Headliner Issue 55

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

Paul Watson CEO

Keith Watson Chairman

Rian Zoll-Kahn COO

Amit Patel Managing Director

Alice Gustafson Editor-in-Chief

Adam Protz Senior Writer

Liz Wilkinson Content and Communications Manager

Rick Dickerson Reviews Editor

Marc Henshall Head of Digital

Grace Mcguigan

Artist Relations Manager

Rae Gray Head of Design

February’s cover star is having a good 2025 so far. At this month’s GRAMMY Awards, Beyoncé became the first black woman to win Best Country Album, also scooping the biggest prize of the night for Album of the Year (the first black woman to win since 1999), and extended her previous record of the most-awarded artist in GRAMMYs history, now with 35 trophies to her name.

Also came the news of her Cowboy Carter tour, where the issue of dynamic pricing reared its greedy head again. While it’s unclear if Ticketmaster’s controversial pricing model – which enables the company to raise the price of concert tickets based on demand – was in place for this particular tour, (Ticketmaster claimed that tickets were priced in advance for this run of shows), fans of the singer were stunned by the eyewatering prices, even for nosebleed seats.

Last year, Oasis criticised Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing system, which left fans paying far more than anticipated for concert tickets for their reunion tour; and across the pond, Taylor Swift refused to use dynamic ticket pricing for her Eras tour. Which begs the questions: Do artists have a say? And how is dynamic pricing even allowed?

This month, Ticketmaster UK MD Andrew Parsons defended dynamic pricing during a select committee

hearing in Parliament, where he stated that Ticketmaster did not set the ticket prices for Oasis’ reunion tour, and denied that Ticketmaster is ripping off music fans. Parsons said that where differing price tiers are made available, that is a choice made by the event organiser. Insisting that a lot of thought goes into concert ticket pricing, he declared that “in the main, they are very fairly priced. We work closely with event organisers to be able to sell tickets at the prices that they’ve determined in advance,” adding that no technology is driving price changes – essentially, there’s not a bot in sight driving the prices up.

Speaking of bots, the topic of AI and its role in the music industry also made its way into parliament this month. In a Commons debate, cross-party MPs condemned the Government’s plans to allow big tech firms to train their AI systems on work stolen from UK creators. The controversial change would allow AI firms to plunder music, images and text to train their models without paying music creators or even seeking their permission.

UK Music chief executive Tom Kiehl called the proposals, “Catastrophic; enabling big tech firms to effectively steal the work of music creators without their consent and without paying them,” while All-Party Parliamentary Group on Music co-chair and SNP MP Pete Wishart

pointed out that, “The only people who have an issue with our copyright laws are those running the AI tech giants, who find that such laws get in the way of what they want to do and achieve.”

The government’s response to this week’s consultation on AI and copyright remains to be seen, but having the backing of Sirs Paul McCartney and Elton John can’t hurt. Here’s to hoping that all that stands between AI taking over doesn’t come down to bots learning how to correctly select all images containing traffic lights…

Back to this issue at hand, and our cover story sees Headliner take a look at the technology that made the Netflix NFL 2024 Christmas Day Halftime Show – dubbed Beyoncé Bowl – possible; Sam Watts reveals how he scored the dark and camp theme tune for hit TV show, The Traitors; Rufus Wainwright opens up about writing his new opera and enlisting the talents of Meryl Streep; SASAMI delves into her third album, Blood On The Silver Screen, plus we bring you the latest from the worlds of live sound and music production.

To all the humans reading this issue; enjoy!

Alice Gustafson Editor-in-Chief

By Alice Gustafson

Chappell

By Dan Gumble

MIKE DIAS

PROTZ

FROM SAD POP TO ‘HAPPY’

ANANYA

Born and raised in landlocked Zimbabwe, Ananya is a pop artist and fashion designer who has relocated to the British Isles. Living in London, she began dropping singles in 2019, three of which have topped Zimbabwean charts. A year on from the release of her debut EP, i woke up one night, Ananya brings us her new single, Happy . She speaks to Headliner about the mental health-tackling track, using the release to support her Nani Wellness Project which raises money for mental health services in Zimbabwe, and filming its stunning music video in Cape Town.

Ananya’s personal take on pop music incorporates a variety of elements: some of the highs of dance and EDM music, and the grounded sounds of guitar instrumentation, all with a pop production sheen. It’s pretty hard to resist, and all sounds very accomplished from someone who only released her first single in 2019. She cites Taylor Swift, Lorde, and Joni Mitchell as some of her biggest influences, and they shine through.

She’s speaking to Headliner from home in North London, where she lives with her sausage dog. “I think growing up in Zimbabwe played a

huge role in my passion for creating and my passion for music,” she says when asked about getting into music as a young person. “A lot of our time was spent outdoors, so we had to find ways to be entertained besides that. My mum had this huge cabinet of all these different CDs and tapes, which me and my siblings would always be messing around with. I then realised how special it felt to be transformed into a different feeling when listening to music. So eventually I got a guitar, and I started playing.”

Ananya studied fashion and creative entrepreneurship in both New York and London, and says fashion and music for her go “hand in hand.” Ananya says that releasing her first single, Aftertaste, in 2019 was a natural and organic thing for her.

“I was still in uni, so I just jumped right in,” she says. “I produced Aftertaste on my own, which is why I cannot listen to it still! It just felt very natural, because it’s something I’d been doing on the side, for fun and for my own benefit. So it just felt easy.”

Late 2023 saw Ananya dropping a seven-track EP, i woke up one night, something of a feat considering most new, independent artists tend to focus on putting out lots of singles, or a four-track extended play at most. Bucking that trend, Ananya

has included some of her strongest tracks on the release, including the anthemic moon, acoustic ballad october, and the Swift-esque opener, bad for you.

“It was a really special experience making that EP because of the people I collaborated with,” Ananya says. “This is something you learn very early on in your career as an independent musician: how important collaboration is. At uni, I wrote and produced everything on my own, but as time went on, I realised the key to everything is collaboration. It was a really special and eye-opening experience.

“Knowing that anyone relates to something I’ve put out is the most inspiring and motivating thing because that’s what music’s been for me all my life. It resonates with what I said earlier about focusing on small challenges instead of the end goal. Looking back on one year, you feel appreciative and grateful, because during it, it just feels like everything is a mess and there’s so much chaos going on.”

Almost marking the one year anniversary of her debut EP is her latest single, Happy. Being outspoken about the topic of mental health is of great importance for Ananya and is one of the traits that makes her so authentic. It’s a breezy piece of pop, refreshing in that the music doesn’t necessarily have to be oppressive and heavy when tackling this subject matter. It has some stunning acoustic and electric guitar instrumentation, while Ananya’s voice soars. The voice-memo-style production on the hummed outro is a gorgeous touch. When asked if writing about a tough period was challenging, or just a

cathartic experience, she says, “I think it’s a little bit of both. The beginning of writing such a personal song is always a tiny bit intimidating, but then a lot of it just feels like a journal entry. Journal entries are always healing for me, so songwriting is too. In the end, it turns into something beautiful.

“It’s incredible to look back at a song and feel so far ahead from that feeling. It helped you get to a place where you no longer feel pain when addressing it. So, in the end, it turns out to be beautiful.

“The lyrics are about healing and being happy for someone else’s happiness, but questioning whether both of you are truly happy. Is it just a mask, and when the curtain falls, are you both dealing with your own stuff? It’s more about surface happiness and addressing that as part of the healing process. Sometimes it’s easier to address your emotions head-on and be okay with healing and not being okay for a second, instead of always shielding those feelings.”

Perhaps most beautifully of all, the track is raising money for Ananya’s own non-profit, The Nani Wellness Project, with a mission statement of helping mental health services, professionals, and initiatives in Zimbabwe. The website states: “With public spending on mental health being roughly $0.13 per capita each year here in Zimbabwe, our goal is to make help accessible. We make mental health care available for free through our mobile app, nani. The app connects Zimbabweans to mental health professionals.”

“JOURNAL ENTRIES ARE ALWAYS HEALING FOR ME, SO SONGWRITING IS TOO.”

“The Nani Wellness Project is free virtual therapy for Zimbabweans,” Ananya says. “During the pandemic, my friend Tony and I realised we had no one to talk to because everything had shut down. We found ourselves talking about everything with each other. Looking around us, we realised that mental health in Zimbabwe is very taboo and not something that’s addressed. So we realised there was a need to provide that help. And then the Nani Wellness Project was born.”

The song shines very brightly in its accompanying music video, filmed in the beautiful mountain and beach scenery of Cape Town, South Africa. We see Ananya driving a “Pontiac Parisienne, if I’m not mistaken,” she says – the car coupled with her outfit gives the video a 1950s feeling.

“Most of the EP was recorded in Cape Town, a place close to home where I’ve always enjoyed visiting and recording music. I decided to return to Cape Town and work with local creatives to make the Happy video. It visually explains the song’s meaning to me. It’s like driving endlessly,

not really getting anywhere, which mirrors the healing process. You eventually get there, but often it feels like you’re just driving aimlessly. They sent a couple of car options, and I loved the green Pontiac Parisienne. It was scary to drive that car. They actually had to cut one of the scenes because I was driving too slowly!”

In terms of keeping her mental state healthy besides creativity and songwriting, Ananya shares some of the things that keep her happy.

“I enjoy meditating. I’m really grateful for my little sausage dog who has helped me get outside more. Sometimes you don’t even realise that you just need a walk. Something that stands out to me lately, especially because it’s cold outside, is exercise.

“Often I’ll be frustrated, angry, or sad, and then I’ll do some physical exercise and feel better. A little bit of everything helps. A good cup of tea always makes you feel better.”

When asked what the phrase Play Out Loud means to her, Ananya

says, “I would say that play out loud means self-expression, which I’m forever grateful for. The ability to express myself. And self-expression for me, is when I feel so strongly about something that I turn it into art, whether that’s fashion or music.”

No surprise then, that this consummate creative has plenty more music on the way in 2025. As Ananya shares the things she’s grateful for, let us also be grateful to be invited along on her healing and creative journey. INSTA: @ANANYAMAKESMUSIC QSC.COM SPONSORED BY

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BEYONCÉ BOWL

Copyright Parkwood Entertainment

Photo by Julian Dakdouk

roW d s bYALICE GUSTAFSON BRINGING IT HOME

Not everyone can say that they spent Christmas day with Beyoncé, but for the 72,000+ people attending the Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans game at the NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas in 2024, they can – technically – claim this as fact. Taking place on December 25, Netflix gave its subscribers the gift of Queen Bey, who performed a hometown halftime performance of songs from her multiple GRAMMY-winning Cowboy Carter album during the NFL Christmas Gameday – the first to be streamed live on Netflix. Usually, a Super Bowl-esque event such as this requires at least five months of preparation for the tech teams, however, FOH engineer Alexandre Guessard got the call just five weeks before show day. Luckily for him, this ain’t his first rodeo.

“I think it’s my 18th Super Bowl,” Guessard tells Headliner , having just completed the Kendrick Lamar Super Bowl halftime show. “It’s such an intricate and special show. I’ve seen probably three or four producers since I’ve been doing FOH for the Super Bowl, and we always come back because it’s such a special event.

“The way it’s approached, the way it’s managed, the nature of it…it’s a big learning curve.”

Dubbed Beyoncé Bowl , the NFL 2024 Christmas Day Halftime Show packed in an expansive medley of music, fashion and history, Texas Southern University’s Ocean of Soul Marching Band – and a slew

of guest performers – into a fastpaced, 12-minute set. There was a lot to organise.

“Normally it’s a five-month process. This one was a five-week process,” he nods, “so it was a rush. The good thing is, pretty much the whole team was the same that normally do the Super Bowl, and we were already prepping for that. So we kind of piggybacked that show to the Super Bowl and used the same design.”

ATK – A Clair Global brand – provided a massive JBL rig for Beyoncé Bowl, featuring 14 custom carts, each loaded with six VTX A12s and two VTX S28s, bolstered by four additional carts that held three VTX S28s, either front-facing or cardioid. ATK also deployed two DiGiCo Quantum 338 Digital Mixing consoles for FOH, two Quantum 5 256-channel mixing consoles for monitoring, Sennheiser 6000 RF Microphone Systems for all performers, Shure PSM1000 IEMs, and Focusrite Rednet Network distribution/ management for this one-off event.

Guessard provides an insight into the rehearsal process, which involved a meticulously choreographed sequence featuring multiple camera

crew, Beyoncé and co. moving across multiple locations on the pitch, integrating guest singers including Post Malone and Shaboozey, a troupe of dancers, The Texans Cheerleaders, an almost 200-strong marching band, a live band, numerous moving cars (including a denim-covered Ford F-series pickup truck), culminating in Beyoncé being lifted into the air on a narrow platform above the midfield, dropping a huge banner flag beneath the platform that read “bang”.

“They do off-site rehearsals, so normally they come in fairly buttoned up,” he shares. “We had three nights of rehearsal. The first night is really a big camera block rehearsal to just see all the shots, and with regards to

the audio, we have time to balance everything.”

Given the scale of the performance – not to mention the extremely quick turnaround required to fit into the game’s tight halftime window – the audio coordination had to be seamless.

“Quick deployment on and off the field was one of the main objectives,” agrees Brett Valasek, general manager at ATK Audiotek, “so time was the largest challenge. Although it was complex with all the moving elements, once the scenic element’s choreographed moves were known, things became easier with each rehearsal, and the show’s timing was flawless,” he notes of the end result.

Copyright Parkwood Entertainment

Photo by Mason Poole

The show featured 84 JBL VTX A12 speakers and 40 VTX S28 subwoofers spread across 14 (silver tassled) custom carts. Guessard explains the reasoning behind this particular system design and deployment: “The cart system is something that has been done in the past quite a few times,” he notes, adding that when possible, they prefer to fly a full system. “But the issue with that is the cost is quite elevated when you factor in rigging

and flying everything, and due to the limited time we had, it was not possible, so we went for the cart system, which was deployed on the field in an ellipse configuration so all the timing and coherence was perfect and in-phase.

“The A12 is probably my favourite speaker from JBL,” he adds.

“It was crucial that it covered about two-thirds, to almost three-quarters

of the bowl. For the last seats, we generally use a little bit of the house system to cover that. We’ve done many Super Bowls like this. The carts get deployed as they’re on wheels, and they protect the grass on the field. We were able to roll them on easily and deploy them very quickly.”

The original plan was for cardioid subs to be used, but once on site, Guessard decided that a frontfacing setup would be more suitable. Usually, four carts with just subs are used within the cart design to add additional low end to the system. “This approach worked really well,” he reasons, “as they’re extremely in-phase, so it’s very efficient. It also looked better on the field, so one cart shadowed the other one.”

The Netflix broadcast of the halftime show began with a prerecorded segment (likely for costume change and horse-related reasons) in a tunnel leading to the stadium, which saw a stunt rider lead a magnificent half-Andalusian steed in the direction of the pitch, ridden by Knowles Carter, opening with 16 Carriages. Once everybody was done looking at that horse, the live performance and broadcast segment commenced with Beyoncé entering the stadium, kicking off with a rousing rendition of Ya Ya

“They were great straight out of the box,” Guessard says of the JBL system. “The first bar of Ya Ya sounded great. I didn’t have to chase anything; the work that we did in rehearsals really transpired into a great show.”

