May 19, 2022 • 23 mins
It’s the remix! Conversation with an Audio Engineer.
Shane Kendall talks about his work as an audio engineer, his education, challenges, and current projects.
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Episode Transcript
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S1 (00:16):
Hello and welcome to the Career Path. A recent report
from Sweeney and Vision Australia revealed that 83% of employers
surveyed lacked confidence in hiring someone with a vision impairment.
With this podcast, we hope to delve further into this
issue by speaking to job seekers, employers and employees to
hear their perspectives. Each episode will be available to download
(00:38):
as a podcast. Just go to Vision Australia org and
type the career path into the search engine to find
our webpage where you can listen to other episodes and
subscribe to make sure that you don't miss any. I'm
your host, Belinda Wilson. In this episode, we're speaking with
Shane Kendall, audio engineer and music producer. Thank you for
(00:59):
joining us today.
S2 (01:00):
Thank you for having me. And most importantly, I am
one of those creative entertainment industry types. So thank you
for enabling my ego.
S1 (01:08):
You're absolutely welcome. That's that's what we love to do
in general. So specifically, can you tell me what exactly
as an artistic, creative, ego driven person you do specifically?
S2 (01:22):
Might take a bit long, but I'll break it down
a little bit. So as a music producer, I do
fun things like recording, editing, mixing and mastering of music.
I get to do some collaborative songwriting as an audio engineer.
I do kind of the same thing, but it's more
focused on audio as a whole. So I'll do stuff
(01:44):
like editing, restoration and enhancement of audio for things like
podcasts and commercials and audio books and anything audio really.
I do have a few little side hustles. One of
them is accessibility consultation. Usually in software, I do some
video editing, which I don't know if a vision impaired
(02:06):
person has any business editing videos, but I'm doing it
and I haven't had any complaints yet. And I'm also
on the cusp of entering the audio book production game,
so we'll see how that goes.
S1 (02:17):
What originally interests you in getting into audio engineering and music?
S2 (02:22):
It all started with music, and like so many people,
it started when I was very young, so I grew
up in a relatively musical household. The radio was always on.
We had a pretty good CD collection and of course
there were those weekend music video clip television programs, and
I was always keen to get up early and watch them.
Two of my uncles are musicians and they really fostered
(02:44):
my interest in music. So one is a drummer and
he gave me an old snare drum, much to the
dismay of my mother, I'm sure. And my other uncle
is a guitarist and the guitar is the first instrument
I really took to. And so when I got myself
a guitar, he would come around and show me a
few things and write up some chord charts. Taught me
how to restring a guitar. And he's also an electrician,
(03:07):
so he built me a guitar amplifier, which I still
have now. My older brother was also a big influence
on me. I would hang out with him and his
friends and they were all into, let's just say, extreme sports,
mostly skateboarding. That's where music became not just something you
can listen to, but something you can feel. And it
can be the soundtrack to wonder and adventure or misadventure.
(03:31):
And I wanted to create some of those moments. So
myself and some friends from high school started bands and
it was fun. It was fun just to hang out
and make noise. Unfortunately, there weren't too many opportunities for
a bunch of underage kids playing objectively bad music to
perform live, so we started putting on our own gigs.
(03:53):
We'd hire out community centers and just charge our friends
a few bucks to come in and hang out. That
was a pivotal moment for me. That's when I realized
I could make some money while having a lot of
fun doing what I love doing, while also meeting all
these other musicians and getting to know their contacts and
being part of a community. I got to travel around
(04:15):
a lot to perform, which was so much fun, and
I even ended up as a session musician, so I
was hired to play on other people's records. I also
got a job at a record label, which was interesting.
I got to see how the sausage is made. As
they say. My jobs there were A and R, which
stands for Artisan repertoire, and my other role was in
(04:38):
artist development. My interest in audio engineering started a few
years after that when I was in my mid 20s,
and I guess it was less of an interest and
more of a circumstantial thing. Basically I had to adult
and do all those fun things like pay rent and bills.
The other thing that happened is I suffered some significant
(04:59):
vision loss and being a performing musician was just more
effort than I was willing to put in. So basically
I was broke. I didn't really want to be performing anymore,
but I still wanted to write music. And wanted to
do something with it. I pretty much came to the
conclusion that maybe I can just make my own records.
(05:20):
How hard can it be? That's called naivete. Eventually, I
got to a point where I didn't think my productions
were awful, so I just started working with other people
and started recording and mixing and mastering their music, and
it just kept going from there. It's now a decade
later and I live in a small coastal town where
there isn't really a music scene. I still have bills
(05:43):
to pay and all of those adult things that need doing.
So I've had to adapt again and that's how I
got into doing the more technical and commercial aspects of
audio engineering.
