July 23, 2024 • 13 mins
Text Beyond the Threshold w/ your thoughts or questions!
Growing up in a sports-centric family and navigating the highs and lows of a basketball career, host Sidney Evans share's his story of how failing an audio production course and a bout of depression, help him discover his love for audio production and the pursuit of a career in the field.
After eventually working for companies like FRQNCY Media and Tenderfoot TV, he discusses his calling to host meaningful conversations with Black professionals in the audio industry, resulting in the creation of Beyond the Threshold.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sidney Evans (00:00):
Tune in as we give flowers to black men and women
making waves in the audioindustry.
I'm your host, sidney Evans,and this is Beyond the Threshold
.
(00:23):
Welcome back, ladies andgentlemen, to Beyond the
Threshold.
I am your host, Sidney Evans,and hopefully by this point you
all have listened to the teaserand the official trailer for
this first season into the meatand potatoes of this season.
(00:47):
I wanted to provide somecontext and tell you a little
bit more about me and my storyand my background and how I got
to this point of bringing thisshow to you all.
So I'm going to try to keep itas concise and brief as possible
, but also provide someadditional details.
So, first and foremost, I grewup in a sports family.
(01:09):
My background is deeply rootedin sports, in basketball and
baseball particularly, and onceI really started focusing on one
sport as the sport that Iwanted to pursue, it ultimately
ended up being basketball.
Because of a ridiculous growthspurt that I ended up hitting
From playing ball, from hooping,I was able to gain interest
(01:33):
from colleges and initially Iwent to UNC Pembroke and ended
up transferring to a juniorcollege in Maryland called Cecil
College, which at the time itkind of changed my life, but I
didn't really realize it becausethat was, that was the seed
that was implanted in me thatcreated my love for media.
(01:55):
I really just didn't understandit at the time.
So after playing ball at CecilCollege, I ended up getting a
scholarship and playing atFayetteville State and
transferring there for theremainder of my undergrad
experience.
Also, the HBCU experience wassomething that I had no idea
that I needed.
(02:16):
It ultimately ended up beingthe best decision I ever made in
my life.
So continued my basketballcareer there and I majored in
mass communications and this isreally where the start of my
experience in media really began.
So I took all my coursework.
Obviously you have to take thenon-production courses, like the
(02:40):
theory courses, so like yourhistory or radio and and all
this other stuff.
That's basically like justmemorization and book work.
But obviously you have tofulfill like your production
credits.
So I actually ended up takingaudio production and I had no
interest in it at all at thetime, which is very ironic, and
(03:03):
I actually ended up failing thecourse.
That was the only course that Iactually failed in college and
eventually I just stopped goingto class because I really didn't
see eye to eye with my teacherand the concepts weren't really
sticking with me.
So I was kind of more into videoat the time and I didn't really
understand the correlationbetween audio and video, with me
(03:25):
being young and naive, just tobe completely honest.
But so to fulfill the creditfrom the course that I failed.
I ended up taking videoproduction one and two and not
taking audio production at all.
And looking back on it now Iactually regret not taking
advantage of all the resourcesthat we had at the school,
(03:46):
because we had in terms of whatI was familiar with like a state
of the art radio station calledBronco iRadio, which was led by
Ray Thomas and I believe stillis, and I actually hope to have
him on the first season of theshow, but that's still to be
determined.
But that would have been a greatopportunity for me to really
(04:07):
realize that I did have like asomething in my spirit and my
soul for audio production, buthad no interest at the time and
outside of the initial tour thatthey gave us when you visit the
school, I don't think I everstepped foot in a radio station.
I was more concerned with balland hooping.
So, finished my playing career,I got my undergrad from
Fayetteville State and let meback up a little bit While I was
(04:30):
there.
So I had a year to completeafter my playing career was over
.
That's where I interned withinthe athletic department as like
a production intern.
So I was doing more like beinga cameraman for, like the video
games and basketball games andworking the scoreboard for the
football games.
We had like a verystate-of-the-art scoreboard and
(04:54):
that was where I really startedto be like okay, I could, I
could do this for career, but Ireally wanted to do it in sports
.
So, like after that internshipwas over, I was trying to get my
foot in the door with sports,but I didn't really know over.
I was trying to get my foot inthe door with sports but I
didn't really know what I wasdoing at the time and I was
basically doing anything I couldto try to attach myself to
(05:14):
sports.
Still, there was a semi-proteam in Durham which is where I
live now, durham, north Carolinathat I brought a relationship
with the owner of the team andit was called the Bull City
Legacy and I was, like you know,doing a scoreboard at games and
writing press releases afterthe games and doing a whole
bunch of stuff.
But I was working like thehospitality industry outside of
(05:37):
that, just to you know, maintaina living for me and my
girlfriend at the time, whichreally wasn't paying much and I
became really frustrated andeventually I kind of just gave
up on the whole working insports thing and kind of just
got caught in the working tomake money lifestyle that I feel
like once you, you know, firstventure out on your own and
(05:58):
become an adult that you can gettrapped into, and next thing,
you know, years and years andyears go by and you really
haven't.