However, Guessard shares that a few logistical tweaks were needed to work around Beyoncé’s start position. “I did an audio design, then I redid that design. Then every time I got more information from the art department, I did another version until we were pretty much very close,” he chuckles good-naturedly. “I had to have one cart moved during the show at the entrance. After the part with the horse, Beyoncé walked on the stage and there was a cart right there, so it had to be removed. As soon as she left that location, it was put back in place.”

The Netflix broadcast mix was handled by Paul Wittman, who was stationed inside an NEP Denali Broadcast truck. Despite it being Christmas Day, live viewers in the

“THE DESIGN IS CRUCIAL. IF YOU ENERGISE THE STADIUM IN THE WRONG AREA, YOU WILL END UP WITH CATASTROPHIC RESULTS THAT YOU CANNOT SOLVE BY MIXING.”

US peaked at 27 million during the halftime performance, making it the most-watched Christmas Day NFL game since 2001. Within 10 days, nearly 50 million Netflix users had watched the standalone Beyoncé Bowl special on Netflix, which did not include the football game – (the internet’s general consensus being that it was nice of Beyoncé to let the NFL play at her concert). Guessard explains how he balanced the mix for both the in-stadium crowd and the live broadcast:

“The music and all the stems coming to us are the same as what goes to broadcast, and then I do my mix for the stadium,” he explains. “I deal with a large reflection of eight or ninesecond reverbs, of course, so it has to be treated differently. In a stadium

like this, it’s all about the design first, because it needs to put the energy in the right place. The design is crucial. If you energise the stadium in the wrong area, you will end up with catastrophic results that you cannot solve by mixing, so the design needs to be very efficient, but also very precise, and must not energise anything that you don’t want.

“Managing energy in the stadium is essential, as there’s a narrow sweet spot where the sound is optimal,” he elaborates. “Pushing beyond this range creates chaos, while dropping below it results in a loss of clarity and definition. With a dense arrangement featuring numerous instrumental layers and background vocals, I had to carefully balance everything within that ideal range to maintain a clean and powerful sound.”

At FOH, Guessard used two DiGiCo Quantum 338 digital mixing consoles in mirror mode. “For any complicated show, it’s my go-to console,” he states. “It’s reliable. I know that console inside out, sonically. It’s been good to me. It’s robust. It does everything that I want, and more.”

The DiGiCo Quantum 338 is known for low-latency processing, which was critical for ensuring phase coherence across the distributed JBL speaker carts while also feeding the broadcast mix.

“As long as all the elements have the same latency coming out of the system together, you keep all the coherence,” explains Guessard. “In a stadium like this, the latency from the source to the audience is so big because of the huge distance, so you want to have all the elements to have

the same latency.”

The show incorporated guest vocalists, including a Shaboozey mashup of Spaghettii and Riiverdance, and a more intimate duet with Post Malone on Levii’s Jeans. Guessard shares that he prefers to rely on real-time adjustments using the Quantum 338 for these moments: “All those vocals were live, so that, together with the roar of the crowd, meant I needed to make some adjustments in real time. Everything was so well calibrated,” he says. “Everything was done live: all the singers coming in and coming out, so I was pushing out some solos, and I enjoy doing that.”

The performance culminates in Beyoncé being lifted above midfield on a narrow platform to belt out the last bars of Texas Hold ‘Em, which

builds to an exciting crescendo. Guessard reveals that he didn’t need to make any unique adjustments to the system to accommodate changes in reverb, reflections, or delay times, or make any mixing or effects adjustments on the Quantum 338 to account for the open-air sound reflections: “That’s because she was in an area where she was out of proximity to the sound pressure,” he explains. “The only real change that happened is that we lowered the intensity of one JBL cart for that one segment and brought it back up. It’s nice to do it live,” he adds. “You get in the feel of it, so I’ll push a solo here, a little guitar solo there, or the voice of Dolly Parton comes in at one point, so I had to grab it and push it out. There were some big background vocals that I honed in on at one moment because it was nice to get that energy, especially toward the end. I pushed some elements that really drove that moment.”

Guessard used Waves plugins in conjunction with the console, his go-to being Waves’ Scheps Omni, which gives him Grammy-winning mixer Andrew Scheps’ time-tested combinations of compression, EQ, and saturation tones. “I bring in Waves to process the vocals, some groups of music, and the master bus as well,” he says. For Beyoncé’s vocals, Guessard keeps it simple:

“It’s some compression, some side chain, a multi-band, and I really like the Waves plugin designed by Andrew Scheps. It’s a channel plugin; it’s got some harmonic distortion, equalisation, some de-essing, some equalisation, some compression, and I can make really well-produced live vocals with that. They have zero latency – it’s a wonder for me. Especially for vocals, that plugin is my go-to. I can have a very cleanlyproduced, in-your-face vocal that can cut through anything.”

Elsewhere, Professional Wireless Systems (PWS) executed an RF over Fiber system for Beyoncé Bowl, ensuring flawless audio across an expansive 80-yard field using split transmissions across multiple zones. PWS managed frequencies for Sennheiser and Shure microphones, and Wisycom and Shure in-ear monitors, working alongside NFL gameday staff, Netflix’s broadcast crew and stadium technicians. PWS implemented a robust RF over Fiber (RFoF) antenna system, spanning UHF and STL ranges to facilitate wireless microphones and in-ear monitors (IEMs) for Beyoncé, her dancers, and the production team. The setup incorporated 10 helical antennas, including four STL models, four standard UHF antennas for microphones, and two specifically designated for dual IEM zones, ensuring uninterrupted connectivity across the performance space.

Post Malone used IEMS from Fir Audio, while Beyoncé used her custom 64 Audio Tiffany & Co. diamond encrusted A18s IEMS, which were developed in part because of special requests made by the singer in 2019 relating to the previous model she used, which was the A18t. “Beyoncé was on Sennheiser,” confirms Guessard.

“It’s a really good mic. It’s perfect. It’s precise. It works for her and it has a very nice presence.”

He explains how RF frequencies were coordinated to avoid interference between the Sennheiser mics, IEMs, and other wireless devices in the stadium: “We had the talent, where I am at FOH, dancers and the other ‘cast people’, and we used an FM system, so people wear FM receivers, and we broadcast on an FM frequency outside the normal range, so it’s easy to get 1,000 of them on the field. We have multiple channels of that, so the marching band can be on one, and all the dancers can be on another channel, and so forth.”

A Focusrite RedNet system was used for network distribution and management. Guessard explains how RedNet helped streamline routing, latency control, and overall system management using Dante-based audio networking during the show: “We used the Focusrite to transport our signal flow all the way from the broadcast truck to all the consoles,” he explains. “Because the consoles are MADI-based, the broadcast is also MADI-based, as is the network between it and the system for the carts, so it’s all based in Dante. We converted all the MADI files to Dante and managed everything through the Focusrite RedNet system.”

With redundancy systems in place at every level should the worst happen, the only thing that could stand in Beyoncé’s way was buffering. The two-game NFL Christmas Gameday broadcast was the first ever to be streamed live on Netflix, and with the

way Netflix fumbled the Jake Paul and Mike Tyson live-streamed boxing match just prior, the pressure was on. Guessard shares that should the worst have happened, there was a plan in place for that scenario too:

“One of the rehearsals is previously filmed at the same time of day as the show, and that is our safety net. It would be a full dress rehearsal that was filmed. In a worst-case scenario, if something collapsed with the tech, that’s the go-to,” he reveals. “That video will be rolling at the same time the show is happening live, and we would need to cut to it for the people watching the show if something happened, so there is a way to keep going. It would have to be something catastrophic to get to that – a real showstopper,” he points out.

“Everybody has built-in safety at pretty much all levels. We have a redundancy on everything. If a microphone cuts, we have a way to recover. If one console dies, there is another one running in parallel that will automatically switch over. If Pro Tools collapses, the other one will keep going. We have redundancy everywhere on that show. Fortunately, I have never really had to go to it, but we have safety nets everywhere.”

Beyoncé Bowl ended with a bang, as planned, and Guessard reflects on another successful halftime performance: “It was a great show,” he says. “The showmanship was perfect and everything went well. It felt a little strange to come back to the hotel at night and figure out it was actually Christmas! All the elements and the vendors worked together to be able to create that moment and execute the artist’s vision. We know what’s possible. We know the beast very well,” he grins.

MUSICIAN FIRST, ENGINEER SECOND

CARLOS RODGARMAN

With multiple Grammy and Latin Grammy nominations to his name, Carlos Rodgarman is a Spanish-born, Los Angeles-based engineer, songwriter, composer, and musical director. He chats to Headliner about his ‘musician first, engineer second’ approach to his work, collaborating with Michael Bublé, his work composing and engineering music for television and media, and how Genelec studio monitors fit into the broader picture.

Was music a big factor when you were growing up in Spain?

Music has always been in my family. My dad is a musician, and my older brother plays piano. On my mother’s side, my uncle was an opera singer. So, music has always been around, and for half of the family, it was the profession. Like many others in Spain, I started at the age of eight on piano, and later studied it at a conservatoire.

How did you transition from formal piano studies to the music technology side of things?

I got a little bored of classical piano, and went off the rails into learning jazz and playing in bands. I’ve always had an interest in technology, but also in

arranging music. I started doing small production jobs in Galicia, my region in Spain. It led to a very comfortable professional position where I was making money and happy playing with my friends. But you always want more, and there’s a limit to what you can do there. It eventually came to a point where I had to decide: either I go to Madrid to see how I can grow there, or take a shot at something bigger. I figured I might as well go to L.A, and worst-case scenario, if nothing happened, I could always come back and start again in Madrid. I came here on a three month tourist visa, and here I am 22 years later.

There don’t seem to be many engineers who are so outspoken about a ‘musician first, engineer second’ approach like yourself; could you talk a little about this and why it’s so important to you?

I attribute a lot of my perspective to my dad and his point of view when I was growing up. He taught me the basics and more, but even as a pianist, he’d say, “Yes, you play piano, but unless you’re playing solo concerts, you need to understand the piano from the band’s point of view”. That mentality stuck with me because it made me a better player. By learning to listen to others, the band sounded better, and I grew as a musician. The same mindset applies to music production. You don’t have to be a musician to be a great engineer — there are incredible engineers out there who don’t know music theory. But as an engineer,

you’re still making music. That requires at least a basic understanding of communication with session players, orchestras, or whoever you’re working with. And when you’re mixing, you need to know what every instrument is doing, whether it’s programmed electronic music or organic music with live instruments. The other crucial thing as an engineer is to know how these instruments sound in real life — I often need to be in the room with the instruments and musicians so I have a reference point when I mix them.

You’ve been working with the likes of Michael Bublé and you’re also very active in the world of film and TV; how’s it all coming along?

With Michael Bublé, we’ve been working on the immersive Dolby Atmos mixes for his latest record. It’s kind of a ‘greatest hits’ style record. I’ve done

a lot of different media projects over the years, but one of the things I truly love is working with strings, orchestras, and big bands. In L.A, I’ve worked on so many projects – a lot of commercial campaigns. Every beauty product or type of commercial you can think of!

I’ve done some TV work – composing some original music for Ray Donovan and Rescue Me back in the day. I’ve worked on orchestrating for projects, and engineering for others. I’ve also worked on independent films, but I haven’t fully broken into the feature film world yet. I’m trying to lean a little bit more into the film world.

“WITH THE GENELEC SYSTEM, WHATEVER I DO HERE TRANSLATES PERFECTLY.”

You’re a long-term user of Genelec studio monitors. Can you remember how you first began using them?

I’ve used Genelec on and off because most of the big studios in the world will have a Genelec system. I’ve worked with Humberto Gatica [Celine Dion, Chicago, Michael Jackson, Barbra Streisand] for years, and he’s always used Genelec, so I was familiar with their sound through his work. He’s mixed on Genelec for most of his career, not only in his house, but wherever he went, he would always request Genelec. So I would listen to his mixes on Genelec, and I loved the sound of them. I was considering converting my studio to Atmos, and I thought it made sense to have a second system for stereo mixing. I ended up installing my system here with a Genelec 7.1.4 immersive system, and it’s just incredible. I’m really happy and very used to it now.

How has it been, calibrating an Atmos system with your Genelec monitors?

For people who might not know the SAM monitoring system, it allows me to see how it calibrates. Calibration was a big part of it; it literally took me one minute to calibrate the 13 speakers. I didn’t want to have to buy a dedicated monitoring controller or change my interface, because I love my interface. So suddenly, I had a system that sounded amazing, and I didn’t have to buy or do anything extra. These are big investments, so I try to do as much research as I can and see what’s the most effective. Now I’m even happier, because I have the Neve Genesys G3D console. So now I’m able to control all the monitoring in Atmos from the console.

Can you give an example of a recent project you worked on using your Genelec monitors?

One of the last ones we finished was with Luís Jara, a big artist from Chile. The project took Latin classics that everyone knows and reimagined them in the crooner, big band world. It’s amazing how, when you’re conducting a big band in the recording studio, you’re already setting up the musicians in a way that reflects how you want to present the sound spectrum later. That initial arrangement is crucial because you don’t want to have to shift things too much afterward. Especially with so many microphones involved, you’re essentially creating the immersive experience in the room itself.

When it comes to Atmos mixing, there’s so much flexibility – there’s no right or wrong. You can go completely natural or as artificial as you like; it all works. For me, in these situations, I prefer a conductor’s point of view — not exactly where the conductor stands, but close to it. For example, we placed the saxophones on the left, trombones on the right, and trumpets in the back of the room, creating my Atmos perspective. With the Genelec system, whatever I do here translates perfectly, making the sound as natural as possible.

Image credit: Aurelie Ayer

SWISS BEATS

Words by ALICEGUST A F NOS

MARQUISE FAIR

You’ll likely know Miami-born singer-songwriter Marquise Fair from his stint on American Idol. What might come as a surprise, however, is learning that he’s from a violent ghetto where a career in music would have seemed the goal of the delusional. In this Emerging Headliner interview powered by JBL, Fair reflects on escaping the ghetto, participating in American Idol and risking it all to make music in Switzerland.

“Before I moved to the ghetto when I was 12, I had never experienced much of anything,” Fair admits from his home in Hallandale Beach, Florida. “I had a very sheltered upbringing. I wasn’t allowed to have friends, I wasn’t allowed to watch cable. I wasn’t allowed to go outside my gate. I wasn’t allowed to do almost anything but go to church and watch Disney movies. Then I moved into the ghetto.”

