Headliner USA Issue 17 by Headliner Magazine

ISSUE 17 / DECEMBER 2023 SUPPORTING THE CREATIVE COMMUNITY HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET UK £3.95 / USA $6.95 / CANADA $7.95

MAGAZINE / 17

CHANGING THE GAME

50YEARS OFHIPHOP LD SYSTEMS LIVE SESSIONS FROM D’ANGELICO’S SHOWROOM IN NYC

SAMARA JOY

BRINGING JAZZ TO GEN Z

SOUNDON SESSIONS

CHAMPIONING TALENT AT THE PIONEER CLUB

SoundOn is TikTok’s all-in one platform for music creators

DEJA

Check out my new song Tu Tu

Young Athena

Distribute your music for free at soundon.global Images: Young Athena, DEJA and Josh Barry performing at SoundOn presents.

Josh Barry

SUP P

IVE C EAT O CR

ING THE T R O

NITY MU M HEADLINER USA

17 It’s not uncommon to preface these end of year issues with a welcome note of reflection, as we take a backwards glance at the preceding 12 months and offer a glimpse at what the next dozen might serve up. This year, however, as our cover feature signals, we’re taking a deeper and more specific dive than usual, as we celebrate 50 years of hip hop. From the social and cultural messages it has carried and reflected, through to the ground-breaking innovation it has driven in terms of music creation and production, half a century since its birth it continues to shape and inspire the world as we see and hear it.

Earlier this year, Headliner paid a visit to the legendary Quad Studios in New York City to connect with some of the most influential figures in the genre’s history, as well as to catch up with some of those laying the groundwork for the next 50 years of hip hop. Elsewhere in this edition, we shine a spotlight on some of the artists and technicians set to make waves in 2024. In one of the most exciting partnerships of 2023, Headliner teamed up with TikTok distribution platform SoundOn to launch SoundOn Sessions, a series of events that champion new talent by offering the opportunity to perform at one of the UK’s premier grassroots venues in the form of The Pioneer Club in St. Albans. In November, we hosted the second SoundOn Session, in

which acts from the MOBO UnSung Class of 2023 performed in front of a packed room of fans and industry influencers. It was a sensational night that showed precisely why there is so much to be excited about on the new music front. Likewise, Headliner teamed up with Yamaha Music London once again to uncover the store’s 2024 ambassadors. Like last year, the caliber of artists was outstanding, with each of the three selected primed for big things in the new year. Read on for all you need to know about each of these stellar events. Which leaves us simply to wish you all Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous new year. On this evidence, it should be a good one!

Daniel Gumble Head of Content

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08 / SOFY

14/ 50 YEARS OF HIP HOP 22 / REACEYUNG

26 / NYC: LD SYSTEMS LIVE SESSIONS

38 / LD SYSTEMS LIVE SESSIONS

32 / CHRIS CRAKER

42 / YAMAHA MUSIC LONDON 2024 AMBASSADORS

46/ SOUNDON SESSIONS 52 / SAMARA JOY

58 / SAILGP

66 / MUSIC PRODUCTION

62 / SCORING FELLOW TRAVELERS

70 / SARA KAYS

80 / LIVE SOUND

76 / RECORDING K-POP

88 / EVERYTHING AUDIO

84 / THE CELESTION INTERVIEW 94 / SUPERPARKA

100 / STUDIO

104 / PRODUCTION SOUND

108 / LIGHTING

SOFY

Chaos & Commotion

HEADLINER USA

ASPIRING HEADLINER

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CHAOS & COMMOTION

SOFY Set your alarms, rodents; rat girl winter is coming. Meet singer-songwriter SOFY, who reveals all about her brand new mixtape, Chaos & Commotion.

Take a peek at SOFY’s gloriously unhinged Instagram account and between the photos of herself carting around a lifesize cutout of Timothée Chalamet on the London Underground, random camera roll pics and performance / studio footage, you’ll find rats – lots of rats. “I don’t have a rat!” SOFY admits from her home. “The rat in the photos belongs to a friend of the photographer who took all of my press shots for this campaign. He had a friend with a rat, which we brought to

the set because my fan base is called Ratworld. I can’t remember how it happened, but it was something that was thrown around as a joke, and then it kind of stuck. Now everyone’s wearing rat T-shirts and I’m taking pictures with rats…it’s all got a bit out of hand. I’d love to have a pet rat, but my housemates would not be down for that. It’s good for people to have something to hold on to, you know?” she deadpans. “You can’t really have anything with Sophie; it doesn’t really work. Sofas?” she suggests. “Nah!”

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SOFY

Chaos & Commotion

SOFY’s tunes are catchy – sure – but a big part of her appeal is a unique combination of sing-along melodies and self deprecation, which spills over into her relatable, conversational lyrical style. She cites Jamie T and Lily Allen as artists that have influenced her songwriting; drawn to the way they approach their craft by taking pleasure in rhyming the mundane. In Strawberry Milkshake, SOFY name checks Maccies and asks, ‘What’s Waitrose without Iceland?, while new single Timothée Chalamet playfully mixes sexual innuendos with boy and girl band references and frantic children’s game, Bop It! (‘You’re sugar watermelon, put my mind in one direction; Bop it, pull it, twist it, flick it, Push my button, Sugar business). Meanwhile, WET PAINT conjures Lily Allen’s rhyming of ‘Tesco’ with ‘al fresco’ in LDN, or Jamie T’s, ‘Sheila goes out with her mate Stella, it gets poured all over her fella’, with the lyrics, ‘Whoops I did it again, found my way to your house, made my 5K a 10. Fake an asthma attack coz I’m tapped doing laps ‘round your cul HEADLINER USA

de sac. Now you’re my savior with a blue inhaler, must repay the favor, won’t you come round later?’ “The first artist that had a really big impact on me in terms of, ‘I’ve never heard music like this before, I absolutely love how this sounds and I want to make something like this’ was probably Jamie T,” she nods. “I love the way he writes lyrics. They’re always really clever and they’re funny, but they often have a deeper meaning. I also love Lily Allen,” she confirms. “Her lyricism, obviously, is iconic in the same way as Jamie T. I like it when it’s a bit on the nose and there’s a bit of humor in there. I’m a sucker for a metaphor.” She elaborates, on a roll now: “I love it when people are doing stuff that isn’t trying to conform to, ‘I must do this thing that’s gonna go viral or I won’t be successful’. That’s what I like about Jamie T and Easy Life. They’ve got where they’ve got organically just by fans liking their music, and it’s been a slow burn rather than an instant, ‘Oh my god, this song went viral on TikTok and is now number one in the charts’. It’s

really inspiring to see artists that are doing really well without having had that ginormous TikTok smash that everyone seems to be chasing at the moment. All the major labels seem to be chasing that: ‘Is it gonna go viral? What can we do to make this go viral?’ Actually, sometimes you don’t need to touch 2 million people with this song. You just need to touch 10,000 people who really like it.” Not that she’d mind a viral moment of her own, should that naturally happen. “I wish I had that formula,” she laughs at her quick pivot on the matter. “Man, if anyone’s got that formula, let me know. I used to be a bit more hung up on it than I am now. I think a lot of people forget, in the constant quest to find new fans, that it’s so important to actually nurture the fans that you’ve already got. I sometimes forget about that. I’m constantly posting stuff on TikTok. My current followers are like, ‘We already know you do [music]; show us what you’re having for breakfast.’ There are people already there who just want to see behind the scenes and stuff that isn’t promotional.

ASPIRING HEADLINER

SOFY

Chaos & Commotion

“‘DAVID GRAY AND DIM THE LIGHTS’ – IT’S A FLIRTING TECHNIQUE.”

‘Shall we?’ It’s a flirting technique, I suppose. It’s tried and tested; you can try it,” she insists.

“I do love TikTok,” she admits. “It’s really leveled the playing field in terms of, there is always the potential that something could happen. You’ve seen it take artists from singing in a bedroom to being signed to Columbia. It removes a lot of the need to have connections and the need to have money; that is a barrier to entry for a lot of people to do music. Usually to get noticed by a label, you’d have to be playing gigs, going to all these showcases and putting on shows. If you’re from a random town and you don’t have any other friends that do music and you don’t have loads of money, it’s pretty much impossible to do. TikTok has made it possible for anyone to break into the industry, but it obviously comes with a lot of pressure, and a lot of changes to the industry. But the industry is fucked anyway,” she shrugs, “so just keep going.” SOFY’s brand new mixtape is Chaos & Commotion, which features the aforementioned song WET PAINT, which she describes as “feral” while also containing her proudest lyrical moment: squeezing David Gray and Doritos into one verse. In WET PAINT, SOFY tries to engineer ways to entice a lover, singing, ’Accidentally slipped, opened a beer and Doritos and dip, So you’d stay to be polite, David Gray and dim the lights.’ “I can’t remember why we came up with that,” she laughs. “Obviously, I love David Gray. My mum loves him; it was a staple in the car when I was a kid. It just felt right: ‘David Gray and dim the lights,’ – you’re chilling, you put on some soft music and you’re like, HEADLINER USA

Does David Gray know about the track? “I tagged him on Instagram. I don’t think he uses Instagram… he’s probably off with his family having a nice time, not being on instagram.” SOFY describes her latest release as “nine tracks of chaos and commotion,” and shares that her motto for the project was to make sure she nurtures her loyal fans by giving them what they want. “I like showing my appreciation to them, because they’re fucking amazing. I’ve had people who come to every single show – they’re always there. I don’t really know how they get there because I know that they don’t live anywhere near where the show is.” Chaos & Commotion features the song, socks, which sees SOFY step slightly out of her humorous/relatable comfort zone (although not entirely; it contains the rhyme, ‘You and me stayed up too late, Jaffa cakes and getting baked’). “The song is about the euphoric first love feeling that you get in the movies that flips your world on its axis and makes everything look different,” she says. As a thank you to Ratworld, she threw a party to celebrate the song in a laundromat. “We all had drinks, played some songs on the guitar and then we all did karaoke. It was so much fun. Doing stuff like that is my favorite thing about music; it’s more than just me putting songs out into the world – you’re actually building a community of people. Complete strangers came away from that as mates. I see them now on Twitter talking to each other – it’s very wholesome. Those moments are so much more impactful and special

than a video getting a couple million plays on TikTok.” SOFY says the project has lived inside her head for the best part of 18 months, and is excited for it to finally be out in the world. “This is my first longer length project that I’ve put out, and we’ve been working on it for a really long time now,” she says. “I’m excited for everyone to hear it; there’s quite a different array of songs on there. It’s a super multifaceted project that was made during a time where I was feeling quite experimental. I wanted to shake things up a bit and experiment with some slightly different sounds because the older stuff is great, but it’s very chill, and I’m not sure how chill I’m feeling anymore, actually. So that’s how Chaos & Commotion came about. It was written during quite a chaotic period in my life where I was experimenting with loads of different sounds, and it really shines through on the mixtape. There’s a lot of different flavors there and there’s something for everyone.” The mixtape’s first and last songs (Yoyo and supermarket – her current favorites) are a prime example: “They’re completely different,” she nods. “supermarket is a sweet indie pop breakup song, and Yoyo sounds kind of like Kasabian – who I also love by the way. It’s quite thrashy compared to my other music. It’s an avenue that I am really happy we were able to push a project into. I think it’s gonna surprise a few people because it’s quite heavy.” SPONSORED BY

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50 YEARS OF HIP HOP

Changing The Game

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CHANGING THE GAME The Hip Hop Museum’s Reggie Peters (director of marketing and visitor services), Eric Orr, (artist in residence and gift shop manager) and Elai Tubo (sound curator and engineer) reflect on 50 years of hip hop from NYC’s iconic Quad Studios, explain the concept of The Hip Hop Museum – located at the birthplace of hip hop in the South Bronx – the growing mainstream popularity of the genre, the evolution of studio technology, why hip-hop is a reflection of the human experience, and how Augspurger® Monitors have shaped hip hop as we know it.

HEADLINER USA

Image Credit: Arnaldo “Tito” Cepeda

COVER STORY

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

50 YEARS OF HIP HOP

Changing The Game

Image Credit: Arnaldo “Tito” Cepeda

Augspurger® Monitors’ Dave Malekpour with Public Enemy founder Hank Shocklee

HEADLINER USA

COVER STORY

To understand hip hop’s rise to becoming one of the most culturally influential music genres on the planet – like most good stories – one must go back to the very beginning. While it existed for several years prior to mainstream discovery in the early ‘70s, originating from African American culture in the Bronx, New York City, hip hop started life simply with young men and women doing what they love – making music that got people on their feet. The early pioneers – the likes of DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, and Grandmaster Flash – were not necessarily well versed in sound design, yet their expertise in building DIY sound systems that brought a new vigor to the local party scene and their newly-discovered scratching skills as DJs placed them firmly on the map as the coolest new wave of artists. Techniques perhaps considered mainstream today had never been seen or heard before; suddenly truly visceral art was being created on a shoestring budget out of necessity. Yet despite its humble beginnings, hip hop’s influence on the rise of recorded music’s technology innovation cannot be understated. “The economics of it was really important,” Tubo tells Headliner. “Technology always gave us a way to produce records while minimizing the costs, because historically, we didn’t have a lot of money. We were using the cheapest studios, drum machines because you couldn’t afford to have a whole band come in, and then came sampling, and turntables. So there’s always been a marriage between making hip hop music and technology. My definition of hip hop is the ability to create something out of what appears to be nothing.”

The Hip Hop Museum, in which Tubo, Peters and Orr have been involved for a number of years as pioneers of the genre themselves, is dedicated to the preservation of hip hop culture. Existing previously as a pop-up installation, the museum proper is set for a grand opening in spring 2025. “When you’re building something that you know is going to outlive you, then you have a certain perspective,” says Tubo. “We want to ensure that visitors get the true hip hop experience right here from its spiritual home. We’re discovering new genres of hip hop and new technologies that didn’t exist years ago, so it’s a very exciting time.” In the ‘70s and early ‘80s, the funding for arts programmes in New York City schools was cut, resulting in a generation of young creatives who were unable to reap the benefits of music classes. Transferring their craft from the parks, playgrounds and streets to the studio therefore proved difficult; R&B and disco producers such as Patrick Adams served as mentors for the first generation of hip hop engineers who were looking to recreate the energies from the club scene. “These kids would hear a James Brown track, break it down and take two seconds out of it, and then flip it on its head with a snare and kick drum,” Tubo recalls. “Sampling led to the development of project studios, but then once drum machines came about you could take that away and have that sound quality at your home.” Before royalties and licenses and permissions, the whole idea of sampling in the early days of hip hop was that it was a big secret. DJs would hide the label on their records when playing breakbeats

in the club, and each had their own collection that flaunted their individual creativity. When drum machines came into play, hip hop recordings started to become further sophisticated. “Real musicians started to see that there’s a career path here,” explains Peters. “You had people that understood key signatures, melodies, choruses – and then songs started to become more structured. “Musicians, television, radio, journalists – they were all very anti hip hop in the beginning; in their minds it was cheap music that lacked singing or harmonies,” he continues. “It was people like Don Cornelius, who was the godfather of the television show Soul Train, who really had the only platform for black music to be seen on a national level. He refused to bring hip hop to Soul Train for a very long time; in his mind it wasn’t in keeping with the traditional African American experience. It wasn’t trendy and it wasn’t going to last, so it took a long time for the elders and parents of the first generation of hip hop artists to really get on board with it as creative music, and a real career path.” As hip hop started to become recognized as an innovative and experimental genre at its very core, a rapid evolution in studio technology also began to take place throughout the ‘80s and early ‘90s. When early music production software like Pro Tools started to emerge, it changed the way in which hip hop was being engineered and produced, some would argue either for better or worse.