You've lost that like thatdesire and zest to really pursue
your passion and subconsciouslyI knew that and it really just
sent me into like a deepdepression, to be honest, and I
(06:20):
was in that funk for a while andI guess during that time, I
guess you could say, I becamewoke.
And after being in that state ofmind for quite some time, I
realized that I had to digmyself out of that depression
because it was just a horrendousplace to be in, for lack of a
better word.
So because I had played ball solong and had to do all these
(06:43):
workouts and had people tellingme what I could and and couldn't
do, I had stopped working outbecause I just had the freedom
to do whatever I wanted to do.
So I got pretty out of shape.
I wasn't fat by any means, butI was what you would call skinny
fat.
So I'm like I'm going to getback in the gym and really get
in the best shape of my life andreally get myself out of this
funk.
(07:06):
And in the process of doing that, I started listening to a lot
of music to like fuel myworkouts.
And I was running like threemiles a day and then doing like
an intense hour of weighttraining and I started just
going back and just listening toa lot of the music that I
either never listened to likefull bodies of work albums, or
listening to it from a differentperspective and really not only
(07:27):
appreciating the artist and youknow the lyricism and the the
what was being said but alsogaining an appreciation for the
production as well.
So that was when my curiosityfor like the music making
process was at its peak.
(07:48):
And I'm like man, like I was inthis funk, I was in this
depressive state for for thislong and obviously the working
out and the movement of my bodyhas something to do with it.
But also like if this, if thismusic, if this can help me, help
bring me out of that, like whatreally goes into making this
stuff, like how can this mediumkind of change my life and put
(08:13):
me in a positive state of mind?
You know, during this era oftime that they hit YouTube, hit
the YouTube streets, and starteddoing a lot of research on like
beat making and discovering allthese producers and I know
anybody who has ever had anyinterest in music goes down the.
(08:35):
You know the Kanye stuff onYouTube and videos of him in the
studio and making beats and Ibasically just watched
everything you could possiblywatch on how to make beats and
produce music.
So at the time I think mygirlfriend had like a super old
iMac which was still white onthe outside that goes to show
(08:55):
you how old it was.
So I um, it had GarageBand on itand I just like kind of learned
the basics of like band on itand I just like kind of learned
the basics of like making simplebeats and really the concepts
of audio production, more thanproducing good music.
And this part of the story I'llkind of speed up a little bit.
(09:16):
But eventually I ended up, youknow, getting a more up-to-date
Mac and we got the updatedversion of GarageBand and
continued my education onlearning the concepts and
principles and terminology andstuff of audio I promise you all
.
As you can see, I'm making thecorrelation to now, so just bear
with me.
But I started learning all ofthat and eventually I got, like
(09:40):
you know, some, some simpleequipment, because at this time
I still was stuck on makingbeats and even though I did
improve, it wasn't translatingto a professional level.
I'll just say that, to put itpretty frankly, the beats in my
music still sucked and I becamefrustrated.
(10:01):
And around this time I kepthearing about this podcast thing
, people making their own showsand putting it out and doing it
from their homes and most of thestuff I heard around that time
was more self-help related.
I don't think we had reallymatriculated into the narrative
storytelling At least I wasn'taware of the time that you get
(10:23):
now from true, true crime andand these documentary style
podcasts.
But I also had a close friend uh, shout out, shout out my boy G,
Greg Hill.
You all may be familiar withthe minority trailblazer podcast
, but he was doing his publicspeaking thing, um, killing it
with that.
He was in the early stages andhe started the podcast and it
(10:44):
was really starting to take offand I started listening to it
and the content was really good,but he didn't know.
He didn't know anything aboutaudio.
Um, he really didn't knowanything about it at all.
So the quality of the show froma production standpoint wasn't
that great.
So that led me to believe that,man, I think there's a market
out here for like people likeediting shows and making them
(11:06):
sound good and actually usinglike microphones and you know
for all those that are in thefield.
You know if you, if you get agood recording, that's 75 of the
battle.
So I was like man, there may bea market for this for like
editing shows for people.
So then I just started reallyuh like joining groups on
facebook just surrounding myselfand getting in communities with
(11:28):
people who like edit podcastsand who were in that world, in
that world and I got my firstediting opportunity.
At this time I had me and mygirlfriend at the time had moved
to Atlanta, so I was living inAtlanta.
I got my first opportunity toedit you know, do some contract
work for like a company thatedit podcasts for people.
(11:49):
And this is so funny, like Ireally was getting like $30 an
episode to edit shows for peoplewho were like getting the
clients and just passing alongthe episodes.
The next part of this storykind of goes to show you like
how on cold we are as blackpeople and really validated for
me that this was my purpose,that this is something that I
(12:11):
should be doing.
So that first client I editedfor was for the show Celeste,
the Therapist podcast and forany of those any of you who have
heard that show.
Celeste Vissier is the host andshe's a mental health therapist
and she has an amazing show andshe's an amazing person and has
an amazing soul and givingspirit and personality.
(12:35):
So I connected with her.
She saw that I was black.
I saw that she was black.
