor for over a year now I kind of can come to him with anything but I spent a good six months just hopping out to live gigs for free. I would bring my iPad, he would bring his we would mix at the same time. And we would just talk concepts we would talk about all kinds of things when it comes to live mixing, which was super helpful. I feel like I kind of have an unorthodox way to get into this because I straight up just winged it all the way in. Like I didn't go to school for this. You just brought your iPad. Yes. I just bought my phone before I knew it. I was getting paid in Cali.
Unknown Speaker 7:48
So what I love is, you found a mentor.
Unknown Speaker 7:52
Yeah, accidentally, I found a mentor, which was great. Because the guy who mixed us like my band, and so he offered to teach me some stuff. Then he introduced me to the guy that that really taught me very
Unknown Speaker 8:02
similar to my story. I found a mentor when I went to school here at UNLV. And it was a friend of mine. Nice. It's just a friend that I had in
Unknown Speaker 8:12
at school. Oh, yeah, we spoke to him. Episode Two. Yeah, we actually brought him over really? Oh, yeah. So Sam friend.
Unknown Speaker 8:20
Yes, Sam friend. I don't know him personally, but I have been told that. I forget who it was. They were like You remind me of Sam friend. He used to play baseball. He did. Yep. used to play Cimarron High School. He's gonna be like, how does this guy No, me. I played baseball summer High School. Also. I had a teammate that said, I remind him of San Fran, which is so funny. I'm gonna have to look them up on Facebook and be like, Dude, I talked about during the podcast. Don't think I'm weird. In the sport space. Yeah. That's in the room in the radio show.
Unknown Speaker 8:51
I could get you connected to him. Yeah, right away. I love that. Yeah. I love that. So cool. Wow, that's interesting. What I love is it's almost like a piece of advice for the listener. If you're interested in audio or interested in anything in your life. Finding a mentor is key. True. Going to school is great. But finding a mentor that's going to help you and guide you through the process in your professional career is so key. I think mentorship is the is the is it's not talked about it. Nobody talks about hey, I got a mentor or I am seeking a mentor. It's almost like you just kind of organically find them or they find you. But
Unknown Speaker 9:31
they're so important. Having that support system, having that one person through the tough days. Even the best days, letting you know like you're on track, keep going through it all. You know there's somebody that you can bounce off any idea and there's just a wealth of knowledge. Definitely a mentor somebody who has years and years of experience that can help facilitate you know, connection to help to grow You in your area of interest.
Unknown Speaker 10:02
Yeah. And I think my favorite part, at least in the case of Justin is that he didn't have to do any of the things he didn't, you know, he kind of just took me under his wing. And I really appreciate that. Because, you know, I was showing up for free, but he was taking time out of his day, every time he was mixing a gig to, to really talk to me about the concepts and things like that. And, you know, I feel like there needs to be like a mutual interest, I wanted to get into it. And he saw potential in me. And I really appreciate that, because it makes me want to work harder, it makes me want to learn. And it completely fast track the process, like 100 times over,
Unknown Speaker 10:30
that's the great thing about mentors, they really can see that, that you have that potential, even before you even recognize it, then sparks that interest that you had, like surface level maybe. And then like, wow, I'm really interested in this, I'm really want to learn more, and they're willing to because they already saw that right beforehand. He
Unknown Speaker 10:50
saw that in you when you were doing it for free.
Unknown Speaker 10:54
Yeah. And I was doing it for fun. I had some basic handle on mixing concepts from the studio. We had to translate that to live. And then you know, at the end of it all, he ended up hiring me on for one of his the the shag room at Virgin hotel. He hired me on to work at that little club there. So I ended up getting my first gig out of it as well. So it was it was pretty great. Oh, yeah, that's exactly
Unknown Speaker 11:14
what happened with me and Sam. And it's interesting, because I think that's a catalyst for giving advice, in a sense, like, get a mentor, find somebody that you vibe with that is going to help you in your professional career. And or build a friendship with somebody that you want to grow with. And they can help you. I mean, you do stuff for free for a while, but they'll eventually help you get land your first gig. Exactly.
Unknown Speaker 11:37
And to put yourself out there, you know, everyone wants to get paid, but I just was learning something new. Like there's nothing wrong with showing up for free, like 1015 gigs in a row before I took my first one. Yeah, that
Unknown Speaker 11:48
sounds like a lot of fun. I love that. I have an iPad. I'm just yeah, that's all you need.