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

50 YEARS OF HIP HOP

Changing The Game

“FROM THE BEGINNING, THERE’S ALWAYS BEEN A DIVERSE COMMUNITY OF ARTISTS THAT HAVE SPOKEN FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES.” “There were certain techniques that you had when dealing with analog tape,” laments Tubo. “We found that if you made it hit harder, natural compression would occur and the tape could actually take more signal, because what we were dealing with was signal to noise ratio. We were simply using our ears to decide whether it was good or not. “When Pro Tools came along, a lot of us still had that same mentality – smack it. What that resulted in was digital distortion, and people started realizing that you didn’t necessarily have to go to a mastering lab. Everyone making hip hop started trying to raise the volume of all their records, which is how the loudness war started. Distortion is still a problem, and there is a lack of mastery when it comes to stereo imaging and all the things we learned because there aren’t any big studios left where people can intern, and develop the craft. Our reference was always the club; DJs on the streets like the Disco Twins who started out on early systems knew excellent sound, and when studios like Power Play [an underdog studio in Long Island City that indelibly shaped the sound of hip hop] came about, people started seeing the potential of what hip hop was, and what it was going to become.” Fundamentally, it was always a give and take between session musicians and the technology. On the party scene there was no need for musicians; the DJ was solely responsible for manipulating the record to make crowds sing and dance to his tune. This sentiment translated into new technology with the invention of crossfaders on HEADLINER USA

mixing consoles – a concept that was first pioneered by Grandmaster Flash. “In the ‘70s, new copyright infringement law meant that we couldn’t just take a piece of vinyl and run it back through a console,” says Peters. “So that eliminated the whole idea of the DJ as the producer when it came to recording the first records. Instead, they went to the studio with a session band to really create that feeling. “Nowadays there’s a whole career path to be forged out of studio engineering. Before you even get into the studio though, you’ve got to learn the language, your way around the room, the temperament of artists and producers – all of that is a skill now. The idea of home, digital and mobile studios made hip hop accessible to people who probably would never have the money, or the time to practice an instrument, or the real estate to put all of that gear into.” Hip hop since its inception has always been, at its core, a reflection of the human experience. While processes, studio technology and the idea of musical artistry has developed, the messaging has largely remained the same, as Tubo considers: “A lot of people have their own ideas about the definition of expression, but if you want somebody to express something that you’re comfortable with, then make sure they have a better human experience. Our youth are giving us the vision of the world as they see it, and turning that into an outlet for everybody.”

Image Credit: Arnaldo “Tito” Cepeda

COVER STORY

“From the beginning, there’s always been a diverse community of artists that have spoken from different perspectives,” adds Peters. “It’s just accessible on more platforms now. I was in Japan in the late ‘80s and we were having a discussion about the sonic culture at the time. I was trying to explain that with hip hop, you have to know what you’re listening for. Some of that is lost on this generation, which is why tracks often sound compressed or crushed. Because when hip hop first started, it wasn’t just about listening to it from a holistic point of view; you were specifically listening to the bass or the drum, and that was the driving momentum for everything else that the music was doing.” There are a number of technologies that have been particularly influential in the hip hop world over the years, the most prominent of which being Augspurger® Monitors. As hip hop marked its 50th anniversary this year, the company also celebrated a significant milestone in the form of its 25th anniversary. Its owner, Dave Malekpour, has both helped define the sound of hip hop throughout its lifecycle, as well as having a profound impact on the design of modern recording studios. The build of Baseline Studios – longtime home to Jay-Z and Roc-A-Fella Records – back in 1998, with its Augspurger® Monitors and SSL G+ console, would lay the foundations for the sound of a hip hop and R&B movement that was about to dominate the mainstream. HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

50 YEARS OF HIP HOP

Changing The Game

Image Credit: Arnaldo “Tito” Cepeda

Pictured L-R: Reggie Peters, Eric Orr, Elai Tubo

“When we were mixing before we didn’t have subs in the studio,” recalls Tubo. “Augspurger® Monitors have managed to master those low frequencies while retaining an accurate stereo image so they can handle any session. Jay-Z bought them years ago, and Drake bought them recently, and so with more people having access to this kind of quality, it will be interesting to see where the company goes in the next 25 years. “There was a time in the ‘80s when monitors for mixing audio sounded really harsh. We started to become aware of ear fatigue, and so we HEADLINER USA

learned to start mixing quieter. A lot of the young clients however like to hear things loud, so you need a speaker that can actually reproduce that with clarity across the frequency spectrum. This is where Augspurger® Monitors really did a lot for the genre.” Aside from all the incredible advancements that have been made, hip hop at its bare bones stands for peace, unity, love and having fun. As a genre it has always withheld an inclusive culture around the globe, seamlessly transcending borders, politics and societal frameworks. With the help of the pioneers, what started out as a small vision in the

South Bronx grew into a global vision, and the Hip Hop Museum will undoubtedly sit at the apex of that when it officially opens in spring 2025. “Everybody thought it was going to dissipate, but it was a slow build,” concludes Orr. “It was true grassroots, and here we are today. Hopefully we can give even more back to the hip hop community in the next 50 to 100 years.” AUGSPURGER.COM UHHM.ORG QUADNYC.COM

REACEYUNG

The Future of Hip Hop

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THE FUTURE OF HIP HOP

REACEYUNG HEADLINER USA

ARTIST

Missouri native and 2x Billboard Heatseeker REACEYUNG recognizes Notorious B.I.G. as one of his biggest inspirations with his lyrical verses and big boy swagger. Following a slew of album and EP releases, as well as a recent show-stopping performance at NYC’s Quad Studios to celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip hop, REACEYUNG is now poised to release his latest project Heart Of Lou 2. His inimitable style and nostalgic flow has already put him firmly on the map as the next big hip hop artist to watch, so Headliner caught up with him to find out what makes the boy from St. Louis tick…

Tell us about your early years in music. When did you first realize you wanted to work in this industry? We had a recording studio in my high school in St. Louis, Missouri, at Roosevelt. I was introduced to music early on from the DJ side as far as selling CDs goes. We had two record stores in my family growing up, one on my father’s side and another on my mother’s side. With the one on my mother’s side, I got a chance to have a lot of firsthand experience in terms of really learning about music and certain genres, and I really

understood the retail side of things from an early age. I was seeing big classic artists come in there in the early and late ‘90s to promote and sell their albums, so as a kid I knew for a fact that’s what I wanted to do for my city. It was around the time when Dr. Dre was putting out The Chronic; he was in St. Louis signing his albums, and I was just looking at him like, ‘wow, I want to do that too’. Growing up I was exposed to a lot of things that the average young artist in my city

wasn’t. That led me to try to create my own songs, and I’ve built it up from there. Who were you most inspired by musically growing up? When I was a young kid I was teased about being big, black and ugly, and one person that I really idolized the most, because he was a big dude, was The Notorious B.I.G. Those heavy set rappers like Biggie and Big Pun were my inspiration. At that time I also looked up to Jay-Z, Big Daddy Kane, Kool G Rap, Wu Tang and HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

REACEYUNG

The Future of Hip Hop

“I HAVEN’T REALLY SHAPED OR CHANGED MY STYLE TO CONFORM TO WHAT’S GOING ON IN TODAY’S STYLE.”

Tupac. So I’ve pretty much shaped my sound around those guys. Tell us about some of the projects you’re working on at the moment. Honestly, I’m always working on 12 albums at one time. I’ve always been able to navigate my future works to put out over the next few years. I’ve just finished my project Heart Of Lou 2, which is my little series that I started in the early 2000s. It started off as a simple mixtape which a lot of artists were doing back in the day, but after I hit the billboards I felt that I needed to reintroduce myself to my city a little bit. I thought why not start from the beginning, and that’s when I created Heart Of Lou, which was my first ever mixtape. I’m thinking of dropping Heart Of Lou 2 at the end of February, and I’m also working on my follow up project, Thoughts Of King Sullivan. Right now I’m just setting up all the bowling pins and knocking them down. It takes a lot of creative space mentally to be able to harness that energy and stay focused. It can be a task, but I’m doing it. HEADLINER USA

How about your creative process? I try to keep things very simple. Sometimes my producers will have things set up for me already, and then sometimes I’ll just hear something and jump on board. My mind will just connect with it and then we see what happens – it’s kind of like cooking with no ingredients, and most times we’ll leave with something crazy. A lot of people get me confused because I’m more of a cross-genre emcee. I’ve got rock band songs that I never let people hear. People have me gridlocked in hip hop because I love it, but sometimes my team wants to pull out the guitars and drums and go crazy on a different kind of level. Hip hop is just where my heart is, so that’s where I reside. How have you seen hip hop evolve in recent times, and what do you think the future holds for the genre? In the ‘90s, hip hop really used to be about uplifting our people through the culture and the music that we’re creating. From an artist perspective, now it seems like that message isn’t

as important anymore. I didn’t grow up listening to music that was created on a low vibration, so I’ve never really been drawn to a lot of what’s being put out today. Hip hop and rap are very much two different things these days because of all the sub genres that are involved. As far the future goes, all of this AI stuff looks crazy. I’m not really used to it yet; it’s kind of funny but scary and dangerous at the same time. I just hope we can find a way to track things and pay artists better for their work. I feel like music isn’t as valued as it once was, or as much as it should be. Other than that, I’m still pushing hip hop culture the furthest that I can in this capsule that I remain in, because I don’t ever really want to walk out of it. It’s been a hill to climb for those folks that stand for the culture of hip hop, but it’s all about adjusting, and I’ve been learning how to adjust within this climate regardless of what’s going on.

ARTIST

Tell us about your recent performance at Quad Studios in NYC.

or changed my style to conform to what’s going on in today’s style.

A good friend of mine, Dave Malekpour of Augspurger® Monitors asked me to play at Quad, and I was terrified. I’m always terrified when I perform. A lot of people don’t believe that, but I am because I don’t know how people are going to perceive my work. I grew up loving hip hop in the early ‘90s, and I haven’t really shaped

So at Quad I just put on my track with no background vocals, and just tuned everybody out. I took it to a whole new level that night and it really put me in a different place with regards to where I can really take this thing, with the relationships I’ve been gaining and the people I’ve been meeting.

The end of 2023 has been crazy, and that just lets me know that the plateau is set high for 2024. I have some high octane, high energy performances coming up. Dave wants me to perform at NAMM, and I’ve never performed in L.A. before, so things are about to get real crazy. I’m just here for it and I feel blessed, for real. INSTA: @REACEYUNG

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LD SYSTEMS LIVE SESSIONS

D’Angelico Showroom | New York City

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D’ANGELICO SHOWROOM NEW YORK CITY

LD SYSTEMS LIVE SESSIONS HEADLINER USA

LIVE

On October 24, in the midst of AES week, Headliner put on an evening of live music and industry networking by hosting the first USbased LD Systems Live Sessions. The event took place at D’Angelico’s stunning guitar showroom, located in the heart of Manhattan. Guitar showrooms don’t come much - if any - better than D’Angelico’s. It’s the kind of space where you immediately feel excited, particularly if you’re a guitarist, of course - dozens of stunning acoustic and electric instruments adorn the walls among beautiful Chesterfield sofas and cool furniture - and the bar is essentially made up of guitar amps. What more do you want? The D’Angelico stage is a great size easily big enough to accommodate a full band - though this evening’s entertainment was centered around soloists and duos; it’s an aptly intimate setting for some great chill-out music.

The main rig for this event was an LD Systems Maui 11 G3 - one each side of the stage - and a pair of powerful, clean-sounding MON G3 monitors on stage. Three Gravity TMS2322 mic stands were also deployed. Having worked with this exact Maui setup several times already during 2023, Headliner’s live sound specialist, Rick Dickerson, was very impressed: “When I first powered the [LD Systems] Maui 11 G3 rig up in our [400-capacity] club venue, I was astounded at how big a punch it packed,” Dickerson admits. “Coverage was way bigger than I expected, and the subs are rich and smooth. It’s also an extremely quick rig to put up, so it checks boxes for any gigging artist; it can be put together by one person very easily and efficiently.”

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LD SYSTEMS LIVE SESSIONS

D’Angelico Showroom | New York City

SHOWTIME Opening up the show was New York-based Mark Whitfield - a jazz guitarist right out the top drawer, who entertains the crowd with some blistering playing, and local attitude to boot. Following Whitfield was UK-based singer-songwriter, Grace McGuigan. The 22-year-old artist delivered a handful of original songs from the heart with a voice that silenced the room on more than one occasion. “It was a fantastic experience playing in this beautiful setting,” McGuigan HEADLINER USA

reflected, post-show. “The sound on stage was also amazing - I couldn’t believe how good it was, to be honest. And you hardly notice the PA when you’re performing which kind of opens up the room and allows you as an artist to engage with the audience much easier than if there were big boxes either side of the stage. It’s less intrusive, and it’s a system I would love to own myself; I would 100% recommend it to any artist” Next up were New Jersey-based Vicki Genfan and Sally Barker - aka Barker and Genfan. Both musicians chose

to play one of the house D’Angelico acoustic guitars, and loved the vibe of the room: “I fell in love with this place; I also played one of the [D’Angelico] electric guitars, and it was phenomenal,” Genfan enthused. “The [LD] rig was really awesome, too - there was a real clarity to it, and the stage sound seemed to replicate what the room was hearing out front.”

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LD SYSTEMS LIVE SESSIONS

D’Angelico Showroom | New York City

“THE LD SYSTEMS PA WAS AWESOME THERE WAS A REAL CLARITY TO IT…” - VICKI GENFAN

Genfan is a special player, indeed - and as a songwriting duo, Barker and Genfan were incredibly on point throughout their 20-minute set; super-tight vocal harmonies and songs that were delivered with true professionalism.

Dunlap’s set felt familiar, which said a lot for the quality of his songwriting; hints of [Coldplay frontman] Chris Martin at times in his vocal delivery, and it was nice seeing him mix it up on the time signatures - everyone loves a waltz, after all.

After a surprise guest performance from iconic songwriter, Chas Sandford, who got the crowd nicely buzzing with his original version of Talk To Me (made famous by Stevie Nicks), the stage was set for our final performer: Los Angeles-born singer-songwriter, Dylan Dunlap.

“That’s the best sounding live rig I have played through in a very long time,” Dunlap reflected, after the show. “I also found the [D’Angelico] guitars particularly comfortable to play, which was a relief considering I use a lot of very bizarre tunings!”

HEADLINER USA

As the evening came to a close, it was clear that this was more than just a live music showcase - it was the coming together of so many people from the pro audio and MI communities all under one roof celebrating live music. If this is the new normal, then amen to that. LD-SYSTEMS.COM DANGELICOGUITARS.COM

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CHRIS CRAKER

HEADLINER USA

Instant Karma

PRODUCER

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CHRIS CRAKER Multi-Grammy nominated producer (and composer and director at Karma Studios in Thailand), Chris Craker reflects on working in secrecy when producing the soundtrack for Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar with Hans Zimmer, welcoming The Libertines to his studios for a comeback album during a turbulent period, and shares a chance encounter with royalty that led him to create a luxury residential recording studio complex in South East Asia…

You notably produced the soundtrack for Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar with Hans Zimmer. The soundtrack garnered critical acclaim and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score and the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media. Did you have any idea the film and its soundtrack would go on to be as popular and well respected as they are? I got the call from Hans [Zimmer] to say, ‘Would you like to get involved in this new film I’m doing with Chris Nolan?’ I could not resist. It was my first time working with Christopher Nolan and that was an incredible experience to see how he approached the whole

business of cinematography and the use of music. Did I know that there’s going to be a huge movie? Well, you get a hunch, you know, Chris Nolan has probably had some of the biggest box office movies of all time and the soundtrack has close to a billion streams in various iterations across various DSPs. When they shared the storyline with me, you could tell that this was such a magnificent concept and that it was very timely. Kip Thorne and Stephen Hawking were involved in the background research for all the science, so you could tell this was going to be something special. And sure enough, it was.

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CHRIS CRAKER

Instant Karma

What was the experience like when working on the score? Was the film shrouded in secrecy? We never got to see any of the movie during the time of the recordings at Air Lyndhurst – the screens were blank for us – we literally were recording a score. This is unique because normally you have the film rolling and you’re tracking, so we were in the dark on that one. None of the orchestra knew the name of the movie or anything – it was under a pseudonym called Flora’s Letter at that point. No photos were allowed in the studio at all at the time so we couldn’t give away that we were recording this incredible organ in one location and a 90-piece symphony orchestra somewhere else. I recorded percussion for about three or four days solidly with two or three of the UK’s very best percussionists. It was a really memorable time of putting this jigsaw puzzle together. Chris Nolan would take the audio files away into a trailer that was in the car park at Air Lyndhurst, see how it was all sitting and then make various, subtle changes the next day. It was a very fascinating 10 day period of recording the orchestra and live instruments in London. He and Hans cooked up the idea of having the choir singing directly into the wall – as opposed to directly into the middle of the room – to get a more unusual sound with different reflections. We layered that with a normal recording of the choir. So we were doing all kinds of things. He was asking me, ‘What is the difference between the bow strokes on the violin? How does that make the thing sound? How can we make it sound more spooky, or more sinister, or more jubilant?’ He pushed us a little bit, which was great and it was a very productive way of working. Why did you decide it was time to set up Karma Studios, and why in Thailand? In the course of my journey, I’d been invited to make records for HEADLINER USA

“I GOT THE CALL TO SEE IF WE WOULD LIKE TO ENTERTAIN THE LIBERTINES AT KARMA STUDIOS FOR A BIT OF A COMEBACK ALBUM BECAUSE PETE DOHERTY HAD BEEN IN REHAB IN THAILAND.”