I think I did a couple episodesthrough the company and making
that $30 and she hit me upprobably was like last year.
You know you're editing theshow for me and we're doing us
communication and you know Ireally just want to cut out the
middleman.
(12:56):
Like I love working with blackpeople, so like I'm paying them
like $400 a month to edit theshow and you're editing it.
So if you're cool with it, likeI'd rather just work directly
with you and just cut them outand I'm like, instead of making
$30, I'm making $400 to edit oneshow and this is the first paid
work that I've ever done.
(13:16):
So I'm like bet, I'm in.
So that's what we did.
She.
She stopped going through thecompany and just started paying
with me directly and I workedwith her for quite a while.
Shout out, useless.
But when I was living in Atlantaand this was how I knew a
hundred percent that this iswhat I was supposed to be doing
and I was dedicated to it.
I was working at DHL at thetime delivering packages, and I
(13:38):
would literally take my laptopwith me and do my route and if I
finished early I would justlike pull over, stop at a
Starbucks and, while on theclock, still go in and edit the
episodes while I'm still on theclock for DHL.
And it kind of just hit me oneday I was like I never been this
dedicated to anything, as faras willing to, you know, risk my
(14:02):
job and do literally whatever Ihad to do to get it done.
And for the days that I didn'tdo that, I would, you know, work
all day, come home and you know, at the time I thought I was
really really good at what I wasdoing.
But I, looking back on it now Iwas.
I guess I was okay editing andmixing, but like the speed and
(14:23):
efficiency for which I was doingit was not that great.
So it was taking me long periodsof time to edit the episodes,
so I would stay up all nighttrying to get them completed.
But yeah, after this experience, this is where really things
started to kind of expeditethemselves, like I just got
better at editing, got better atmixing episodes and things like
(14:46):
that and ended up getting a fewmore clients and, you know,
getting a low paying clientthere doing free work there but
really building my skill set andI guess I'm going to fast
forward.
So to give you a frame of time,I guess when I first started
editing and I guess when I firststarted having the bug for
(15:08):
music and really getting intothe basics of audio, this is
probably about 2016, 17.
And then by the time I startedediting for Celeste, this is
probably like 18, 19.
And you know, over the next fewyears, like 2021, covid and all
(15:29):
that stuff.
I was, you know, doing projectson the side here and there,
while still, like bartending andyou know, really, you know
making his meet.
I moved back to Durham, likeyou know, to stack my money,
like I really created like aplan of action for what I was
doing and then I like I kind oflost all momentum because I got
(15:50):
sick and I went through thisreally anxiety filled time of my
life and I basically became ahypochondriac and it's it's a
long, a long story and a longprocess, but I kind of really
went through what you would callanother bridge in my life where
I had to overcome something toget to the next stage of my life
.
So then, after getting throughthat, with the help of God,
(16:13):
family and my friends, I got myown place with me.
Me and Greg actually movedright after COVID and got a
place together and we were kindof in the foundational stages of
the new part of our lives.
So it just made sense for us to.
This is the start of us likedoing a lot of media production
(16:35):
work and really collaborating ona lot of things together.
So it just made sense andshortly after then I got my
first like reoccurring contractgig with like a with a company
that was producing podcasts witha very high production value.
It was basically brandedpodcasts.
(16:56):
So this is when I startedworking with Frequency Media.
I sat up, michelle, and myproducer, ina and our engineer,
matt.
I still have greatrelationships with them to this
day, even though I no longerwork with Frequency and you know
that part of the business nolonger exists.
But this is when I felt like Ijumped tiers and was like, okay,
(17:19):
this is the big leagues.
As far as I felt like I jumpedtears and was like, okay, this
is the.
This is the big leagues as faras podcasts go in the production
value.
So we worked on some reallycool stuff.
We did the honeypots podcast.
Um, we did a show with Voxmedia called more than this,
which won two awards.
So that was.
I was able to officially saythat I was a award-winning
dialogue editor.
That's the, that's the role thatI was in at Frequency Media.
(17:41):
I was an audio editor.
We worked on the show calledlet's Talk Menopause.
We worked on a show called OnceUpon a Playtime.
Like it was some really reallygood stuff and I felt like I
finally was fulfilled in a waythat I was contributing to
something that rivaled wasfulfilled in a way that I was
(18:04):
contributing to something thatrivaled like something that was
produced on, you know, in TV orfilm.
Like I feel like podcasting onthat level was like the third
tier of those like big mediums.
So I worked for them for about ayear and a half, two years.
I wasn't full time but I was.
You know, I was like anofficial member of the team and
I was probably working likebetween 20 and 30 hours a week
(18:25):
and that really helped build myresume and I knew it was going
to lead me to the next greatopportunity.
But before I jump into the mostrecent, I want to also shout
out Galen Bingham, who's thehost of the Whiskey Jazz and
Leadership Podcast, who's stillmy current client and my longest
(18:48):
reoccurring client.