Unknown Speaker 11:56
I love that. Yeah, were there days where we had to bring the compressors
Unknown Speaker 12:02
compressed. And then there used to be a team of engineers. It was just like, oh, you you take the threshold, you take the ratio, you take the tack time. Yeah. And then they would all stand in the room. And as the recording would start, one guy would start the tape machine. That guy would start like mixing the EQ, like during the recording, whatever, like, hey, it's like crazy. The whole recording process in a studio environment was multiple people.
Unknown Speaker 12:30
Right? Because, you know, in audio engineer, there's still like, just two people rolling up. If you're lucky, sometimes it's just one, right. So to think about, even in the recording space, there was a whole team doing dedicated to like to have those expertise. Like that's super important. When it comes to audio. There's so many facets in this industry, there's so many little things that you need to know, to have the whole production come together. So I'm so glad that you mentioned that I
Unknown Speaker 13:01
love the theme of what we're talking about. Because this is about building a team. Even Even if even if we're doing the job. And we're called, hey, you got a gig today show up. Sometimes we don't even realize that we have a whole team behind us. They might not be there. But they're there. Because they helped us get there. Right. And it's so cool. And I love that you you took the time to do things for free for a while until you landed your first gig. Yeah, of course,
Unknown Speaker 13:31
you just got to put yourself out there, you know. And
Unknown Speaker 13:33
I'm sure it started as like an interest of passion and progressed thing. Now you're an expert talk about that.
Unknown Speaker 13:42
It started as an interest, we'll talk about that I play a few instruments. And I bought my first USB mic when I was like 18. And I remember using that. So that singular USB mic, the 8020 20, the classic the one everyone gets first to make a drum kit, because I just for some reason wanted to make my little demos, and I'm at my dad's house, he's got all tile is just like so loud in there. And I have one mic on the drums, worst recordings ever, but I had a lot of fun. And that's kind of what started it off. Because I was like drum sounds need to be better. I need an interface. I need more mics, like and the first thing I actually learned how to do, which I think is weird is like a drum kit. Because I feel like there's so many other things you could learn in audio engineering first, but like I had to know. And it just took me there. Yeah, yeah. And
Unknown Speaker 14:26
that's pretty complex, too. I mean, that takes another level. I mean, you can set up the stage for vocals, you can set up the stage for a guitar and amp for the bass, but then, like, oh, there's that drum kit. Yeah, mic setup or more. Like that's intense. That's like expert level right there. So you just hit it hard, right? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 14:47
It was just a personal interest. Honestly, I wanted to know, I was like, I must do this. No, my original plan was like, Oh, I can just make my own music and produce it all myself like easy. And then No, it's not that easy. That's what I'm I find it
Unknown Speaker 15:00
funny now, to be a pro, it takes curiosity at the start, like because you don't, sometimes you don't even expect it, you don't even expect, what you're going to become a professional in is going to be the thing, like, you don't know that you're gonna end up being an audio engineer, at some point in your life or being an astronaut at some point, like, you're curious about space, and then all of a sudden, you end up in a spaceship or you, you start talking to people in the engineering department at a certain whatever, club and then eventually, you could end up working for SpaceX or NASA. Right? That's so cool. Yeah, just
Unknown Speaker 15:39
lead you there. You know, yeah, one thing to say? Well, that's a theme. That's another theme, is I forgot what I was gonna say.
Unknown Speaker 15:48
I know you had mentioned the professional recording, and learning how to mic up a drum kit. Now, take it to the next level you were mentioning off before we started here, about doing vocals for an artist. So yeah, so kind of like in that field of audio, let's do that.