His Majesty the King of Thailand, who himself composed – he was a saxophone player. Randomly, I was asked to make a few records for him, which ended up being 11 CDs of his entire output, so I’ve been going to Thailand off and on across a 20 year period to make these records. I thought, ‘How amazing would it be to have a beautiful studio in a beautiful location?’ I could then entice my favorite artists to come and work with me at a studio by the beach, so that’s exactly what we did! The studio is an hour and a half south of Bangkok, by the beach. The setup is really beautiful. It’s three studios, essentially one large one and two smaller production suites, and we’ve been involved in the production of all kinds of music from classical jazz, heavy metal, reggae, punk, disco, you name it, and Hollywood film soundtracks as well. I chose Thailand because I love going there. I love the climate, and the cost of living is much cheaper than elsewhere. We have a great lifestyle and a great facility in which to record and we make good use of that. It changes people’s mood – people behave and perform differently when they’re very relaxed. If they’ve had to rush in on the train to do a session at Abbey Road it’s a very different animal. We enjoy the process of inviting someone over after they acclimatize – and they enjoy the

facilities. We have a full spa facility at Karma Studios in Thailand, which includes the swimming pool, and we have a sauna, ice bath, hot jacuzzi, massage, a chef – so great food. It makes the whole process of recording very relaxed and enjoyable. Karma Studios is now recognized as the number one luxury residential recording studio complex in SE Asia, and its first guests included Placebo, Jamiroquai and Bullet For My Valentine. What have been some of your personal favorite guests to record there? I can tell you the most surreal moment, which was linked to one of my favorite people. I got the call to see if we would like to entertain The Libertines at Karma Studios for a bit of a comeback album because Peter Doherty had been famously in rehab in Thailand. He’d been in Thailand for three or four months, not too far away from the studio, and they’d learned that there was a studio, so they thought it would be great for him to come and get some therapeutic time writing and being creative. He turned up on Christmas Eve or Boxing Day – it was around Christmas time one year – and that turned into conversations with the record company saying, ‘Let’s make an album’. So Carl Barat flew out from time to time and they were writing together. Peter stayed with me

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CHRIS CRAKER

Instant Karma

for about seven months during that process, which was a pretty hairy time because he was getting better and trying to stay sane. Safe to say that we played a significant role in helping him through that time. It was very rewarding to see him come from a slightly fragile young man to getting a nice album under his belt. That record went straight in at number two and re-invigorated the entire career of The Libertines, and they’re still going to this day. But we had some pretty hairy moments with Pete, who was so much fun and so entertaining when he was feeling vibrant, and so distraught and sad when he was not, so we saw every extreme of emotion with Pete. Karma Studios boasts the best of the best when it comes to the equipment you’ve invested in. What is some of your most important kit? I have a very clear recollection of the first time that I knew I loved Genelec monitors, and that was at Hugh Padgham’s studio in West London. I did some sessions at Metropolis, where there were 1035s in the studio, and also in Hugh’s room. It was great to be monitoring on those things. Jim HEADLINER USA

Lowe used to monitor very quietly, but I loved the accuracy of it all, and then obviously, when you want to have an exhilarating moment, they’re so powerful that they could handle the loudest and with the most clarity for rock music as well. That was where I was first impressed with them. When we were setting up the studio, I was speccing out what I would ideally like and I know it’s a little bit old school to have huge main monitors in a pop studio like that now, but I couldn’t resist. I sourced a pair of secondhand 1035s, which were originally in Town House Studios, and famously, Queen did It’s A Kind Of Magic in that studio on those monitors, so we liked that little bit of history on those. Two or three years ago we thought it was time to get up to date and get a little bit more current in the way that we’re operating, and we decided to invest in Genelec’s The Ones as our nearfields, and we have the largest of those in Studio One. Then both my son and my business partner have got the middle sized Ones in their facilities in Bangkok, and we have a pair of the smaller ones too. So we’re well

equipped with Genelec speakers, and it provides a very good consistency for us when we’re working in different rooms to have that one standard soundfield and a sound that we know that we can trust. Also I really love the fact that when we’re tracking, we know that when we get into a mixed situation, everything stays very crystal clear. I love being able to monitor quietly and accurately and knowing that when we get a mix right on The Ones, they will translate and sound great everywhere else. That’s the one prerequisite that you’re looking for in a speaker. It’s The Ones that we rely on as our mainstay point of reference, and they don’t let us down. GENELEC.COM KARMASOUNDSTUDIOS.COM

CAM HOLMES

LD Systems Live Sessions

CAMHOLMES HEADLINER USA

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In this fourth LD Systems Live Session, powered by Headliner, Cam Holmes performed his debut single Roses acoustically at The Pioneer Club, St. Albans - a live music venue which strives to support aspiring and emerging talent, as well as the local community. Holmes performed with his band through an LD Systems MAUI G3 rig, and brought Headliner up to speed on his musical journey so far… What have you been up to these last few months? The last few months have been very busy and very stressful. I’ve been working on my project, particularly my first single, to make sure the music is where I want it to be. I’ve been working on music for about two years now; I didn’t want to rush it and I

wanted to make sure I had the right people around me, so the last few months have just been getting those final steps in place and making sure everything runs smoothly. When did you first realize you wanted to work in music? I’ve wanted to be a musician since I was eight years old because I grew up in a very musical household. My mom and dad broke up when I was younger, and my way of connecting to them was basically while I was with my dad, I’d listen to music that my mom listened to, and then when I was with my mom, I listened to the music that my dad listened to. So I remember from a young age thinking that music in itself is quite

mad in the way it can bring people together and evoke emotion, and that’s kind of why I want to do it – to bring some sort of emotion to people, whether it’s happiness or sadness or anger. What was it like transitioning from being a reality TV star to creating your own music artist project? It’s been difficult, because obviously people are always going to know me from Too Hot to Handle, which is fine. I’ll never say I regret doing that because it got me to where I am today. It’s a big advantage because I’ve got fans and people that will support me, which is amazing, and I’m very appreciative of that. But it’s difficult having to try and change that label, which is why I just put all I can HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

CAM HOLMES

LD Systems Live Sessions

into my music and hope that that does it for me. So people go, ‘okay, this is undeniably good music, so we can’t really say he’s just a reality star.’ Tell us about your creative process and how your first single came together. HEADLINER USA

I feel like the process now feels a bit more like work. Obviously when you’re writing and you’re in the studio, that’s creative time, which is very fun. Putting out all the content for the project is a lot, but I’ll take it and I’m here for it. The last few months have just been spent

trying to get content ready for TikTok and trying to make sure we’re hitting all the platforms.

LIVE

“THE MAUI G3 SYSTEM LOOKS AMAZING – VERY SLEEK, BUT WITH REALLY GOOD SOUND OUTPUT.”

The song itself, Roses, is about relationships, and the idea that I grew up always thinking that if you can buy someone gifts like roses, bags or perfume, that it will fix your relationship problems. As a man I had to learn that those mistakes that I made, the things that I haven’t done and the times that I haven’t been present when I should have been can’t just be made up by giving someone presents or buying their love. A lot of the time you have to look at it like, ‘okay, why have I done this? Why did I make these decisions? Why am I the way I am?’ and try to resolve that in a more personal, emotional way. It’s not about just giving gifts to make up for it; it’s saying, I will frame my shame until I’m forgiven.

How did you find performing through the LD Systems MAUI G3 rig? The LD Systems setup was amazing to work with. The sound felt very balanced around me and it was a nice experience overall to sing and hear the guitar through it; everything about it felt very professional. The system looks amazing as well – very sleek, but with really good sound output. I would definitely recommend the system to anyone! LD-SYSTEMS.COM ADAMHALL.COM INSTA: @CAMHOLMESS

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AND THE WINNERS ARE…

HEADLINER USA

Yamaha Music London 2024 ambassadors

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AND THE WINNERS ARE… Yamaha Music London’s 2024 ambassadors can finally be revealed, after three winning acts were selected at a compelling talent showcase at the company’s flagship UK store.

On December 7, eight finalists participated in a hotly contested showcase at Yamaha Music London’s resplendent Soho store, in which each performed two songs before an audience of fans and industry influencers, as well as a panel of judges from across the music business. All eight acts had taken part in a semi-final contest to earn their

place in the final, with each of the semi-finalists selected from hundreds of entries. The winning acts on the night were indie-soul sister duo Deuxes, guitar virtuoso Hide Takemoto, and folk-pop duo Stone Jets.

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AND THE WINNERS ARE…

Yamaha Music London 2024 ambassadors

Deuxes’ unique brand of indieinfused soul proved a major hit with audience and judges alike, as their soaring harmonies and infectious melodies captured the imagination of all in attendance. Meanwhile, Takemoto’s instrumental pieces were utterly compelling, such was the towering level of technical skill and musical dexterity on show. Likewise, Stone Jets delivered a showstopping performance, with a deft blend of truly distinct vocal stylings and instant melodies captivating everyone in the room.

The other finalists on the night were Ben Murphy, Sam Wray, Jide Kuti, Ayygayle, and Peter J Adamson. All eight demonstrated precisely why they had made the final shortlist; such was the standard of songwriting and musicianship on display. In their role as ambassadors, Deuxes, Takemoto, and Stone Jets will be given access to Yamaha’s vast array of award-winning instruments for a year, the chance to perform at some of London’s best venues (including Yamaha’s Soho-based music store) and receive exclusive mentorship in developing their future success as artists.

What’s more, the winners will also benefit from a professional recording session at Headliner HQ’s studio, an appearance on the Headliner Radio music podcast, an editorial profile in Headliner, three months of PR support, mentoring sessions, and social media support via shares across Yamaha Music London and Headliner’s social media pages. The campaign marks the second year in a row in which Headliner, in partnership with Yamaha Music London, has offered solo artists and duos the chance to become ambassadors for Yamaha’s flagship UK store. Speaking to Headliner, all three acts expressed their excitement at the opportunities their new roles will bring. “Winning this contest is incredible and profoundly humbling,” said Deuxes. “We are truly honoured to be recognised among such talented artists. We appreciate the opportunity to collaborate with Yamaha, an industry legend!” “I’m too chuffed to think of anything to say, I hope it’s not a big prank!” said Takemoto. “I’m just so happy to be Yamaha Music London’s ambassador. I’ve been playing Yamaha guitars for nearly 20 years and now I’m officially recognised! It’s a dream come true.” “It was really an amazing experience when we were announced as winners and we didn’t expect it with all the other talented acts,” Manfred of Stone Jets commented. “I also fell in love with the Yamaha Revstar that made my job easier on the night.” “Being picked amongst our peers as the Yamaha Ambassadors for 2024 made Christmas come early this year,” added fellow Stone Jet, Given. “We are extremely excited for the journey with Yamaha and Headliner.”

HEADLINER USA

ARTISTS

“WE ARE TRULY HONOURED TO BE RECOGNISED AMONG SUCH TALENTED ARTISTS.”

The panel of esteemed judges on the night included Harry Knyt, senior consultant at RCA/Sony and A&R director for NQ/Sony Publishing; Toyin Mustapha, head of content UK for TikTok; Nimesh Jani, co-founder of Catalyst Management, Rian Zoll-Khan, CEO of RNR MGMT; Dani Simonett of UTA (United Talent Agency); and Nichal Sethi, Head of Artist Services UK, TikTok. “We are delighted to be partnering with Headliner for a second successful year in our search for new and emerging London-based musicians to become

Yamaha Music London ambassadors,” commented Stephen Davies, Yamaha Music London Manager. “This is an exciting partnership! As the world’s greatest music instrument manufacturer, Yamaha offers awardwinning instruments, global expertise and the very latest in music technology combined with Headliner’s wealth of industry knowledge and second to none music business contacts. The ambassadorship is an incredible prize for an emerging artist to win.”

“We are so proud of our current ambassadors – Bertie, Beth Keeping and Nina Fine – who have been amazing,” Stephen added. “They have had some incredible experiences and have done an exceptional job whilst representing our iconic store. It’s time to pass the baton onto the next music ambassadors and set them on the track to success!” YAMAHAMUSICLONDON.COM

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SOUNDON SESSIONS

Wes Nelson at The Pioneer

Image credit: The Brytz Sisters

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WES NELSON AT THE PIONEER

SOUNDON SESSIONS In what proved to be a landmark moment for iconic St. Albans grassroots music venue The Pioneer Club, the second SoundOn Session delivered a stellar array of live performances from some of the MOBO UnSung Class of 2023, topped off by a show-stopping set by top UK artist Wes Nelson.

Held on November 16, Nelson’s SoundOn Session set brought the curtain down on a night that showcased some of the finest and most exciting new talent rising to the top of the UK music scene. Following the inaugural SoundOn Session one month prior, which also shone a spotlight on the MOBO UnSung Class of 2023, the second installment provided another raft of artists spanning a variety of styles and genres.

For the uninitiated, SoundOn Sessions represents an innovative new partnership between Headliner Spaces and SoundOn – TikTok’s all-in-one global distribution and marketing platform – aimed at championing the artists shaping the future of music by offering them the chance to perform at one of the UK’s premier grassroots venues in the form of The Pioneer Club.

Kicking things off was Gabriel Sanches, whose dominant stage presence and inimitable powerhouse of a voice combined elements of soul and rock to stunning effect. Speaking to Headliner before his set, he hails the importance of initiatives like SoundOn Sessions as well as the support SoundOn has offered him in his career so far.

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SOUNDON SESSIONS

Wes Nelson at The Pioneer

“Opportunities like this are the way an artist can develop at the start of their career,” he says. “In the ‘80s you would have these incredible singers who are 20 years old and have had 10,000 hours of experience doing singing at church or having lessons, and it’s the same thing with performances. Without venues and opportunities like this, artists can’t get their 10,000 hours. Without that you won’t have the experience to be where you should be. “And being supported by SoundOn is crazy for me because the people who know me personally know that I am the most anti-social, anticontent creation person. I’ve always been like, ‘no I’m just doing music and nothing else’. Then I started talking to the guys at TikTok and SoundOn and understanding that this isn’t some forced thing that you have to do to get to where you want to be, it’s an opportunity to engage with your fans and express yourself. Just being in those rooms and having that shift in mindset has helped me to look at the process completely differently.” Next up is West-London-based DEJA, whose bold and vibrant HEADLINER USA

blend of Afro-pop influences make for what is undoubtedly one of the night’s most electrifying sets. Having started singing when she was 13, she has been making

music ever since. And speaking to Headliner before her set, she says that SoundOn’s distribution model makes a huge difference for unsigned artists.

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“I’ve found that the main difference between releasing music through SoundOn and everybody else is the amount of information you get from SoundOn,” she says. “They make it really simple to understand. And the other difference is that you are releasing through TikTok so you are already there; you are arriving at the biggest part of the industry. “Having SoundOn on my side is very validating. It’s shown me that TikTok is a driving force behind not just music but the world right now. So, it’s been eye opening in that respect, and it’s super helpful.” She continues: “I work so hard and to be supported and recognised by SoundOn feels really validating. If it wasn’t for opportunities like this there would be no artists. We need to practice, we need to feel what it’s like to perform, and this venue is a great place to gain that experience as it’s not too big, and it’s not too small. Opportunities like this are everything for artists.”

Shifting pace from the playful pop, singer-songwriter Josh Barry takes the stage complete with a full band and a voice as breath-taking in its beauty as it was in its power. Drawing influences from ‘70s soul and R&B through to contemporary rock and pop, his performance feels timeless in every respect. “Nights like this with SoundOn getting involved are incredible,” he says. “It’s amazing to play alongside all these other great artists, so it’s a beautiful environment, and the industry being here is a huge opportunity. Really exciting.” He also pays tribute to the support he’s received from SoundOn as a distribution platform. “SoundOn has been a huge support for me, just getting to meet the team and getting some great insights into how to make social media work for you,” he continues. “I’m not a big social media person, so they’ve helped me really get to grips with that world.

“SoundOn and TikTok are really tapped into what’s going on and they are the gatekeepers to what’s happening out there. They have a wealth of knowledge that they have allowed me to learn from. I’m still learning but they have given me so many great insights and tips already. They also really helped me to get in front of a lot more people and helped me make my content more engaging to my audience.” Following Barry is Ace Clvrk, whose genre-defying sound captures the crowd’s imagination from the moment he sets foot on the stage. Infusing alternative R&B, soul, and indie rock into something entirely his own, Clvrk’s performance is enchanting and intriguing in equal measure. Talking to Headliner on the night, he too highlights the importance of events such as these for artistic development.