But to transition and get intothis last season and get up to
date, so, after working withFrequency, that led me the
opportunity to speak at BlackPodfest in Atlanta, which was in
2022, I believe they wanted meto lead an audio engineering
(19:09):
session and that was MemorialDay weekend of that year and I
was nervous I had never doneanything, speaking wise at that
point, and I stressed out aboutit and I overprepared and, you
know, made sure all my T's werecrossed and my I's were dotted
(19:29):
and my T's were crossed.
Because I did not want to make afool of myself and I went there
and I did what I needed to doand I had a great time and made
some amazing connections and Iwas intentional about following
up with the people that I foundinteresting and wanted to
continue to build relationshipswith and that I found either
found their sessions at theconference interesting or
(19:53):
compelling, or people that justtheir personalities I felt like
I could, you know, vibe withwhen we get along.
You know, it made sense for usto continue to stay in touch.
So when I came back home, Imade a list of those people and
I followed up with them and goton some calls with some people
and, you know, started followingthem on social media and making
(20:14):
sure.
You know, I continued to layeyes on them and come and
support what they had going onand they agreed to do vice versa
.
And one of the young ladies,casey, who is the founder of,
could Be Pretty Cool and shedoes a lot of things in the
audio space and I hope to haveher on the show for season one
(20:35):
as well.
She was one of the ones that Iconnected with and I happened to
follow her on Instagram and herclose friends.
She added me and that's whereshe would post, post job
opportunities to for people toapply to and and try to, you
know, progress their careers,and I saw a post as an associate
producer, uh, for Tenderfoot TV, which I had never heard of at
(20:57):
the time, but I come to.
It was.
They were a big name as far aspodcasting and true crime
specifically.
But, um, I clicked on the linkand and and kind of read up on
the position and learn abouttender foot and realize like the
stuff that they were working onwas really edgy and the
(21:17):
founders, donald and were likethe coolest people in podcasts
and that's literally what Ithought Like these guys they
remind me of, like Babyface andLA Reid in the music industry,
and they both had, unknowinglyat the time, backgrounds in the
music industry, so it just kindof made sense for their persona
and I was like, man, I wouldlove to work for these guys.
(21:39):
So I interviewed after applyingand I ended up getting a job.
So I started there in Decemberof 2022 and we worked on some
amazing stuff, man, and probablythe most thing that I'm most
proud of that I worked on and mywhole time of podcasting is the
(22:01):
Raven, which was a podcastcreated by Tim Livingston, who's
like the head of content atUnderdog Sports, and my producer
, alex, had an amazing visionfor the show.
But it really highlighted, likethe 2000 Super Bowl murders and
(22:21):
Ray Lewis's involvement, whichwas a story that I remember
hearing about as a kid but Ididn't really get too many
details afterwards and kind ofhow it kind of correlated with
the manner in which thegentlemen who were killed in the
(22:44):
Super Bowl murders, had theexperience that Tim had.
So it was a really great showand that was the only thing
sports related I've worked on atmy time in my time in
podcasting, but it's the thingthat I'm most proud of and I was
really looking forward to youknow I'm most proud of and I was
really looking forward to, youknow, continuing to grow and the
(23:05):
opportunities to work onamazing things and even from a
career standpoint, that wouldcome as a result for working for
a team and a company as wellknown as Tenderfoot.
And unfortunately, I was let goby Tenderfoot in January of
2024, this year, which was asurprise to me and it was really
(23:28):
frustrating because, you know,a lot of people were getting
laid off at the time in theindustry and it just wasn't a
good time to be looking for,like, a new full-time role in
the industry, which I still amcurrently doing, but I still
have clients and stillcontinuing to make an imprint in
(23:49):
the audio industry.
But this allowed time for me toreflect and led me to actually
doing this show.
So to reel it all in, to put abow in it, to tie it all in as a
result of that experience frombeing let go from tenderfoot tv
and after having the idea to dothe show for two to three years,
(24:12):
I was like this is the timethat I need to do the show.
I've been behind the scenes solong, um, and I just feel like I
I had, I have a, a great ideawith the show and it's time for
me to.
It's time for me to removemyself from the background and
be more to the forefront andgive my opinion and and share
(24:35):
what I have to say and do it inthe context of this podcast and
having some amazingconversations with, uh, other
black individuals who who workin the context of this podcast,
and having some amazingconversations with other black
individuals who work in the samefield that I work in.
So that has led me to this verypoint in time right now.
So, yeah, that's me, that's myjourney, that's my experience.
(24:56):
I had a lot of ups and downs,but you know we're going, we're
keeping it pushing and and I'mgoing to make this show
everything that it needs to be.
So thank you for taking thetime to listen.
If you haven't listened to thesneak peek or the official
trailer for the show, Irecommend you go back and listen
to that before you dive intothe rest of the season, just to
(25:20):
provide even more context thanwhat I have added here.
And yeah, I'm excited forwhat's in store for the show and
I look forward to presentingseason one with you all.
So stay tuned and I hope youenjoy.
Thank you for joining us ontoday's episode.
(25:41):
Please don't forget tosubscribe to the show and leave
us a review.
If you'd like to work with meor connect, please go to
soundbysitcom and schedule acall there.
You can also check out the fulllist of productions I've worked
on.
