Career highlights?

[hobson]

mixing FOH for Funky Meters (who i worked for at the time) and Taj Mahal at Sheryl Crow's Central Park Gig (and Friends).

same Central Park show - on the flight up, i had just finished reading John Lennon's sister's book, during our setup/soundcheck - i started playing 'Watching The Wheels' on the grand piano - till a roadie asked me kindly to "not play on Sarah McLaughlin's piano!!!"...

same Central Park show (last one) - beating all the roadies to the punch and lighting Keith Richard's (and my) cigarette backstage!

getting a gut wrenching - seemed like an eternity - hairy eyeballed soul check from David Crosby before he signed my copy of "If I Could Only Remember My Name"

first time i finished mixing Funky Meters at Fillmore West and got to listen to Greensleeves by Jorma... as a wide eyed buzzed crowd slowly left the auditorium.

meeting Stevie Ray Vaughn at the tender age of 16 (Couldn't Stand the Weather) and telling him that i was a big fan of Jimi Hendrix... he laughed.

being invited to play an encore of Imagine with Built to Spill at Irving Plaza NYC (where i worked) - first shows after 9-11. I was sitting at the drums playing kick/hat and bass guitar. It was a sold out show.

[HookedOnHardware]

Originally Posted by Makinithappen

Thanks, man... I have stumbled into some pretty cool stuff over the years... Looking back on it, I never really deserved a lot of the gigs I've gotten but being in the right place at the right time and knowing a few people has treated me very well. thumbsupthumbsup

So what are yours?

(BTW, I think this thread may be a little weird for a lot of people because it's hard to list career highlights without sounding like you're bragging.... I did my best to not name any names and stuff but in a thread like this, one can't really say "My career highlight was working with a big name singer")

So what are mine? Well I'm a youngster at 24 and I'm currently in the wrong country for real big names (The Netherlands)'. However, I'm the sole proprietor of a *insert bragging here* high end studio which I consider to be quite an achievement! I'm a fulltime engineer and will be opening the new facility in about 6/7 months. Successfully running the new place will be my next highlight.

Regarding the bragging; Being proud of what you have achieved can be perceived both ways. So far I've read stories of pride instead of people going out of their way to gloat.

How about I tell you in 5 years if I have any good ones.

[fragletrollet]

Playing the first night at a very special festival in the Altay mountains, faaaaar far away from sivilisation (in Russia, past Sibir, between China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan) in front of 1500 people who had travelled FAR and LONG to come


and not to forget...Focal Twin be 6 + acoustic treatment was a revolution!

[Teddy Ray]

Originally Posted by HookedOnHardware

going out of their way to bloat.

that would be "gloat" ..bloat means swollen, or overweight.

[Karloff70]

Recording Uri Geller talk esoteric stuff over ambient music and him bending a spoon right in front of my eyes. I knew that spoon! He rubbed it and off it went ...and kept going and going....lol

[Karloff70]

...oh, and once when engineering a writing session while working for a bigshot producer. It was writing with John Bon Jovi day, and Bon Jovi and his 3 people entourage plus my boss and me were already there, when the programmer arrived late, walked in and streched his hand to Bon Jovi announcing in broad scottish accent "Hi, I'm Johnny Rockstar".....lol....very hard not to crack up and cry laughing. The face on Bon Jovi....lol Thanks for that Johnny! If you read this, you gave a lasting memory!!

[HookedOnHardware]

Originally Posted by Teddy Ray

that would be "gloat" ..bloat means swollen, or overweight.

Ha damn it, and I'm a native speaker! Type-o.. My bad .

[Teddy Ray]

Originally Posted by HookedOnHardware

Ha damn it, and I'm a native speaker! Type-o.. My bad .

howd you end up in NL?

[HookedOnHardware]

Originally Posted by Teddy Ray

howd you end up in NL?

My Mexican mother and Britsh father were in NL at the time. I was born here (I do not have a Dutch passport!) but moved to the states at a young age. I came back when I was 15 and have been here since. My parents moved back to the states about 6 years ago but I was still in school (international school). I'll probably return to the states eventually but I have my business here at the moment.