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SOUNDON SESSIONS

Wes Nelson at The Pioneer

performance. “These types of opportunities and support don’t come very often, so when you are able to work with the likes of SoundOn and TikTok it is just an absolute pleasure. The advice they have given us on how to promote and market yourself is like gold dust.” Which brings us to Nelson’s headline set. Closing out an evening that had been positively brimming with talent and artistry, his set, which features blistering renditions of hits such as Nice To Meet Ya and See Nobody, draws a rapturous response from the packed crowd. A surprise guest appearance from regular collaborator Ayo Beatz – who also headlined the first SoundOn Session – provides one of the event’s big highlights. In conversation with Headliner after his performance, Nelson celebrated both the SoundOn Sessions initiative, as well as the role SoundOn has played in his career since leaving a major label to pursue an independent path.

“These types of opportunities are massive for people at this stage of my career,” he explains. “I’m not going to be able to come and headline a venue like the Pioneer Club on my own, so to have the experience of performing here is invaluable. It’s really important to perform these kinds of shows as part of the journey.” He also points to the freedom that the SoundOn platform offers to artists. “They’ve helped massively with things like tips and tricks on how to use TikTok,” he elaborates. “If you are an artist today who doesn’t have an understanding of how to use social media, particularly TikTok, then you’re probably going to struggle to build a fanbase. The support they have given me with my release has been really good, and just helping to understand TikTok and how it works is huge. It’s a massive part of any artist’s repertoire now. You have to focus on it and being able to understand that has really helped.” The penultimate act of the evening is Young Athena. Bringing a highly charged stage presence, her quickfire rap style gives a distinct edge to her unique brand of soul-infused pop and R&B. Brimming with confidence throughout, her natural stagecraft marks her as an artist to keep a very close eye on in 2024. “The support that SoundOn has offered to the MOBO UnSung Class of 2023 has been essential for upand-coming artists,” she tells Headliner ahead of her HEADLINER USA

“My first performances were good, but they were nowhere near what I’m doing now, and there is no cheat code for that,” he says. “Your singles might do well but that doesn’t develop you as an artist and a performer. And I started to get success at first during Covid so I couldn’t perform. So, shows like this – even though we’ve done things like The O2 with N-Dubz – are no less challenging. In fact, they are probably even more so. “You have to lift the crowd, and there isn’t that massive buzz where you have an arena of thousands of people,” he continues. “You have to really engage with the audience, and doing shows like this allows you to do those big performances so much better, because you learn how to engage the crowd. I call it crowbarring. If the vibe isn’t there when you first come on you have to crowbar it in. Nights like this help you learn to do that.” “My journey with SoundOn has been enlightening,” he says. “My debut single was See Nobody and I released that with Universal Music, which was great, and we went on to do Nice To Meet Ya and Drive, all big smashes. But at the same time, as a creator, you want to have full creative control and freedom when it comes to what music you want to put out and when you want to put it out. And I felt like I just didn’t quite have that. “With SoundOn you get that independence. It feels great to be able to trial music. I feel like my introduction to music was almost the wrong way around. I went straight in at the top and never got to experiment or play around with different genres. It just had to be hit, hit, hit. But now I feel like I can play around with what works for me and better understand who I am as an artist. It just feels great to be able to put out the music as I want it. It’s perfect for me.”

LIVE

“THE SUPPORT THAT SOUNDON OFFERS IS ESSENTIAL FOR UP-AND-COMING ARTISTS.”

In addition to the superb performances at the latest SoundOn Session, another crucial component of the evening’s success is due to The Pioneer Club’s sound system, which is made up of eight JBL SRX910 line arrays, four SRX928S ground-stacked subs and four JBL PRX908 floor monitors. Two PRX915 DJ monitors also feature at the venue, along with a Soundcraft Ui24 mixer. Meanwhile, two JBL PRX912s are positioned on the VIP balcony as delays. JBL’s presence at The Pioneer Club also reaches into its bar and mini performance area – The Suet Yard. Reimagined from its initial iteration as a communal canteen area, it is now a social, DJ and performance space, complete with a bar powered by Signature Brew and a JBL-powered PA system that can accommodate everything from DJ sets and stripped back and acoustic sessions for up to 200 people. The full PA system consists of a selection of speakers from JBL’s PRX Series, including PRX915XLF subwoofers, PRX908 and IRX108BT loudspeakers, as well as a Soundcraft Ui24R mixer. Nelson’s headline set also marked the first show at The Pioneer Club to utilize

the venue’s brand-new LED wall and floor, courtesy of Leyard. “By deploying our products at forwardthinking places such as the Pioneer Club, it gives a medium to promote the next generation of music acts; it’s also socially responsible and, as with other organizations, might help steer one or two people into a career in technology or music that they might not otherwise have had the opportunity to embrace,” says Leyard’s Luke Marler-Hausen. Furthermore, a comprehensive Martin Lighting rig works to spotlight the artists and sets the mood on stage and throughout the venue, which includes compact beam moving heads, bright single-lens LED moving heads, bright single-lens LED PAR cans, bright singlelens color LED PAR can light fixtures, ultra-bright quad LED blinder fixtures and a JEM ZR35 fog machine. A number of key music industry executives were quick to pay tribute to The Pioneer Club and its role as a hub for creatives. UK drum and bass outfit Rudimental, who headlined a sold out fundraiser for the venue earlier this year, said: “Helping to preserve grassroots venues is something we are passionate about, and by headlining this fundraiser at The Pioneer Club we want to help raise awareness of the venue, the charity, and all that

it is striving to achieve in terms of music education, entertainment, and providing a safe creative place for young people.” Dani Simmonett of UTA (United Talent Agency) also commented on the production values in place at The Pioneer. “It’s easy to forget you’re in a relatively small venue given the importance that’s clearly been given to the overall production. The sound is crisp and clear, and acoustics have obviously been given a lot of thought as there does not seem to be the issues here that many smaller rooms have. I’ve had the opportunity of seeing a variety of artists with different setups at The Pioneer Club since the new rig went in, and it’s working extremely well across the board.” Nich Sethi, head of UK Artist Services, TikTok UK, concluded: “I was super impressed with the sound as well as the lighting and stage setup. You can tell it’s been thoughtfully put together with an artist first approach that made the whole experience so enjoyable from an audience perspective.” SOUNDON.GLOBAL PIONEERCLUB.CO.UK JBLPRO.COM LEYARDEUROPE.EU

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

SAMARA JOY

Bringing Jazz To Gen Z

Image credit: Meredith Truax

HEADLINER USA

by ALICE ds

BRINGING JAZZ TO GEN Z

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SAMARA JOY Feeling Christmassy yet? Samara Joy might help. The jazz singing sensation’s new Christmas EP, A Joyful Holiday is out now; play it and you’ll feel irresistibly drawn to the idea of pulling on an itchy Christmas jumper and sipping mulled wine by the fire. Such is the allure of her velvety refined voice (sounding like a beguiling blend of her idols Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holiday), it’s easy to forget that this two-time Grammy winner from the Bronx is only 24 years old.

We address the two golden-shaped elephants in the room first: Joy won two Grammys this year; Best Jazz Vocal Album and Best New Artist. The latter award is almost always won by an artist dominating the commercial music scene – the previous three years being won by Olivia Rodrigo, Megan Thee Stallion and Billie Eilish. If you’ve ever seen the annual Grammy winners list – it’s long – and far away from the shiny, headline grabbing categories, jazz is buried deep down, sandwiched between ‘new age, ambient or chant’ and ‘gospel/contemporary Christian music’ – not exactly the evening’s highlights. With historical roots in early 20th-century America, jazz is a world away from the contemporary tastes of younger listeners, yet this year saw Adele, Taylor Swift and Lizzo get to their feet to applaud Joy’s win.

“It was really surreal,” says Joy from a nondescript hotel room in L.A., sharing that her two awards are still in the box. Like her singing voice, Joy seems mature beyond her years, and likely due to back-to-back press interviews and a combination of adjusting to her new hectic schedule and life on the road – “I’ve had some conversations about how much I can roll with it” – is a little reserved at first, providing short, to-the-point answers (but you never forget she can sing; her speaking voice is measured, yes, but unmistakably melodious), but soon warms up when recalling one of the biggest nights of her career. “I was starstruck and just taking in the whole experience,” she says of her Best New Artist win in particular. “I was shocked. It was very surreal. I couldn’t really grasp it for the first

couple of months. With Best Jazz Vocal Album I felt like I maybe had more of a chance because there were only five of us in that first category, so I was like, ‘Okay, there’s kind of a chance, you know?’ And I performed right before they announced that category. But for Best New Artist, it was 10 of us. I was like, ‘I’m the second to last underdog, or maybe I am the underdog!’ The impossible seemed to happen. Now, I feel like I’m starting to grasp it and I can finally look back at the speech without it being on mute, because before I was like, ‘I didn’t say everything I wanted to say’, and I was so nervous,” she cringes. “I was stuttering, but now I’m like, ‘Wow, that was a really big moment’. It’s taken me all this time just to settle into it.”

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

SAMARA JOY

Bringing Jazz To Gen Z

Image credit: Gabriele Bifolchi

Easier than it sounds when Beyoncé took the time out of her recordbreaking night to congratulate Joy personally. “I had never been at an event like that before,” Joy stresses. “I don’t travel in those circles. I’m on the road, I don’t go to parties. I don’t go to award shows. So that really was the first time I was in proximity to that much star power. I looked back at the speech and I saw everybody’s faces and I saw Beyoncé standing up. A lady sitting next to me tapped me and said, ‘Somebody’s trying to say something to you’. I turned around like, ‘Who could this somebody be?’ And it was her. She told me congratulations, but I didn’t get to say anything to her face because she was maybe two tables away and I was just like, ‘If I try to get to her, I’m gonna fall. I know I’m gonna tumble.” One of the most promising jazz vocalists of her generation, Joy brings a refreshing blend of vintage elegance and unmistakable R&B flair to her craft, while her voice, characterized by its warmth, clarity and remarkable range, allows her HEADLINER USA

to effortlessly navigate the intricate melodies and improvisational nuances that define jazz music. So it might be a surprise to some to learn that she’s straight out of the Bronx, which thanks to more contemporary recording artists like Cardi B, Mary J Blige, Jennifer Lopez, KRS-One and Fat Joe, is forever musically linked to hip hop and rap – commercially anyway. Joy only had a passing interest in jazz when she was growing up due to absorbing the music her parents listened to. She treasures her musical lineage, which stretches back to her grandparents Elder Goldwire and Ruth McLendon, both of whom performed with Philadelphia gospel group the Savettes, and runs through her father, who is a singer, songwriter and producer who toured with gospel artist Andraé Crouch.

didn’t feel connected to it as much as I felt connected to the music my parents listened to. Maybe that’s why with jazz, it didn’t feel as unorthodox to pursue a career in it because I’d already been used to not listening to or singing music that was popular,” she muses.

“I wasn’t interested in jazz early on,” she admits. “I never got into it until I got to college. That wasn’t what my friends were listening to; they never seem to be affected by it. People were listening to Beyoncé, Tyler, The Creator and Paramore. I really didn’t listen to much of it; I

“If I listened back to myself, I would say my voice was definitely not mature,” she reflects. “But I think my parents might say that it was mature for my age. It definitely developed once I listened more intently, because I already loved listening to music and imitating

Joy is exciting to watch, interpreting classic jazz standards with a fresh and soulful perspective, yet is deeply connected to a jazz-vocal tradition that harkens back to when her heroes like Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald (she simply namechecks them as Sarah and Ella) and Betty Carter were dropping jaws. Headliner wonders if Joy was born with this mature, refined, singing voice, or whether she intentionally trained herself to sing with a jazz inflection?

ARTIST

Image credit: Meredith Truax

“WITH JAZZ, IT DIDN’T FEEL UNORTHODOX TO PURSUE A CAREER IN IT BECAUSE I’D ALREADY BEEN USED TO NOT LISTENING TO MUSIC THAT WAS POPULAR.”

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

SAMARA JOY

Bringing Jazz To Gen Z

Image credit: Meredith Truax

singers. I remember looking up videos of Sarah Vaughan to see if there was any difference between the live versus the studio versions. I remember looking at a video of her singing Lover Man, They All Laughed, and Somewhere Over The Rainbow, and it was so elegant and controlled, yet spontaneous. I wanted to be able to do that: to sing what I felt, but also be technically proficient enough to execute it and to have it be effortless and unrestrained. I already had a lot of different influences in my voice, kind of ingrained from listening and copying a certain style for so long. I don’t mean [my voice] to be exactly like Ella or exactly like Sarah. It took me a minute. I wasn’t trying to diminish the influences that I had. But I was trying to make it so that if I wanted to sing in a certain way, I had control over it. I can make a choice to do it – it’s not necessarily, I can’t help it. It’s just how I sing,” she explains. You only have to check the comment sections around popular music online to know that Swifties, the BTS ARMY and whatever Harry Styles’ fans call themselves (Harries? HEADLINER USA

Stylesies?) are a pretty good indication of what Gen Z goes feral over on social media. Joy couldn’t be further from these more obviously mainstream-marketable pop artists, yet her distinctive singing style has already earned her legions of fans in addition to over half a million TikTok followers, leading her to be called ‘the first Gen Z jazz singing star’. How does Joy feel about bringing jazz to a younger audience? “It feels cool knowing that, because I didn’t set out to do that,” she says humbly. “The fact that people are gravitating toward something that I love to do and it’s inspiring them to want to sing or to want to listen to it and show other people…” she trails off. “I get a lot of people who come to me after the show and say, ‘My daughter introduced me to you’, or, ‘My friend introduced me to you’. I don’t wanna say word is getting around, but like the fact that people are excited about it and are inspired enough that they want to share and support on social media and in person. It feels good,” she smiles.

Image credit: Gabriele Bifolchi

ARTIST

Joy’s second album, Linger Awhile won her the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album and was responsible for her Best New Artist gong. With Tight, she wanted to come out of her shell, vocally, and showcase her range. “Since Linger Awhile I haven’t really released anything, so I figured since all of my recordings feature me being a little bit more reserved, because I want it to be appealing to everybody, I wanted to surprise people and not show off, but show them where I am now and maybe the direction that I’m headed. I felt like it was one of the better choices for doing that because it’s quick and it’s just like, ‘Bam!’ It’s exciting and maybe it can be played over and over again.” Just in time for the festive period, Joy released a gorgeous cover of Have Yourself A Merry Christmas, taken from the EP, A Joyful Holiday. She shares that the song was recorded two years ago, waiting for the right time to release it. “We just kind of had it in the vault. It’s a familiar song and it’s one that everybody will recognise. I don’t think Christmas is necessarily about being innovative,” she considers. “It’s about tapping into nostalgia and making people feel warm and that the season is upon us. When you hear this song, it’s that time of year!

and her equally gifted father, Antonio McLendon. “There’s also a song that Stevie Wonder does; I don’t know if everybody knows it,” she says, referencing Twinkle Twinkle Little Me. “It’s classic to me. I think it’s beautiful. It’s not necessarily one of the quote-unquote classics, but I heard Stevie sing it and I was like, ‘I want to do that’.” Headliner imagines that Joy is constantly being asked to cover contemporary music in her unique, jazzy style? “People are like, ‘Make an R&B album!’ and I’m like, ‘That’s… not what I do,’” she laughs good naturedly. “I love R&B and gospel, but I don’t know.” She pauses, thinking…”I recorded it, but people still ask me to do Misty live – there’s a lot of requests coming in. I’m always adding repertoire to the book, so you can definitely expect some beautiful, large ensemble music in the future.” SAMARAJOY.COM

A Joyful Holiday features two previously released holiday singles, plus four new never-before-heard tracks. The Christmas Song (Live) even features a live duet with Joy HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

SAIL GP

Going For Gold

BY COL B DS

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GOING FOR GOLD

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Image credit: Felix Diemer

SAIL GP

SailGP is an international sailing competition that features high-performance F50 foiling catamarans, where teams compete across a season of multiple grands prix around the world. Thomas Riedel, the owner of SailGP’s newest team Germany, is no stranger to the league, with his company Riedel Communications having partnered with SailGP since Season 2. Here, Headliner speaks to Jeffrey Stroessner, director business development Managed Technology at Riedel, to find out how the company is making the world’s most exciting race on water even more accessible to a large contingent of high-speed racing fans.