With not much life experience and having lived a very sheltered existence, Fair suddenly found himself living with his mother and brothers in subsidised housing in Miami, going from three meals a day and a stable environment to going hungry and

feeling unsafe. “It was overwhelming,” he reflects thoughtfully, adding that music was the only thing that kept him out of trouble. “I was fairly angry every day. I had never experienced being enraged every single day; I was mad at my circumstances and mad at what I had to go through just to go to school. Every day I had to walk. I didn’t have money. I went from getting three meals a day and a ride to school with everything I needed to be successful, to no ride to school, no three meals a day. Now I gotta walk to school. I don’t have no money in my pocket. I can’t even eat. So I was pissed off at that, but at the same time I had to deal with all these aggressive people who were mad at me because I’m

smiling, or because I sing. Picking up an instrument is not something you do in the ghetto,” he stresses.

“Nobody has an instrument. It’s just not a thing. We play football in my neighbourhood, and if you’re not playing football, then you’re probably going to end up in jail or selling drugs or something, because that’s pretty much the way you make it out, unless you work for the government or go to the army or something like that. Those are the options for the kids in the ghetto. They’re not really prepared to be successful in society.”

Despite this, Fair found that he was always drawn towards music and singing. He would watch Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit and wish he was one of the kids in the film, which led him to join the school choir and write his own songs. “I didn’t think about being a musician or singing,” he says. “I just loved it. I sold lollipops to buy an MP3 player, and once I did that, there was never a time that I didn’t have an MP3

player or was listening to music from the age of 13 – still to this day.”

It was while living in the ghetto that he learned to understand the blues, although he already had developed a love of gospel music from his grandmother, and they often sang blues songs that originated from African slaves. “I come from strong, resilient people,” he asserts. “They

created the most beautiful things while living under the worst circumstances. I started listening to music to get myself out of this new funk. I knew what it felt like to feel safe and content, so I would gravitate towards music that would help me feel the same way.”

Later on, a scholarship enabled Fair to study at Florida International University, where at 22, he was attending school, learning to play the guitar and writing songs. He started attending open mics every Tuesday to improve his performance skills. A chance encounter when he performed at an art gallery would go on to change Fair’s life, and would lead him, of all places, to Switzerland. An artist introduced Fair to drummer and producer David Wehren, and they immediately hit it off. “Your vibe attracts your tribe,” he nods. “It’s the frequency that you move on; it aligns you with people who move in that same type of realm.”

After about a year and a half of sharing ideas, Wehren suggested Fair try his luck in Switzerland and offered to help him navigate a career in a new country. An irresistible opportunity in front of him, Fair decided to decline the university position offered to him and to take his chances overseas instead. In order to finance the expensive plane ticket, he busked on the streets and took jobs digging holes, picking up rocks and serving hotel clients. He even sold his guitar.

“Oh my God, it was a lot of sacrifice!” he recalls nostalgically. “Busking was how I was making money playing music on the streets, and it was how I was getting my skills ready, so that way I’d be good when I got to Switzerland. My brother told me that in Colorado, people really tip, and that mountain people tend to be a lot more down to earth and are more receptive to art, so I went to the mountain town, and he was right. Immediately, I’m making $20 an hour playing music on the streets! But then the winter came, and I’m from Miami, so I thought I was going to play through winter. I literally thought that I was going to go and busk while it was snowing outside,” he laughs, shaking his head at the memory. “I was like, ‘It’s all right; it’s just snow.’ I literally thought I was going to double up and put on my mittens and still go busking. I went out

and tried it – my feet froze and my fingers froze, and I literally couldn’t play even if I wanted to. I realised I was gonna have to get a job.”

Several jobs later, Fair managed to save a few hundred dollars, and flew to Switzerland. When he finally arrived at his destination, he met with Wehren, who kept his promise and helped the singer-songwriter develop himself as an artist and finance the recording and production of his first album. Compared to where he grew up, Fair found his new Swiss location to be almost indescribable. “Once I

got there, I can’t begin to explain…” he trails off. “For somebody that’s coming from a pretty gruesome, rough environment where you have to be tough... literally people die every other day,” he shares as an example. “People that I’ve known that were 21 years old were killed in front of their house because they looked like somebody else. Stuff like that happens all the time. When I got to Switzerland, there was not one ounce of that energy in the air. It is one of the best places to live in the world, or the best place I’ve lived in so far,” he notes.

Image credit: Aurelie Ayer

In 2017, Fair decided to try out for American Idol, which he considers a valuable experience, although one that taught him that he doesn’t like playing other people’s music. “I learned that if I’m going to do something, that I should do my best at whatever I do, regardless of how I feel about the situation,” he considers. “I wasn’t feeling the way that they were talking to me on the show. I didn’t like the way that if they tell you to jump and smile and be happy, you gotta jump and smile and be happy. I’m just like, ‘I’m not feeling happy, smiley and jumpy.’ I’m not with that, because I was raised very strict. I couldn’t go outside my yard, you know what I mean? I couldn’t have friends outside of school. I’m not going to be under the control of anybody that’s telling me to jump and smile and be happy. I’m not being controlled. I just can’t do it. I like that about myself.

Fair then returned to focus on his own music once more, and recently released the single, Better World, featuring an international collaboration with Nima Delnavazi from Iran on the Tar string instrument, and Einat Betzael from Israel on backing vocals. In this current climate of division and conflict, Fair wants to bring listeners closer together. “Bob Marley has a song where he says, ‘There’s a natural mystic blowing through the air’, and I consider what I do to very much be a part of

something that already exists, and already has existed, and it continues to exist and grow and transform,” he says. “It’s almost like I’m doing my part in a bigger pool of people that are trying to help uplift and unite the people of the world. The idea of us living together sustainably – the fight started way before I was born and is going to keep going way after I die. I’m just doing my part. The song is a continuation of a bigger thing. The first album I did was Ripple, and the ripple was supposed to create a wave to make a better world. It’s one of my most important songs.”

As an experienced busker – in all weather conditions – Fair knows an essential part of any gigging musician’s arsenal is a reliable PA system. He shares that he uses a JBL EON ONE compact portable PA with professional-grade mixer for busking and live shows these days.

“It’s invaluable,” he insists. “For somebody like me, the main way that I get my gigs is through busking. I have to be able to set up anywhere that I want and play music loud enough for as many people to hear me, because if there’s 100 people there and 50 of them hear me, perhaps 10 of them are going to tip me, and one of them is going to try to book me. My job is to get to a place where I can get as many groups of 100 coming through. That is not easy to do unless you have something like

the EON ONE, because I literally can go anywhere with it. It has a mixer already built in, it’s portable, it has three channels, and JBL is known for having good sound quality. I literally, continuously make money off it, plus I can use it at my gigs as another monitor. I was actually amazed and surprised about how good the sound quality was,” he remarks. “It got louder and louder and louder, and eventually to the point where I was like, ‘When it starts shaking, that’s what you want!’ You plug in, turn it on and play. It’s that easy.”

Looking ahead to new music and the possibility of a second album, Fair shares that he already has eight songs ready to go: “We have more people from around the world. There will be blues, there will be reggae, and there will be some rock songs… that’s about as much as I can tell you,” he grins.

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DROW S BY ALICE GUSTAFSON

SCORING THE TRAITORS

SAMWATTS

If you were one of the 5.4 million people that tuned in to watch the first episode of the third season of BBC’s wildly popular show, The Traitors UK, then you’ll be all too familiar with the show’s dramatic – and slightly camp – main theme. Keeping viewers on the edge of their seats and second-guessing everything each week (who’s next to be murdered? Will there be traitor-on-traitor crime? What diabolical spelling of someone’s name will we see at the banishment? How chunky will Claudia Winkleman’s knitwear be?) the programme has gone from strength to strength in a few short years and has seen the nation tuning in in their millions.

Despite the show being shrouded in mystery, The Traitors’ composer Sam Watts agreed to lower his cloak and join Headliner at the turret to reveal all about how he created The Traitors’ iconic main theme and share how his music has been integral to shaping the sound of the programme that has brought audiences everything from, “but Ross is…”, to #jazathachristie, Paul’s pantomime bow, Linda’s acting, agonising final reveals, and everything in between.

You composed the main Traitors theme, which is such an integral part of the show and sets the dramatic tone perfectly. How did you come up with how this should sound?

I got a message from a friend of mine called Abi Lambrinos, who is one of the producers on The Traitors. She sent me a message saying, ‘I’ve got this show. We’re wondering if you’d be interested’. I had a chat with Studio Lambert about doing it, and they asked me to put together a reel of music that I’d written. They gave me a few pointers on the kinds of music that they liked. One morning, I came up with the basic idea for the theme and I sent it to them – it’s very different to how it is now. It had a much slower beginning and a slower tempo, but luckily they liked it, and they asked me to do some music for the show.

“I LIKE DOING THE DARK STUFF, AND I LIKE DOING THE CAMP STUFF AS WELL.”

People always ask me, ‘How do you come up with these things?’ The real honest answer is, I haven’t got a clue [laughs]. It’s such an ethereal thing, but I had in mind that murder mystery, dramatic, slightly camp kind of idea. I knew I wanted a really big, singable theme. I knew I wanted – this is going to sound so egocentric! It’s not, because I could never write like this – but almost like John Williams’ Close Encounters. That is so iconic and every time you hear it, you know. I wanted something that people would recognise as soon as they turned the telly on, so I came up with the four note hook, which initially was just going to be a part of the accompaniment to the main theme, but I got into the groove with it. It’s a bit weird, because it’s a very close harmony – it’s D, E, F, and then C sharp, so it’s all very close together and feels a bit off kilter, but that became the theme. The production team were like, ‘We love the hook!’ – so I made more of it. I remember always loving those shows when you would hear the first few notes of the music and you’d run back into the room, so, I wanted to try and create something a bit like that.

You do not score to picture, and have no idea how your music will be used. How do you create these cues that set the tone of the show, without knowing what they will be used for?

It is a challenge! There were lots of conversations with the production, and over season one I got to see a few clips so that I sort of knew the tone. I went back and forth with executive producers Sarah Fay [UK version] and Sam Rees-Jones [US version] at Studio Lambert, tweaking things and getting

things right. It was a lot of brain work, actually, because I had certain format points that they wanted me to write for, and then everything else was moods and things that they could use here: a little bit of cheeky stuff there, something really dramatic for that, something uplifting there. It’s moods and emotions more than anything else. They play the piano version of the theme when a contestant is murdered. They were like, ‘We want something a bit sad for the murders’. I did an uplifting version of the theme that was used in series one when they were flying in the helicopters. There were lots of spreadsheets involved, which is not normally what you do when you’re scoring to picture with keys, tempos, time signatures and chord sequences and all of those sorts of things. I designed it so that when we delivered the stems, they can put bits together and chop it up and make new pieces of music out of two separate pieces of music that I wrote. It’s quite versatile for them, and they can use certain aspects of a track or something that creates a slightly different mood. I call it jigsaw puzzle music when you’re writing like that, because you’re thinking about what pieces fit with what pieces. There was a lot of lateral thinking about how the music was going to fit together. It is kind of flying without knowing where you’re going, in a way – very unusual.

Were there distinct musical themes for the Traitors and the Faithful?

I guess the Traitors do have their own music. I felt like most of the music I was writing was sort of for the traitors, because the heavy focus is on the treachery of this show. I like doing the dark stuff, and I like doing the camp stuff as well.

What are some of your favourite uses of your music over iconic scenes from the show so far?

I did really like the end of series one; the way the music was used there was really cool. It was very dramatic and fun to watch. I’ve written a couple of more whimsical, fun pieces, and fun versions of the theme that have been used here and there for lovely people like Maddy in series one, and a little bit on Linda in series three. It was quite fun to help with highlighting the characters. I laughed at the reverse theme in S3E8 when they played the theme backwards in the dolls challenge on that episode. That was a lot of fun.

Image credit: BBC / Studio Cody Burridge Image credit: BBBC / Studio Lambert

credit: Studio Lambert

Burridge

credit: Studio

Euan Cherry

It sounds like a large orchestra was used. Where was the theme recorded and what were the key instruments?

Actually, it’s all fake! It’s almost all virtual. I rely very heavily on my brother, Dan. He does all of my mixing. He’s phenomenal. He’s a fantastic guitarist, so the guitar that you hear is my brother. I did all of the orchestral stuff and some synth stuff, and then I sent it over to him, and was like, ‘Throw even more on it to make it even bigger’. He wrote some additional synth parts for it using a wall of ‘70s and ‘80s synths that he’s collected and he put some actual analogue synths on there. Then he recorded some ridiculous guitar, which really tips the campness of the theme when that screaming guitar comes in at the end. He sent it back to me, and I loved it instantly. But everything else, other than the analogue stuff that Dan recorded, is all done in the box – all artificially. I programmed all of it and spent a long time trying to make it sound as realistic as possible. The budget to record it, if I orchestrated it out properly and went into a studio, we’d probably need 130-150 players. It’s just so big that the session that Dan had to mix was a nightmare, because there was just so much going on in it!

As you did everything in the box, were there specific music production tools or software you relied on heavily while composing for The Traitors?

I have a dedicated home studio space in the house that is not as fancy as some people might think. I write using Steinberg’s Cubase. I think Cubase is great. I love it and I find it very easy to use, and I’m not very tech-savvy. At the start of every project when I’m coming up with how it’s going to sound, I’ll make a specific template for that project, so I have all the instruments I think I’m going to use in place. Then I can use that template as the starting point for every cue, and that’s really helpful. Cubase works really well for my brain! It’s quite simple to set up: it’s easy to make a sound, and that’s the thing that I need. I need to be able to open a program and press A, middle C and hear it, so that’s very cool. The integration with Dorico is great. And the more that they do that, it’s going to make things much, much quicker getting things out of your DAW and into a score when you’re with live players. It’s very, very clever. I am learning Dorico at the moment. It’s really cool and it’s very intuitive, plus it looks very nice. That integration with Cubase and not having to spend hours and

hours cleaning MIDI up to then export and import into another program, to then tidy up…that’s a laborious task. Everything that they do to make it that little bit easier is brilliant.

People have viewing parties for the finales, and each year you’ll see footage of people in pubs watching the live final. What do you make of the show’s popularity?

I think it’s brilliant. I cannot believe how much the show has taken off. I was hooked instantly and I watched all of it. Then they announced that Claudia Winkleman was going to be doing it, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, she’s my favourite. That’s going to be brilliant’. It’s kind of weird and really awesome that it’s captured something. The first series was sort of a slow burn, and then it became this thing that you cannot predict at all, and I just love that. People enjoy it so much. It’s that water cooler television that everyone’s talking about.”

ROYAL ALBERT HALL

“DIGICO IS MY GO-TO TOOL; IT IS THE NUCLEUS OF MY WORK.”

London’s Royal Albert Hall is an iconic venue, hosting diverse performances every night of the week. Famous for its striking looks, the 153-yearold building had several acoustic challenges when amplifying modern music for the almost 6,000-capacity auditorium, as Headliner learns…

In 2018, the Royal Albert Hall made a significant investment in audio equipment, with all sound requirements being brought in-house. DiGiCo consoles are at the centre of the building’s audio set-up, including a Quantum 852, Quantum 7, SD10, SD9 and SD11 - which are all owned by the venue. This ensures continuity for the quality of sound, whatever the performance, and enables the audio department to prepare shows in advance, improving workflow during quick daily turnarounds.