S1 (05:54):
You mentioned that you kind of did these jobs out
of necessity. So did you have issues facing other jobs
and other positions? Did you face any barriers when you
were employed in other fields or even in this field?
S2 (06:06):
Yeah, absolutely. Being a performing musician was really tricky because
there'd be times where I'd be at a venue just
doing whatever I'm doing, just hanging out, doing nothing. And,
you know, the security would walk up to me and say,
You're clearly intoxicated, you've got to leave. And, you know,
I'd be like, you know, I just can't see very well.
(06:26):
And I'm about to get up on that stage and
do my job. So just let me be, please. Also,
stage lighting was always tricky because I would say to
the the lighting person, I need constant good lighting so
I can see what I'm doing. And they would listen
for about a minute before going to their amazing dark
(06:47):
blue and red light shows. And there was a few
times where I had to actually between songs like Address
it and say, Hey, I'm not joking, can you please
just keep the lights on so I can perform? Being
a studio musician was usually challenging because recording studios are
typically dark and moody, and I would come bursting in
(07:07):
and request that we turn the lights on and all
of those music charts they're giving me to be printed
out six times larger or provided to me digitally so
I can actually read them. I've since learned how to
navigate that and talk about it in advance, and I
haven't had a problem with that for a long time.
But at the beginning it was challenging. Nowadays I usually
(07:28):
work by myself and I've set up my own space
to suit my needs. If I am working face to
face with a client, they're usually coming to me, so
I'm in control of the situation. Most of my work
is done remotely, so my clients or whoever's hiring me
at the time, if they do know about my vision,
it really doesn't impact them at all. So they don't care.
(07:50):
I just get the job done and they're happy.
S1 (07:53):
What advice would you have for people who are interested
in the music field?
S2 (07:57):
That's a tough one because there's no road map. There's
no right or wrong, and there's no guarantees in the
music industry. So I'd say practice your craft, just get
really good at whatever it is you're going to do.
There's that saying hard work beats talent, which is kind
of true, but in any creative field you'll find that
(08:18):
there are some ridiculously talented people who don't need to
work very hard. And for the rest of us, we
do need to work really hard just to keep up.
Another thing I get asked about a lot is education,
which is another tough one to answer because it depends
on what you want to do. So if you just
want to be a musician or an audio engineer, you
don't need any qualification to do those things. It just
(08:41):
comes down to ultimately how much other people lack what
you are doing. But if you wanted to get into,
let's just say education or maybe into the more corporate areas,
that's where a qualification will be required. Having said that,
sometimes getting an education is really beneficial, even if it's
(09:02):
not for the qualification. For example, I have an advanced
diploma in contemporary music and a diploma of Music business,
and I don't recall a time where those qualifications have
died rectly gained me an opportunity. But what I got
out of it was getting to meet a whole bunch
of other cool, creative people. I became a better musician
(09:24):
because I had to learn a bunch of music theory
and I now have the skills to run my business better.
I do recommend education and I think the TAFE system
is a great starting point and it could be a
great ending point. You'll get all the skills you need
to be a professional in the music industry and if
you do decide to go on to further education, just
(09:46):
say at university those qualifications do count as recognised prior
learning and will shave off a year or so from
your study time. So yeah, it all just depends where
you want to end up. But typically in the music
industry your demonstrated skill sets and network is going to
be more valuable than a qualification.
S1 (10:06):
So you're saying some places are saying education isn't as important,
even if you do go through education, there seems to
be another. Involved. So is that maybe getting a mentor
or learning with a group of people? Is that the
type of things that could help people in terms of
making connections and finding work?
S2 (10:24):
Yeah, I think this all boils down to reputation and rapport. And,
you know, if you surround yourself with the right people,
you inherit some of their reputation, whether that be a
mentor or a university, whichever path you take, it's going
to require learning and discipline and people to back you up.
But most importantly, you need to be able to live
(10:46):
up to the expectations you've provided to other people.
S1 (10:49):
That's really interesting. I think that's the case with a
lot of people that outside of education they also need
practical work, experience and connections and that's the same for
every field. It's just a bit more so in entertainment.
So a lot of blind and low vision people are
interested in setting up their own business. What advice do
you have for people who want to work for themselves?
S2 (11:09):
First of all, it's going to be tough. You're either
entering a competitive market or you're offering something completely new.
But either way, you're going to have to find clients
and convince them to invest in your product or service.
The other thing is, you know, I wish you all well.
I wish you all swift success, but you're probably not
going to have a full stack of staff for a
(11:30):
long time. So yeah, while you will be the boss,
which is cool, you're also the person on the ground
working and you're the admin and you're the accountant and
you're the marketing team and you're the complaints line. So yeah,
it's going to be tough. But there's also something really rewarding.