HEADLINER USA

AUDIO IN SPORTS

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

SAIL GP

Going For Gold

Image credit: Adam Warner

Tell us about your involvement in SailGP, and the type of service that Riedel is providing on the communications side. Stroessner: I was lucky enough to be able to see SailGP as a guest, about a year before my first race. This is probably one of the most prestigious projects we do right now as a series. Typically we’ve been doing everything on the venue side, and then we hand it over to the remote production team which is in Ealing, in London. It’s actually quite an interesting and diverse showcase of the Riedel portfolio. We’re doing everything communications related; we deploy a tetra digital radio system with about 350 handheld devices, for everyone from the safety divers to the support boats and event staff. Every bit of communication needed to run the event is running on radios that we provide. Then there is the communication for the boats. All the sailors use our Bolero system to talk to each other, as well as for communication back and forth between the chase boats and the coaching teams on the shore. There is also the broadcast production angle; we do not have any kind of HEADLINER USA

production vehicle on site. We provide all the camera and RF technology on each boat - one PTZ camera for turning and zooming and changing angles, and another fixed wide angle camera. Then we have two to three camera boats which follow the action, and two helicopters which provide the main shot. We have a broadcast container where we receive the signals and monitor the RF, and then we send it from there to London where they do the final production. What are some of the main advantages of using Riedel’s technologies for this event? SailGP is very much about sustainability. They see nature as their racetrack so to speak, and their claim is ‘powered by nature’, so being reasonable in terms of how resources are used is very valuable to them. That obviously affects many aspects including travel, food, audience capacity, and of course technology. Previously, all of the coaching teams were on the water in the chase boats, using a communication link provided by Riedel. So from a sustainability point of view, SailGP wished to reduce the number of boats on the water, and this is where the Simplylive system comes into play.

We decided to put them in front of a system that allows them to have the same or even better access to multiple camera angles and broadcast production capabilities, all accessed and operated from the shore. The Simplylive setup is a workspace with touchscreen, mouse and keyboard, where coaching teams can see all the camera views and global feeds from the helicopters etc. In addition, they also get to see all of the race data that the sailors see, and they can use the intercom panel to talk directly to the sailors. We have basically put them into an environment which gives them, besides the sea breeze, pretty much everything they had before and a lot more, because now they can see it from different angles and see data that they didn’t have access to before. The coaches then, instead of making race notes on a notepad, are able to clip individual bits of footage and then review each scene clip-by-clip with the sailors after the race. From a sports production standpoint this is a big tick in the sustainability box, as it takes the coach – and therefore the boat – off the water entirely. Since implementing this system, we’ve received feedback from coaches that it has revolutionized the whole experience, serving as an incredibly useful tool for them.

AUDIO IN SPORTS

“FROM A SPORTS PRODUCTION STANDPOINT THIS IS A BIG TICK IN THE SUSTAINABILITY BOX.”

This therefore means that the content is more valuable in terms of being part of the broadcast production. We tested this for the first time at the race in Cádiz; instead of having the coaches hidden away somewhere, they put all the coaches on a bench on the grandstand, a bit like the pit wall in Formula 1. The coaches were able to overlook the race first hand, had all the technology around them to coach their teams effectively, and were also able to generate content for broadcast storytelling. Specifically with the German team, having Sebastian Vettel – who is very data-driven from his F1 experience – as a co-investor means we see him sitting out there doing his thing with the coaches, and that is golden content.

What’s next for Riedel and SailGP? We want to always move things forward with better ideas and improvements, and make the operation even more sustainable if we can. What is super exciting about SailGP is that it is a very young series, only in year four, and Riedel has been lucky enough to be part of it really early on. It’s amazing how much potential there is here in terms of how fast they want to move things forward, and how dynamic they are. I think it’s a great opportunity as a technology provider to be part of something like that from the outset, because that’s when you are able to shape it with technology in its development

phase. It’s interesting to see such a niche sport like sailing – which really has a hard time being recognized – now starting to be acknowledged generally by the wider masses. It’s also interesting to see how if you start something new and put some creativity in there, and get the right partners on board to be innovative, how that can develop into something that’s really entertaining. RIEDEL.NET SAILGP.COM

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

PAUL LEONARD-MORGAN

Image credit: Diana Feil

HEADLINER USA

Scoring Fellow Travelers

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SCORING FELLOW TRAVELERS

PAUL LEONARDMORGAN From Glasgow to Hollywood, Paul Leonard-Morgan has had an incredible career thus far — finding himself scoring the Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro-starring Limitless shortly after a period of writing arrangements for the likes of No Doubt and Mogwai. He has recently completed work on two incredible series, The Boston Strangler (starring Kiera Knightley) and the new McCarthyism drama Fellow Travelers. He chats to Headliner about his recent work, his studio, and what it’s like to write the music for TV alongside Philip Glass.

After studying at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Leonard-Morgan began getting work as an orchestral arranger for pop and rock acts, he says by “hanging around at gigs in Glasgow.” His first steps in writing string and orchestral music were arranging instrument parts for the likes of Belle and Sebastian, Snow Patrol, Mogwai and No Doubt. “While I was still in Glasgow I produced and arranged for bands,” he says. “And while I was at the conservatoire, I got asked to do quite

a few short films, and I ended up doing some UK TV like Spooks, which helped me learn to write music really quickly — that show was wall-towall music and I’d do one episode per week. My band work led me over to America, and I then got the opportunity to pitch for Limitless, and once accepted I had about three weeks to write the music for a Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro movie! The film went to number one around the world, and that was the big career-changing moment for me, I guess.”

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

PAUL LEONARD-MORGAN

Scoring Fellow Travelers

[Nyswaner, the show’s creator], and when he heard it he immediately loved it and told me this was the sound of the show. But I knew it needed the intensity of a string quartet in there. And when the show goes into the ‘70s, I started morphing these sounds through my modular synths and vocoders to make it a bit more trippy.”

What made the Limitless score stand out was that it wasn’t just another by-the-numbers orchestral score, Leonard-Morgan instead wrote a heavily electronic score that matched perfectly with its drug-enhancement subject matter. Once he convinced the filmmakers that was the way to go, that is. “The difference with working on big budget films is that you’re trying to persuade people to let you do your thing as opposed to playing it safe and rein it in, because it is a business. For Limitless, I was saying, ‘Let me Daft Punk this bit here up a bit, add some samples, detune this bit and add some beats underneath’ — they were a bit apprehensive at first. But then when they heard it, they said, ‘This is so different and cool!’” When asking Leonard-Morgan what are some of his fondest memories from his career so far, the first name that pops up is Philip Glass, widely agreed to be one of the most influential composers of modern times. “Tales From The Loop was my first collaboration with another composer,” he says. “I wasn’t sure how co-composing would work, surely there’d be a clash of egos? But, fortunately, Philip Glass is the most wonderful human being and has no ego. Which is bizarre, because if anyone ever deserved to have an ego, it’s him! It was a little terrifying when we met at his brownstone townhouse in New York — he was making me tea, asking me how I have it, and also about my music and career. I was thinking, ‘God, has he Googled me?’” HEADLINER USA

Leonard-Morgan’s most recent project was scoring Fellow Travelers, a Showtime miniseries which, like the book it is based on, follows a decades-long romance between two men that spans the McCarthyism era, the Vietnam war, the Disco hedonism and the AIDs crisis. “Prior to working on the show, I didn’t realise that during the ‘60s and McCarthyism, people were encouraged to turn people in that they suspected of being gay,” Leonard-Morgan says. “Because being gay then meant you were suspected of being a communist, and you’d be blocked from working in government, in the army — it was a very strange and terrifying era. But it’s also this beautiful love story. Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey are such stars and wonderful actors.” While Limitless and Dredd are two of Leonard-Morgan’s biggest projects which see him composing heavily electronic music, he is devoted to releasing original classical music also, which has led to him being approached to write orchestral scores also. “Errol Morris heard my music for a National Theatre production I worked on called The James Plays and wanted to work with me, which was how I got to work on Netflix’s Wormwood. I really enjoyed working with piano and a string quartet for that, and it just became a thing. For Fellow Travelers, it was never a case of it having to be classical or electronic, I just went away and wrote a theme on the piano. I recorded myself playing it and sent it to Ron

With Fellow Travelers and other projects, Leonard-Morgan has a template in his Digital Performer DAW so he has lots of his favorite sounds ready to go when it’s crunch time in a scoring project. Some of his go-tos are “almost all of the Spitfire library, projectSAM, and for synths I have all of the Divas, the Zebras, tons of Kontakt, and Omnisphere. I use Arturia stuff religiously and endlessly until it breaks my computer! And I have my synth collection of the Jupiter X, my Matriarch Moog, my Pro-3 Sequential, Nords and Korgs, and all my modular stuff also. I use the outboard gear if I’ve got longer to experiment on a film, but things like the Arturia VSTs are a life-saver when I need to get something done quickly.” For crafting sounds, it’s a case of “using Waves H-Delay and H-Reverb on everything, and I always use all of the Soundtoys stuff. I’d say Slate and Soundtoys are my go-tos. I have a pair of Audio-Technica mics, and the Adam Audio A77X speakers have been in every studio I’ve had for the last 10 years.” Leonard-Morgan has to be tightlipped about his upcoming projects due to NDAs, which adds to the excitement of wondering what on earth the next score from this unpredictable composer will sound like. In the meantime, you can try and make an educated guess by listening to all of the above scores, and Fellow Travelers is available to stream now.

PAULLEONARDMORGAN.COM

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CLYDE SENDKE

HEADLINER USA

Steinberg MD on innovation and change

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STEINBERG MD ON INNOVATION AND CHANGE

CLYDE SENDKE Clyde Sendke, managing director of Steinberg talks about Steinberg’s position in the market, thoughts on the way AI is muscling into the world of music production tech and if it’s a threat, how the company stays innovative and what sets the brand’s technology apart from the competition. How do you assess Steinberg’s current market position, and what steps would you take to strengthen it? Steinberg’s position in the market has been long established over many years. In fact, Steinberg will be celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2024. But since it’s a very competitive market, we continue to work hard to deliver tools that the market is asking for. Is the development of AI DAWs, post production tech, mastering and music composition and notation software a concern to the company? Simply put, no. It’s not a concern to Steinberg. We must understand and accept that such tools can help users to achieve their goals more efficiently and quicker and they’re expecting

from us as a company to deliver on that, and we will do that. How do you foster a culture of innovation within Steinberg, and what role does technology play in the company’s growth strategy? We support a culture of innovation here at Steinberg and technology certainly plays an important role in our growth strategy. If you take VST for example, this technology made the integration of third party products into a DAW possible. However, there will also be a trade off between market demands and innovative features. So we always have to carefully balance between what are the latest trends, and what are the actual needs of our customers. HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

CLYDE SENDKE

Steinberg MD on innovation and change

“OUR FEATURES ARE IMPLEMENTED IN WAYS THAT MAKE THEM EASIER TO ACCESS AND BE USED.”

Besides Cubase, what other products and technologies has Steinberg introduced over the years, and which are still being used today? Alongside Cubase, Steinberg offers a wide range of software and hardware for audio and music production. As mentioned earlier, VST is certainly the technology that has brought the industry closer together, allowing software applications from different companies to work seamlessly with each other. WaveLab was introduced in the mid ‘90s and is used by many mastering studios to this day, and even a lot of amateur users are using it. Then there’s HALion, the first soft sampler to be introduced in 2001. These days, all of our instruments are actually based on our latest HALion engine. Nuendo was introduced around the millennium and is the studio standard until today, and the list goes on and on. We have many brands that have been with us for a long time and we will continue to develop those. HEADLINER USA

What key innovations or features in Cubase have set it apart from other DAWs in the market?

past few years. That’s how I would describe our current position.

Cubase always has to adapt to changes, and there are constantly changes happening. The key is that our features are implemented in ways that make them easier to access and be used. There are always performance enhancements. If we look at performance comparisons, Cubase was at the top compared to other DAWs, and we always try to take advantage of the computer hardware.

How has Cubase embraced technological advancements such as improvements in audio processing, virtual instruments and integration with external hardware?

How do you see Cubase’s position in the current DAW market, and how has it evolved over time? Now, we are really in a competitive market. At the end of the ‘90s there were a handful of DAWs, and nowadays, users can choose from a much greater variety of tools that fit their individual needs. However, we are an authority in MIDI and audio. With Cubase, we are very strong in Europe and Japan, and we keep on breaking ground in the US over the

Cubase needs to meet the requirements of its users from hobbyists to professionals, and each user harnesses the power of Cubase in a different way. For instance, providing a high resolution audio engine or offering different means to connect to external hardware such as our MIDI remote integration, was introduced with version 12. These are the ways we try to support our users. We take user feedback very seriously; this makes us understand what our customers require when using our products. That’s why we have been running our own forums for more than 20 years.

MUSIC PRODUCTION

How does Steinberg perceive current trends in the audio and post-production industry, and how is Nuendo positioned to address these trends? We listen carefully to the demands of professional users in the industry. So it’s not so much about trends, but what professionals regard as tools of the trade, and these are implemented into Nuendo. Lately with Nuendo 13, we’ve added MPEG-H Audio. We will continue to develop unique and timesaving features and add to the comprehensive feature set in all areas of Nuendo. Only recently did Steinberg begin to offer third-party instruments that run on the HALion engine. What was the reason? There was a point in time where we had rewritten the whole HALion engine. In HALion 6, we introduced Macro Page Designer for creating user interfaces for instruments and commercial libraries, together with a script for instrument programming,

custom MIDI modules, and the Library Creator for compiling custom instruments. Then HALion opened up to third party content. Meanwhile, we have many third party instruments and libraries also sold through our online store, and this approach allowed HALion users to access more content than they could have done before. For us, it is very important that the content we are offering meets the high standards of our customers. In what ways has Dorico been embraced by the music notation community? Dorico is used in a wide variety of contexts, from the biggest Hollywood blockbusters, to new publications from the great publishing houses, from leading universities, to individual musicians in their homes. Its users tend to be very passionate advocates of our software, and it has undoubtedly the liveliest user community of any of those applications in the field. Dorico entered a well established

market segment with two major commercial applications and a popular free low cost solution. We think that our unique approach enabled us to win a lot of fans. Many people know that we started this from scratch with a well known and established team using the knowledge that today’s musicians really need for their composition in music notation software, which is a much broader set of tools than traditionally offered by scoring applications. There isn’t really another application like Dorico in this category. STEINBERG.NET

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

SARA KAYS

HEADLINER USA

Show Me Off

SHOW ME OFF

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SARA KAYS In so small part thanks to the viral success of her breakup anthem, Remember That Night? RIAA Platinum-certified singer-songwriter Sara Kays very quickly amassed 677M worldwide streams and close to 2 million TikTok followers. Two years on and the Nashville-based musician is steadily building upon her success with her new emotionally vulnerable track, Show Me Off. In this Emerging Headliner interview powered by JBL, the rising singer-songwriter delves into body image, going viral on TikTok, situationships and new music.

Kays’ breakthrough EP, Struck By Lightning was propelled forward by the runaway success of Remember That Night? in 2021. Speaking to Headliner from her Nashville home just days before embarking on a US tour, the introspective singer-songwriter reveals that she was surprised that

people were connecting to the personal things she revealed on the EP. “I was writing about things that I wanted to hear songs about when I was younger,” she reflects. “I had a lot of trouble finding songs about body image and certain things I

was going through. I would Google search for songs about stuff [like that], so it was a nice surprise that the songs about certain topics were actually reaching more people than I thought,” she says humbly.

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

SARA KAYS

Show Me Off

road on tour, Kays enjoys a quiet life when not working. “There’s not a tonne that I’m super interested in outside of music, honestly,” she admits, laughing. “When I’m at home, I might be writing, or I love to hang out with friends if I have some free time. I used to play a lot of soccer, but that fizzled out because it’s hard to find people to get together and play.”