Ben Evans has been the audio operations manager since 2021. He was part of the team that instigated the Hall’s first in-house audio team and is well-placed to understand the needs of this unique venue. Every inch of space is used in the building and performances are always high profile.

There have been shows on stage, endon or in the round, in the loading bays, on the stairs and even on the roof. The sound system needs to be flexible and fast to keep up.

The after-sales support offered by Autograph and Rob Tory, head of

technical support, plus the Hall’s onsite facilities in the basement warehouse, ensures the sound team is ready for anything, including offsite rehearsals.

“During 2018, we went out to tender and had a d&b audiotechnik system designed for us, in addition to new network infrastructure,” Evans says. “We have a different show pretty much every day, so our five consoles allow us to prep and rehearse efficiently.

“When combined with our fibre networking, we can serve our multitude of shows effortlessly.”

Tom Marshall is a sound designer and freelance front-of-house sound mixer for the Royal Albert Hall, and he works on many of the performances, whether it’s a book launch, concert or a recital by the Royal Philharmonic. He uses DiGiCo products widely, in every area of his career.

“DiGiCo is my go-to tool, it is the nucleus of my work, and I feel very comfortable with it, whether I am mixing or designing, I’d be lost without it,” he says.

“There are always demands from directors or producers and the speed of the console means that if I do get a request, I don’t have to make anyone wait; I can make changes instantly.”

When mixing, especially at the Royal Albert Hall, Marshall relies on DiGiCo onboard effects and processing to help things go smoothly. The development of the Spice Rack

was a real game-changer for him, so having continuity across the whole Quantum range has been another bonus of using DiGiCo consoles.

“I find myself using the dynamic compression and EQ a lot. Having the ability to add it across a whole group is really useful, especially if you are doing something with a high channel count, it just makes your life easier,” he explains. “Coupled with the ergonomics, user interface and the size of the screens, it allows you to see and access a lot more at once.”

Usability is very important, especially in this busy, high-profile venue, but what really gives DiGiCo the edge is their relationship with DiGiCo and sales partner, Autograph.

“I find DiGiCo a very personal company in comparison to other manufacturers,” says Evans. “They are very much available on the phone and having such a personal element of support from them is really important for an in-house sound team like us, it’s great to have that relationship.”

“DiGiCo feels like a family. There is always massive support, online and in person, plus a community of tech support and other operators, so you can always get answers very quickly,” Marshall concludes. “For me, DiGiCo is a must.”

DIGICO.BIZ

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT

Credit: Miranda Penn Turin

It’s hard enough to guess what popstar, polymath, and GRAMMYnominee Rufus Wainwright is going to do next at the best of times, least of which when it’s releasing a Lord Byron and climate change-inspired opera. Almost three decades into his career, Wainwright chats to Headliner about writing his new opera, Dream Requiem during the pandemic, how it ended up enlisting the talents of Meryl Streep, Jane Fonda, Sharon Stone, and Carice Van Houten, and why he’s ready to re-enter the world of pop after this classical excursion.

One of the most acclaimed artists living today, the Canadian-American is a two-time Juno award winner, a GRAMMY and BRIT award nominee, and something of a troubadour, touring since the age of 13.

Born to folk singers Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III, his performing life debuted as a member of The McGarrigle Sisters and Family, which comprised his parents, his sister Martha Wainwright, (who has also gone on to make a career of her own as an acclaimed songwriter) and his aunt Anna McGarrigle.

Prior to releasing his self-titled debut in 1998, Wainwright was regularly performing at club nights in Montreal, and then in New York once relocated there. Rufus Wainwright was released on the DreamWorks record label, coincidentally the studio behind Shrek, a film which brought extra attention to Wainwright’s career when its soundtrack featured his cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah His debut record showed early signs of his affinity for opera with its arrangements and singing style, and glowing reviews poured in from the world’s top music publications.

Opera has been a constant in Wainwright’s life, a fan of its music

from an early age, with plenty of signs of that across his 12 studio albums. He joins the Zoom call from Barcelona ahead of a performance of Dream Requiem, where he will be performing the narration himself.

On his operatic awakening, he says, “I was about 13 years old, living in Montreal; I very much knew that I was gay. It never really occurred to me to be anything else,” he laughs. “It was around 1987 and AIDS was ravaging the gay male community. I was keenly aware of that and very frightened. So I was primed for a Gothic awakening,” he grins. “One evening, my aunt Anna came over to see my mum and we listened to Verdi’s Requiem for the first time. From the moment it started until it ended, that whole two-hour period became a transformational moment. When it ended, I was a completely different person. The next day all I wanted to hear was opera.

“Growing up in the music business, I figured out early that to survive, you needed a certain unique quality,” he furthers. “I think I knew that my love of opera would be a useful weapon; like all the odd chord changes and the structures of arias that I could then infuse into my pop work and differentiate me from the herd.”

Dream Requiem is not Wainwright’s first contribution to the operatic oeuvre; the first was Prima Donna, which was performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and released by Deutsche Grammophon in 2015. He followed this in 2018 with Hadrian, performed by the Canadian Opera Company, which premiered at the Four Seasons Centre in Toronto. In a not-dissimilar vein, 2016 saw him release Take All My Loves in which he set nine of Shakespeare’s sonnets to music, with guest performances from Helena Bonham Carter, Carrie Fisher, William Shatner, his sister Martha

Wainwright, and Florence Welch.

The latest opera opens with Oscarwinner Meryl Streep ominously reciting Lord Byron’s Darkness: “I had a dream that was not all a dream.” She is followed by a passage of harp and cor anglais. After two instrumental pieces, the opera singers join on the third track of the album, Lux Perpetua

The album recording is taken from the opera’s premiere in Paris last year, in which Streep took part.

Dream Requiem is a reflection on climate change and environmental collapse, using text taken from the Latin Mass For The Dead (which has also appeared in operas by Verdi, Britten, and Mozart) and Lord Byron’s poem Darkness, a work that is also concerned with collapsing ecology.

“Yes, we did it with Meryl,” Wainwright says as if it’s no big deal. “I’m here in Barcelona for tonight’s performance. Sharon Stone was supposed to do it but sadly, because of the fires in L.A, she didn’t feel comfortable leaving Los Angeles. So I’m stepping in to be the narrator here in Barcelona, which I’m very excited about. Then on May 4th, in Los Angeles at Disney Hall, Jane Fonda will be the narrator. That’s going to be quite the evening, considering what’s going on in California and also in the U.S.”

In terms of enlisting Streep, it wasn’t a case of sending a cold-approach email — she and Wainwright were already friends. “A lot of these kinds of relationships start out because you’re just at the same function. Whether it’s a fundraiser, the GRAMMYs, or an Oscar party, you do run into these people. We offered the role to several people, and a few were interested

“I KNEW THAT MY LOVE OF OPERA WOULD BE A USEFUL WEAPON.”

but didn’t have time, but Meryl came back immediately and 100% wanted to do it.”

And with regards to Fonda, it turns out there was no need to even ask her to be part of the L.A performance. “I’m very close with Jane. She’s someone I very quickly became friends with in L.A. One day we were sitting talking, and I mentioned to her about the Paris premiere and about Meryl being involved, and Jane turned to me and said ‘I’m gonna do L.A’”.

As if those names being dropped aren’t outrageous enough, the Amsterdam performance will be narrated by Carice Van Houten, who many will know best as Melisandre from Game Of Thrones

The opera came about in an interesting way for Wainwright — prior to the COVID lockdowns, he had been asked to write an opera for the Greek National Opera. Unable to commit to a full opera, he started writing them a smaller piece for performance, and while looking for some text to set the music to, he was eventually led to Lord Byron’s Darkness. Around the same time, a collaborator suggested he should try writing a requiem around the Latin Mass For The Dead. This led him to the genesis of the idea for Dream Requiem

“The Greek National Opera wanted something around the Greek Revolution because it was the anniversary,” he says. “I couldn’t give them an opera, but I’d write a piece of music with some text. I was really set on it being contemporary, very hard, cutting edge, very brutal and modern. I had an idea to look at transcripts from the island of Lesbos, from migrants and refugees pouring into Europe from Africa.

“But then along the way, a friend of mine told me the person who’s most associated with the Greek Revolution is the poet Lord Byron. He helped fund it, and he also died in the revolution. I immediately said that I wasn’t into it. I’ve done the romantic

thing – Prima Donna, Hadrian. A few days later, I took out my phone, and I very discreetly Googled Byron and the Greek Revolution just to see what would come up. I was thinking I’d just check this out for two seconds. The first thing that came up was the poem Darkness. I started reading it, and I thought, ‘Oh shit. Here we go. We’re back in the romantic age. There goes my hip new project.’ The words just jumped off the page and I got the message that I had to compose this and do something with this poem.”

In terms of how his 2025 is shaping up, Wainwright says, “The Requiem is going to a lot of other cities. I’m also going to be doing my solo shows here and there. I’m actually taking June and July off to do nothing, which I think is very important. Once the fall rolls around, I’m very much looking forward to going into the studio and making a pop record. I’ve missed being in the studio and just doing songs. During this period, I’ve been writing kind of furiously. It will be nice to ignore some of what’s going on in the United States and just be in a dark

studio room where there’s no sense of time or space.”

If you’re going to be in Los Angeles on May 4th, you’d be mad to miss the Walt Disney Concert Hall performance of Dream Requiem with Fonda narrating. The same goes for the June 20th Amsterdam Concertgebouw rendition with Carice van Houten.

Beyond that, it’s a case of seeing what Wainwright comes up with next after he reenters the studio later this year. Whatever it may be, it feels a fairly safe bet that it will further cement his status as one of our most cherished songwriters and performers.

RUFUSWAINWRIGHT.COM

Credit: Miranda Penn Turin

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BREAKTHROUGH PRODUCER OF THE YEAR

TAYTE NICKOLS

Named MPG Breakthrough Producer of The Year in 2024, Tayte Nickols is a sought-after producer for emerging musical artists in the U.K. and around the world. His early forays into recording and production included an internship at Catalyst Studios where he would learn Pro Tools. By age 23, he would become one of the youngest commercial studio owners in England with the opening of Mad Fox in Manchester. Here, he reveals how he turned his dyslexia into his producing superpower, how he overcame imposter syndrome, and provides an insight into his favourite AUDIX microphones, including the multi-mic FP7 Fusion kit on drums; the SCX25A on piano, overhead duties, and other acoustic sources; and the A133 large-diaphragm condenser on vocals and acoustic guitar, and most recently, the new D6X on kick drums and toms.

Congratulations on your MPG win for Breakthrough Producer!

Thanks, I won that in the earlier part of last year. It was so nice to be recognised for my work. All I really do is find bands that are up-andcoming: grassroots, talented but perhaps not doing much, and I try to develop them. That was lovely.

When and where did AUDIX microphones come into the picture?

My first full drum mic set was one of the AUDIX Fusion series, the FP7 I believe. It included the F9 condensers, which are pencil mics that I still use to this day. At Catalyst Studios, I had a three-month internship with

an accomplished producer called Sugarhouse. He always used a D6 as his kick drum mic and an i5 on the snare. So, when I started to get set up, I knew they were great, and not crazy money, either. Then I saw the Fusion series kit and thought it would be a very good jumping-off point. The D2 and D4 became my go-to tom mics. As my business started doing better, I started upgrading to your higher range of mics. I always request the D6 if I’m working in a commercial studio, because you put it in front of the kick, or a bass guitar cabinet, and it just works. I should have brought my D6 coffee mug for this Zoom call!

“I DON’T THINK I’D BE THE MUSIC PRODUCER I AM IF I WEREN’T DYSLEXIC.”

Which mics do you use as drum overheads?

The ones that look like a lollipop — the SCX25A. I don’t think they’re specifically sculpted for drums, but whether I have them in a standard overhead configuration or in X/Y, which I’ll sometimes do, they just sound right. The cymbals and snare cut really nicely in them, but they stay warm and don’t get too sharp or strident, which can happen with a lot of condensers as overheads. They created a nice stereo picture of the kit with very little effort needed.

Have you tried the SCX25A on piano?

My production room in Camden is quite small. There’s a drum kit on one side and an upright piano on the other. So, I’ll often turn the drum overheads around and just put them on the piano. They have the same warmth in the treble range but pick up a lot of detail, like just the right amount of the fingers on the keys and the mechanical noises of the piano.

With AUDIX mics in general, how much EQ and/or dynamics processing do you find you need after the fact?

The D6 is amazingly sculpted for kick right out of the box, but I like to push things in that direction even further. I suppose what I’m saying is, yes, I do EQ quite a bit, but with AUDIX mics it’s to enhance what they’re already doing, not to compensate for what they’re not doing.

You also use the A133 on vocals, correct?

On vocals, yes, and I’ve been using it outside the kick drum in conjunction with the D6 inside. For vocals I find that what someone sings into the A133 is what I get out of it. It’s straightforward and truthful, and helps me instead of hindering me. It’s next to impossible to f*** up vocals with that mic, and next to impossible to botch recording any source with AUDIX in general!

How have you been using the new D6X?

Sometimes, I’d need to swap mics or tweak settings to get the extra mids or tame an airy kick sound. But not anymore – now I just flip to the middle setting, and boom, all the mids I need are there. In my production room, I’m a “set-it-and-forget-it” kind of guy. Switching out mics used to kill my creative flow and slow down sessions, but now I can change the sound with a flick of a switch. I’ve also found that the D6X is way more usable on toms. Those extra filtering options really make a difference!

How has your dyslexia affected your music production journey?

It’s been a huge part of who I am because it was such an obstacle to work around. It hasn’t been an obstacle for learning how to use, say, a mixing console though, which is laid out in a very orderly visual fashion. There’s something quite lovely about it, which is that when I’m in the music and in the act of producing and recording, I’m not overthinking things. Which I tend to do otherwise. I don’t think I’d be the music producer I am if I weren’t dyslexic.

What advice would present-day you give to your younger self when you were just starting out in music?

I’d tell myself to beware of impostor syndrome. The first several times you get it, you want to quit. I’d tell myself to just keep going for it, because I’ve since learned that even some of the most talented people in the industry get it. I still do, sometimes quite badly. But I try to reframe it as wanting to improve. Not that I’m not any good, but that however much we achieve, the best mindset is that you’re forever a student and there’s always something new to learn. We’re all making up life as we go along. It’s like jazz.

JOE ELLIOTT

DEF LEPPARD | LEAD SINGER | 8424 CONSOLE

Our Engineer Ronan and I wanted a Neve, and we identified the 8424 - which is a magic desk. I have one in my studio here, and Ronan has one in his studio - it works really well.

A&R CULTURE

MATTHIEU TESSIER

Matthieu Tessier, Managing Director of Warner Chappell Music France, reflects on his illustrious career in the industry so far, the art of leadership in business, and how his approach to A&R has driven the company to one of its most successful periods.

How were things shaping up in the last quarter of 2024?