After you figure things out and you start seeing successes,
(11:53):
there's something really freeing about being solely accountable for your successes.
My next bit of advice is just say yes to things.
Just try stuff out, give it a go. Don't sit
around waiting for the perfect opportunity for your business and
don't limit yourself to what you can and can't do.
I think that's a trap. A lot of new business
(12:15):
owners fall into is. I don't think I can do
that or I don't think I should do that or
I don't think it's right for me to do that.
But what else are you doing? Realistically, when you're starting
your business work is usually not thriving and you'll need
to try new things and figure out what works and
what doesn't work and what you can and can't do
and meet people and learn new skills. Just say yes,
(12:37):
but don't be dishonest. Don't mislead people into making them
think you are an expert at something. When you're not.
Have that conversation and be honest. Say, you know, this
is not really what I do, but I'm willing to
give it a go. And if it's not going to
work out, I'll let you know as soon as possible.
Leave it up to them. Now, they might say, Actually, no.
We're looking for somebody with more experience who can deliver this,
(12:59):
you know, in a certain amount of time or a
certain way, and that's fine, but at least you're not
taking away that opportunity from yourself. My last bit of
advice is kind of a two parter, and it's about
how to reach out to potential clients while being ambitious
and tenacious and persistent is a good thing. You really
don't want to cross that line into just being annoying.
(13:21):
The biggest annoyance that I've heard about and I've certainly
come across is people who make contact too often and
say too much. I've gotten emails from other audio engineers
who are looking for work and that email has been
a five paragraph long life story. I've responded saying, Hey,
thanks for your email, sorry I can't help you out
right now. And then the following week I'll get the
(13:45):
same email and then I'll get it again the next
week and the next week. That's not cool. And although
I've never done this, I've had that mouse cursor hovering
over the block contact button, I can tell you that.
So when you are reaching out to somebody that you
want to work with, just send them an email saying, Hey,
I'm whatever your name is, I do this thing. I
(14:07):
think it would be a good fit for whatever it
is that they are doing. Here's some examples. Here's my portfolio.
Thanks for your time. I hope to hear back from
you soon. Obviously make it a bit more eloquent than that,
but that's all it really needs to be. You'll probably
get a response eventually, and maybe it will say, This
sounds really good. Let's talk more. Or maybe it will say, Sorry,
(14:28):
this isn't for us right now. And unless they kind
of specifically say something along the lines of please don't
contact us again, it's usually okay to follow up, but
just give it some time. It's unlikely their circumstances will
change all that much in a week, and if it does,
they will probably remember your email. And if you're a
(14:50):
good fit for them, they'll reach out to you again.
So when you do follow up, just once again, keep
it casual. Just say, Hey, my name is so-and-so, I've
reached out to you X amount of months ago. Just
checking in to see if you've got any opportunities for me.
Thanks again for your time. What I think is really
important to do here is to have an updated portfolio
because it shows that you're still working and you're not.
(15:12):
Just sitting around waiting for them to give you an opportunity.
So as I said, this is a two parter and
this is like the key bit of advice I can give,
I think, which is when you're providing examples of your work.
See if you can make examples using your potential clients,
(15:33):
product or service. So what I mean by that is
this is a very real example of something I'm doing now.
There's a podcast network that I think make really great content,
but the audio quality is, yeah, there's, there's room for improvement.
So I'm going to take some snippets of their podcast
(15:54):
and enhance it, and then I'm going to reach out
to them and say, Hey, I'm Shane, I'm an audio engineer.
Love what you guys do. I think your post-production could
be better and I'm a good person to do it.
Here's some examples of my work, which is your own product.
Let me know if we can work together in the future.
Thanks for your time. This allows them to compare the
product that they're already satisfied with enough to put out
(16:16):
to how their product could be better. And I can't
even begin to express how much that increases the chances
of gaining them as a client. I've certainly never gotten
the Please don't contact us again email. It's usually a
very positive response, even if it's not the outcome I want.
It might say something like, Hey, thank you so much
(16:36):
for doing this. This is great. Unfortunately, it's not something
we can do right now, but please let's keep in touch.
And that's them keeping the door open and that's a win.
And there have been plenty of times where I have
followed up and have gotten work because of that. So
that's all my advice. I know it was a lot,
but I hope I hope that was all right.
S1 (16:55):
That is amazing advice. I hope everyone is paying attention
to that advice. You're backing up what you're doing and
you're providing evidence and you're being appropriate in your communications
with potential employers in terms of with your studio. You
have your own studio, correct?
S2 (17:11):
Yeah. Yeah, I do.
S1 (17:13):
So how do you set up your studio to best
work for you?