If you'd like to connect onsocial media, my handle is
soundbysitcom on Twitter andInstagram and I'm Sidney Evans
(26:03):
on LinkedIn.
Don't forget to follow Beyondthe Threshold on Instagram as
well.
I'll catch you on the nextepisode.
Tune in as we give flowers to black men and women
making waves in the audioindustry.
I'm your host, sidney Evans,and this is Beyond the Threshold
.
(00:23):
Welcome back, ladies andgentlemen, to Beyond the
Threshold.
I am your host, Sidney Evans,and hopefully by this point you
all have listened to the teaserand the official trailer for
this first season into the meatand potatoes of this season.
(00:47):
I wanted to provide somecontext and tell you a little
bit more about me and my storyand my background and how I got
to this point of bringing thisshow to you all.
So I'm going to try to keep itas concise and brief as possible
, but also provide someadditional details.
So, first and foremost, I grewup in a sports family.
(01:09):
My background is deeply rootedin sports, in basketball and
baseball particularly, and onceI really started focusing on one
sport as the sport that Iwanted to pursue, it ultimately
ended up being basketball.
Because of a ridiculous growthspurt that I ended up hitting
From playing ball, from hooping,I was able to gain interest
(01:33):
from colleges and initially Iwent to UNC Pembroke and ended
up transferring to a juniorcollege in Maryland called Cecil
College, which at the time itkind of changed my life, but I
didn't really realize it becausethat was, that was the seed
that was implanted in me thatcreated my love for media.
(01:55):
I really just didn't understandit at the time.
So after playing ball at CecilCollege, I ended up getting a
scholarship and playing atFayetteville State and
transferring there for theremainder of my undergrad
experience.
Also, the HBCU experience wassomething that I had no idea
that I needed.
(02:16):
It ultimately ended up beingthe best decision I ever made in
my life.
So continued my basketballcareer there and I majored in
mass communications and this isreally where the start of my
experience in media really began.
So I took all my coursework.
Obviously you have to take thenon-production courses, like the
(02:40):
theory courses, so like yourhistory or radio and and all
this other stuff.
That's basically like justmemorization and book work.
But obviously you have tofulfill like your production
credits.
So I actually ended up takingaudio production and I had no
interest in it at all at thetime, which is very ironic, and
(03:03):
I actually ended up failing thecourse.
That was the only course that Iactually failed in college and
eventually I just stopped goingto class because I really didn't
see eye to eye with my teacherand the concepts weren't really
sticking with me.
So I was kind of more into videoat the time and I didn't really
understand the correlationbetween audio and video, with me
(03:25):
being young and naive, just tobe completely honest.
But so to fulfill the creditfrom the course that I failed.
I ended up taking videoproduction one and two and not
taking audio production at all.
And looking back on it now Iactually regret not taking
advantage of all the resourcesthat we had at the school,
(03:46):
because we had in terms of whatI was familiar with like a state
of the art radio station calledBronco iRadio, which was led by
Ray Thomas and I believe stillis, and I actually hope to have
him on the first season of theshow, but that's still to be
determined.
But that would have been a greatopportunity for me to really
(04:07):
realize that I did have like asomething in my spirit and my
soul for audio production, buthad no interest at the time and
outside of the initial tour thatthey gave us when you visit the
school, I don't think I everstepped foot in a radio station.
I was more concerned with balland hooping.
So, finished my playing career,I got my undergrad from
Fayetteville State and let meback up a little bit While I was
(04:30):
there.
So I had a year to completeafter my playing career was over
.
That's where I interned withinthe athletic department as like
a production intern.
So I was doing more like beinga cameraman for, like the video
games and basketball games andworking the scoreboard for the
football games.
We had like a verystate-of-the-art scoreboard and
(04:54):
that was where I really startedto be like okay, I could, I
could do this for career, but Ireally wanted to do it in sports
.
So, like after that internshipwas over, I was trying to get my
foot in the door with sports,but I didn't really know over.
I was trying to get my foot inthe door with sports but I
didn't really know what I wasdoing at the time and I was
basically doing anything I couldto try to attach myself to
(05:14):
sports.
Still, there was a semi-proteam in Durham which is where I
live now, durham, north Carolinathat I brought a relationship
with the owner of the team andit was called the Bull City
Legacy and I was, like you know,doing a scoreboard at games and
writing press releases afterthe games and doing a whole
bunch of stuff.
But I was working like thehospitality industry outside of
(05:37):
that, just to you know, maintaina living for me and my
girlfriend at the time, whichreally wasn't paying much and I
became really frustrated andeventually I kind of just gave
up on the whole working insports thing and kind of just
got caught in the working tomake money lifestyle that I feel
like once you, you know, firstventure out on your own and
(05:58):
become an adult that you can gettrapped into, and next thing,
you know, years and years andyears go by and you really
haven't.
You've lost that like thatdesire and zest to really pursue
your passion and subconsciouslyI knew that and it really just
sent me into like a deepdepression, to be honest, and I
(06:20):
was in that funk for a while andI guess during that time, I
guess you could say, I becamewoke.