Like everywhere else, it’s a very important quarter for the music industry, and for publishing in particular. There were important releases every week and we were also busy on the deal side. We renewed our publishing deal with multi-platinum singer-songwriter Angele. We’ve been working with Angele for seven years, and we’re very excited about her new album

that will be coming out at the end of the calendar. Werenoi’s last album Pyramide 2 finished as the best selling record of 2024, and SCH’s last album JVLIVS 3 – Ad Finem was released in week 50, and had the best first-week debut for a rap album in 2024.

How did your life in music and music publishing begin?

It started very early with a passion for music. I didn’t go to a business school, and back then there was no real school in France to study the music business. So, I started by managing a band from my town, which is 200 kilometers south of Paris. I learned about independence by touring with the band, booking shows and taking charge of the merchandising. Later on, I did a sixmonth course to learn how things work properly. It was like a school with music business people teaching and explaining the industry. After that I started as a trainee at Universal Music Publishing in 2005. I was the assistant to four A&R managers. It was just basic stuff: serving coffees and helping the department. Then I started to go to shows. I had my first job on the recording side at an indie label in

France as a talent scout. My job was to be out every night and go to shows in Paris, and the morning after, go back and talk to our team and explain what I’d discovered.

So I started like this, and very early on Caroline Molko, who was Warner Chappell’s previous MD, heard about me and asked for a meeting. She told me she wanted a junior A&R manager who has an indie background and understood underground culture. So, I joined Warner Chappell in 2007 as a junior A&R manager.

At that time the record industry was in a crisis, so I used the A&R publisher role as a place to sign artists early, and most of the time, be the first partner they had. This way, I learned how to be around an artist who doesn’t have another partner, and how to play a role in the development of their career. I

worked very early on with Orelsan, who is now probably the most important male rapper and singer-songwriter in France. It was 18 years ago that I started working with him and he’s still signed to Warner Chappell.

I became head of A&R in September 2016, and a few months later, I signed an early contract with female singersongwriter Aya Nakamura and a copublishing deal with Angèle, who have both since become female icons of the Afro and Pop Francophone scene.

Later on, the previous MD decided to leave the company and helped me to learn the role, and Guy Moot gave me the chance to become managing director of Warner Chappell Music France in January 2021.

“I’VE ALWAYS TRIED TO BE CAREFUL NOT TO OVERSIGN. THE MARKET CAN PUSH YOU TO SIGN A LOT TO INCREASE THE POSSIBILITY OF HAVING MANY SUCCESSES.”

How important is it to you to build a relationship with an artist or songwriter from the ground up?

It’s central to my philosophy, and I consider it the most exciting part of the job. Helping the artist to build up his or her repertoire, find their appropriate image, set up their timeline and build up their team is an incredible source of fulfillment. By being there very early, you develop a special closeness. You will never get the same relationship with an artist that you discover or sign when the career is already at the top and the development is done.

Is it more difficult to work that way? Are you relying more on instinct than data?

Yes, while it definitely helps in some cases, I don’t think signings can be made based solely on data. I think that data and algorithms can often push you towards profiles that sound a bit like what is working at the moment, i.e. what is at the top of the charts. And in my experience, the biggest successes I’ve contributed to have come with talents who were very different from what was working at the moment.

What are some of the other guiding principles that have driven your success?

I have a passion for lyrics. It could be anything from French traditional, to rap. I’ve always paid particular attention to the lyrics and that’s key in France; you can like a song for the melody, but you will stay for the lyrics. And, I’ve always tried to be careful not to oversign. I think that the market can push you to sign a lot to increase the possibility of having many successes. One key to success for me is to double check and be very careful about each artist and songwriter you sign.

Tell us about your approach to leadership. What’s your strategy to prolonging success when an artist is performing very well, and conversely, what is your approach when an act you had high hopes for isn’t achieving what you expected? How do you reverse a negative trend?

With successful artists it’s often a matter of refreshing the team; renewing the people around; always considering that a new project is a new challenge. Always change the routine. I think that an artist always has to have a new angle, a new vision, and always challenge themselves. You always have to learn, and this is also true for an A&R person and a managing director. I believe it is also an area where you’re always learning from somebody younger than you. There is always something to learn from the new generation.

On the other hand, regarding artists where what you expect is not happening, it all depends on the artist and on their destiny. I consider myself as a source of help and a source of advice, recommendations or suggestions. But it really depends on the situation and circumstances around that particular artist.

What were some of your highlights from 2024?

The highlight for 2024 I would say is the singersongwriters we were able to renew, because we are in a market that changes a lot and moves very fast. So, being able to renew our deals with singer-songwriters who are top French artists is a sign of stability and trust. Also, receiving Publisher of the Year at the SACEM Grand Prix ceremony was an incredibly proud moment for all of us.

FR.WARNERCHAPPELLPM.COM

SASAMI BLOOD ON THE SILVER SCREEN

There are two separate entities of SASAMI: the all-caps, swaggerpacked music artist blending pop and rock music, but also to be factored in is the past life Sasami Ashworth, a conservatory-trained French horn player and classical composer. But, as Ashworth tells Headliner, these two selves converge on her upcoming third album, Blood On The Silver Screen. Described as the “all-out SASAMI pop record”, Ashworth talks about its huge singles, creating the record, and why she often dedicates these new songs to “sad and horny people” at her gigs.

Ashworth joins the Zoom call in a jovial mood, joking, “I’ve sent my AI proxy, so you’re actually having a conversation with AI right now. Humans are irrelevant now!” Growing up and based in Los Angeles, she comes from a Korean and Japanese family. “I’m in London, and as good as one can be in London,” she jokes.

Ashworth completed her music studies at the Eastman School of Music in 2012, and upon graduating worked on orchestral arrangements for films, studio albums, and commercial work, while also teaching music around Los Angeles. Before making the decision to fully commit to the SASAMI solo project, she played synths for Cherry Glazerr and toured with the band for the best part of three years. Ashworth then reveals how the rigours of touring her last

record, Squeeze, and the vocal strain she experienced, ended up playing a role in how she would approach creating her 2025 record.

“Squeeze was written during the pandemic and recorded during the pandemic,” she says. “I then vigorously toured and vigorously performed it as the world was reopening in a really aggressive, cathartic way that was physically satisfying but also unsustainable. At the end of touring that album with the metal band that I was playing with, my vocal cords were struggling.

“If you want any sort of future in singing, then you need to scream less. So that was the impetus for writing an album that was much more songbased. Squeeze was mostly written instrumentally first, and then the lyrics and vocals were tied in.”

But practical considerations aside, Ashworth is clearly a music artist who is chiefly concerned with creating a body of art with her albums above commercial considerations — how else would you logically explain the pivot from a record that required a touring metal band to a pop sound palette?

Blood On The Silver Screen opens with Slugger, a brilliant introduction to the wonderful pop direction Ashworth has taken on this record. The Robyn-esque pulsing synth intro goes into a verse and chorus that are stunning to sing along to, while the singer is almost brutally self-deprecating.

While Ashworth is usually a typically self-critical artist, she says that Slugger is, “A perfect song. From an academic standpoint, everything about that song is a perfect pop song. I’m the most critical person of myself, more than anyone. But as an artist, certain ideas and things come out of you, and you’re like, ‘Oh shit, that’s good’. Some songs even take you a while to understand. And Slugger definitely was a song like that where I was very intentional in writing that song. I wanted to make a major key song, a song that has very repetitive chords, where the chorus intentionally has this octave lift in it, and I wanted the lyrics to be self-deprecating - to have a sense of humour.”

The album, and the exploration of pop music territory in particular, is an exercise in vulnerability. With Ashworth’s previous, more indiecentric albums, and her past in the world of bands and classical music, she is keen to speak on why musicians

should feel no shame in proudly wearing the pop badge when it feels right to.

“I have a really sensitive cheesy meter,” she says. “Growing up in the more indie, post punk world, it felt like if anything seemed poppy and cheesy then people would turn their noses up. And it’s interesting, because I think it’s actually a fear of vulnerability. Guilty pleasure is actually just fucking pleasure. The guilty part is this weird human-invented shame element. Which is just like, why? I think it’s also just me getting older and realising that I think I just have enough cool points to get by on now.”

If anyone was hoping the following song might have more upbeat lyrics in the way a more radio and commercially-oriented pop song

might, they will be disappointed.

Just Be Friends opens with the fairly savage, “I hate myself for loving you the way I do / I know that it’s bad for my health for trying to turn this into something new.” Yet, these lines are paired with delicious guitar chords, vocal melodies with light notes of country twangs, and a drum machine beat to bop your head to.

This is the song that Ashworth dedicates to, “anyone sad and horny in the crowd”, and she says the song is a “really grown up continuation of themes/moods from my first two albums”. On the country music inflections, she adds that “I love how country songs often tell a story. Longing, lingering, loneliness and lust.”

“GUILTY PLEASURE IS ACTUALLY JUST FUCKING PLEASURE. THE GUILTY PART IS THIS WEIRD HUMANINVENTED SHAME ELEMENT.”

And, while the music of SASAMI sounds completely modern and contemporary and not in the slightest bit outdated, it turns out she has a surprising method when it comes to listening to music around the time of album writing. A method that is partly about creativity, and partly about avoiding any unwanted legal troubles.

“I have this weird rule where, when I’m writing music, I don’t listen to any music that was made within the last 20 years,” she explains. “I’m just too paranoid I’m gonna accidentally plagiarise it. So I ended up listening to a lot of early Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Alicia Keys, and Kelly Clarkson stuff from the 2010 period. So I feel like there’s a lot of that influence. I think that era of pop was transitioning into everything being digital and not tape anymore. And some of those samples and electronic sounds are kind of terrible, but I kind of like it. It’s funny, because in the past, I’ve been quite ultrafocussed on the production. On this album I was way less productionfocussed, and more leaning into some of the trashy, cheesy choices.”

The other single the album has yielded is Honeycrash, which contains the line that yielded the album title, “Like blood on the silver screen”. While Ashworth’s vocals still follow the album’s pop sensibilities, it’s one of the heavier moments on the LP — the guitar and drums are sounding comparatively huge on this, a rare moment of headbanging on this release.

Ashworth is currently in that strange space of time between announcing the album and its eventual release date of March 7. But she’s way too busy to stop and twiddle her thumbs until it drops.

“I feel like artists these days have to tour every second that they can to make a living,” she says. “So I’ve just been on tour since I finished the album, or making assets for it. I don’t

really have the time or space to be freaking out about anything. It’s more things like ‘Oh, I have to get a box of merch to Manchester’. That’s where my brain’s at.”

Ashworth signs off with the importance of letting an album go upon its release, so to speak. Not obsessing over all the things out of her control such as how it’s received, and even how well it does, to a certain extent.

“It feels so cliche, but once the songs start coming out, they don’t belong to me anymore. They belong to the world. You have to let go, in a way. I think it’s really unhealthy to obsess too much over how it gets received. My job is to make the best thing that I can and then once it gets released, I just hope that people can relate to it.”

Words bY LIZWILKIN S NO

MICHAEL PEREZ-CISNEROS PUSHING BOUNDARIES

Michael Perez-Cisneros is one of New York’s most prominent and respected sound engineers. Now, as he also sets down roots in Nashville and continues to push creative and technical boundaries in recorded music, the GRAMMY award-winner sits down with Headliner to talk about his creative process, the gear that’s shaped his workflow and how he’s still honing his craft…

Born and raised in New York, Michael - or Mike, to his friends - has made his mark in a career that spans almost three decades and multiple genres, including jazz, classical, indie rock and beyond.

Having worked with some of the city’s most prominent musicians and recording at iconic venues like the famous jazz club, Village Vanguard, Perez-Cisneros is renowned for his instinctive ear for mixing, impeccable recording quality and an unwavering commitment to authenticity.

As a child, he found himself surrounded by music. His uncle was a session musician, which prompted an early fascination with the recording process. “I would always be hanging at my cousin’s apartment in the Upper West Side, and my Uncle Max would come home and say wearily, ‘Oh, another day recording.’ I was curious about what that meant,” Perez-Cisneros recalls.

As he got older, he wasn’t just listening to records, he was dissecting them, figuring out the mechanics behind the music. “I would listen to bands like The Beatles, The Police

and The Smiths. And it wasn’t just about the songs; it was about how the songs were made. The layers, the production,” he says.

“That’s when I started thinking, ‘I want to be the person who helps create these sounds.’”

As a guitarist in indie rock bands, he began experimenting with recording. “I became the guy who always asked, ‘How do we record this guitar? How do we make it sound like this record?’ Back then, it was all trial and error,” he laughs. “But I loved it. It felt like a puzzle I had to figure out.”

After graduating from the University of Miami, Perez-Cisneros headed to Seattle and, while at Cornish College of the Arts, he started to record and mix his band’s demos and any music recitals happening on campus. “I had a 16-channel mixer I used with a DAT machine, and I started recording these recitals,” he reflects. “It got to the point where people started telling me, ‘You know, that sounds better than my album.’ That’s when I realised I could do this professionally.”

After graduating, he moved back to New York. “I worked at 30th Street Guitars, a great guitar shop in New York. It was there that I met Kurt Rosenwinkel,” he recounts. “Kurt was one of the most influential jazz

guitarists of our time, and I got lucky enough to work on one of his albums, Heartcore .”

“I literally built his studio,” he recalls. “I wired it in his apartment, and we started recording the album right there. For some of the sessions, I’d be there in the room setting up the mics, and then for others, I’d just step away and let Kurt do his thing.”

Heartcore became a cult classic in the jazz world. “The album really took off,” Perez-Cisneros says, almost sounding surprised. “It was produced by Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest, which made it even more surreal. It wasn’t recorded in big studios, but it ended up being something really special.”

“That’s when things really took off for me. I started picking up more mixing projects, and not long after, I was able to transition into a proper studio in New York. I got a room in Brooklyn, and from there, I went on to work at Big Orange Sheep, an incredible studio in South Brooklyn with Chris Benham, the studio’s owner,” he continues.

“JAZZ, TO ME, IS RAW, IT’S REBELLIOUS. IT’S ALL ABOUT BREAKING THE RULESJUST LIKE PUNK ROCK.”

Perez-Cisneros’ work in jazz is particularly noteworthy. He speaks passionately about how jazz pushes boundaries, challenging conventions and expectations. “Jazz, to me, is like punk music. It’s this genre that’s always existed on the outskirts of mainstream music,” he explains.

“It’s raw, it’s rebellious, and it’s all about breaking the rulesjust like punk rock.

“When I’m in the studio, I try to bring that same rebellious energy. You can’t just set up the mics and expect magic to happen. You’ve got to listen, adjust, and bring out the soul of the music,” he furthers.

“When I’m in the studio, I’m constantly listening - not just to the music - but to how the musicians are interacting with the space, how the sound feels in the room. It’s all about capturing that moment as authentically as possible,” he explains. “I always feel that the best sound starts before you even hit record. The room, the mic choice, the way the player moves - these things matter.”

When El Arte del Bolero Vol. 2 by Miguel Zenón and Luis Perdomo won a 2024 GRAMMY Award for Best Latin Jazz Album, it was a pivotal moment in Perez-Cisneros’ career. “I remember setting up for that session, and it was one of those moments where everything just clicked,” he reveals. During the session, he worked closely with an internturned-assistant at Big Orange Sheep, Cat Evers, who was instrumental in capturing the sound and was key in the recording process.