Unknown Speaker 16:08
I just started doing that for other people than myself, which I got good at it by myself having to punch in and just record my own vocals for demos. But recently I've worked with his name's Jake, from Huntress briefcase, I've worked with Audrey Brasil. She's a singer songwriter in town as well. And I've realized that it's so much less about the technical aspect of it. And it's so much more about just like managing how they feel, how they feel about the last take, how they feel in the room, if they're comfortable with you. And, you know, treading lightly when you make suggestions unless they ask for it. It is their music at the end of the day, you know, and I don't want to intrude and have an ego about it and try to change what they're doing, if it's what they believe in. So I prefer to just sit back until they ask for my help. And then I'll tell them how I feel I've helped with anything from vocal performance and placement to is this the right lyric type stuff? Should this be the right layer here, should we out of harmony, I love doing that, too. I'm pretty good at singing harmony, just kind of on the spot and recording them out. So I definitely feel like that's one of my strongest suits, I can layer things up and really add a lot there. For people you coming
Unknown Speaker 17:19
in as the producer and just knowing what it is what it's like being an artist on the other side, and just carrying them through and holding their hand. I mean, that's, that's where the magic happens. That's where they have the space to be the artist that they want to be. And you're just helping them and supporting them and cheering them on while also coming in with all of your expertise to get them there.
Unknown Speaker 17:41
People think that audio is just about the gear about the microphones and the signal chain and learning all the technical aspects. But all of that is just complementing the human experience. And what I love is that you're bringing that perspective, you're, you're talking about being a pro in a studio environment. And it's not all about the mics or the audio, or anything related to audio, really, it's actually more than
Unknown Speaker 18:08
that. It's about the person. It's about the emotions. And I want the person to be as proud of their music is I'm going to be when I'm done mixing it, you know, so I want to make sure that they have takes it they're happy with honor percent. Sometimes it's it's hard though, I've had some people struggle to hit some things. And we've had to run multiple takes and they get they get nervous or embarrassed because they're not hitting something and I'm like, listen, I sing too. And I have also sang very poorly many times. And singing is very vulnerable, right? It's the only instrument that's attached to you. So it's really easy to get nervous and get embarrassed if you don't hit something, especially in a studio setting because you got the headphones on. It's silent in the room. And all I hear is you sing an acapella. So like, the last thing I want to do is judge because I there's so many people who have amazing voices, but if they're not comfortable, they're not going to think well, and you just gotta make them comfortable. I
Unknown Speaker 18:58
have noticed people, especially sound engineers, or there's this, like, talk that oh, that's the diva or, you know, don't mess with the diva. But I've learned to completely lose that directly about the diva because when the diva, she or he is protecting her or his voice like you're you're the instrument and that's a part of you. It's your actual it's inside you. It's crazy. Yeah. So
Unknown Speaker 19:28
it made me think about like, instruments in a case and hardshell with padding. So here comes the vocalist, the main source and they're just like being a hard shell trying. But they're soft on the inside. And that's what you see Riley.
Unknown Speaker 19:49
I think the hardest thing and I think the hardest thing about audio is there's so much challenge to it. There's a lot of technical aspects and but it's all supporting In the artistic aspect of, of the experience, you have to know about EQ, compression, technical, you know, dealing with the gear dealing with all of these different things and audio just to then facilitate the environment right to be to be right for. Right for the artist and for yourself. If you're the artist, it's crazy. It's so much. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 20:23
it feels good, though, when you get it right. And it's almost transparent, are so many good time. We're all having a good time. It's all dialed in. Every take feels like it's flowing. You know, we're comping takes over and over and over flying and Ableton just going out hyperspeed I love doing that. But all that other setup, it takes a while to get people comfortable. Sometimes I've noticed, what
Unknown Speaker 20:41
is your most exciting moment in audio?
Unknown Speaker 20:45
Oh, no. I well. I think recently, one of my most exciting moments was probably one of the first times I got to mix on that system at Sony's rockin country, because it's huge. The drum sounds are absolutely huge. And so I just love mixing in general, but from my background, my like rock background, I am a sucker for loud drums, and like loud in your face mixes. And that's what that system is capable of. They use super nice equipment out there. And so I love that. Otherwise, I think like the most exciting things is just when the music comes out in a studio setting, like when my friends are happy with their song, and they get to release it and everyone's proud and it feels good. It feels good to know that that trickles down to me in some way that I help them. Get it to that point. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 21:26
that's, I mean, anybody would be so honored to be working with you. And yeah, be that trust on the other side. I mean, I know we've worked together. So you know, we trust out together even we've been trusted you and it's come through. So at the end of the day, we're walking away with the product where we did a show, we did a thing and just knowing like how you were there to you know, you kept it together. So that's important. And
Unknown Speaker 21:54
being a being a pro is not just being great at the job. It's also about being a great people person. True as well. Oh,
Unknown Speaker 22:00
being a people person that is the sound guy trope, the sound guy with the big ego and the short patience. I never want to be that guy. Never ever, ever hard work with as a as a musician.