And after being in that state ofmind for quite some time, I
realized that I had to digmyself out of that depression
because it was just a horrendousplace to be in, for lack of a
better word.
So because I had played ball solong and had to do all these
(06:43):
workouts and had people tellingme what I could and and couldn't
do, I had stopped working outbecause I just had the freedom
to do whatever I wanted to do.
So I got pretty out of shape.
I wasn't fat by any means, butI was what you would call skinny
fat.
So I'm like I'm going to getback in the gym and really get
in the best shape of my life andreally get myself out of this
funk.
(07:06):
And in the process of doing that, I started listening to a lot
of music to like fuel myworkouts.
And I was running like threemiles a day and then doing like
an intense hour of weighttraining and I started just
going back and just listening toa lot of the music that I
either never listened to likefull bodies of work albums, or
listening to it from a differentperspective and really not only
(07:27):
appreciating the artist and youknow the lyricism and the the
what was being said but alsogaining an appreciation for the
production as well.
So that was when my curiosityfor like the music making
process was at its peak.
(07:48):
And I'm like man, like I was inthis funk, I was in this
depressive state for for thislong and obviously the working
out and the movement of my bodyhas something to do with it.
But also like if this, if thismusic, if this can help me, help
bring me out of that, like whatreally goes into making this
stuff, like how can this mediumkind of change my life and put
(08:13):
me in a positive state of mind?
You know, during this era oftime that they hit YouTube, hit
the YouTube streets, and starteddoing a lot of research on like
beat making and discovering allthese producers and I know
anybody who has ever had anyinterest in music goes down the.
(08:35):
You know the Kanye stuff onYouTube and videos of him in the
studio and making beats and Ibasically just watched
everything you could possiblywatch on how to make beats and
produce music.
So at the time I think mygirlfriend had like a super old
iMac which was still white onthe outside that goes to show
(08:55):
you how old it was.
So I um, it had GarageBand on itand I just like kind of learned
the basics of like band on itand I just like kind of learned
the basics of like making simplebeats and really the concepts
of audio production, more thanproducing good music.
And this part of the story I'llkind of speed up a little bit.
(09:16):
But eventually I ended up, youknow, getting a more up-to-date
Mac and we got the updatedversion of GarageBand and
continued my education onlearning the concepts and
principles and terminology andstuff of audio I promise you all
.
As you can see, I'm making thecorrelation to now, so just bear
with me.
But I started learning all ofthat and eventually I got, like
(09:40):
you know, some, some simpleequipment, because at this time
I still was stuck on makingbeats and even though I did
improve, it wasn't translatingto a professional level.
I'll just say that, to put itpretty frankly, the beats in my
music still sucked and I becamefrustrated.
(10:01):
And around this time I kepthearing about this podcast thing
, people making their own showsand putting it out and doing it
from their homes and most of thestuff I heard around that time
was more self-help related.
I don't think we had reallymatriculated into the narrative
storytelling At least I wasn'taware of the time that you get
(10:23):
now from true, true crime andand these documentary style
podcasts.
But I also had a close friend uh, shout out, shout out my boy G,
Greg Hill.
You all may be familiar withthe minority trailblazer podcast
, but he was doing his publicspeaking thing, um, killing it
with that.
He was in the early stages andhe started the podcast and it
(10:44):
was really starting to take offand I started listening to it
and the content was really good,but he didn't know.
He didn't know anything aboutaudio.
Um, he really didn't knowanything about it at all.
So the quality of the show froma production standpoint wasn't
that great.
So that led me to believe that,man, I think there's a market
out here for like people likeediting shows and making them
(11:06):
sound good and actually usinglike microphones and you know
for all those that are in thefield.
You know if you, if you get agood recording, that's 75 of the
battle.
So I was like man, there may bea market for this for like
editing shows for people.
So then I just started reallyuh like joining groups on
facebook just surrounding myselfand getting in communities with
(11:28):
people who like edit podcastsand who were in that world, in
that world and I got my firstediting opportunity.
At this time I had me and mygirlfriend at the time had moved
to Atlanta, so I was living inAtlanta.
I got my first opportunity toedit you know, do some contract
work for like a company thatedit podcasts for people.
(11:49):
And this is so funny, like Ireally was getting like $30 an
episode to edit shows for peoplewho were like getting the
clients and just passing alongthe episodes.
The next part of this storykind of goes to show you like
how on cold we are as blackpeople and really validated for
me that this was my purpose,that this is something that I
(12:11):
should be doing.
So that first client I editedfor was for the show Celeste,
the Therapist podcast and forany of those any of you who have
heard that show.
Celeste Vissier is the host andshe's a mental health therapist
and she has an amazing show andshe's an amazing person and has
an amazing soul and givingspirit and personality.
(12:35):
So I connected with her.
She saw that I was black.
I saw that she was black.
I think I did a couple episodesthrough the company and making
that $30 and she hit me upprobably was like last year.
You know you're editing theshow for me and we're doing us
communication and you know Ireally just want to cut out the
middleman.
(12:56):
Like I love working with blackpeople, so like I'm paying them
like $400 a month to edit theshow and you're editing it.