“Cat had just started as an intern, but I saw potential in her immediately. She was always asking the right questions, and when it came time to mic the piano, I asked her to do it herself. I had full trust in her, and she nailed it. I didn’t change a thing about her setup. When the album won the GRAMMY, it was one of those moments where it wasn’t just about me,” he states. “It was about the team. Cat was a huge part of that, and I’m proud to see how far she’s come. That’s what mentorship is all about.”

Passing on his knowledge to the next generation of sound engineers is something that Perez-Cisneros says he enjoys, and is an opportunity he wishes he’d had during his early career. “I always tell my interns, the most important thing is to listen - to the music, to the artist, to the room. The gear doesn’t do the work; you do,” he states.

This, in part, might explain why Perez-Cisneros’ recording setup is fairly minimal. One indispensable piece of kit which he uses extensively for both in-studio and remote projects, is Merging Technologies’ Horus, which he credits with delivering ultimate reliability and precision to every session.

“Before, I’d have to lug around a bunch of other gear. Now, I can take Horus on the road with me. It’s as simple as plugging in a single cable. The setup is intuitive, and the sound quality is as good as it gets.”

“I first came across the Horus because I was looking for something that would give me 24 inputs and outputs with top-notch preamps,” Perez-Cisneros explains, “and when I tried it, it changed everything.”

“It sounds natural. It doesn’t colour the sound, but it captures everything you need with stunning clarity. I remember recording Seamus Blake, a great saxophonist, and it was the first time I felt like the saxophone sounded exactly like what I was hearing in the room.”

Although he maintains a presence in New York, in recent months Perez-Cisneros relocated to Nashville. “The rent was skyrocketing, and the studio I was part of sadly had to close. I’ve always wanted to be somewhere that felt like a community, and East Nashville has that.”

Despite his decades of experience, Perez-Cisneros’ approach to sound engineering is still one of exploration and continuous personal development. “I’m always trying to learn new things and push myself,” he shares. “Technology and studio gear have evolved so much, and it’s crucial to stay on top of it. I’m always looking forward to what’s next.”

FROM CORK TO NEW YORK

JOHN O’MAHONY

For over two decades, John O’Mahony has been shaping the sound of diverse and exciting artists. Sitting down with Headliner, he talks about his journey from Cork City, Ireland to New York, the addition of Atmos to his workflow and his thoughts about the use of AI in music production.

Can you tell us a little about your background and what sparked your interest in music and mixing?

I grew up in Cork City in the south of Ireland, and as a teenager, I just got super into music. I ended up playing in bands, but I discovered pretty quickly that I actually had more fun playing with the pedals and the gear, than I did playing the guitar.

So I bought a four-track and started doing demos for my own band, and ended up doing demos for friends’ bands. Fairly soon after that, I started working as a tape op in a local studio.

Did you study formally, or did you get your education in studios?

I left school when was 16 because I wasn’t interested and I didn’t feel engaged in it, and we didn’t have an audio school in Ireland, so I would have had to move to the States, or the UK, Amsterdam or somewhere like that, and that wasn’t a possibility for me at the time. So I just got a job in the studio. The owner, Dennis Herlihy - my boss at the time who got me going as an engineer - did a lot of touring with Donovan Leitch, so he would disappear for months, and would just give me the keys for the studio and say, “Okay, you’ve gotta book it, you gotta run it, you gotta engineer, you gotta clean it, you gotta collect the money…”. It was a great education.

So, how did you end up in New York?

In the early ‘90s, there was a famous venue in Cork, called Sir Henry’s where a New York band called Sonic Youth were playing, and we went to see them. The opening act for the show was Nirvana - it was about a month before the release of Nevermind. It was just one of those legendary local nights that blew everybody away, and I thought, ‘OK, wherever that comes from, is where I want to be.’ I became obsessed with New York, and when I was old enough, I just took the dive and got on a plane.

I just walked around town and hand-delivered resumes to every studio I could find. This was 1998, so

“IMAGINE VAN GOGH BEING LIKE, ‘I TOOK SHORTCUTS TO GET ME GOING. AND THEN I JUST FINISHED STARRY NIGHT’... LIKE, NO! IT HAS TO BE A JOURNEY.”

things were very different back then. I handed out 20 resumes, and I got 20 interviews and 20 job offers, which sounds crazy, but that’s what it was like back then. I took a job at Chung King Studios in Tribeca. It seemed a little crazy, but I like the vibe. There were five rooms there with two Neve VRs, a Neve Capricorn, an SSL and a Euphonix, and I just dived straight in.

After going freelance, I worked with a legendary producer and mixer called Andy Wallace for about five years and eventually, in 2009 I went full-time out on my own and I started doing all of my work at Electric Lady Studios as a client booking their rooms, where I later took up residence for about eight years. What I loved about Electric Lady was that it was kind of the last place standing in New York that had that multi-room thing where you’d walk down the hallway and bump into someone unexpectedly. You might walk past David Bowie on the stairs and say hello, or you’d swap ‘war stories’ with the other engineers as you popped out for a coffee. There were some great people in residence there during that time too, like Rich Costey, Michael Brauer, Tom Elmhirst, but everybody’s now moved on.

I could have stayed there forever, but with New York studios, it’s just a real estate game. It’s so expensive that those places have to be booked

24/7 just to keep going. So I said a sad goodbye and I found a space that was just one block from my apartment in Dumbo, Brooklyn. It was ideal. I called up my friend Jim Keller, who runs a company called SondHus, which builds very bespoke, one-off studios, and we figured out a way to make this small room work for me. The first thing I mixed in here was an album for The Cribs.

Your studio looks like a great space. Can you talk us through the gear that you’ve got in there?

I’ve got a Neve Genesys, which I got back in 2011, and I still love it. I can’t imagine ever not having this thing right in front of me. It’s the centrepiece of everything I’ve done, the heart of the room. I’ve been downsizing my outboard gear a lot and making it a leaner setup.

A recent addition is the Neve 1073SPX-D. The 1073 EQ has the definitive high-frequency shelf in my opinion, and the new digital interface brings fantastic connectivity options. Now when I travel, I just bring this as my main playback interface. I also have PMC monitors, which I’ve used for years, and some Acoustic Energy nearfields. And then a couple of years after moving in here, the big Dolby Atmos ‘goldrush’ started. So it became evident I was going to have to put an Atmos rig in to prevent other people from butchering my

work by doing Atmos versions of it. So Jim came back, we put some more speakers in and PMC came by and tuned to the room with me. The first time I ever heard Atmos in my own room, I was like, ‘Oh wow! This is really cool’.

Atmos is one technology that has shaped how you’re working. But of course, AI is creeping into various aspects of music production. How do you feel about that?

I’m never totally against any sort of new technology, but I do have major concerns about it because everything I’ve seen so far is another process that just makes everybody sound the same. I think one of our major challenges in music is that

technology can take the art out of the process if we’re not careful, and if everybody’s taking a shortcut to produce something that sounds like a record. For me, I want music to be more diverse, I don’t want everybody to sound the same, and this is what happens as a result of everybody using the same plugins or the same software, tuning everything to absolute perfection.

If everybody’s using the same tools all the time, and the tools are thinking the same way all the time, then everybody lands in the same spot, right? And that is problematic to me, and not at all exciting. So there’s a long way to go, and in the meantime, we’re probably going to get a bunch

of pretty generic records.

I’ve heard people say, ‘Oh, well, you can just use it to get you going and take a shortcut’ but I remember thinking, imagine Van Gogh being like, ‘I took shortcuts to get me going. And then I just finished Starry Night’... Like, no! It has to be a journey where you wander towards something, and you get lost along the way, and you discover things. And you can’t recreate that, ever. If you take art completely out of the hands of humans, there’s an argument to be had.

SOUND OF

“SHURE IS COMMITTED TO DISRUPTING, REDEFINING AND RESHAPING THE FUTURE OF AUDIO INTO THE NEXT CENTURY”

For a century, Shure has been synonymous with innovation, reliability and excellence in the world of audio. From humble beginnings as a radio parts supplier to becoming a global leader in professional audio technology, Shure has defined the sound of generations, amplifying the voices of world leaders, capturing historic performances, or shaping the future of audio engineering. Shure’s impact on the industry is unparalleled. As the company celebrates its 100th anniversary, Headliner reflects on a legacy that continues to shape the way the world hears and experiences sound…

This year, Shure Inc. celebrates its 100th anniversary, marking a century of pioneering innovation, exceptional quality and unyielding commitment to audio excellence.

S.N. Shure started the company in downtown Chicago in 1925, selling radio parts kits. In 1932, Shure became one of only a few U.S. microphone

manufacturers with the introduction of the Model 33N microphone and since then, the company has grown into a global technology leader, offering a diverse portfolio of game-changing wired and wireless microphones, conferencing and meeting solutions, and personal and professional listening products. Over its 100year history, over 50,000 different electronics products have been developed by Shure and are now sold in more than 120 countries.

Through the decades, they have been trusted and famously used by luminaries including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Elvis Presley, Nelson Mandela, The Beatles and other iconic figures around the globe. Today, Shure products are trusted by performers, content creators, AV and IT professionals, sound engineers, educators, community leaders and music lovers the world over in studios, on stages, on playing fields, in meeting rooms and in everyday life.

Over the past 100 years, Shure has introduced iconic products that have become staples in the audio industry. The legendary Shure SM58 microphone, known for its durability and reliability, has remained the top choice for vocal performances worldwide. The SM7B vocal microphone has equally earned a distinguished reputation, renowned in the broadcast, recording and podcasting industries.

Shure introduced the first wireless microphone in 1953, the Vagabond 88 Wireless Mic, long before wireless technology became popular by the 1990s. The Company also introduced digital wireless in 2011, and today, Shure digital wireless microphones are used across the world from the biggest sporting events and global concert tours to the top business conferences.

Shure’s commitment to revolutionising audio has led to significant advances in wireless technology, demonstrated by the evolution of its robust and reliable wireless microphone systems such as Axient Digital. Shure advancements in wireless microphones were built on an explosion of software and networking advances, yielding more intelligent products that work more effectively and sustainably.

“This anniversary marks a truly significant milestone for Shure and for the industry, as not many companies achieve 100 years,” says James Hill, director of sales at Shure. “To commemorate this occasion, we’re rolling out a series of special events and initiatives throughout the year, including an Innovation Roadshow taking place across the UK and Ireland. The tour will kick off in Manchester on March 5th, followed by Cardiff, Dublin, Glasgow and a grand finale in London at its Rose Shure Experience Centre.”

As the company embarks on its next century, it remains as committed as ever to pushing the boundaries of audio technology.

“The teams behind Shure’s products are the true architects of our legacy and they are pivotal to our future,” Hill furthers. “Our product engineers, software engineers, market development associates, sales teams, quality teams, marketers, and many more… all our professionals are driven by an unmatched passion for sound.

“Creators, audio professionals and partners are our closest collaborators too, providing invaluable insights and real-world feedback that help shape our product development. It is this collective and shared commitment to excellence that has built Shure’s legacy and positions us to define the future of audio technology.”

Whether it’s pioneering new wireless solutions, advancing audio software or delivering premium sound experiences for creators and professionals alike, Shure has cemented its status as an industry icon and is committed to disrupting, redefining and reshaping the future of audio into the next century.

SHURE.COM

SDROW BY ALICE GUSTAFSON

A LIFELONG QUEST FOR TONE

TRIVIUM

For 25 years, American heavy metal band Trivium has consistently pushed the boundaries of their sound, crafting a sonic tapestry that seamlessly blends intricate arrangements with crushing heaviness. Throughout their career, a constant in their sonic arsenal has been Celestion speakers, most notably Vintage 30s (and Celestion-built Marshall Vintages), Creambacks, Greenbacks, and various other models. Vocalist and guitarist Matt Heafy and guitarist Corey Beaulieu reflect on the heavy metal music that shaped their sound, explain why guitarists don’t need excessive gain to achieve heaviness, and why they’ve been rocking with Celestion from day one.

How did your musical journeys begin? What were some of your early influences?

Beaulieu: My musical journey started with my parents and siblings always having music on in the house. The first band that really got me excited about music was Guns N’ Roses. It was the Use Your Illusion II album. When I was eight, I got my first guitar, and the more I played, the more I became drawn to playing music. Discovering more cool metal bands added fuel to the fire, and here we are today.

Heafy: When I was around 11, I unsuccessfully tried out for a pop-punk band. After that experience, I gave up on music, but then a friend lent me The

Black Album by Metallica. One listen, and I knew that was the kind of music I needed to make. I locked myself in my room for hours learning every riff and trying to emulate those sounds. Then for my eighth-grade talent show, I covered No Leaf Clover by Metallica and afterward, I was asked to audition to be the lead guitarist of a two-weekold high-school band called Trivium. This group of 16- and 17-year-olds were skeptical when they saw a middleschooler walk in, but I launched into For Whom the Bell Tolls, played it perfectly, and I’ve been in the band ever since!

“TO THIS DAY, THE TRIVIUM TONE GENERALLY CONSISTS OF A PEAVEY 5150 SERIES HEAD AND A CAB LOADED WITH CELESTION BVS OR VINTAGE 30S.”

Those were your musical influences, how about your tonal influences as a guitar player?

Heafy: Obviously, The Black Album was huge for me, and in my opinion, has some of the greatest metal tones of all time. Sonically, that album made me realise you don’t need excessive gain to achieve heaviness. Metallica led me to Pantera and Megadeth, but what really got me deep into tone was a series of records produced by Andy Sneap. I was obsessed with Jeff Loomis’ guitar sound on Nevermore’s Dead Heart in a Dead World album. I loved the lead and melody guitar sounds of Arch Enemy’s Wages of Sin and I really liked his work with Testament. Those influences ultimately led us to work with Andy on our album Ascendancy

30s. Any cab we’ve ever received that didn’t already have Celestions, had Celestion put in soon after.

Beaulieu: I didn’t know much about speakers when I first joined the band. In 2005, we were playing a show at a venue in Buffalo, New York. All the acts on the bill were planning to rock their own 4x12 cabs, but the stage was too small. To save space, the headliner decided we’d all share their backline cabs and just swap out our amp heads. They were using Mesa Boogie cabinets with Celestion Vintage 30s. Even though we both used the same Peavey amp model, I was blown away by the difference in tone. They sounded so much heavier and cooler than what we were using! That night in Buffalo was an eye-opener. Once I played through a 5150 amp, paired with a Mesa cabinet loaded with Celestion Vintage 30s, I knew why I started seeing so many people playing them on tour. It became the go-to combo for metal at the time.

When did you first discover Celestion speakers and what role do they play in shaping your sound? Tell us about your current live rig and how it differs from your studio setup?