Check out her socials and you’ll discover that amongst the posts about her music, Kays is disarmingly raw about everything from body image to mental health. Feeling songs that addressed these issues were scarce when she was younger when she sought to turn to music for guidance and reassurance, Kays makes sure to funnel these topics into her own work for a new generation of fans experiencing similar issues. “I definitely wish I had more [of that growing up],” she nods. “It took a lot of digging to find songs about certain things, where it’s easier now. That is a lot of the reason why I started writing, because I was interested in music at a really young age, but writing came over time. That’s part of what drew me to it so much; realizing I can make songs about things I actually like, want, or relate to.” Despite the buzz on her socials and the fact she’s currently on the HEADLINER USA

Kays wrote her first song aged 12 – “It was called Just One Minute and it was about wanting time to myself,” – she remembers, smiling at the memory. Her mother encouraged her gift and took her to a studio in Indiana to record some tracks. By age 17, she was sure that music was the only path for herself. Her intuition proved correct; these days Kays boasts 2 million TikTok followers, and the platform has been instrumental in raising her profile, although she admits she wasn’t sure about joining the app at first. “At the time I was in school for music business, and I was in a class where we started talking about it. Everyone was like, ‘I’m not downloading that, it’s for kids!’ – because it was mostly kids dancing. I downloaded it and started posting because I saw some people singing on there. I started getting engagement pretty quickly by posting myself singing some original songs, which were mostly about body image and things like that,” she explains. “One of the first ones was me singing my song, High School, which is about body image, and I gained followers based around that and by being able to keep posting about those types of things and building a community around it, which is super cool.” Outside of TikTok, Kays soon garnered critical acclaim and made her national late night TV debut performing Remember That Night? on CBS’ The Late Show with

Stephen Colbert. With more new music on the horizon, Kays is poised to stake a claim as one of today’s most powerful and poignant singersongwriters. Kays remains humble and grounded despite her rapid rise in fans, sharing the simplicity of her songwriting process: “When I write, I usually start with a lyric or a concept or something in that vein. Sometimes I think of something when I’m driving or showering – the most mundane times, probably because there’s nothing else to do besides sit there or stand there!” she shrugs. In terms of sharing a vulnerable side of herself through her songwriting, Kays shares that opening up is something she has slowly become used to. “It’s definitely got easier,” she considers. “It was harder when I was releasing songs and I didn’t know who would hear it besides my friends and my family who followed me on Instagram. That was difficult because I felt more vulnerable and embarrassed almost, which is weird because less people are hearing it! But it’s got easier over time knowing that someone who probably relates to it will hear it. It’s weird how I feel more vulnerable and embarrassed talking about those things with one person sitting right in front of me than I do releasing a song about it, because I guess if I don’t want to acknowledge it, I don’t really have to, outside of putting a song out.” The song largely responsible for her intimidating social following and surge in streams, Remember That Night?, came from humble beginnings: a simple idea in the middle of the night. “I wrote that song in my bedroom at 2am,” she reveals. “Up to that point, I didn’t write much about love, relationships or breakups. That was my first time writing about that – I only dated one person and had one breakup, so I wrote about that breakup for the first time with that song. I was

EMERGING HEADLINER

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

SARA KAYS

Show Me Off

US tour which saw her support Dean Lewis’ The Future Is Bright Tour 2023. “My job throughout high school and into college was playing at bars and restaurants and I did a lot of busking, so I’ve owned different PAs throughout my life since I was 13,” she says of her experience with having her own portable system.

really emotional while writing it. I posted it and I wrote, ‘I just wrote about my breakup and I think it’s something super special,’ so I did have a feeling it was really special but I didn’t think that it was going to be the biggest song for me, like it has been.” Following the success of Remember That Night? came a string of 2022 hit singles including Math, When You Look At Me, Watching TV, and a cover of Owl City’s Fireflies – the latter which quickly became a fan favorite last year as she performed on tour across North America opening for Alec Benjamin and MAX, followed by Bored and Miss Me The Same in 2023. New single, Show Me Off tells the story of what Kays refers to as a “situationship” – where a partner acts differently in public than behind closed doors. Kays reflects on her own experiences of this with the lyrics, “I know when the sun is up, I know when tomorrow comes, I know when my clothes are on, he’ll never show me off.” Kays opens up about the inspiration behind her new single: “I was seeing somebody when I wrote the song – I tend to sometimes dramatize things more than they actually are,” she admits mid-sentence. “We weren’t dating or anything, but he definitely inspired me because I’ve felt that feeling before in many relationships that I’ve been in. At the time when I wrote it, I was seeing somebody who was treating me that way.” Kays has recently started using a JBL EON One Compact Portable PA with a professional-grade mixer, which she put to good use for rehearsals for a recent HEADLINER USA

“This JBL EON One has been really good. I’ve been using it to rehearse for the tour in the house, so that’s been really cool. My favorite thing about this is that it’s battery powered, as I still do a lot of busking. When I used to busk before, I would have loved to have a PA that’s battery-powered because I would have to find an outlet. It’s insane – you’re not even really, legally allowed to do that in most cities! If someone sees that you’re plugged into the city power, they’ll be like, ‘Can you please not do that?’ I would definitely recommend this over what I used when I was younger when I was playing gigs – I had a PA system that was just unnecessarily large! I would definitely recommend someone getting the JBL EON One because of how portable it is, and it still can project the same amount of sound. You can just set it down and use it without having to plug it in – that is absolutely my favorite part,” she reiterates. “I probably would normally just practice without any amplification, so it’s been nice to be able to use it to practice for the tour.” In terms of any future music releases, Kays has a lot in the works that she plans to release. “I’ve been writing a tonne of songs this year,” she nods. “I did three different tours last year so I was really wrapped up in that, but this year has mostly been focusing on writing and making new songs. I have a bunch of new songs I’m really excited about. My next song coming out is called Scream In My Pillow, which I’m pretty excited about. It’s about when people don’t expect you to speak your mind or talk back or anything like that, so you’re left feeling like you have to wait until you get home by yourself to let out any kind of anger, frustration or opinion. Also, the acronym for Scream In My Pillow is simp, which I think is pretty cool,” she grins. POWERED BY

SARAKAYS.COM JBLPRO.COM

MAD SOUL CHILD

Recording K-Pop

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RECORDING K-POP

MAD SOUL CHILD

HEADLINER USA

RECORDING

South Korean composer/ production team Mad Soul Child has switched to Prism Sound’s new Dream ADA-128 modular converter for their audio conversion needs, and are now using the unit to record albums with some of the biggest names in K-Pop, as Headliner recently discovered… The electro-house production team, which consists of Chung Moo Kyung, Lee Sang Yul and Yang Chan Woo, is involved in a multitude of projects spanning albums, films, dramas, advertisements, and documentaries. Established around the year 2000, Mad Soul Child initially scored impressive collaborations with K-Pop superstars such as Jo Sungmo, Lee Hyori and Shinhwa, as well as tackling music for primetime TV commercials for companies such as Etude Cosmetics, Samsung Mobile and SK Telecom. The team have also released their own albums including the 2009 hit LaLaLa, featuring vocalist Jinsil, which led to the group representing Korea at the prestigious CMJ Music Marathon in New York City. Nearly every song on the album was eventually used in a TV advertising campaign. Based in Paju, Gyeonggi-do, Mad Soul Child has a studio equipped with Pro Tools and ATC SCM 45 and KII THREE speakers. Chief sound engineer Jung Moo Kyung says the Prism Sound Dream ADA128 is now a key part of the team’s recording setup and is proving very useful, especially as the unit’s expansion option card offers ample expandability for analog outputs. “That is a significant advantage because it leaves the door open for effortless upgrades in the future, which is gratifying,” says Kyung. Prism Sound’s Dream ADA-128 is a modular audio conversion system

offering up to 128 channels of 32-bit A/D and D/A conversion at sample rates of up to 768kHz. It is both a conversion system and a highperformance, networkable audio distribution and processing system, with a flexible 2RU mainframe that can be fitted with up to 16 analog and digital IO modules (each of which nominally provides eight input or output ports, or both). Up to four host modules provide bidirectional multi-channel connections to host computers, workstations, networks etc, with the ADA-128 providing free routing between all of these inputs

and outputs under detailed user control, as well as a wide range of processing functions. Kyung first became interested in Prism Sound audio interfaces and converters after demoing the company’s flagship ADA8XR multichannel converter and being profoundly impressed by its sound quality. On hearing that Prism Sound was about to launch the new ADA128, Kyung decided to wait for the unit to become available and is now delighted with the acquisition.

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

MAD SOUL CHILD

Recording K-Pop

“THE PRISM SOUND DREAM ADA-128 BESTOWED AN IMMEDIATE RECOGNITION OF TECHNICAL PROWESS UPON THE FIRST ENCOUNTER.”

“Using the ADA-128 alongside the Apogee Symphony Mk2 initially posed some challenges in slot (box) in/out assignment screen interface recognition, which was a bit of a finicky aspect with Pro Tools compatibility,” he explains. “It took me a little time to work it out and get it set up, but once configured it operated with reassuring stability.” The difference in sound quality between the Dream ADA-128 and the converters Mad Soul Child was previously using have also been noticeable. According to Kyung, the ADA-128 has significantly alleviated issues often associated with total harmonic distortion (THD) and plug noise. “The notable reduction in THD tends to contribute to a more transparent and smooth sound quality,” he explains. “Additionally, during extended processing of plug noise, the equipment appears to substantially diminish the gritty texture typically encountered, by a significant margin. This has been HEADLINER USA

our observation, indicating the superior performance and technical prowess of the equipment in our particular setup.” Mad Soul Child was one of the first production teams to adopt the Dream ADA-128, sourcing the unit from Prism Sound’s South Korean distributor ANK. Since installing it in their studio at the end of 2022, they have used it on a variety of projects, including new albums for legendary Korean singers BMK and Lee Seung Yeol, as well as music mix and mastering for audition broadcasts. “The build philosophy of the Dream ADA-128 is captivating, aiming for the zenith of sound quality,” Kyung says. “From the first listen, it evoked a sentiment of ‘this is something different’, especially having experienced a variety of converters interfaced with Pro Tools before. Despite the high price tag of other converters, the digital sound quality characteristic of a slightly dry or rough texture becomes apparent over time. The Prism Sound Dream

ADA-128 bestowed an immediate recognition of technical prowess upon the first encounter.” He adds that the unit also helps to reduce the inevitable ear fatigue that can set in during a long session in the studio listening to high-end digital equipment. “With this converter you get a fresh sensation as if the demarcation between digital and analog had dissolved,” he says. “It feels like it has overcome the drawbacks of existing high-end converters and I particularly like the incredibly soft and clear (distortion-free) sound in the mid-range. It’s somewhat exaggerated, but it feels like a revolution in the world of converters. I believe that there may not be a high-end product surpassing this one in the next 10 years.” PRISMSOUND.COM

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HOWARD JONES

CODA ViRAY On The Road

LIVE

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CODA VIRAY ON THE ROAD

HOWARD JONES Legendary singer, songwriter and keyboardist Howard Jones this year celebrated 40 years in the music business. A career which first took the charts by storm in the 1980s, when Jones was a pioneer of electronic music, continues to flourish, supported by a huge worldwide fanbase and a seemingly unquenchable appetite for live performance. Liverpoolbased production specialists Adlib took care of the audio, with the tour opting for a CODA Audio system based around the company’s ViRAY compact line array, as Headliner recently discovered…

Having toured extensively in Europe, Asia, and North America during 2023, Jones returned in October to conclude his live schedule with a UK theater tour. The 10-night tour, which included nights at the London Palladium and Birmingham Symphony Hall,

demonstrated the star’s great versatility. A full-on synth-driven electronic attack was complemented by acoustic trio and solo sections which showed off Jones’ considerable talents as a pianist. In both formats, his vocal delivery was exceptional. HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

HOWARD JONES

CODA ViRAY On The Road

everything. As for the subs - crikey! Howard’s music requires solid low end for those drum machines and FM basses, so exceptional subs are vital. Nothing in the low end ever felt slow or soggy - we got immediate punches from every kick and roomrattling bass, but never with that feeling of an oppressive low end.

CODA has been FOH engineer Chicky Reeves’ choice for Howard Jones since he began working with the artist in 2016, having first encountered the brand some years earlier while on tour with Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD). “I’d initially been reluctant to stray from what I was used to, but having been persuaded to take the system out with OMD, I haven’t looked back,” says Reeves. “When we set up for our first show, which was more of a production rehearsal with an audience, I walked in as the system tech was finishing setting it up. He had a track playing that I knew quite well and I was immediately smitten with the sound. I knew the track, I knew the room, and I’d never heard this combination sound so good before. I was absolutely stunned. After that, we took it on several tours - when I started with Howard, he asked if I had a PA preference, and naturally I told him ‘CODA’!” The dynamics of Howard Jones’ set are wide-ranging and demand a system that can deliver power and detail in equal measure, according to the tour’s system tech, Steve Norman: “Howard’s material is exceptionally varied in the sense that some songs are pretty full-on with big electronic drums and huge synth sounds, and then three songs later he’s sitting at the piano playing a solo number on which a double-bass and acoustic guitar join in,” he explains. “Having a system that can deliver subtle HEADLINER USA

nuances yet can also deliver fullpower sound is critical. In my book, only one system can do it - that’s CODA Audio ViRAY.” The system configuration on the tour was different every night to cater for the unique characteristics of each theater. Flexibility was paramount, with no two shows the same. Some shows deployed the full system, whilst others saw a split flown/ ground-stacked system enhanced with various fills for ‘hard-to-reach’ seats. The complete inventory comprised 36 ViRAY units, four SC2-F and eight SCP-F subs, two HOPS12-T, eight HOPS8 and two G712. The system was driven by CODA’s LINUS14 four channel DSP amplifiers. “The thing with a CODA system is that what would typically be a challenging room becomes like every other room,” continues Norman. “The various accessories provide you with the tools to deploy the system in a way that provides the most uncompromising solution. The wide, full band horizontal coverage of ViRAY solves a lot of issues in theaters. It’s actually amazing how side-on to the box you can be, yet still experience a full range sound.” “For this tour especially, as we played a variety of venue sizes, we found the system was easy to scale up or down,” Reeves concurs. “The coverage was clean everywhere no comb filtering between boxes or arrays, excellent correction for room modes - everyone could hear

“The CODA system is a PA I can make really loud without being painfully so. It’s never ‘screaming’ at the audience, just surrounding them; enveloping them within the music. It’s amazing!” “Logistically it was ideal,” adds tour manager Simon Bettison. “Compact, easy to rig, relatively light and perfect for this size of theater show, taking up as it does less than half a truck and needing only one system tech. Also it’s agile enough to work in venues where we needed to hang and ground-stack along with smaller fills on balconies etc. In short we enjoyed the perfect combination of great band, great techs and a great system.” Norman describes the system as a vital interface for the energy exchange between artist and audience: “The shows were pretty spectacular to be honest. To be able to sit and immerse yourself in Howard’s songwriting through the medium of brilliantly mixed, super highquality sound, was a joy. Sometimes amidst all the tech dialogue we can overlook the emotional side of what’s going on. The system is there to connect people with the music in the best way possible and I’m absolutely sure Howard and the band could feel the energy on this tour - the standing ovations and rave reviews say everything about that. In a word - brilliant!” CODAAUDIO.COM

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THE CELESTION INTERVIEW

Brian Weafer, Yorkville Sound

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BRIAN WEAFER, YORKVILLE SOUND

THE CELESTION INTERVIEW Canada’s Yorkville Sound has come a long way since its beginnings in the back room of the original Long & McQuade music store in downtown Toronto where, in 1963, co-founder Peter Traynor built the now-iconic Traynor DynaBass bass amplifier as a rugged, reliable alternative to the models of the day…

Today, Yorkville Sound designs and manufactures a full line of professional PA systems and loudspeakers, instrument amplifiers, installed audio systems, studio tools, microphones and accessories under its Apex, Traynor, and Applied Research and Technology (ART) brands, with 220 employees at the company’s 150,000-squarefoot facility in Pickering, Ontario. A HEADLINER USA

leader in instrument amplification and a pioneer in loudspeaker horn and cabinet innovation, Yorkville Sound also distributes dozens of iconic pro audio and MI brands including Gibson, Epiphone, Ernie Ball Universal Audio, and Manley for Canada, and HK Audio and Hughes & Kettner for North America. In a remarkable career spanning 36 years, Yorkville Sound VP of

internal affairs Brian Weafer has played a key role in propelling the company forward. His background as a musician and engineer, complemented by his dedication to championing a close-knit corporate ethos that puts the needs of musicians first, has been pivotal in shaping the company’s path, as Headliner discovers…

PRO AUDIO

What is your favorite album of all time, and why?

What got you interested in music and audio?

The two greatest influences for me are Todd Rundgren and Joni Mitchell. For Todd Rundgren, it’s always going to be Something, Anything. All the songs were so good. He played all the parts himself, he recorded it all himself. It was one of the very first of those kinds of albums, like Prince did and Stevie Wonder used to do. For Joni Mitchell, it’s The Hissing of Summer Lawns. First of all, Joni Mitchell is Canadian. She used to perform in a street called Yorkville in Toronto; it was the Haight-Ashbury, hippie neighborhood. The original music store for Long & McQuade – which were all part of the same company – was on Yonge Street, right at that corner of Yonge and Yorkville. Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, all these people used to hang out on that street and play for nothing in those days. When our founders, Pete Traynor and Jack Long, started the company, they went outside and looked at the street sign, it said ‘Yorkville,’ so they called it Yorkville.