So if you're cool with it, likeI'd rather just work directly
with you and just cut them outand I'm like, instead of making
$30, I'm making $400 to edit oneshow and this is the first paid
work that I've ever done.
(13:16):
So I'm like bet, I'm in.
So that's what we did.
She.
She stopped going through thecompany and just started paying
with me directly and I workedwith her for quite a while.
Shout out, useless.
But when I was living in Atlantaand this was how I knew a
hundred percent that this iswhat I was supposed to be doing
and I was dedicated to it.
I was working at DHL at thetime delivering packages, and I
(13:38):
would literally take my laptopwith me and do my route and if I
finished early I would justlike pull over, stop at a
Starbucks and, while on theclock, still go in and edit the
episodes while I'm still on theclock for DHL.
And it kind of just hit me oneday I was like I never been this
dedicated to anything, as faras willing to, you know, risk my
(14:02):
job and do literally whatever Ihad to do to get it done.
And for the days that I didn'tdo that, I would, you know, work
all day, come home and you know, at the time I thought I was
really really good at what I wasdoing.
But I, looking back on it now Iwas.
I guess I was okay editing andmixing, but like the speed and
(14:23):
efficiency for which I was doingit was not that great.
So it was taking me long periodsof time to edit the episodes,
so I would stay up all nighttrying to get them completed.
But yeah, after this experience, this is where really things
started to kind of expeditethemselves, like I just got
better at editing, got better atmixing episodes and things like
(14:46):
that and ended up getting a fewmore clients and, you know,
getting a low paying clientthere doing free work there but
really building my skill set andI guess I'm going to fast
forward.
So to give you a frame of time,I guess when I first started
editing and I guess when I firststarted having the bug for
(15:08):
music and really getting intothe basics of audio, this is
probably about 2016, 17.
And then by the time I startedediting for Celeste, this is
probably like 18, 19.
And you know, over the next fewyears, like 2021, covid and all
(15:29):
that stuff.
I was, you know, doing projectson the side here and there,
while still, like bartending andyou know, really, you know
making his meet.
I moved back to Durham, likeyou know, to stack my money,
like I really created like aplan of action for what I was
doing and then I like I kind oflost all momentum because I got
(15:50):
sick and I went through thisreally anxiety filled time of my
life and I basically became ahypochondriac and it's it's a
long, a long story and a longprocess, but I kind of really
went through what you would callanother bridge in my life where
I had to overcome something toget to the next stage of my life
.
So then, after getting throughthat, with the help of God,
(16:13):
family and my friends, I got myown place with me.
Me and Greg actually movedright after COVID and got a
place together and we were kindof in the foundational stages of
the new part of our lives.
So it just made sense for us to.
This is the start of us likedoing a lot of media production
(16:35):
work and really collaborating ona lot of things together.
So it just made sense andshortly after then I got my
first like reoccurring contractgig with like a with a company
that was producing podcasts witha very high production value.
It was basically brandedpodcasts.
(16:56):
So this is when I startedworking with Frequency Media.
I sat up, michelle, and myproducer, ina and our engineer,
matt.
I still have greatrelationships with them to this
day, even though I no longerwork with Frequency and you know
that part of the business nolonger exists.
But this is when I felt like Ijumped tiers and was like, okay,
(17:19):
this is the big leagues.
As far as I felt like I jumpedtears and was like, okay, this
is the.
This is the big leagues as faras podcasts go in the production
value.
So we worked on some reallycool stuff.
We did the honeypots podcast.
Um, we did a show with Voxmedia called more than this,
which won two awards.
So that was.
I was able to officially saythat I was a award-winning
dialogue editor.
That's the, that's the role thatI was in at Frequency Media.
(17:41):
I was an audio editor.
We worked on the show calledlet's Talk Menopause.
We worked on a show called OnceUpon a Playtime.
Like it was some really reallygood stuff and I felt like I
finally was fulfilled in a waythat I was contributing to
something that rivaled wasfulfilled in a way that I was
(18:04):
contributing to something thatrivaled like something that was
produced on, you know, in TV orfilm.
Like I feel like podcasting onthat level was like the third
tier of those like big mediums.
So I worked for them for about ayear and a half, two years.
I wasn't full time but I was.
You know, I was like anofficial member of the team and
I was probably working likebetween 20 and 30 hours a week
(18:25):
and that really helped build myresume and I knew it was going
to lead me to the next greatopportunity.
But before I jump into the mostrecent, I want to also shout
out Galen Bingham, who's thehost of the Whiskey Jazz and
Leadership Podcast, who's stillmy current client and my longest
(18:48):
reoccurring client.
But to transition and get intothis last season and get up to
date, so, after working withFrequency, that led me the
opportunity to speak at BlackPodfest in Atlanta, which was in
2022, I believe they wanted meto lead an audio engineering
(19:09):
session and that was MemorialDay weekend of that year and I
was nervous I had never doneanything, speaking wise at that
point, and I stressed out aboutit and I overprepared and, you
know, made sure all my T's werecrossed and my I's were dotted
(19:29):
and my T's were crossed.