Not sure what the future holds!

Got anymore highlights?

[SnakeCained]

Originally Posted by Dave Peck

Hah! I was just about to add my story about how I met David Gilnour during his About Face solo tour years ago when I was doing live sound work and how I was totally star struck. He was a real nice guy when I met him. What the heck did YOU do?

Well the first time was outside the Royal Albert Hall after an Eric Clapton concert. My friend and I were waiting outside the stage door hoping to catch a glimpse of "God" and Gilmour came out. I turned to me friend and said :

"Oh look there's that fat bastard Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd" not surprisingly he heard me and told me to "F off"

The second time was exactly one year later, in the same place, for the same reason (I was young I thought Clapton was good) this time Gilmour came out and I said
"Excuse me Mr Gilmour , Sir, may I trouble you for an autograph?" and he told me to "F off" again, dunno perhaps he remembered me.

Although several years later when I worked as an "ambience coordinator" on the Pink Floyd world tour all seemed forgiven

[Dave Peck]

Originally Posted by SnakeCained

Although several years later when I worked as an "ambience coordinator" on the Pink Floyd world tour

...can you elaborate on this job description? Does it involve things like scented candles and accent pillows for the dressing rooms?

[HookedOnHardware]

Originally Posted by Dave Peck

...can you elaborate on this job description? Does it involve things like scented candles and accent pillows for the dressing rooms?

Sounds like something you would do on the set of a porno...

[robmix]

I've been truly blessed in my career, but probably the most important moment happened to me and my ex-wife in Best Buy. We were buying a dishwasher, and the young lady helping us was, well, not very good with people. She kind of reminded me of "Pat" from Saturday Night live, bad hair day, a bit overweight, etc.

She kept looking at me, and quickly turning away if I made eye contact. She seemed very nervous. Comes time to ring up the sale, and I hand her my credit card. She looked at it, and said "I knew it, you wrote the song "I will Be" for Christina Aguilera".

I said "Yeah how did you know about that ? It was just a b-side in the UK".

She turned to me teary eyed, and said "I recognized you from the VH-1 special. That song helped me through some very difficult times. I even wrote to RCA and told them to release it as a single in the U.S.. I love your songs"

My wife and I just about broke down and cried right there. As a songwriter it doesn't get any better than that. . . . .

[RawBeanZen]

Originally Posted by robmix

I've been truly blessed in my career, but probably the most important moment happened to me and my ex-wife in Best Buy. We were buying a dishwasher, and the young lady helping us was, well, not very good with people. She kind of reminded me of "Pat" from Saturday Night live, bad hair day, a bit overweight, etc.

She kept looking at me, and quickly turning away if I made eye contact. She seemed very nervous. Comes time to ring up the sale, and I hand her my credit card. She looked at it, and said "I knew it, you wrote the song "I will Be" for Christina Aguilera".

I said "Yeah how did you know about that ? It was just a b-side in the UK".

She turned to me teary eyed, and said "I recognized you from the VH-1 special. That song helped me through some very difficult times. I even wrote to RCA and told them to release it as a single in the U.S.. I love your songs"

My wife and I just about broke down and cried right there. As a songwriter it doesn't get any better than that. . . . .

Beauty.

[HookedOnHardware]

Originally Posted by robmix

I've been truly blessed in my career, but probably the most important moment happened to me and my ex-wife in Best Buy. We were buying a dishwasher, and the young lady helping us was, well, not very good with people. She kind of reminded me of "Pat" from Saturday Night live, bad hair day, a bit overweight, etc.

She kept looking at me, and quickly turning away if I made eye contact. She seemed very nervous. Comes time to ring up the sale, and I hand her my credit card. She looked at it, and said "I knew it, you wrote the song "I will Be" for Christina Aguilera".

I said "Yeah how did you know about that ? It was just a b-side in the UK".

She turned to me teary eyed, and said "I recognized you from the VH-1 special. That song helped me through some very difficult times. I even wrote to RCA and told them to release it as a single in the U.S.. I love your songs"

My wife and I just about broke down and cried right there. As a songwriter it doesn't get any better than that. . . . .

That's a nice one! Did you get to record her or 'just' write the song?
I just listened to it, it's very powerful to say the least. Nice.

[mdjice]

Working on the records of a few of my favorite artists was a great one, being one of the rare French artists to go Multi-platinum in the US was a great feeling too. selling records in japan was nice, going multiplatinum in new zealand was cool too, owning my own studio is such a great feeling I would say one of the highlight of my music career was when I FINALLY got my first Neve...I know...geeky..but hey I'm a gearslut!!
Doing TV shows with over 9 millions viewers (regis and kelly in the US star academy in France) was awsome too... Touring the US with MTV was nice even if the Bus thing gets old after the first month.
Getting a ticket in Austin for speeding a bit and getting it scratched and dissmissed right away ( I kept it !!) because the cop recognized me and because his daugther LOVES the song cyclone was cool too...it cost me a Signed CD i had in the car...cheaper then the ticket!
I'm blessed and Try to keep it that way!...I want MORE and MORE highlights!!

[-Noodles-]

first one was getting stuff to record properly, when I wanted it.
that was HUGE for me.

secondly, was having people telling me that I was doing a better job than the "bigger guys" with much lesser equipment. Guess I must have something!

thirdly, I just passed my honours degree and got offered a PhD - so that's pretty damn good.

Definitely been an interesting ride so far,.. here's to many more years!

[robmix]

Originally Posted by HookedOnHardware

That's a nice one! Did you get to record her or 'just' write the song?
I just listened to it, it's very powerful to say the least. Nice.

Thanks, I've written and recorded with her. Always fun, and super easy to deal with. That would actually be another highlight. I did her demo, helped her get signed to RCA, and then watched as the record sold 17 million copies, and she won artist of the year at the grammy's.

[theskycouldfly]

for me it was getting to assist andy johns for a few days at my studio in hollywood

[HookedOnHardware]

Originally Posted by robmix

Thanks, I've written and recorded with her. Always fun, and super easy to deal with. That would actually be another highlight. I did her demo, helped her get signed to RCA, and then watched as the record sold 17 million copies, and she won artist of the year at the grammy's.

F* me that's nice.

(I actually just visited your site. I saw some pics with her and MJ!. Sweet.)
I'm in LA quite often (my parents just moved from Pasadena to Mexico) I'll pop by some time (if that's possible) .

Now let's hear some more highlights slutz!

[gainreduction]

About Rob and Christina:

Robmix, tell us about Christina Aquilera

[HookedOnHardware]

Originally Posted by gainreduction

About Rob and Christina:

Robmix, tell us about Christina Aquilera

Thanks GR.

[FFS]

for me it has to be remixing some of my favorite artists over the years! getting the multitracks to classic track and remixing them for a living is pretty sweet! :-)
G

Im new here btw ;-)

[Jim Williams]

A few memories:

I helped build and did electronics for John McLaughlin back in the Mahavisnu days, you can hear those circuits on his 2nd and 3rd albums and the custom doubleneck on the lost trident sessions CD. I also built guitars and circuits for the late Frank Zappa, hear them on all his later 70's and 80's records.
I've built circuits and done custom keyboard and studio work for Stevie Wonder since 1979.

Once on tour with Stevie I "prepared" a room for Carlos Santana as he came by to play at Oakland colosium. He was still with Sri Chimnoy, the "guru" McLaughlin introduced him to. John by that time had dumped the guru as he found him with his wife, but I digress.

Carlos requested a room to pray and meditate before going on stage. So I prepared it for him. I had a rather large bag of Puna buds I just brought over from the Big Island (that's Hawaii for the geographically challanged). The entire crew was invited for a pre show smoke out, the rule was the air was shut off and the door remained closed. I'm sure Carlos got himself a good contact high as that smoke was thick!

On another tour with Steve the band was drinking a lot of beer onstage and some couldn't make it to the acoustic piano set when they could "relieve" themselves. They requested I place a bucket under the hydraulic stage so they could run down, take a quick pee and make it back before the song ended. So, as stage manager I had a "small circular metal trash can" added to the rider.
Since everyone used it, it became quite full by the end of the show. We had the gear cleared off first, then the stage was broken down and packed, then the light truss was lowered and packed away. All along everyone carefully avoided the bucket.

At the end of the night there was this single metal container filled with pee left there on the stage where I first placed it. I let the house staff deal with it as we were long gone to the next gig.

Oh, have you ever played a trick on a blind guy? I did, it was Steve himself. On one gig, we were getting a bit bored. I placed 2 Hohner marine band harps and 2 chromatics on the grand piano in a certain arranged order. One night I reversed the Ab and Bb harps. He reached to play that famous solo and it sounded like crap. A few sour notes and Steve was grasping for the other harp, but it was too late, solo over. He proceeded to toss the wrong harp over his shoulder and continued without missing a beat. Meanwhile, me and the crew were busting our sides laughing. Steve got back at me by booking me into a closet of a hotel room at the famous Boulderado Hotel in Boulder Colorado. I spent that night with my ass almost touching the floor and my feet sticking out over the end of this "childs" bed.

In numerous tours I met and hanged with some nice folks, Stan Getz, Carlos Santana, Chaka Khan, Buddy Miles, Pete Townsend, Eric Clapton, etc. When in LA I was able to do work for Peter Frampton, the Yes boys and others.

Lately I've done some nice designs like the Rhodes Pianos, all of these are highlights but I suspect the best is still yet to come. It's been a very good ride so far.

Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

[kheftel]

Well, I don't have nearly the accomplishments of others on this thread, seeing as I'm a young buck, but I've gotta say the highlight of my career so far has been hearing a radio spot on the air that I did - mixed the song, layered the voiceover on top and cut it down, all in my humble project studio.

p.s. thanks to all that have posted about their amazing careers, it's awesome reading about them.

[aidyhall]

Originally Posted by Karloff70

...oh, and once when engineering a writing session while working for a bigshot producer. It was writing with John Bon Jovi day, and Bon Jovi and his 3 people entourage plus my boss and me were already there, when the programmer arrived late, walked in and streched his hand to Bon Jovi announcing in broad scottish accent "Hi, I'm Johnny Rockstar".....lol....very hard not to crack up and cry laughing. The face on Bon Jovi....lol Thanks for that Johnny! If you read this, you gave a lasting memory!!

I do some mixing for Jony Rockstar every now and then (!) ... he's still a riot ...

Highlights for me include recording Mr James Brown, and some of his band, for the Black Eyed Peas track that he guested on.

Britney Spears showing me her little flower tattoo in the studio, it was quite near her, umm ... little flower ...

I don't get star-struck often, but one day, in the bar of the studio where I used to work, Page and Plant were having lunch (I just caught myself going, "holy f*&$, that's half of Led Zep ...)

Working on a session with Marti Pellow, whose band I used to play drums along to on headphones when I was 11 and just learning to play.

Working on Mick Jagger's solo record "Goddess in the Doorway". Seeing him do his thing in the booth was amazing. The man can perform!

My first engineering gig was recording Pino Palladino ... he made it easy for me ...

I was lucky enough to be asked to mix the Philadelphia show of the Live8 extravanganza for the DVD release, and pushing up the faders and hearing Stevie Wonder's vocal was a trip ... not forgetting the other artists, some of whom were childhood heroes!

Too many great moments ...

[Karloff70]

Originally Posted by aidyhall

I do some mixing for Jony Rockstar every now and then (!) ... he's still a riot ...

I bet! Tell him to ride that bike wisely....surely he still rides a bike....and say hello from Boris....he might remember the awful day that ensued after the quoted moment....lol

[HookedOnHardware]

Let's get people like Barefoot, Toft, Katz, Ohlsson, Albini, Massenburg etc (I could go on but you get the jist) in here shall we?!

If your name wasn't included in the above, feel free to post anyway .

[HookedOnHardware]

Bu(m)pkiss

[HookedOnHardware]

Buy a bump get a second bump for free.

Anyone?