S2 (17:16):
All right. I'm going to start with some simple stuff,
but most of what I do revolves around technology, so
it's going to get nerdy at the end. But for starters,
I've got decent lighting. It could be better. That's something
I'm working on. But it's it's good enough. I like
to keep the area working clean and clear just so
there's no tripping hazards and everything has a place. So
I know where everything is just simple organizational stuff like
(17:38):
that really helps. So to get into the tech stuff,
I use a nice big monitor for my computer as
well as a large font and high contrast keyboard. I
used to use a trackball mouse because they stay stationary
and I wouldn't lose them like I would with a
traditional mouse. But I have switched back to a more
traditional mouse and I'll get into the reason why shortly.
(18:00):
So in most the technical and creative industries, there's a
little bit of a debate around Mac versus PC, and
I'd like to talk about that a little bit.
S1 (18:09):
Oh, this is a tough one. Anyway, go ahead.
S2 (18:11):
So I use a mac and it's not because I'm
necessarily think Mac is better for performance and PC or
anything like that. Not getting into that debate, what it
came down to for me was accessibility. Now I do
personally prefer the Mac user interface. I just find it
easier to navigate. But what I'm talking about is actual
accessibility features. So Macs come with voiceover, which is amazing.
(18:35):
Mac has the best magnification software. I've tried many. The
inbuilt mac one is the best. Someone proved me wrong
on that. Someone built a better one. I'll use it
when it exists, but at this point the inbuilt Mac
magnifier is the best one. I've used a lot of
third party accessibility software both on Mac and PC and
I've found them to be a little clunky and they
(18:55):
use a lot of computer power. And when I'm working
on a large recording session or a video editing project,
I need all the computer power I can get. And
I don't want these third party softwares taking away those resources.
As I mentioned earlier, I've gone back to using a
more traditional mouse. I use the apple magic mouse because
it has a multi-touch surface, so I can use gestures
to do things that would normally require some pretty complicated
(19:18):
keyboard commands. And although I have the large font high
contrast keyboard, it can still be a little bit tricky
to navigate. So I love being able to just use
the gestures. The other things I use in my studio,
which is another debated topic in my industry, is analog equipment.
There's an argument to be made that analog sounds better
than digital. There's certainly benefits to workflow when recording with
(19:39):
analog equipment, but there's pros and cons to both. I
like using analog just because it's tactile. I get to
be hands on rather than trying to click little buttons
on my computer screen. Unfortunately, analog equipment is pretty expensive,
so I still do a lot of work in the
digital realm. Digital has definitely gotten better as far as
accessibility goes over the last few years, so it's getting
(20:01):
easier to work with.
S1 (20:02):
So what's next for you? What goals do you have?
S2 (20:05):
I don't really have any well defined goals. If I'm
being honest, I'd like to sort out a few basic
business things. I'd like to build a decent website and
maybe get into some social media stuff. My main goal
is I would love to be booked out, fully booked
out six months in advance, and I don't really know
how I'm going to do that. My plan is to
(20:27):
just keep doing what I'm doing, just keep diversifying and
taking on new and different jobs and just see where
it all takes me. Another goal is to just have
a little bit of fun and write, record and release
some of my own music. It's really not a priority.
It's just something I'll do in my free time. But
I have said it as a goal, so that will
happen eventually, hopefully in the next few months. In terms
(20:50):
of what's next, I have plenty of my regular work
to keep me busy, but I am actually working on
a few projects that are of interest to the low
vision and blind community. As I mentioned earlier, hopefully you'll
be hearing some of my audio book production soon. I'll
be working on White Stick Fest again this year. For
those of you who don't know, White Stick Fest is
(21:11):
an online music festival to celebrate and raise awareness for
International White Cane Day, which is on October 15th. For
more information about that, you can go to white stick
fest.org and you can be kept up to date with
everything going on with this year's event. And you can
also check out last year's concert. I'm also working on
a project with Wanda Diaz Mercy, who is an astronomer.
(21:32):
I don't want to say too much about the project
now because it's still pretty early on, but if you
do some research on Wanda, you'll probably be able to
figure out what we're doing. What I can say is
this project is going to allow low vision and blind
people and just about anyone without significant hearing loss to
contribute to unlocking the mysteries of the universe.
S1 (21:54):
Well, those sound like great goals and we all will
be listening out for your music and all those other
projects that you are working on. Thank you so much
for speaking with me today.
S2 (22:03):
Any time. Thank you for having me.
S1 (22:05):
That was Shane Kendall, audio engineer and music producer. The
conversation doesn't have to stop here. Share this podcast episode
on social media and start a conversation with your friends, family,
and followers, or tell us what's on your mind. You
can provide feedback through the email Career podcast at Vision Australia.
(22:27):
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(22:50):
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the career path.