Heafy: We’ve used Celestion from the very beginning. When we first started playing live, I was living the dream, playing through big Marshall cabinets on stage, I think 1960Bs. One day I looked in the back and saw the name Celestion. That was how I first came to respect the brand. Not long after, Jason Suecof introduced us to the Celestion BVs (the Celestion-built Marshall Vintage speaker loaded into the Marshall 1960BV cab) during preproduction for our Ember to Inferno album. He explained that they break up more and have more natural distortion and compression. We were obsessed once we played through them. And when we worked with Andy Sneap on Ascendancy, he used Mesa Boogie oversized Rectifier cabs with the same speakers. To this day, the Trivium tone generally consists of a Peavey 5150 series head and a cab loaded with Celestion BVs or Vintage

Beaulieu: Live, we use EVH Stealth heads and cabs loaded with the special Eddie Van Halen Celestion speakers. We don’t have a set studio rig. Peavey EVH amps are generally the foundation of everything we do, but we’re in our new studio now mixing and matching different heads, cabs, and Celestion speakers to explore the sounds we can get.

Today we have Vintage 30s in an EVH cab, BVs in a Mesa Cab, and Vintage 30s in a Marshall cab. You’ll get different sounds from cab to cab, even if they have the same Celestion speaker, so it’s all about finding which combination works the best for what we’re doing in any particular session.

Heafy: We’re also playing with a ton of amps at THE HANGAR, including older Peaveys, a JSX, a Triple X, a 6534 Plus, Block Letters, a 5150 II, a 5150 III, and a Soldano. We’ve found that the older 5150s need something before the head, and are using a Maxon Red overdrive into an ISP Technologies Decimator to help us get the most out of them. I’m playing my Gibson Les Paul Standard with custom Fishman pickups.Corey brought most of the amps and cabinets into the studio. We’re finding some of the best combos we’ve ever played through. I’m having so much fun, it’s taking me back to feeling like a kid.

How are Celestion speakers factoring into your new studio?

Heafy: We mentioned that we’re matching speakers, cabinets and heads and we have a huge Celestion library to do it with. We’ve got Vintage 30s, G12M-65 and G12H-75 Creambacks, G12M Greenbacks, G12H Anniversaries, plus all the older models we’ve accumulated over the years. Mark has been doing surgery, swapping speakers in and out of cabs. He even put four different Celestions in a single cabinet for testing in our isolation booth.

Beaulieu: We use a variety of different makes of cabinets with our Celestions: Mesa Boogie, Marshall, and EVH. That’s because the differences in the types or thickness of wood, the way they’re constructed, the air volume in the cabinet, can bring out different characteristics from the speaker. The same Vintage 30 in a Marshall sounds different in a Mesa cab.

Heafy: Right now, our mission in THE HANGAR is to get ideas of what we dig and those will be the launchpad where we’ll start when we begin tracking. We’ll have given all our speakers and cabinets the run-through, and we’ll know which combo will bring that extra magic to the tone that’s needed.

Any little variable in tone can be inspiring and that’s the big thing. I don’t want people to think that we’re just collecting gear to collect gear. It’s not that at all. Every little thing can drastically change how you’re

performing, feeling, and playing when you’re making music and that’s all anyone is looking for. That’s what this quest of tone is. This obsession with gear has always been to find something new to inspire you to come up with new ideas, and you never know where it can lead you.

You have complex arrangements in your music, how do you balance heaviness versus clarity in your tone?

Heafy: Younger guitar players tend to think that more gain equals a heftier guitar tone, but it’s really a misconception. You won’t hear what you want by having all the dials set at 10 and getting blasted with distortion. Ironically, I used to do that as a kid, but I’ve learned that less gain actually equals a tighter tone. If you look at the Peaveys we’re playing right now, our pre-gain is set around six and our postgain is around one or two. It’s about finding the right balance of gain and volume where you still hear your hands come through.

Beaulieu: When people first get into recording, it’s common to crank the gain or the low end to get that full sound. But the reality is on the records where the guitar tone is great, if you really listen there isn’t an oversaturated, crazy amount of gain. That’s because when you’re recording, you’re layering multiple rhythm tracks and everything builds up. Once you start stacking guitar parts on top of each other, if everything is high gain, you’ll end up with this mess of a guitar sound. But

if you keep the gain levels moderate on your layered tracks, you get this powerful wall of guitar sound.

ON TOUR WITH CODA AUDIO

AURORA

Words by LIZWILKIN S NO

Photographer: Steve SrokaAdlib

Since the release of her 2015 debut EP

Running with the Wolves, Norwegian singer, songwriter and producer, AURORA, has captivated global audiences with her ethereal voice and unique blend of electronic pop and folk influences. A beacon of originality, her music is characterised by emotional depth and lyrical complexity and is complemented by a dynamic stage presence which creates an immersive and inspiring concert experience.

AURORA recently completed a European tour which included a mixed itinerary of arena and theatre shows ranging in capacity from Brussel’s 8,000-seat arena, Forest National, to Edinburgh’s 2,200 Usher Hall. In total, the tour reached over 60,000 fans across three weeks with event production specialist, Adlib, providing audio and video for the tour.

“We deployed a CODA Audio system at the request of AURORA’s front of house engineer, Paul Inge Vikingstad,” explains Adlib account manager, Craig Hamilton.

“The system not only provided fidelity, coverage and definition to showcase AURORA’s phenomenal vocal range, but also offered the flexibility to deliver excellent and consistent results across venues of varying size and capacity.”

The requirement for a truly scalable solution was achieved through a combination of CODA’s compact and lightweight VCA ‘family’ of ViRAY, CiRAY and AiRAY line arrays, with SCP and SC2 subs, supplemented by units from CODA’s HOPS (high output point source) and APS (arrayable point source) ranges.

Designed to be the rental company’s ‘best friend’, units from across the VCA range, whose units share the same sonic signature, can be flown together in different combinations to allow for optimum flexibility.

“THE CODA AUDIO SYSTEM DELIVERED EXCELLENT AND CONSISTENT RESULTS ACROSS VENUES OF VARYING SIZE AND CAPACITY.”

In addition to FOH engineer Vikingstad, the touring audio team also included Adlib’s Billy Bryson, who assumed the role of systems engineer, and freelancer Keiran Lowrie – audio technician for the tour.

As systems engineer, Bryson was responsible for system design and calibration. “In its largest configuration,

the system comprised 12 AiRAY and four ViRAY in the main hang, with six SC2 sensor-controlled bass extensions flown behind, to allow us to steer the low-frequency pattern to suit the geometry of each venue,” he comments.

“Additionally, side hangs of up to 12 CiRAY per side were deployed, and a centre hang of three APS flown from the front lighting truss ensured excellent coverage. Subs were on four touring carts of three SCP each, with one on either side ,also including two APS as outfill.

“The subs were deployed left and right in an end-fired configuration to retain the best possible tonality and impact, with four single SCPs in the centre to fill in for the nearfield. HOPS8 were utilised across the

downstage edge to complement the centre hang and keep the image feeling natural.

“Carrying a mix of AiRAY and CiRAY allowed for true scalability between the arenas in mainland Europe and the theatre shows in the UK. The lightweight nature of the CiRAY made it perfect for split systems in theatres such as Edinburgh’s Usher Hall where three hangs were flown from the house advance truss to cover the hard-to-hit upper balcony.”

Summing up his experience, Vikingstad is full of praise for the system and the Adlib team: “I’ve been more than impressed with the performance of the CODA Audio system, not to mention the dedication and professionalism of Adlib’s Billy Bryson and Keiran Lowrie. They were a dream team to work with.”

Photographer: Steve SrokaAdlib

PowerProX18

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Featuring an advanced cooling system and components with superior thermal stability, PowerProX18 operates with its voice coil consistently at 20°C lower than competing products. The result is ultimate control over power compression, extreme reliability and a relentless high quality performance, even after 100s of hours of use. For more information, contact: engineering@celestion.com

DROW S by alice

gustafson

WHY HARMAN JOINED THE SPAT REVOLUTION

FLUX:: IN FOCUS

Hugo Larin, senior business development manager FLUX:, a member of the HARMAN Professional Solutions Group, delves into HARMAN’s most recent acquisition, which includes FLUX::’s immersive, processing and analysis solutions across live production, installation sound, content creation and post-production. France-based FLUX:: was founded in 2006 for the purpose of creating intuitive and innovative audio software tools. Now, the portfolio of nearly 20 products is used globally by talented professionals across many applications. Larin explains why the sky’s the limit for immersive audio production.

Can you provide a brief overview of FLUX:: and its core competencies, particularly in immersive audio and audio analysis?

Our history comes from plugin processing as we have over 20 years of software development plugins for processing tools. When you look at the main competencies, processing

is our history and our legacy. The second one is audio analysis, and third, but not least, is immersive audio authoring and rendering. You could split FLUX:: in these three categories of competencies.

“FLUX:: HAS MULTI-CHANNEL AT HEART.”

How does FLUX:: embody a “software first” approach within HARMAN, and why is immersive audio considered a pivotal element of this strategy?

In terms of a “software first” approach, this is what our users are dealing with on a daily basis. The hardware is important, but the actual software is what our system engineers and integrators interact with day to day, whether they’re actually using the design assistance tools and the deployment tools. Within HARMAN we can really look at all these innovations from a software perspective, like JBL’s Venue Synthesis in the design side and deploying actual audio systems, and then FLUX:: comes to the equation and adds these other layers like SPAT Revolution, the immersive authoring and rendering tool, and audio analysis, which is another important category. Hardware is important, but the software is what makes the interaction great with the technology. Software is the glue to making hardware work.

FLUX:: has a rich history with multichannel audio processing. Can you walk us through its evolution, from early plugin support to the development of the SPAT Revolution software engine?

FLUX:: has multi-channel at heart, and that’s what it’s been for the longest time. Even when 5.1 started to emerge and these multi-channel conversation formats started to emerge, FLUX:: was one of the first companies to actually do plugin processing tools that were supporting not only mono and stereo, but multi-channel. Very early on, we addressed audio processing from a 5.1 and a 7.1 perspective, and that has just exploded. Now in our overall journey of multi-channel we continue this in audio analysis. We did it in processing, and in audio analysis we are able to look at audio from a multi-channel perspective. Today we have SPAT Revolution and all our work on immersive audio, and we can’t ignore the relationship that we have had with the IRCAM (Institute

for Research and Coordination in Acoustics and Music) in Paris, which has done 20-30 years of research on how people perceive sound, acoustic spaces, and rendering technologies. Some of the first research that led to SPAT came to life back in 1995.

We joined forces with IRCAM over 10 years ago and became a business partner, and we brought these technologies to the market.

That was the beginning of the SPAT Revolution in a lot of ways. We moved from beyond 5.1, 7.1, binaural audio, ambionics and ambisonic transcoding to dealing with reproduction techniques for larger systems. Multi-channel is deep inside FLUX::.

What challenges do audio engineers face when transitioning to immersive audio, and how does FLUX:: address those challenges with its products?

Immersive audio is not new – we can call it immersive audio, immersive, sound, 3D audio, spatial audio, multi-channel audio – but we’re in some ways talking about the same thing overall. When we use the word ‘immersive’, we’re referring to the actual experience: we’re immersing our audience. We’re transporting them. We’re connecting them. Something that all manufacturers seem to agree on is that we are all referring to the quality of the experience. But 3D audio / spatial audio is not new. Audio engineers, creators and artists have been creating for the longest time, but with a huge challenge, which was the workflow: there was no real, defined workflow. So, we have looked at: how do you create this content? How can you scale it? How can you collaborate with other engineers? How can you deliver the experience to multiple venues? As we’re transitioning, I think that the biggest challenge is those workflows: being able to have workflow from content creation to reproduction. When creating content, how do we deliver that media and reproduce this audio? To me, that is the biggest challenge, and FLUX:: has been focusing on addressing this, specifically with the integration into the digital audio workstation. SPAT Revolution is a standalone software engine, but it’s actually a suite of products that includes plugins that do a tight integration to your audio workstation of choice. We’re expanding the multi-channel capabilities of the digital audio workstation with SPAT Revolution from a content creation perspective. A lot of focus has been put into easing the integration and simplifying how to craft content and deliver it.

FLUX:: doesn’t just do audio processing and rendering, it’s audio analysis as well; what can you reveal about this at the moment?

Audio analysis is another pillar of the company. Historically, the Pure Analyser System – PAS – does multi-

channel support from an analysis perspective. It encompasses 13 analysis scopes. From an analysis perspective, what we’ve been doing is beyond strictly looking at calibration, per se. We’ve built a tool that’s very visually pleasing that allows a mixing engineer to have this companion that provides a good visual interface, and not just in mono and stereo, but in multi channel. We have some interesting technology, for example, Nebula. This is a spatial spectrograph with the ability to visualise an audio spectrum over space.

We have just released our fresh new family for audio analysis, MiRA. Those capabilities are increasing and the channel count extends to 24 channels for multi-channel systems. We have plugins that take the audio and push it to the analyser on the computer, on the same computer or across a network. We call this SamplePush technology. We are simplifying the integration from the DAW or the mixing console to provide instant analysis. This extends to SPAT Revolution integration.

SPAT Revolution has been described as a flexible and compatible solution for audio content creation. What sets it apart from other immersive audio software on the market?

Some technological solutions out there are pretty close ecosystems. They’re confined to specific targeted systems and specific deliveries. They are targeting very specific applications, or targeting traditional, live inputs from a console going to a rendering engine. In terms of flexibility and compatibility from a content creation perspective or from a mixing perspective, SPAT, first of all, is not strictly dealing with loudspeaker setups. We’ve got multiple reproduction approaches. Some of them are more fitting for some applications. It can be part of your content creation monitoring journey all the way to the final delivery reproduction. That flexibility comes from the variety of reproduction. We call them panning or reproduction techniques – the access to render

not just a channel-based system, but for binaural audio and ambisonics. When dealing with ambisonic capture, for instance, maybe you’re crafting some content, and there’s a desire to have a river sound. Well, you don’t need to go and record the river; these libraries of sound already exist. We have the ability to take an ambisonic capture and bring it into our immersive tool and transcode it to the desired output. You don’t have to go back to another tool to do that transposition. That flexibility and that maximum compatibility goes beyond that. From an integration perspective, using our plugin integration tool or our advanced open sound control (OSC) engine, we bring a lot of capabilities. At the base these are elements that set us apart. Whatever you have to deal with, SPAT Revolution can potentially be all that is needed to deal with all these stream formats and reproduction with strong integration capabilities. It provides maximum flexibility because it runs on generic hardware as well. So that means my laptop on the plane and a pair of headphones, and away I go!

Looking to the future, what trends do you see in immersive audio technology, and how do you envision FLUX:: contributing to that?

It’s about streamlining the process: more tools, simplifying the design, simplifying the deployment, simplifying the interactivity with the audio objects, and simplifying the actual delivery. We want to streamline to empower creators and professionals, from content creation to delivery. This is what the SPAT Revolution is about. It’s content creation on a pair of headphones, all the way to the largest reproduction system possible. There will be a lot of challenges ahead and interesting trends from a manufacturing perspective on streamlining the tools. The sky’s the limit at this point, you’ve got a completely new canvas to explore. It’s been a fun journey, and it’s not over…

LA MONNAIE OPERA HOUSE

La Monnaie/De Munt, Belgium’s premier opera house, has long been renowned for its world-class cultural productions. To further optimise its operations, La Monnaie, which draws its name from the former mint building at that site, has implemented a stateof-the-art Lawo IP infrastructure spanning multiple areas across two buildings. Headliner discovers why the venue’s investment in Lawo technology has been an invaluable game-changer…

With this installation, the Brusselsbased opera house continues to strengthen its position as a leader in the performing arts scene. Recent technical upgrades include the addition of a second 32-fader mc²56 audio production console, an A_UHD Core audio engine, and the integration of Lawo’s HOME management platform for IP-based media infrastructures – significantly improving workflow efficiency and ensuring the exceptional audio quality required by the prestigious venue.