Because I did not want to make afool of myself and I went there
and I did what I needed to doand I had a great time and made
some amazing connections and Iwas intentional about following
up with the people that I foundinteresting and wanted to
continue to build relationshipswith and that I found either
found their sessions at theconference interesting or
(19:53):
compelling, or people that justtheir personalities I felt like
I could, you know, vibe withwhen we get along.
You know, it made sense for usto continue to stay in touch.
So when I came back home, Imade a list of those people and
I followed up with them and goton some calls with some people
and, you know, started followingthem on social media and making
(20:14):
sure.
You know, I continued to layeyes on them and come and
support what they had going onand they agreed to do vice versa
.
And one of the young ladies,casey, who is the founder of,
could Be Pretty Cool and shedoes a lot of things in the
audio space and I hope to haveher on the show for season one
(20:35):
as well.
She was one of the ones that Iconnected with and I happened to
follow her on Instagram and herclose friends.
She added me and that's whereshe would post, post job
opportunities to for people toapply to and and try to, you
know, progress their careers,and I saw a post as an associate
producer, uh, for Tenderfoot TV, which I had never heard of at
(20:57):
the time, but I come to.
It was.
They were a big name as far aspodcasting and true crime
specifically.
But, um, I clicked on the linkand and and kind of read up on
the position and learn abouttender foot and realize like the
stuff that they were working onwas really edgy and the
(21:17):
founders, donald and were likethe coolest people in podcasts
and that's literally what Ithought Like these guys they
remind me of, like Babyface andLA Reid in the music industry,
and they both had, unknowinglyat the time, backgrounds in the
music industry, so it just kindof made sense for their persona
and I was like, man, I wouldlove to work for these guys.
(21:39):
So I interviewed after applyingand I ended up getting a job.
So I started there in Decemberof 2022 and we worked on some
amazing stuff, man, and probablythe most thing that I'm most
proud of that I worked on and mywhole time of podcasting is the
(22:01):
Raven, which was a podcastcreated by Tim Livingston, who's
like the head of content atUnderdog Sports, and my producer
, alex, had an amazing visionfor the show.
But it really highlighted, likethe 2000 Super Bowl murders and
(22:21):
Ray Lewis's involvement, whichwas a story that I remember
hearing about as a kid but Ididn't really get too many
details afterwards and kind ofhow it kind of correlated with
the manner in which thegentlemen who were killed in the
(22:44):
Super Bowl murders, had theexperience that Tim had.
So it was a really great showand that was the only thing
sports related I've worked on atmy time in my time in
podcasting, but it's the thingthat I'm most proud of and I was
really looking forward to youknow I'm most proud of and I was
really looking forward to, youknow, continuing to grow and the
(23:05):
opportunities to work onamazing things and even from a
career standpoint, that wouldcome as a result for working for
a team and a company as wellknown as Tenderfoot.
And unfortunately, I was let goby Tenderfoot in January of
2024, this year, which was asurprise to me and it was really
(23:28):
frustrating because, you know,a lot of people were getting
laid off at the time in theindustry and it just wasn't a
good time to be looking for,like, a new full-time role in
the industry, which I still amcurrently doing, but I still
have clients and stillcontinuing to make an imprint in
(23:49):
the audio industry.
But this allowed time for me toreflect and led me to actually
doing this show.
So to reel it all in, to put abow in it, to tie it all in as a
result of that experience frombeing let go from tenderfoot tv
and after having the idea to dothe show for two to three years,
(24:12):
I was like this is the timethat I need to do the show.
I've been behind the scenes solong, um, and I just feel like I
I had, I have a, a great ideawith the show and it's time for
me to.
It's time for me to removemyself from the background and
be more to the forefront andgive my opinion and and share
(24:35):
what I have to say and do it inthe context of this podcast and
having some amazingconversations with, uh, other
black individuals who who workin the context of this podcast,
and having some amazingconversations with other black
individuals who work in the samefield that I work in.
So that has led me to this verypoint in time right now.
So, yeah, that's me, that's myjourney, that's my experience.
(24:56):
I had a lot of ups and downs,but you know we're going, we're
keeping it pushing and and I'mgoing to make this show
everything that it needs to be.
So thank you for taking thetime to listen.
If you haven't listened to thesneak peek or the official
trailer for the show, Irecommend you go back and listen
to that before you dive intothe rest of the season, just to
(25:20):
provide even more context thanwhat I have added here.
And yeah, I'm excited forwhat's in store for the show and
I look forward to presentingseason one with you all.
So stay tuned and I hope youenjoy.
Thank you for joining us ontoday's episode.
(25:41):
Please don't forget tosubscribe to the show and leave
us a review.
If you'd like to work with meor connect, please go to
soundbysitcom and schedule acall there.
You can also check out the fulllist of productions I've worked
on.
If you'd like to connect onsocial media, my handle is
soundbysitcom on Twitter andInstagram and I'm Sidney Evans
(26:03):
on LinkedIn.
Don't forget to follow Beyondthe Threshold on Instagram as
well.
I'll catch you on the nextepisode.
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