I was a jack of all trades when I was young. I played trumpet, French horn, guitar – lots of different instruments. I built my first guitar amp when I was 13 with my dad because we couldn’t afford to buy one. And you know where my dad got the schematic for the amp? From Pete Traynor, the guy who started Yorkville with Jack. How did you get your start in the industry, and with Yorkville? Well, I played guitar from a young age, but I also studied as an electrician. I was a quality control tech for a big wire company. And then I was a touring musician for 10 years. When I came off the road, I saw a job in the newspaper that said that a company was looking for somebody to test guitar amps and things like that. So, I joined, and it was a good fit. What’s your current position and how did you get there? Within a very short time of getting the job, they asked me to go into

purchasing. And then a short time after that, they asked me to be the warehouse manager, then the purchasing manager. Then I was a vice president of this and that. It didn’t take me very long to move up. Now I’m vice president of internal affairs. How did your background influence the job you do now, and the company overall? I was a musician; I had the quality control background. I had an electronics background; I had a computer background when nobody even knew what a computer was. When I was on the road, I studied computer science at a correspondence university. I was building my own gear, tinkering, all those things. I think that tinkering and doing things yourself is what makes good companies into good companies. In the music business, for equipment to tour and be used in these harsh environments, you have to build it almost from the ground up yourself in order to maintain the quality at every level that can withstand the rigors of the road. Because everybody will tell HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

THE CELESTION INTERVIEW

Brian Weafer, Yorkville Sound

you that it’s okay for somebody’s stereo to have a particular circuit board, but that would not last in a guitar amp, because it’ll just vibrate to death; or in a PA cabinet, where it will just break apart. So, the company has always been quality-minded from day one. Yorkville is legendary in the industry. In your viewpoint, what’s the main reason for that? I think we fought tooth and nail to stay true to the vertical integration, all in one building. To this day, everything is made in the building. The metal and wood are brought in and made into things. The electronics are all built in the building. The designers are in the building. It’s been that way since day one. There’s such a push to keep it that way, to keep Canadian people at their jobs. It’s a culture. And it is very family friendly. I always tell people, we’re an international company who’s managed to maintain that sort of early ’70s culture. That’s hard to do because you’ve still got to compete. What product do you consider your company’s most innovative? Yorkville innovated a lot of things over the years. The wedge monitor was kind of invented by Yorkville. Affordable, powered compact mixers. And then Bass Master amps. We had converted Fender-style amps, changed the front end a bit so that they would handle a bass guitar signal. What do you think is the single most important technological achievement in the industry? It’s very hard to say what the most defining thing in our industry has been. I think people would say the invention of powered speaker cabinets has been a pretty big thing. And Bluetooth, obviously. There’s always been a great amalgamation between consumer and high-end consumer products that merge into pro sound, and vice versa. If you had asked me a long time ago if Bluetooth would ever be part of pro sound, I would’ve said no, because why? But then consumers were using sound products for their house parties. And they wanted to be able to run their Bluetooth through their little speakers, like they do their stereo. So, lots of companies started adding all these features, and eventually there’s a merger between what’s considered consumer electronics and what’s considered a pro PA now. Tell us a little about your company culture and your philosophy in leading the team. I don’t think you’ll find anybody in management in this corporation – and it’s big, now – who hasn’t had some background in music performance. Some people have had a career at Yorkville for 45 years. The mentality today is that people don’t realize that it HEADLINER USA

“I HAD A COMPUTER BACKGROUND WHEN NOBODY EVEN KNEW WHAT A COMPUTER WAS.”

is possible to have a forever job. You can have a job that pays you every single week for 45 years, and you can get married, raise kids, buy your house, and put your money away, knowing that that’s there for you. It’s like being in the same band for 40 years. Like the Rolling Stones. How is your company poised for the future? We’re not super mega-rich when it comes to investing in things because we’re always about sustainable growth. We’re still big believers in brick and mortar; we support our music stores, and now we’re up to about 100 music stores, so the business grows hand in hand, and it’s quite sustainable. I’m sure everybody benefits from e-commerce. But in the end, you wouldn’t want to buy a multi-thousand-dollar guitar without sitting down in a store and playing Stairway to Heaven, you know? It’s a hands-on, tactile industry. What music do you enjoy these days? I still play guitar; I’ve recently switched over to swing jazz and finger-style jazz. My line has been, I used to play three chords for 3,000 people. Now I play 3,000 chords for three people. What is the accomplishment that you’re most proud of? It’s all the friends I made here over the years, for sure. It’s like a family. CELESTION.COM YORKVILLE.COM

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HARMAN’S DR. SEAN OLIVE

HEADLINER USA

Ahead Of The Curve

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AHEAD OF THE CURVE

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EVERYTHING AUDIO

HARMAN’S DR. SEAN OLIVE In this Everything Audio interview, Dr. Sean Olive, Senior Fellow, Acoustic Research for Harman International explains how the Harman Reference Curve came to be and why it matters, as well as looking at industry trends and sharing his advice for the market.

Tell us about your current role at Harman in acoustic research and development; what does that entail and what do you oversee? My title is Senior Fellow, and I work as part of a corporate research group called Harman X. Specifically, we’re in a group called intelligent audio. We do research into product development that can benefit all of our divisions, which includes consumer audio, professional audio as well as automotive audio, so it’s quite a broad agenda. Much of my research is focused on sound quality, so there’s always a subjective aspect where we have to do listening tests

and find out whether what we’re designing actually sounds good and whether people like it. Many in the pro audio sector will be familiar with the Harman Reference Curve (which you oversaw), which is also referred to as the Harman Target Curve, and when applied to headphones, the AKG Reference Response Acoustics Curve. For anyone unfamiliar with it, could you explain what the Harman Reference Curve is? It’s basically a frequency response of a headphone. If you measure it in a standard industry ear simulator or

an artificial head, (which simulates the outer ear, as well as the ear canal on the eardrum), if you put a set of headphones on this device and put a frequency sweep through it, the output will be a frequency response. So we defined what the frequency response should be in order to sound good to most people. We started this research in 2012 and we also came up with a target curve for in-ear monitors. We tried to define what makes a headphone sound good. That was done by doing lots of experiments with hundreds of listeners all over the world – having them adjust this target, the bass and HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

HARMAN’S DR. SEAN OLIVE

Ahead Of The Curve

“THE GOAL FROM THE BEGINNING WAS TO MAKE A HEADPHONE SOUND LIKE A PAIR OF GOOD LOUDSPEAKERS IN A REFERENCE LISTENING ROOM.”

the treble, and then testing it against the current standards as well as many competitors and measuring people’s preferences. What did you discover through years of research and refinement? We found that the majority of people generally prefer this curve, and if they didn’t prefer it, they preferred it with some slight modifications to the bass and treble. In general, 64% of the people liked it as it is without any alterations, then there was a 16% segment who liked it with more bass – 4 to 6dB. Then there was a segment of around 22% of people who prefer it with less bass – 2 to 3 dB less bass and slightly less treble, or slightly more treble. We think this could be related to hearing loss, particularly because as people age, they tend to lose hearing at high frequencies, and by reducing the bass and boosting the treble they may in fact be compensating for this hearing loss and making voices and instruments more intelligible. It’s based on a preferred sound quality over headphones, which can be traced back to a frequency response. HEADLINER USA

Tuning speakers and studio monitors to be neutral is ideal, however AKG discovered that tuning headphones to be absolutely neutral presents a problem because they don’t sound right to listeners. Why is it that speakers sound different from headphones in a room? There’s many reasons. When we listen to headphones, we’re not hearing the room, so that’s something you have to account for. Secondly, when we listen to speakers in a room, we’re hearing not only the direct reflected sound – there’s really no effect on how this is affecting our physiology. In other words, we don’t have something clamped onto our head. As soon as we put something on our head, it interacts with our pinna (or external ears). Depending on how we angle it, it can change. So if there’s a slight leak in the headphone, (because it doesn’t quite fit properly), that can have a big effect on the bass. Those are all variables that can cause sound to vary a lot on a headphone. One of the goals at the beginning of this target curve is we took a pair of good loudspeakers

that measured flat and they were accurate. We used a pair of Rebel consumer loudspeakers and we took a JBL M2, which is a professional monitor, and we put them both in this reference listening room. We measured at the person’s eardrum – in this case, we’re using an artificial mannequin and that became the basis of this reference curve. The goal from the beginning was to make a headphone sound like a pair of good loudspeakers in a reference listening room. We believe that because of this, we’re as close as we can get to making a headphone sound like a pair of good loudspeakers in a critical listening room. You mentioned JBL’s M2 Master Reference Monitor; how does this product tie into the reference curve? The loudspeakers precede the headphones. It started back at the National Research Council in the mid ‘80s, where Floyd Toole published a set of seminal papers on loudspeakers and listener preferences. He did a lot of listening tests to show that a particular set of anechoic measurements would

EVERYTHING AUDIO

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

HARMAN’S DR. SEAN OLIVE

produce positive listener responses. That work continued on when Floyd and I both joined Harman in the early ‘90s. We continued to refine those measurements and did lots of listening tests over the course of 15 years, and came up with a set of adequate measurements that can accurately predict with about 86% confidence how people will score it in a blind listening test. We started out defining, ‘What is a good loudspeaker?’ and we used that to define what makes a good headphone. There’s a connection there whether you monitor or make recordings through a pair of two speakers and listen to it through the AKG headphones – there should be a similarity between the two because we use the same criteria for all of our products, whether they’re consumer, automotive or professional speakers. There’s a continuity between the whole audio chain from recording, production, playback, a car, a home theater or a set of headphones. How effective are the AKG K361 and K371 professional studio headphones at implementing the Harman reference curve, and why do professional users benefit from this? Those were the first AKG professional headphones where the Harman Target Curve was applied. They came out about five or six years ago. They were designed to this target so that when you switch back and forth between your monitors in the studio or over headphones, there’s a continuity between how it sounds. The advantage for a mixer is that they can choose whatever is most appropriate depending on what kind of environment they’re in. If they’re doing a mobile recording, they can listen to their mixes over the headphones, or if they’re in a controlled studio environment, they can monitor over their speakers. There’s a pretty strong chance that the consumer will hear what the artist or the mixer heard when mixing and mastering. It’s all about being faithful to what the artist wanted, and giving them tools so that there’s confidence that the consumer will hear what they’re hearing. HEADLINER USA

Ahead Of The Curve

What does the future of audio look like regarding immersive experiences? I think the future is already here. When we’re talking about immersive audio, it’s really being driven by new immersive audio formats like Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, MPEG-H (which is more common in Europe), as well as Sony 360 Reality Audio. These formats allow audio to be reproduced in 3D, so they’re adding an extra layer of height channels so that you have not only front and back, but also the up and down experience. What we see is these formats are becoming very popular, because they’re available now for music on streaming services like Tidal, Apple Music and Amazon, so consumers can get easy access to them through streaming – it’s not disk space. It’s also object-based, it’s not channel-based audio, so it’s very scalable to whatever playback scenario you have, so you can play it back over two-channel headphones. It’s normally rendered so that it knows when it’s played back, what device you have, how many, and what its capability is. if you have a home theater system with 32 speakers, it will scale up to that – it gives you an added dimension of height, and it’s much more immersive. It’s also finding its way into gaming, virtual reality and augmented reality. It’s where the future is and where it’s going.

Do you have any advice for the industry moving forward? I think anyone moving forward will probably be working with immersive audio. That’s what will differentiate the really advanced products, and the less advanced products will include the ability to personalize the experience. So for 3D audio or immersive audio that has to do with incorporating their headrelated transfer functions; it could be compensating for the fact that their headphones don’t fit them quite well. Maybe there’s some kind of way to adapt the headphone to account for some of these personal differences. As far as hearables, which is a pretty new category, these are headphones that account for people’s hearing loss. I think the future with headphones will probably have that incorporated into them, so they’ll do more than just play music – they’ll compensate for hearing loss. These are physiological anthropometric differences I’m talking about, so I would just say in the future, be aware of this. PRO.HARMAN.COM JBLPRO.COM

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SUPERPARKA

Worshipping At The Altar of Lo-Fi

Image credit: JFlorine Hill

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SUPERPARKA A Parisian-producer duo making music that spans lo-fi, indie and psychedelic sounds, Superparka have already had their music synced to Apple advertising campaigns, secured some big remix spots and received critical acclaim for their music. Paco and Simon speak to Headliner as they release their debut album quatro — chatting about how they achieved a state of flow with this record, and how Waves plugins were vital to its sound.

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

SUPERPARKA

Worshipping At The Altar of Lo-Fi

since then we’ve always been searching for that sparkle of magic. We worship making music in the shittiest way possible!” Some might be left scratching their heads at why anyone would entertain the idea of deliberately making music in a seemingly inferior way. But Paco’s words are in keeping with the lo-fi world Superparka is part of — a musical landscape which loves things like the vinyl crackling sounds that digital music has eschewed, deliberately detuned instruments and tape hiss sounds.

“We’ve known each other since we were 10,” Paco says. “We grew up in a small town, and making music was a way out of the small town.” Simon says that it was Paco who got him into music, adding, “I remember Paco playing Nirvana on guitar, I think it might have been Come As You Are, and it made me want to make music also.” Paco feels that coming to the world of electronic music was a case of attempting to record the guitar music they were making together in a band, and then discovering the world of MIDI and being able to make computer music — essentially trying it out with no real plan. “When we were in a band as teenagers, we didn’t have access to any information,” Paco says. “And about four or five years into making music together, we were trying to record our guitars with the shittiest stuff you can imagine. “I remember discovering MIDI when we started recording and realizing there was so much you could do with music on the computer. Because we came from struggling so much to record guitars, it led us to do things differently, and

HEADLINER USA

Supposed audio ‘imperfections’ that the digital age of music cast aside, that lo-fi producers are now using as creative choices, either with digital plugins that emulate those analog sounds, or going back to the original analogue gear and instruments that created them. The demand for lo-fi music has shot up exponentially since the beats to study/relax to video, on an infinite loop on YouTube, has seen people around the world playing lo-fi beats in the background while carrying out everyday tasks. Of course, Superparka’s music is far superior and could never be relegated to background listening. “Flying Lotus, Madlib, people like that have been really important influences for us,” Simon says. “Especially after years of making rock music,” Paco says. “It was so refreshing for us to hear these sounds, and we wanted to bring that freshness into our music. And also video game soundtracks. We both grew up with Final Fantasy, and for ages, we didn’t realize we were both playing it! We’d get tired of guitar music all the time, so sometimes we’d listen to video game soundtracks to rest our ears.” “We recreated some of the classic Final Fantasy sounds for the new songs,” Simon says.

After a period of singles, remixes and mixtapes, which saw Superparka achieving commercial syncs with Apple advertisements, we have been gifted with quatro, a debut album that is a psychedelic, indie and lo-fi odyssey. After the album’s intro track is the opening song camila, displaying the producer pair’s trademark mixture of sampled drums and machines, wobbly synths, and Paco’s nonchalant, mostly falsetto vocals. It has one of the most abrupt song endings you’ll ever hear, yet somehow wraps up so satisfyingly. Hot on its heels is track three, az, which has an accompanying video of the duo walking through the desert with a goat, as they have an extraterrestrial encounter. Seeing wide, cinematic shots of the twosome strolling over dunes, it’s easy to be reminded of another Parisian producer-pairing and their imagery and aesthetic (clue: they had ‘daft’ in the title). The psychedelic video goes perfectly with the intoxicating track, with Paco’s vocals more floaty than ever, sitting atop a bed of keys and guitars that are laid-back to an almost ludicrous extent. And what ties the record together brilliantly, clocking in at a very brief 23 minutes, is its halfway ambient interlude, wandering. If you were to ever find yourself floating in outer space aimlessly, this is the track you’d want in your headphones, assuming your spacesuit could accommodate a decent pair of them. “That track is very Final Fantasy 10-inspired,” Simon says. “We love the interludes in that game.” “Like we were saying, we often get bored of beats and vocals and stuff,” Paco says. “When we listen to pop music, we can’t listen to it nonstop, even for an hour. We need breaks from it. The music we’ve

Image credit: JFlorine Hill

PRODUCER

HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

SUPERPARKA

Worshipping At The Altar of Lo-Fi

“WE’VE BEEN USING WAVES SINCE THE START OF SUPERPARKA.”

been working on, a lot of it is about finding that space within the music. A moment of rest. You can’t listen to someone sing or talk for an hour — it drives me mad!” When asking if Superparka use a lot of analog gear and synths, you might be expecting a firmly affirmative answer, but you’d be wrong. “Not much, actually,” Simon says. “It’s mainly VSTs. Obviously, there’s a lot of guitar and bass. I can’t quite remember, but there might have been an old Yamaha workstation on the album.” “I think we used a Korg Triton because that’s always there in the studio,” Paco says. “No, that was a VST also,” Simon interjects with a laugh. “The VSTs are so good now. The Roland D-50 plugin was a big part of the record.”

that everyone is using it. It’s the J37 Tape Saturation Plugin, but I don’t use it like a tape machine. For me, it’s about the delays, which sound so unique to me. I have a lot of echoes and delays, but the J37 sounds so special to me. I’m also always using Renaissance Vox on Paco’s vocals, it’s so easy and nice to use, and my favorite to use on vocals.” Paco adds that “I love to use the SoundShifter Time and Pitch Shifter plugin from Waves when I’m working on a track. Sometimes I get bored of listening to the same pitches and frequencies in a track. My ear gets a little tired of it. And it’s so easy with the SoundShifter to switch things up and get everything sounding fresh.” “The algorithm in that plugin is great,” Simon adds. “Once I was mixing a track, then I just put the SoundShifter on it, and it was done!”