Hello and welcome to the Career Path. A recent report
from Sweeney and Vision Australia revealed that 83% of employers
surveyed lacked confidence in hiring someone with a vision impairment.
With this podcast, we hope to delve further into this
issue by speaking to job seekers, employers and employees to
hear their perspectives. Each episode will be available to download
(00:38):
as a podcast. Just go to Vision Australia org and
type the career path into the search engine to find
our webpage where you can listen to other episodes and
subscribe to make sure that you don't miss any. I'm
your host, Belinda Wilson. In this episode, we're speaking with
Shane Kendall, audio engineer and music producer. Thank you for
(00:59):
joining us today.
S2 (01:00):
Thank you for having me. And most importantly, I am
one of those creative entertainment industry types. So thank you
for enabling my ego.
S1 (01:08):
You're absolutely welcome. That's that's what we love to do
in general. So specifically, can you tell me what exactly
as an artistic, creative, ego driven person you do specifically?
S2 (01:22):
Might take a bit long, but I'll break it down
a little bit. So as a music producer, I do
fun things like recording, editing, mixing and mastering of music.
I get to do some collaborative songwriting as an audio engineer.
I do kind of the same thing, but it's more
focused on audio as a whole. So I'll do stuff
(01:44):
like editing, restoration and enhancement of audio for things like
podcasts and commercials and audio books and anything audio really.
I do have a few little side hustles. One of
them is accessibility consultation. Usually in software, I do some
video editing, which I don't know if a vision impaired
(02:06):
person has any business editing videos, but I'm doing it
and I haven't had any complaints yet. And I'm also
on the cusp of entering the audio book production game,
so we'll see how that goes.
S1 (02:17):
What originally interests you in getting into audio engineering and music?
S2 (02:22):
It all started with music, and like so many people,
it started when I was very young, so I grew
up in a relatively musical household. The radio was always on.
We had a pretty good CD collection and of course
there were those weekend music video clip television programs, and
I was always keen to get up early and watch them.
Two of my uncles are musicians and they really fostered
(02:44):
my interest in music. So one is a drummer and
he gave me an old snare drum, much to the
dismay of my mother, I'm sure. And my other uncle
is a guitarist and the guitar is the first instrument
I really took to. And so when I got myself
a guitar, he would come around and show me a
few things and write up some chord charts. Taught me
how to restring a guitar. And he's also an electrician,
(03:07):
so he built me a guitar amplifier, which I still
have now. My older brother was also a big influence
on me. I would hang out with him and his
friends and they were all into, let's just say, extreme sports,
mostly skateboarding. That's where music became not just something you
can listen to, but something you can feel. And it
can be the soundtrack to wonder and adventure or misadventure.
(03:31):
And I wanted to create some of those moments. So
myself and some friends from high school started bands and
it was fun. It was fun just to hang out
and make noise. Unfortunately, there weren't too many opportunities for
a bunch of underage kids playing objectively bad music to
perform live, so we started putting on our own gigs.
(03:53):
We'd hire out community centers and just charge our friends
a few bucks to come in and hang out. That
was a pivotal moment for me. That's when I realized
I could make some money while having a lot of
fun doing what I love doing, while also meeting all
these other musicians and getting to know their contacts and
being part of a community. I got to travel around
(04:15):
a lot to perform, which was so much fun, and
I even ended up as a session musician, so I
was hired to play on other people's records. I also
got a job at a record label, which was interesting.
I got to see how the sausage is made. As
they say. My jobs there were A and R, which
stands for Artisan repertoire, and my other role was in
(04:38):
artist development. My interest in audio engineering started a few
years after that when I was in my mid 20s,
and I guess it was less of an interest and
more of a circumstantial thing. Basically I had to adult
and do all those fun things like pay rent and bills.
The other thing that happened is I suffered some significant
(04:59):
vision loss and being a performing musician was just more
effort than I was willing to put in. So basically
I was broke. I didn't really want to be performing anymore,
but I still wanted to write music. And wanted to
do something with it. I pretty much came to the
conclusion that maybe I can just make my own records.
(05:20):
How hard can it be? That's called naivete. Eventually, I
got to a point where I didn't think my productions
were awful, so I just started working with other people
and started recording and mixing and mastering their music, and
it just kept going from there. It's now a decade
later and I live in a small coastal town where
there isn't really a music scene. I still have bills
(05:43):
to pay and all of those adult things that need doing.
So I've had to adapt again and that's how I
got into doing the more technical and commercial aspects of
audio engineering.
S1 (05:54):
You mentioned that you kind of did these jobs out
of necessity. So did you have issues facing other jobs
and other positions? Did you face any barriers when you
were employed in other fields or even in this field?
