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WCA #613 with Ben Mellott

Ben Mellott on Working Class Audio podcast episode 613

WCA #613 with Ben Mellott – Northern Virginia, Church Sound, Farm Festivals, and Profit First

For episode 613, Matt talks with Ben Mellott — recording engineer, mixer, and owner of Nothing but Noise studio in Northern Virginia. Ben has been freelance since 2014, balances studio work with live production at churches, farms, and local venues, and runs every dollar through the Profit First system. They talk about building a career on curiosity, the alternative path through cassette manufacturing and church sound, and why the business side of audio doesn’t sound like fun until it absolutely is.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

  • Northern Virginia, Born and Raised
  • A Dad at Toys R Us and a Mom in the Church Choir
  • Recording Bands on a Tascam Four-Track at Ten Dollars a Song
  • The Recording Workshop in Chillicothe, Ohio — Audio Boot Camp
  • Learning Signal Flow Before Hardware
  • Manufacturing Cassettes and CDs at Lion Recording
  • Moving Into Graphics — Quark Express, InDesign, and Terrible Early Websites
  • Roadie and Merch for a Month-Long US Tour With Frodus
  • Getting the Farm Festival Gig Because His Girlfriend Mentioned Him
  • Ten Years of Sunday Church Sound — and What He Learned About Temperament
  • The Drummer in the Crowd Who Got Him the Venue Gig
  • Real-Life Social Proof — Likable Enough (For a Live Sound Guy)
  • Curiosity as a Career Strategy
  • Nothing But Noise — The Studio and the Freelance Life Since 2014
  • Debt, an Inheritance That Didn’t Change the Slope, and the Pandemic
  • Implementing the Profit First System
  • Of Every Thousand Dollars, Only $150 Is Spendable — and Why That’s the Point
  • Self-Financing Gear and Paying Yourself Back on a Payment Plan
  • The Gear Rep Who Said You’ve Got a Lot of Gear
  • The Business Side Doesn’t Sound Like Fun Until It Is

Matt’s RANT!: Doing Things the Alternative Way

Links and Show Notes:

Credits:

  • Guest: Ben Mellott
  • Host/Engineer/Producer: Matt Boudreau
  • WCA Theme Music: Cliff Truesdell
  • The Voice: Chuck Smith

Video Interview