“I have a lot of analog gear around the studio, but it’s so fucking tiring,” Paco says. “It’s always broken. You always need to take the things to a repair shop. So at one point, we said to each other, ‘Let’s have less gear and rely more on the computer’. Because it’s too much, sometimes. There are times I just want to make music and not spend an hour trying to get bits of gear to work. So, for me it’s VSTs — prove me wrong!”

Paco and Simon are highly-creative, out-the-box producers, so it’s not surprising that Paco then mentions one of Waves’ most creative plugins. “I love the Enigma plugin,” he says. “It’s a flanger, modulator, and loads of other things. I love the name, and it fits because sometimes, if you don’t have a clue what to do, you just stick it on and it starts creating new things. So I love it for helping to come up with new ideas.”

“For this album, I sold all my old synths, and just had one MIDI keyboard, one guitar and one bass,” Simon says. “And then I made 100 beats for this album. It felt like I was creating so much music in this way.”

“Enigma is a great one,” Simon says. “For me, whenever I open up a project, R-Vox and the J37 will be on there every single time.”

Key to the sound of quatro, but also the sound of Superparka sometime before the album, are Waves plugins. Simon talks about how they’ve helped to shape the sonic journey of the duo. “We’ve been using Waves since the start of Superparka. There is one plugin from Waves that is the sound of Superparka. It’s not a secret plugin, I discovered later HEADLINER USA

As Superparka take a bit of time to rest after such an intensive creative period, they hope to soon be back to creating more music and are hoping to put some live dates together for next year. Their debut album quatro is out now, so jump into one of the most dissolving listening experiences you could hope for this year. WAVES.COM INSTA: @SUPERPARKA

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100 SONIC REFLECTIONS

50 Years of Soundmirror

50 YEARS OF SOUNDMIRROR

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For half a century, Soundmirror has been one of the most revered recording and production companies in the world of classical and orchestral music. Recording on location and conducting postproduction services in-house, its reach extends to everything from orchestral, solo, opera, chamber recordings, and much more. To date its recordings have notched up some 135 Grammy nominations and awards. Founder John Newton and chief engineer Mark Donahue join Headliner for a chat about this landmark anniversary, the technology that powers the company, and what the next 50 years hold…

Tell us about the origins of Soundmirror. John: I started the company 50 years ago, not knowing I was starting a business that would last this long! We’ve had a very interesting experience and just this year we’ve made plans for the next 50. I’ve transferred ownership to the employees, so they are definitely going to keep it going for another 50 years. As for me, I started out working with the Boston Symphony Orchestra doing radio broadcast work with the classical music station. Early on I met the people at Soundstream who built

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the first digital tape recorder that was suitable for music, and I worked for them for four or five years taking their digital recorder to record classical music sessions run by all the record labels around the world. When that company finished, I bought my own digital recording equipment and carried on doing the same thing. And we continue on today doing much of the same work we’ve done throughout our history, which is recordings of orchestras and operas. Most of that is live recording. When we started it was almost never live recordings, as everything was done in sessions. But economics became one of the big factors in that, so we changed with it.

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102 SONIC REFLECTIONS

50 Years of Soundmirror

Why did you decide to pass ownership to the staff? John: It was time. We were in the middle of our 50th year and started to think about how things will continue and it seemed a logical thing. All the staff wanted to keep doing what they’d been doing. So, I took the opportunity to make that transfer and it’s been working very well, and I think it will continue to work very well. None of what we do has changed and we don’t anticipate it to. How has this sector changed over the years? Mark: When I first started we worked for record companies and they made all the decisions. Then in the late ‘90s we were watching as Rome was burning and all the record companies were basically going away. Every major classical label had their own recording department and we supported those departments, but in the ‘90s they all went away. Now it’s a completely different animal in that most of the time it is the actual organization that is driving these projects, so it’s very different to how it used to be. There are a lot of the old war horses being recorded but there is also a lot of new music being recorded, especially in the opera world; virtually everything we do is a first recording. They are commissions that the opera company has decided to record. What have been some of the key moments for Soundmirror over the last 50 years? John: One of the basic ideas that we can now look back on and say we had this from the beginning

was that technology was improving all aspects of the music recording business. There were very interesting things in the ‘70s. At that point digital recording came of age and everyone could hear the significant advantages over conventional analogue recording so there was a huge market for rerecording as much of a catalog as a record company could afford to rerecord. Then digital recording got more sophisticated and more expensive, so a lot of our middle years were spent working with record companies who didn’t want to make the investment in large amounts of expensive digital gear – they would rather have us come in and do it. And then when the record companies decided that the economics had changed to the point that they wanted to start getting rid of their in-house departments, we got a little bit less work because all of those in-house people set up shop on their own. And when they realized it was a tough business, they went away and all of a sudden we had a surge in business. Record companies wanted to be able to acquire content and be able to sell it, but they didn’t have their own internal departments. The SACD innovation was a very interesting point in our history because we went to work with Sony and Philips, helping to develop that and make it a popular format. That was the beginning of the end of physical media being such a big thing in the marketplace.

We met the people at Merging Technologies during the early days of SACD because they were creating the tools that Philips was using for their share of the Sony Philips cooperation to develop this format. It turned out we had a little bit of influence in some of those tools and we ended up developing a fantastic relationship with a number of companies, including Merging, which has benefited both of us. Tell us about that relationship with Merging. John: The relationship began because they had a phenomenal history in the analog world. Their CEO Claude Cellier realized digital was an important improvement in a lot of the things coming forward, and the SACD put an emphasis on better sounding digital recorders. We learned about the company and its capabilities, and they learned from us about what we needed in the way of practical tools to go out in the field and make recordings. Everything we do is based on Merging products or software. Other than mics and loudspeakers, what we take out into the field is Merging equipment and we bring the content back to our studios for post-production. And we use Merging software and some hardware for the post-production process.

“ONE OF THE THINGS THAT’S ALWAYS BEEN AT THE FOREFRONT WITH MERGING IS ITS FLEXIBILITY.”

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“MERGING EQUIPMENT SOUNDED BETTER THAN ANYTHING ELSE AND HAS CONTINUED TO IMPROVE AND SOUND BETTER.”

Why Merging? Mark: From the start of our relationship with Merging, one of the things that’s always been at the forefront is its flexibility. In the early days we had this software that allowed us to do things that nobody else could do. It’s the high track count and high sample rate recording we do that is unlike what virtually 99% of people in the world do. A typical week for us is 48 tracks of DXD and if you look at how much data that is, people’s eyes roll into the back of their heads. But the Merging stuff has allowed us to work at higher sample rates than most of our competitors because the hardware and software has always had this power built in from day one. In 2002 when I started using Pyramix we were already recording 128 tracks of 96K, which at the time was unheard of. It was the only system in the world that would allow you to do it. John: Basically, the Merging equipment sounded better than anything else and has continued to

improve and sound better. It also has a very interesting economic value to it in that you can replace a lot of otherwise expensive gear with Merging equipment. So, if you’re not mixing and matching lots of brands to get a job done and you use Merging, you can do it more economically. Mark: The first time I saw the Horus I looked at that box and realized exactly what it was, because it completely changed our way of working. In the old days we would show up to do a recording and have 300lbs of mic preamps and 150lbs of converters and cables and adapters, and computers with lots of cards in them, and then Claude showed me this box and says it’s 48 channels, has mic preamps, converters, and it connects to your computer with a generic network cable. And for a 48-channel box it’s going to cost $19,000.

have the converters and everything else. And the fact it’s all in a single ecosystem that is optimized for the purpose means the audio quality was significantly better than what we were previously using. It was before and after. I can’t imagine going back to those days, given the bulk of our work is on location, and allows us to work at the highest resolution available. Fundamentally we can just work, and my level of productivity wouldn’t be anywhere near what it is if I had to work with disparate products in the process. MERGING.COM SOUNDMIRROR.COM

I realized that if you took 48 channels of preamp, you’re already at $30,000 worth of equipment, and then you HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

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HEADLINER USA

Barbie, The Crown and Beyond

PRODUCTION SOUND

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NINA RICE Production sound mixer Nina Rice has become the audio admiral of a fleet of films envisioned, created and narratively driven by women. Her credits include the summer blockbuster Barbie, along with Persuasion, This Is Going To Hurt, and November’s psychological thriller Saltburn (directed by Greta Gerwig, Carrie Cracknell, Lucy Forbes, and Oscarwinner Emerald Fennell, respectively), as well as several episodes of historical drama The Crown, which chronicles the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.

Rice opens up about the role Lectrosonics Digital Hybrid Wireless has played in ensuring flawless audio across her body of work, with her equipment including a bevy of SSM microcompact transmitters, legacy SMB transmitters, HMa plug-on transmitters for boom and plant mics, and SRc receivers alongside their predecessor the SRb.

career. “I went to the National Film and Television School at Beaconsfield back in 2010. I was in TV drama for a bit, but I also worked on my own documentaries, including one in Chicago called Dream Catchers. Then, I assisted in sound on The Crown, then worked my way up to boom operator, then mixing second unit.”

“I started at the bottom, so to speak,” Rice recalls about her early HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

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Barbie, The Crown and Beyond

Her journey with Lectrosonics started on a documentary series shot in Japan called Becoming You. “It’s about the first 2,000 days of childhood from birth and it included a lot of small children,” says Rice. “That’s why I love the SSM – they’re tiny and easy to hide!” Sometimes adult wardrobes also provide sparse real estate for hiding transmitters, such as in films with focal beach scenes. “We work very closely with costumers to come up with solutions for hiding transmitters on artists. The size of the SSM gives us that flexibility – we recently even sewed a mic and SSM pack into a massive wig for a prominent lead actress.” Song-and-dance numbers combining movement and dialogue may also call for the SSM’s diminutive size. “We had two packs sewn into a lead actor’s big fur coat for a musical number that’s pivotal to a recent film,” explains Rice. “One HEADLINER USA

had the gain set low for the shouts, to avoid overloads; another SSM was set with higher gain to capture the whispers and quieter dialog. Nonetheless, even a single SSM handles a wide dynamic range very well. That’s why the actor wore a third pack for when he takes his coat off during the sequence.” A tiny footprint is usually at odds with battery life, but Rice found the SSM offered the best of both worlds. “We only need to change the LB-50 batteries in the SSMs once a day – at lunch, usually,” she notes. “This means we don’t have to disturb artists as much.” In films with large casts, the sheer numbers necessitate careful frequency coordination. “I have had up to 18 channels of wireless going at times,” says Rice. “With the width of spectrum now being taken up by things like 5G service, you need to have your wits about you and test everything. For that reason, I love the flexibility of Lectrosonics and especially the 3rd party LectroRM app, which lets me remotely control

transmitter packs so, again, I don’t have to engage artists on set.” Moviegoers may not actively notice the natural quality of both spoken dialog and sung passages in Rice’s work, which of course means her equipment is doing its job perfectly. “I’ve done tests before, recording things from whispers to shouts, using the same actor and microphone,” she explains. “Not only do I find the audio quality excellent, but it’s my team who have to be most hands-on – they’re the ones placing packs on the actors – and they’re constantly singing their praises. I was struck by the consistency of the audio whether using a current-model pack or a legacy one; it was fantastic across the board.” LECTROSONICS.COM INSTA: @BEANZZA

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108 ALLIGATOAH

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‘Retour’ Continues With GLP

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LIGHTING

‘RETOUR’ CONTINUES WITH GLP

ALLIGATOAH Lighting designer Christoph Schneider created a dystopian scenery in three acts with a full GLP setup for German rap phenomenon Alligatoah on the latest leg of his ‘Retour’, which saw him introduce tracks from his current album Rotz & Wasser. Headliner finds out more…

The artist Alligatoah is not easy to pin down. He nonchalantly marries rap with catchy pop melodies, slips into ever-changing personae and has been delighting large audiences for years with his unique overall package. Lighting designer Christoph

Schneider was responsible for the lighting design on the tour, which kicked off in the autumn. He specified 46 GLP JDC1, 10 JDC Line 1000 and five impression X5 Wash to fulfill the artist’s vision.

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“Alligatoah is a very creative person who is heavily involved in the show design,” says Schneider. “He designed most of the set himself, as well as the intro and choreography for individual songs. To complement this, I created the lighting design and programmed the show, further developing Alligatoah’s ideas and bringing the concept to life. This influenced, for example, the positions of the risers in the individual songs and the question of when everything stands still or when (and how much) it moves.” In keeping with the musician’s passion for skillful theatrics, the show is divided into three acts: Act 1 takes place in a parcel sorting office, Act 2 takes place outdoors where the packages are delivered (including using illuminated drones), and Act 3 is set in a monochrome orange world, that initially doesn’t bode well. The show is generally lit in a reductive manner, and often only from one direction. The classic lighting of the treadmills is provided by alley towers. The lighting design itself is predominantly monochromatic until it emerges in a colorful finale. “My designs are always about contrasts and the greatest possible

dynamism; very small looks versus very large ones, monochrome versus shimmering color explosions,” Schneider explains. “The goal is to tell a story and take the audience on a journey.”

towards the front deliberately reverses this shape. Together with compact beam lamps, JDC1 also formed the floor set and created a minimalistlooking architectural space, especially in the third act.

‘Retour’, the title of the tour, defines the style of the design. The stage depicts the supposed heart of modern society: a parcel warehouse. Two 14-meterlong conveyor belts send packages, musicians and props back and forth, with the lighting on the belts varying fundamentally throughout the three acts. While in the first act the impression X5 — hidden inside old industrial lamps — sets the lighting mood, package drones with beamlights are used in the second act. The third type is characterized by two light lines made of GLP JDC1, which float above the conveyor belts as variable light objects.

“JDC1s basically have a permanent place in my designs because they are so incredibly versatile,” he says. “I regularly use them to replace classic wash lights, strobes and floodlights. I also like to use them very graphically. The amount and density of hybrid devices in the rig allows me to stage them almost like a coarse-pixel LED wall.”

In addition, two movable risers for DJ and drums ensured constantly changing light images. The trapezoidal dystopian stage set is closed off at the front by a roller shutter. The look of the entire show in this instance was rather dark and disturbing. Using the GLP JDC1, Schneider traced the trapezoidal shape of the stage. A second trapezoidal truss that tapers

Schneider chose the impression X5 because of its baseless design; thanks to this, it fits into the limited space of the industrial lamps selected. “I wanted to make the moving lights completely disappear in the lamps, but still allow for some movement,” he reveals. “Therefore, I chose an appropriate compact device.” For the third act, which culminates in a gigantic rainbow after all the predominantly monochrome and reduced-lit looks, Schneider designed a clear architectural space with LED bars and a central light object made of JDC Line 1000, which looked like a light art installation in a museum. The lighting object consisted of two lines of light, which primarily shaped the dynamics in the third act. For the last song Willst du they repeated this, changing the entire light space again. Through strobe effects and — sometimes faster, sometimes slower — chasers, they emphasized rhythm and tempo, from the gently flowing to the lightning fast and blindingly bright, while the JDC1s mainly illuminated the curtains in this final act. In addition to the lighting design, Schneider programmed the show purely in timecode, with only a few ‘live’ cues (blinder, followspot, fog machine). GLP.DE

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