S2 (06:06):
Yeah, absolutely. Being a performing musician was really tricky because
there'd be times where I'd be at a venue just
doing whatever I'm doing, just hanging out, doing nothing. And,
you know, the security would walk up to me and say,
You're clearly intoxicated, you've got to leave. And, you know,
I'd be like, you know, I just can't see very well.
(06:26):
And I'm about to get up on that stage and
do my job. So just let me be, please. Also,
stage lighting was always tricky because I would say to
the the lighting person, I need constant good lighting so
I can see what I'm doing. And they would listen
for about a minute before going to their amazing dark
(06:47):
blue and red light shows. And there was a few
times where I had to actually between songs like Address
it and say, Hey, I'm not joking, can you please
just keep the lights on so I can perform? Being
a studio musician was usually challenging because recording studios are
typically dark and moody, and I would come bursting in
(07:07):
and request that we turn the lights on and all
of those music charts they're giving me to be printed
out six times larger or provided to me digitally so
I can actually read them. I've since learned how to
navigate that and talk about it in advance, and I
haven't had a problem with that for a long time.
But at the beginning it was challenging. Nowadays I usually
(07:28):
work by myself and I've set up my own space
to suit my needs. If I am working face to
face with a client, they're usually coming to me, so
I'm in control of the situation. Most of my work
is done remotely, so my clients or whoever's hiring me
at the time, if they do know about my vision,
it really doesn't impact them at all. So they don't care.
(07:50):
I just get the job done and they're happy.
S1 (07:53):
What advice would you have for people who are interested
in the music field?
S2 (07:57):
That's a tough one because there's no road map. There's
no right or wrong, and there's no guarantees in the
music industry. So I'd say practice your craft, just get
really good at whatever it is you're going to do.
There's that saying hard work beats talent, which is kind
of true, but in any creative field you'll find that
(08:18):
there are some ridiculously talented people who don't need to
work very hard. And for the rest of us, we
do need to work really hard just to keep up.
Another thing I get asked about a lot is education,
which is another tough one to answer because it depends
on what you want to do. So if you just
want to be a musician or an audio engineer, you
don't need any qualification to do those things. It just
(08:41):
comes down to ultimately how much other people lack what
you are doing. But if you wanted to get into,
let's just say education or maybe into the more corporate areas,
that's where a qualification will be required. Having said that,
sometimes getting an education is really beneficial, even if it's
(09:02):
not for the qualification. For example, I have an advanced
diploma in contemporary music and a diploma of Music business,
and I don't recall a time where those qualifications have
died rectly gained me an opportunity. But what I got
out of it was getting to meet a whole bunch
of other cool, creative people. I became a better musician
(09:24):
because I had to learn a bunch of music theory
and I now have the skills to run my business better.
I do recommend education and I think the TAFE system
is a great starting point and it could be a
great ending point. You'll get all the skills you need
to be a professional in the music industry and if
you do decide to go on to further education, just
(09:46):
say at university those qualifications do count as recognised prior
learning and will shave off a year or so from
your study time. So yeah, it all just depends where
you want to end up. But typically in the music
industry your demonstrated skill sets and network is going to
be more valuable than a qualification.
S1 (10:06):
So you're saying some places are saying education isn't as important,
even if you do go through education, there seems to
be another. Involved. So is that maybe getting a mentor
or learning with a group of people? Is that the
type of things that could help people in terms of
making connections and finding work?
S2 (10:24):
Yeah, I think this all boils down to reputation and rapport. And,
you know, if you surround yourself with the right people,
you inherit some of their reputation, whether that be a
mentor or a university, whichever path you take, it's going
to require learning and discipline and people to back you up.
But most importantly, you need to be able to live
(10:46):
up to the expectations you've provided to other people.
S1 (10:49):
That's really interesting. I think that's the case with a
lot of people that outside of education they also need
practical work, experience and connections and that's the same for
every field. It's just a bit more so in entertainment.
So a lot of blind and low vision people are
interested in setting up their own business. What advice do
you have for people who want to work for themselves?
S2 (11:09):
First of all, it's going to be tough. You're either
entering a competitive market or you're offering something completely new.
But either way, you're going to have to find clients
and convince them to invest in your product or service.
The other thing is, you know, I wish you all well.
I wish you all swift success, but you're probably not
going to have a full stack of staff for a
(11:30):
long time. So yeah, while you will be the boss,
which is cool, you're also the person on the ground
working and you're the admin and you're the accountant and
you're the marketing team and you're the complaints line. So yeah,
it's going to be tough. But there's also something really rewarding.
After you figure things out and you start seeing successes,
(11:53):
there's something really freeing about being solely accountable for your successes.
My next bit of advice is just say yes to things.