Unknown Speaker 22:11
It's so hard to Well, yeah, with an engineer that's like, like that. It's just, it stresses you out as the artist and you're just trying to record you're just trying to get your art out. And then he's stressing about something technical. And that affects the artistic they have to complement the two worlds have to meld definitely, and they have to be a part of you as a person. And in Yeah, so it's overcoming that that challenge is so that comes into my next question is, what's the what's the craziest moment in audio? Oh, man.
Unknown Speaker 22:40
Yeah. Oh, so as we talked about earlier, I my whole career up to this point was basically just me winging it like sink or swim style. No real education other than the stuff I've learned on my own and then with my mentors, but I picked up a gig. Oh, no, when I very first started at this company called Creative Technology. And I didn't know what I was getting into. Yeah, it was an overnight stage build at a beach club. And it was like a four hour loading. Like we had like 340 foot trucks unload just nothing but travel cases, a team of like 40 people and I was brand new. I like had no idea what I was doing. And we built this stage overnight. And luckily, I had like, a head engineer with me to set it up. And I was just asking him questions all night. But the hours combined with the heavy lifting, combined, it was 10 hours. And it was overnight. It was honestly something I was like, I don't think I want to do this anymore. I don't think I want to do this part of audio anymore. I prefer to be in the studio, because the pay was really good. But man that was really challenging. It was hard just to stay awake, first of all, and then we're just constantly lifting heavy things where we're building this massive stage over the pool. I was like This is This is absurd. I don't know what I'm doing. I can't believe I got hired for this, like, just leaned on the team though. And people were graceful and impatient with me. So I appreciate that. But that was definitely my most challenging thing. I went home that night or that morning at 730 in the morning. Like, I don't think I'm gonna take any more gigs from this company.
Unknown Speaker 24:08
Yeah, overcoming challenges. How do you how do you overcome challenges in audio?
Unknown Speaker 24:12
Um, depends on the challenge. It could be a quick troubleshoot something that's like really time sensitive and I have to like problem solve immediately. For example, the radio show last week at the jazz club when things weren't coming through right. And I had to fix that like we we had it done before the end of the song but it just was not right at first and for another example is the other like a physical long challenge. At some point. I think I just dissociate into my head and I just get it done. It's like it'll all be over in 10 hours if we can just complete the project. I have no other choice. I can't go home.
Unknown Speaker 24:46
The most important question.
Unknown Speaker 24:48
Oh no.
Unknown Speaker 24:50
Tea, coffee or energy drinks. Ah,
Unknown Speaker 24:53
definitely energy drinks. Shout out Zions shout out Celsius. Shout out every every energy drink brand. It's about there's so bad for you. There's so good for me. What's
Unknown Speaker 25:03
your favorite?
Unknown Speaker 25:03
I'm gonna say science. Zions, it's X, Y E, N C E, some natural flavors, only 15 calories per can. What is this an add? It might be, I don't know, just feels electric in my veins and it gets me going. gets me going. Nothing better than that. Especially when there's like a, like I said, a long loading.
Unknown Speaker 25:19
You gotta feel this somehow got to,
Unknown Speaker 25:22
you've got to shock on an energy drain. You
Unknown Speaker 25:24
got to make this happen. So what's your fuel? I love that. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you so much for coming. I mean, it's been great talking to you. Like, I want to go more into this, but like, we'll we'll hang out again. And what we're gonna come out to your show. Yeah, I did.
Unknown Speaker 25:48
So soon, it's next Saturday, the 17th. So
Unknown Speaker 25:50
I really want to go out and check out those venues now. So thank you for sharing your side. Being a pro in the world of audio being
Unknown Speaker 26:00
a pro in the world of audio. I love that. Oh, thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. I felt underqualified to be honest but I appreciate you guys so much for having me
Unknown Speaker 26:23
began my life
Unknown Speaker 26:35
when you're broke long enough?
Unknown Speaker 27:07
Okay by the way
Unknown Speaker 28:04
you again I want to thank you so much for tuning in. And if you missed any of today's episode, you can find us anywhere podcasts are available like Spotify, Google and Apple podcasts. Thank you for listening to today's episode of talking with the pros with me. Just be I love you and I'll catch you in the next one. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai