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Category: WCA Podcast

WCA #298 with Nathan Smith

WCA #298 with Nathan Smith – Sound Design, Storytelling, Inspiration from Challenges, Learning from Failure, and The Nuances of Recording Guns

Nathan Smith is a seasoned sound designer with for film and video games. Nathan has worked on games such as Borderlands 3, Battleborn, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II and Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters as well as feature films and documentaries including We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists, Matrix and The Scorpion King.

In this episode, we discuss:

  • Musical Beginnings
  • Sound Design
  • The Rose Parade
  • Film Audio Roles
  • Game Audio
  • Storytelling
  • What to Charge
  • Work Slowdowns
  • Nathan’s Youtube Channel
  • The Reasons to Record at 192Khz
  • The Inspiration of Sylvia Massey
  • The Nuances of Recording Guns
  • Covert Grocery Store Recording
  • Inspiration from Challenges
  • Gear Advice
  • Helicopters
  • Learning from Failure

Matt’s Monologue: Audio Minimalism

Links and Show Notes:

Credits:

  • Guest: Nathan Smith
  • Host: Matt Boudreau 
  • WCA Theme Music: Cliff Truesdell 
  • Announcer: Chuck Smith
  • Editing: Anne-Marie Pleau & Matt Boudreau
  • Additional Music: The License Lab

WCA #297 with Michael Rosen

WCA #297 with Michael Rosen – Rogue Tape Machines, Tent Cities, Post Pandemic Predictions, Being Ready To Record, and Going Above & Beyond

Michael Rosen is a Grammy-winning producer/engineer who has worked with Santana, Rancid, Papa Roach, Tesla, AFI, The Donnas, Journey, Death Angel, Tony Macalpine, and Testament……..to name a few! In addition to recording and producing he also teaches at Chabot College and San Francisco State and is an alumnus of the famed Automatt studios where he got started on his professional recording journey.

In this episode, we discuss:

  • Small Hot Studios
  • Rogue Tape Machines
  • Moving Studios
  • Open Control Rooms
  • Talkback Buttons
  • Tent Cities
  • Quadratic Equations
  • Commercial Real Estate
  • Post Pandemic Predictions
  • Hips Surgery
  • Band Deals
  • Going Above & Beyond
  • The Next Wave
  • Being Ready To Record
  • Plotting The Next 20 Years

Matt’s Monologue: Taking a Day Off

Links and Show Notes:

Credits:

  • Guest: Michael Rosen
  • Host: Matt Boudreau 
  • WCA Theme Music: Cliff Truesdell 
  • Announcer: Chuck Smith
  • Editing: Anne-Marie Pleau & Matt Boudreau
  • Additional Music: The License Lab

WCA #296 with Max Perry

WCA #296 with Max Perry – Selling Beats, Family Influence, Lawyers, New York Hip Hop, Balance, and Cannabis

Max Perry is a Grammy Nominated, multi-platinum record producer, engineer, composer, and musician who has worked with J Boog, Snoop Dogg, Berner, Wiz Khalifa, Twista, Big K.R.I.T & Vital Deshawn as well as many others.

In this episode, we discuss:

  • Family Influence
  • Contracts
  • SCSI and Zip Disks!
  • New York Hip Hop
  • Studio Closings
  • Cannabis
  • Selling Beats
  • Copyrights
  • Diversification
  • Balance
  • Lawyers
  • The Cares Act
  • Working in Hawaii

Links and Show Notes:

Credits:

  • Guest: Max Perry
  • Host: Matt Boudreau 
  • WCA Theme Music: Cliff Truesdell 
  • Announcer: Chuck Smith
  • Editing: Anne-Marie Pleau & Matt Boudreau
  • Additional Music: The License Lab

WCA #295 with Reto Peter

WCA #295 with Reto Peter – Starting Over, Green Day, Diversification, Recording Restrictions, Family, and Redefining Success

Reto Peter is a producer/engineer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Reto has worked with Green Day, Counting Crows, Smash Mouth, Flipsyde and many other artists in his 20 year plus career. He also writes and produces music for television and can be heard on various cable networks and national ad campaigns.

In this episode, we discuss:

  • National Service
  • Switzerland
  • Berklee School of Music
  • The Magic of New York
  • Starting Over
  • Green Day
  • Studio Hierarchy
  • Paying Dues
  • 3 Year Patterns
  • Michael Urbano
  • Diversification
  • Frugality
  • Working From Home
  • Saying No
  • Counting Crows
  • Recording Restrictions
  • Studio Community
  • Perseverance
  • Family
  • Redefining Success

Links and Show Notes:

Credits:

  • Guest: Reto Peter
  • Host: Matt Boudreau 
  • WCA Theme Music: Cliff Truesdell 
  • Announcer: Chuck Smith
  • Editing: Anne-Marie Pleau & Matt Boudreau
  • Additional Music: The License Lab

WCA #294 with McKay Garner

WCA #294 with McKay Garner – Remote Production, Curveballs and Lemonade, Production Mindset, Community, and Burritos

McKay Garner is a producer, engineer, mixer, multi-instrumentalist, and composer, he has worked on records for artists such as J Dilla, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Mike Shinoda/Linkin Park, Michael Buble, Dead & Company/Mickey Hart, made music in films such as the Transformers movie, in video games, and for television shows such as Total Recall, America’s Next Top Model, Grey’s Anatomy, and many more. He has been fortunate to work as an engineer on projects with amazing producers and engineers such as Rick Rubin, Ariel Rechtshaid, Dana Nielsen, and Ryan Hewitt, among others.

After studying music at the University of N.C. School of the Arts, McKay Garner’s career has spanned decades performing in front of countless audiences and creating music in recording studios. McKay is an active member of the Bay Area music scene. As an elected leader volunteer, he served two terms as co-chair of the Producers and Engineers Wing and is an active Board member of the Recording Academy SF Chapter (the Grammys and more), McKay now strives to bring attention to experimental, innovative, and traditional music voices within the industry.

In this episode, we discuss:

  • Remote Production
  • Residential Rental Recording Spaces
  • Supportive Spouses
  • Curveballs and Lemonade
  • Drummers as Producers/Engineers
  • LA to SF
  • Life In LA
  • Music and Technology
  • Burritos
  • Production Mindset
  • Production Financials
  • Licensing
  • Community

Links and Show Notes

Credits:

  • Guest: McKay Garner
  • Host: Matt Boudreau 
  • WCA Theme Music: Cliff Truesdell 
  • Announcer: Chuck Smith
  • Editing: Anne-Marie Pleau & Matt Boudreau
  • Additional Music: The License Lab

WCA #293 with Heidi Trefethen

WCA #293 with Heidi Trefethen – Live Sound, Recording, French Horn, Struggles with The Mormon Church, Session Mindset, Sexism and Learning to Evolve

Heidi Trefethen is a French Hornist, multi-instrumentalist, educator, and sought-after sound engineer, Heidi Trefethen shuttles back and forth across continents frequently, in roles both onstage and off. As a hornist, she has performed in numerous ensembles and venues in Italy, the UK, Bosnia, Thailand, Guatemala, Israel Turkey, and the US, including the LA Philharmonic, the JazzUp Festival in Italy, Cleveland’s Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame, San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall and SFJAZZ’s Miner Hall.

As a live sound engineer, she has worked with the likes of Shawn Colvin, Meshell N’degeocello, Odetta, Ellis Paul, Joan Baez, Joan Armatrading, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Holly Near, John Stewart of the Kingston Trio, Dar Williams, Al Stewart, Jane Siberry and Lucy Kaplansky, often at the legendary Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, CA. Heidi can be often seen behind the sound boards at SFJAZZ where she was recently recruited as a FOH and A2 engineer. 

As a recording engineer, she studied at the California Recording Institute’s intensive sound engineering program. An internship at the historic Coast Recorders and a job at Rocket Lab mastering house had her working side-by-side with technical heavyweights John Cuniberti, Dan Alexander and Michael Romanowski. Heidi’s engineering credits include Tammy Hall’s “Blue Soul,” Jessica Jones and Mark Taylor’s “Live at the Freight” 2011, Lucy Kaplansky’s “Kaplansky Sings Kaplanksy,” 2000, Michael Burles’ currently “Untitled Recording” 2017, Nestler and Hawtin’s “Duality” 2014, co-engineered with Bryan Bell, Herbie Hancock’s first engineer, and full production of Anne Rainwater’s solo piano recording of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations.

In this episode, we discuss:

  • SF Jazz
  • French Horn
  • Freight & Salvage
  • Teaching
  • Learning to Evolve
  • Mentoring
  • Women’s Audio Mission
  • Covid’s Effect
  • The Audio Pro Advantage
  • The Importance of Recording & Music
  • Overdubbing at a Young Age
  • Education
  • Open Mic Nights
  • Live Sounds
  • Producing
  • Session Mindset
  • Communication Style
  • Struggles w/The Mormon Church
  • Empathy
  • Women in Audio
  • Sexism
  • Bay Area
  • Speaking Italian
  • Making a Living
  • Not Working for Free

Links and Show Notes:

Credits:

  • Guest: Heidi Trefethen
  • Host: Matt Boudreau 
  • WCA Theme Music: Cliff Truesdell 
  • Announcer: Chuck Smith
  • Editing: Anne-Marie Pleau & Matt Boudreau
  • Additional Music: The License Lab

WCA #292 with Jessica Paz

WCA #292 with Jessica Paz – Manhattan Special, Soda Stream, Theater Sound, Women in Audio, Sound Design, Advocacy, and Last Minute Christmas Gifts

Jessica Paz is a Tony Award-winning Sound Designer for theater, film and music. Most recently, she collaborated with Nevin Steinberg on the sound design for Anaïs Mitchell’s acclaimed production of Hadestown, which earned the duo a Tony Award, Drama Desk Award and an Outer Critics Circle nomination.

On Broadway, Jessica was an Associate Sound Designer on projects including Dear Evan Hansen, Bandstand, Disaster! The Musical; The Assembled Parties (MCC); and Fela!.

Other design credits include Little Shop of Horrors (Westside Theater); Kiss My Aztec (Berkeley Rep); Twelfth Night, Othello, Miss You Like Hell, Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Nights Dream, and As You Like It (The Public Theater); Burn All Night (A.R.T Oberon Stage); Ugly Lies the Bone (Roundabout); A Sucker EmCee, and The Muscles in Our Toes (LAByrinth); The Kings Whore (Starcatcher Productions); Becoming Dr. Ruth (Westside Theater); Looking for the Pony (Vital Theater Co.); Women Beware Women (Red Bull Theater); STRETCH – A Fantasia (New Georges); Welcome to Fear City (KC Rep); Scott & Hem in the Garden of Allah, and See How They Run (Barrington Stage); Legally Blonde, and 9 to 5 The Musical (North Shore Music Theater); Romeo & Juliet, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello, and Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare on the Sound’s Productions); SCKBSTD (Virginia Stage Co) ; Volcanoes Birthright (Organic Magnetics); TempOdyssey, And Her Hair Went With Her, Bookends, and Minstrel Show (NJ Rep).

Jessica has been a Front of House Engineer for musicians including The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Antibalas, Julia Haltigan, Femi Kuti, Lady Antebellum, Candy Shop Boys, People vs. Larson, Michael Arenetta, Bugaboo, Carte Blanche, King Holiday, The Woes, Stone Cold Fox, The African Children’s Choir and many others. She has also been a Lecturer of Sound Design in addition to student advisor for Princeton Universities production of Next To Normal, and was the Sound Designer of the Actor’s Studio Drama School’s yearly Master’s Thesis productions from 2009 – 2014.

Jessica is fascinated by music studio and live concert techniques. She is constantly learning and researching innovative approaches from the traditional music recording world, and bringing them into her theater work. A proud member of IATSE Local 829; Soundgirls.org; Woman’s Audio Mission; USITT; and Co-Chair of the board of the Theatrical Sound Designers and Composers Association. She currently resides in New York. Pizza is her favorite food group. 

In this episode, we discuss:

  • Manhattan Special
  • Theater Sound
  • Broadway/Off Broadway
  • Theater Sound Design
  • System Design
  • Audio Teams
  • Audio Roles
  • Mentors
  • Large Budgets
  • Network Audio
  • Rain vs. Audio
  • Women in Audio
  • Theater vs. Club Sound
  • Union Rules
  • Money
  • Passion for Audio
  • Past Jobs
  • Trying to Leave Audio
  • Advocacy

Links and Show Notes:

Credits:

  • Guest: Jessica Paz
  • Host: Matt Boudreau 
  • WCA Theme Music: Cliff Truesdell 
  • Announcer: Chuck Smith
  • Editing: Anne-Marie Pleau & Matt Boudreau
  • Additional Music: The License Lab