Just try stuff out, give it a go. Don't sit
around waiting for the perfect opportunity for your business and
don't limit yourself to what you can and can't do.
I think that's a trap. A lot of new business
(12:15):
owners fall into is. I don't think I can do
that or I don't think I should do that or
I don't think it's right for me to do that.
But what else are you doing? Realistically, when you're starting
your business work is usually not thriving and you'll need
to try new things and figure out what works and
what doesn't work and what you can and can't do
and meet people and learn new skills. Just say yes,
(12:37):
but don't be dishonest. Don't mislead people into making them
think you are an expert at something. When you're not.
Have that conversation and be honest. Say, you know, this
is not really what I do, but I'm willing to
give it a go. And if it's not going to
work out, I'll let you know as soon as possible.
Leave it up to them. Now, they might say, Actually, no.
We're looking for somebody with more experience who can deliver this,
(12:59):
you know, in a certain amount of time or a
certain way, and that's fine, but at least you're not
taking away that opportunity from yourself. My last bit of
advice is kind of a two parter, and it's about
how to reach out to potential clients while being ambitious
and tenacious and persistent is a good thing. You really
don't want to cross that line into just being annoying.
(13:21):
The biggest annoyance that I've heard about and I've certainly
come across is people who make contact too often and
say too much. I've gotten emails from other audio engineers
who are looking for work and that email has been
a five paragraph long life story. I've responded saying, Hey,
thanks for your email, sorry I can't help you out
right now. And then the following week I'll get the
(13:45):
same email and then I'll get it again the next
week and the next week. That's not cool. And although
I've never done this, I've had that mouse cursor hovering
over the block contact button, I can tell you that.
So when you are reaching out to somebody that you
want to work with, just send them an email saying, Hey,
I'm whatever your name is, I do this thing. I
(14:07):
think it would be a good fit for whatever it
is that they are doing. Here's some examples. Here's my portfolio.
Thanks for your time. I hope to hear back from
you soon. Obviously make it a bit more eloquent than that,
but that's all it really needs to be. You'll probably
get a response eventually, and maybe it will say, This
sounds really good. Let's talk more. Or maybe it will say, Sorry,
(14:28):
this isn't for us right now. And unless they kind
of specifically say something along the lines of please don't
contact us again, it's usually okay to follow up, but
just give it some time. It's unlikely their circumstances will
change all that much in a week, and if it does,
they will probably remember your email. And if you're a
(14:50):
good fit for them, they'll reach out to you again.
So when you do follow up, just once again, keep
it casual. Just say, Hey, my name is so-and-so, I've
reached out to you X amount of months ago. Just
checking in to see if you've got any opportunities for me.
Thanks again for your time. What I think is really
important to do here is to have an updated portfolio
because it shows that you're still working and you're not.
(15:12):
Just sitting around waiting for them to give you an opportunity.
So as I said, this is a two parter and
this is like the key bit of advice I can give,
I think, which is when you're providing examples of your work.
See if you can make examples using your potential clients,
(15:33):
product or service. So what I mean by that is
this is a very real example of something I'm doing now.
There's a podcast network that I think make really great content,
but the audio quality is, yeah, there's, there's room for improvement.
So I'm going to take some snippets of their podcast
(15:54):
and enhance it, and then I'm going to reach out
to them and say, Hey, I'm Shane, I'm an audio engineer.
Love what you guys do. I think your post-production could
be better and I'm a good person to do it.
Here's some examples of my work, which is your own product.
Let me know if we can work together in the future.
Thanks for your time. This allows them to compare the
product that they're already satisfied with enough to put out
(16:16):
to how their product could be better. And I can't
even begin to express how much that increases the chances
of gaining them as a client. I've certainly never gotten
the Please don't contact us again email. It's usually a
very positive response, even if it's not the outcome I want.
It might say something like, Hey, thank you so much
(16:36):
for doing this. This is great. Unfortunately, it's not something
we can do right now, but please let's keep in touch.
And that's them keeping the door open and that's a win.
And there have been plenty of times where I have
followed up and have gotten work because of that. So
that's all my advice. I know it was a lot,
but I hope I hope that was all right.
S1 (16:55):
That is amazing advice. I hope everyone is paying attention
to that advice. You're backing up what you're doing and
you're providing evidence and you're being appropriate in your communications
with potential employers in terms of with your studio. You
have your own studio, correct?
S2 (17:11):
Yeah. Yeah, I do.
S1 (17:13):
So how do you set up your studio to best
work for you?
S2 (17:16):
All right. I'm going to start with some simple stuff,
but most of what I do revolves around technology, so
it's going to get nerdy at the end. But for starters,
I've got decent lighting. It could be better. That's something
I'm working on. But it's it's good enough. I like
to keep the area working clean and clear just so
there's no tripping hazards and everything has a place. So
I know where everything is just simple organizational stuff like
(17:38):
that really helps. So to get into the tech stuff,
I use a nice big monitor for my computer as
well as a large font and high contrast keyboard. I
used to use a trackball mouse because they stay stationary
and I wouldn't lose them like I would with a
traditional mouse. But I have switched back to a more
traditional mouse and I'll get into the reason why shortly.
(18:00):
So in most the technical and creative industries, there's a
little bit of a debate around Mac versus PC, and
I'd like to talk about that a little bit.
S1 (18:09):
Oh, this is a tough one. Anyway, go ahead.
S2 (18:11):
So I use a mac and it's not because I'm
necessarily think Mac is better for performance and PC or
anything like that. Not getting into that debate, what it
came down to for me was accessibility. Now I do
personally prefer the Mac user interface. I just find it
easier to navigate. But what I'm talking about is actual
accessibility features. So Macs come with voiceover, which is amazing.
(18:35):
Mac has the best magnification software. I've tried many. The
inbuilt mac one is the best. Someone proved me wrong
on that. Someone built a better one. I'll use it
when it exists, but at this point the inbuilt Mac
magnifier is the best one. I've used a lot of
third party accessibility software both on Mac and PC and
I've found them to be a little clunky and they
(18:55):
use a lot of computer power. And when I'm working
on a large recording session or a video editing project,
I need all the computer power I can get. And
I don't want these third party softwares taking away those resources.
As I mentioned earlier, I've gone back to using a
more traditional mouse. I use the apple magic mouse because
it has a multi-touch surface, so I can use gestures
to do things that would normally require some pretty complicated
(19:18):
keyboard commands. And although I have the large font high
contrast keyboard, it can still be a little bit tricky
to navigate. So I love being able to just use
the gestures. The other things I use in my studio,
which is another debated topic in my industry, is analog equipment.
There's an argument to be made that analog sounds better
than digital. There's certainly benefits to workflow when recording with
(19:39):
analog equipment, but there's pros and cons to both. I
like using analog just because it's tactile. I get to
be hands on rather than trying to click little buttons
on my computer screen. Unfortunately, analog equipment is pretty expensive,
so I still do a lot of work in the
digital realm. Digital has definitely gotten better as far as
accessibility goes over the last few years, so it's getting
(20:01):
easier to work with.
S1 (20:02):
So what's next for you? What goals do you have?
S2 (20:05):
I don't really have any well defined goals. If I'm
being honest, I'd like to sort out a few basic
business things. I'd like to build a decent website and
maybe get into some social media stuff. My main goal
is I would love to be booked out, fully booked
out six months in advance, and I don't really know
how I'm going to do that. My plan is to
(20:27):
just keep doing what I'm doing, just keep diversifying and
taking on new and different jobs and just see where
it all takes me. Another goal is to just have
a little bit of fun and write, record and release
some of my own music. It's really not a priority.
It's just something I'll do in my free time. But
I have said it as a goal, so that will
happen eventually, hopefully in the next few months. In terms
(20:50):
of what's next, I have plenty of my regular work
to keep me busy, but I am actually working on
a few projects that are of interest to the low
vision and blind community. As I mentioned earlier, hopefully you'll
be hearing some of my audio book production soon. I'll
be working on White Stick Fest again this year. For
those of you who don't know, White Stick Fest is
(21:11):
an online music festival to celebrate and raise awareness for
International White Cane Day, which is on October 15th. For
more information about that, you can go to white stick
fest.org and you can be kept up to date with
everything going on with this year's event. And you can
also check out last year's concert. I'm also working on
a project with Wanda Diaz Mercy, who is an astronomer.
(21:32):
I don't want to say too much about the project
now because it's still pretty early on, but if you
do some research on Wanda, you'll probably be able to
figure out what we're doing. What I can say is
this project is going to allow low vision and blind
people and just about anyone without significant hearing loss to
contribute to unlocking the mysteries of the universe.
S1 (21:54):
Well, those sound like great goals and we all will
be listening out for your music and all those other
projects that you are working on. Thank you so much
for speaking with me today.
S2 (22:03):
Any time. Thank you for having me.
S1 (22:05):
That was Shane Kendall, audio engineer and music producer. The
conversation doesn't have to stop here. Share this podcast episode
on social media and start a conversation with your friends, family,
and followers, or tell us what's on your mind. You
can provide feedback through the email Career podcast at Vision Australia.
(22:27):
Org The Career Path Podcast series is available to download
via our website. Just go to Vision Australia org and
type the career path into the search field to find
our webpage where you can listen to other episodes benefit
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(22:50):
for updates and bonus content, Facebook.com slash radio network and
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