La Monnaie has relied on Lawo technology for years, utilising an mc²56 console to deliver audio experiences to live audiences. In 2023, the opera house took another step forward by installing a second mc²56 console in its in-house recording studio, dedicated to capturing highquality recordings.

“La Monnaie is a major cultural hub,” says Karl Ancia, IT & technical network project manager. “In addition to our live performances, we always produce video and audio recordings of every opera, regardless of whether a radio or TV broadcaster is present for a live transmission. We record two performances per production and work on post-production in between. The new setup not only enhances our live performances but also enables us to produce high-quality recordings, which we can distribute to a wider audience across multiple platforms.”

For La Monnaie, the integration of Lawo’s HOME platform has been a game-changer. Managing an

“EACH OPERA IS COMPLETELY UNIQUE, WITH VASTLY DIFFERENT TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS.”

IP-based media infrastructure with HOME has streamlined production processes by allowing flexible use of shared resources across different production environments.

“Flexibility with Lawo means that a single platform can handle a wide range of tasks,” Ancia explains. “Each opera is completely unique, with vastly different technical requirements –sometimes it’s just audio monitoring for the singers; at other times we need immersive 3D sound effects and subtle reinforcement throughout the hall.”

This flexibility also enhances collaboration within the production team. “An opera house like ours has numerous destinations and an almost infinite number of sources,” furthers Niels De Schutter, La Monnaie’s recording engineer.

“Our two shared consoles make it easy to exchange audio signals and collaborate seamlessly. The A_UHD Core’s Pooling License allows sound engineers working on the mc²56 consoles to dynamically allocate and share 1,024 DSP channels in mc²-grade quality, ensuring that processing power is precisely tailored to each production’s requirements.

The implementation of Lawo’s Power Core engine has further expanded La Monnaie’s audio distribution capabilities. “We use this powerful gateway for distributing all audio feeds, from artist dressing rooms to the interval bell and the house-wide sound distribution system,” Ancia adds.

By leveraging Lawo’s cutting-edge technology, La Monnaie meets the growing demand for top-tier audio production. This is particularly critical

as the opera house frequently delivers live broadcasts to national radio and television networks, and streams performances via OperaVision.

Lawo’s unified platform enables La Monnaie’s technical team to push the boundaries of live production and recording. Owen Rose, AV production engineer, highlights the system’s versatility: “For our Turandot production in June, the initial plan was to keep the technical setup quite minimal. But as rehearsals progressed, we needed to add more monitoring feeds and sound effects in multiple variations. So, I kept adding AUX paths. On top of that, not all microphone and sound effect signals should be heard everywhere. Being able to adjust audio setups in real time to match evolving artistic expectations is invaluable for ensuring a seamless realisation of the production’s creative vision. In the end, technology and artistry are deeply interconnected.”

“Audiotechnology plays an increasingly vital role in our productions,” confirms Ancia. “That’s partly due to our technical team – our work quality has continuously raised expectations among directors and management. The front-of-house console, the studio console in our separate building, and the flexible signal distribution have opened up entirely new possibilities. We have Lawo to thank for that,” he smiles.

LAWO.COM

S BYALICE GUSTAFSON

VIRAL MOMENTS

James Cattermole and Josh Mateer from TikTok’s distribution platform, SoundOn, shed some light on the artists in SoundOn’s repertoire that are currently viral, what is resonating with TikTok audiences, and how SoundOn is leveraging opportunities in new verticals to push its artists to wider audiences.

How does SoundOn identify potential viral hits among the artists you work with?

Josh Mateer (head of A&R at SoundOn): We take a holistic approach to scouting and signing. Something can become a viral hit purely based on the quality of music with no prior digital footprint, or indeed vice versa – with a huge digital footprint and a secondary focus on the music itself.

It’s up to us to know what’s going on and identify opportunities in partnership with a wide variety of artists that we feel we can help. We

hold firm in our belief that if the music is compelling, we have the resources to bring it to the right audiences. If something is already moving by the time we discover it, then our job is to demonstrate capability in scaling it for our artist partners. A great example of this is our recent hit, Charlie Jeer’s Her Eyes. We saw extremely positive signs of a viral hit from our data, and moved quickly to get the track into our distribution system.

The track has now gone on to do 30m+ streams on Spotify alone.

“IF SOMETHING IS ALREADY MOVING BY THE TIME WE DISCOVER IT, THEN OUR JOB IS TO DEMONSTRATE CAPABILITY IN SCALING IT FOR OUR ARTIST PARTNERS.”

SoundOn offers tools for artists to maximise their presence on TikTok. How do these tools assist in creating viral moments and engaging with TikTok’s community effectively?

We have an outstanding team of music promotion managers here at SoundOn, and between them they design a wide variety of influencerfacing ‘Work With Artist’ campaigns, which is our in-house creator marketing tool. They’re our secret weapon. As long as the A&R team can bring the heat with the right artist and record, the tools the promotion team provide are what can scale creations, views, engagements and followers, which ultimately is what leads to streams and career-spanning audience development.

What role does A&R play in optimising tracks for TikTok and other digital platforms?

A&R is about signing great artists and delivering the ambition behind the signing to the team that can make it all happen. Overseeing audience development across the overall music ecosystem is part of our responsibilities to the artists we work with.

Several labels artists in your repertoire are currently going viral; what is resonating with TikTok audiences?

James Cattermole (head of label services at SoundOn): It’s been an exciting start to 2025! There are two projects that jump out: MGEE’s LIKE ME (GAMBL/Stay Bizzy) – a catalogue release from 2023 – which quickly rose to over 300k daily Spotify streams and 450k TikTok creations following a viral trend where users poked fun at their non-street lives, perfectly juxtaposing the track’s themes and Drill sensibility. Scythermane & NXGHT’s NUNCA MUDA? (Purple Crunch Records) has also become a global viral sensation –currently at 900k daily Spotify streams and 1bn weekly TikTok views.

This track has seen numerous trends in a variety of verticals – initially starting in the traditional Phonk spaces (football, car and anime edits), but we’re now seeing the track cross over into global dance and selfie trends, helping propel the track into a top 20 entry into Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic singles chart, no. 3 on Shazam’s Global Dance chart and it’s currently occupying over

40 Spotify viral charts – and it’s only been out for a month!

SoundOn emphasises leveraging TikTok’s ecosystem for monetisation. Can you share a success story where an artist from your repertoire benefited significantly from this?

There have been a lot, but a great example of this would be Bsav GP’s Females Lingo (Mixtape Madness). Through leveraging SoundOn and Mixtape’s creator network, we saw a quick rise in organic creations in the football vertical – quickly identifying the wider brand potential of the track in this space. We then collaborated with our Commercial Music Library (CML) and Commercial Licensing teams to secure various editorial features on the CML, adding increasing visibility to the brand account community in numerous territories. As a result, global sports teams and brands started to use the track in their videos, including The Premier League and Borussia Dortmund – giving us more leverage to push the track further through our various XFN routes. A fast-rising trend amongst key football accounts –

“WE HAVE THE MOST FORWARD-THINKING, TIKTOKLITERATE PROMOTIONAL TEAM IN THE GAME.”

together with great cultural timing – led to England using the track in the lead up to the EURO 2024 Final – with the video quickly going viral, hitting over 25m views. This video led to numerous organic trends as a result, and helped push the track from 20k daily streams to over 100k on Spotify.

Access to TikTok creators is an advantage of SoundOn. How has this direct access contributed to boosting the visibility and viral potential of certain tracks? Do any specific strategies or collaborations stand out?

Creator marketing is a critical weapon in any marketer’s arsenal. Luckily, we not only have the most forwardthinking, TikTok-literate promotional team in the game, but numerous products that give us the ability to tap into TikTok’s wide creator network. We saw explosive growth in Pete & Bas’ T-Pain following a fairly simple creator marketing campaign – the duo launched an open verse

challenge inviting their fans to jump on the track. We quickly saw the creations start to rise and made the decision to push the open verse to our creator network –further driving the virality of the SoundOn platform. The noise quickly caught the attention of the man himself, T-Pain, who jumped on the open verse challenge – with his version then being included on their debut album as an official remix!

SOUNDON.GLOBAL

LD SYSTEMS LIVE SESSION

VINCE FREEMAN

In this LD Systems Live Session powered by Headliner, UK singersongwriter Vince Freeman performed his original song, Devils, from his new album, Scars, Ghosts & Glory at Darkwood Studios in Hertfordshire. Freeman performed through an LD Systems MAUI G3 rig, and Headliner caught up with him after the performance to find out how a last minute stocking filler changed his life, how he crafted a hit dance track with Fedde Le Grand, and how the idea of selling his soul for nothing inspired that very song.

Freeman’s latest album is the result of years of hard work and struggles. It’s a remarkable story that has taken Freeman from an aspiring musician who made a living as a barista, taking his coffee van to festivals while dreaming of hitting their big stages, to playing shows with the likes of Van Morrison, Eric Clapton and Paul Weller.

Early in his career he won two UK Indie Awards before reaching the final of The Voice in 2012, during which he was mentored by Danny O’Donoghue of

The Script. Just as he was breaking through, a nagging backache escalated into something more serious, leading to six years of debilitating pain due to a spinal injury.

When he eventually recovered, fate still wasn’t on his side: as soon as a hit collaboration with Lost Frequencies took off, the world locked down due to Covid. Now, with the release of Scars, Ghosts & Glory, Freeman says it’s his time to shine.

What are your early memories of music that set you down this path?

I was given a guitar by my mum. She was working nights at this factory and putting needles together. I was a sportsman, and that’s what I did. I’d never sung a note, never played an instrument – it was just a stocking filler. One of her friends went, ‘Does anybody want this guitar?’ She didn’t even have time to wrap it, so she gave it to me, literally, in a bin liner. It sounds cheesy, but I literally didn’t leave my room for about four days just trying to figure this thing out. I guess the rest is history!

What is the story behind your hit single, Devils, with Dutch house DJ, record producer and remixer Fedde Le Grand?

The backstory of Devils is quite a strange one. I got asked to do a vocal for a song called Sun Is Shining , and that ended up being the title track for Lost Frequencies’ album, Alive and Feeling Fine . As a result of that, I got asked to go to my very first writer’s camp in Belgium.

I just had this idea, and it was based around touring and selling your soul. I remember waking up

one morning and going, ‘Bloody hell. I’m doing this all for nothing.’ I had this one line: ‘It feels like lately, I’ve sold my soul for nothing at all.’ I went into this writing session and we went back and forth, and that became Devils , and it got released with Fedde Le Grand.

For those people who know their dance music, you’ll know his track, Put Your Hands Up for Detroit

Fedde picked up Devils, loved the track, and we released it together.

Fast forward to now, and I’ve been given this amazing opportunity to record my debut album.

The version of Devils on your new album, Scars, Ghosts & Glory, sounds very different…

I really wanted to record Devils not as a dance track, but the way I heard it in my head. It’s a bit more bluesy. That’s where Devils came from. It did really well with Fedde as a dance track, but I wanted to put it on the album so that people can hear how it should have sounded.

What was your impression of the LD Systems MAUI G3 rig you performed though?

What’s really nice about the LD Systems rig is that you can be quite close to the actual speakers themselves. These column systems are really good at guarding from feedback.

I can be fairly close to this with a mic or a guitar, and you don’t get those pops and those whistles.

Another really nice thing is the clarity is really great. Usually, when I do this kind of thing, I haven’t got a speaker system behind me. I’ve usually got headphones in my ears, or a lot of the time, there’s no system at all! So it was nice to have that behind me.

VINCEFREEMAN.COM

Image credit: Olivia Brytz Media

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PASSION PROJECT ‘NADINE’

CHRIS POLCZINSKI

Chris Polczinski’s extensive portfolio includes the feature film Fall, upcoming wrestling biopic Queen of the Ring, utility and second unit work on The Offer, and prestige sci-fi series For All Mankind. He also just wrapped feature film In Memoriam, whose star-studded cast includes Marc Maron, Sharon Stone, and Judy Greer. Most recently and closest to his heart, he co-produced and mixed Nadine, a short about an actress first trapped and then rejected by the studio system of 1950s Hollywood, written and directed by his creative and life partner Tash Ann. Here, Polczinski explains why Lectrosonics gear was essential on the most important project he worked on in 2024…

Polczinski’s Lectrosonics wireless journey spans his entire career, beginning with legacy UCR100 receivers and LM-series transmitters, moving through the Digital Hybrid Wireless family, including the SSM micro-compact transmitters he still uses today, and culminating in the latest end-to-end digital kit such as the DSR4 and DSQD four-channel receivers and DBu belt packs.

“I started in post-production in school,” Polczinski reflects. “I was

really into sound design in school and got into Foley. Ultimately, that led me to being behind a computer 12 hours a day, and I wanted to move around more. Because I already had some mics and recorders, the manager at the Foley studio I worked at recommended me for a feature. It was low-budget and something not a lot of people would take on, but I was just excited to get out of that tiny room.”

Polczinski knew he wanted professional audio equipment he would grow into, not out of.

“I went a little hard into credit card debt back then,” he laughs, “but these were the days of getting jobs on Craigslist. Productions that were getting 50 emails a day from people like me wanted to see keywords like ‘Lectrosonics’ and ‘Sound Devices,’ so those were usually in my subject line! You wouldn’t be taken seriously if you had prosumer-level gear.”

Polczinski’s investment in Lectrosonics quickly yielded professional performance to back up the pro image. “There was this short I did called Refuel – gosh, it’s got to be over 10 years ago,” he recalls. “One sequence had two people walking down a beach in conversation. I was way up on some cliffs above the beach, and even with my legacy Lectrosonics gear, I couldn’t believe how cleanly I could hear them. I remember we didn’t lose them until they were at least 300 yards away.”

Fast forward to today and Nadine, a Kickstarter-funded short film, is the most important thing he did in 2024.

“Because of the shoestring budget, nothing was allowed to go wrong,” he elaborates. “We were packing a lot into each day, and I trusted my baby with Lectrosonics. On Nadine, all the audio had to fit into a bag rig. There was a music and dance number, and we were shooting on a studio lot where every dollar and every minute counted. So, we moved very fast.

“The DSR4 was a perfect fit for Nadine because it packs so much punch, not to mention four channels, into a single slot-mount space,” Polczinski continues. “Because the DSR4s scan for frequencies so quickly, I could be up and running in as little as 10 seconds. The clicky hardware buttons make it easy to navigate the menus with absolute confidence about what

I’m selecting at a given moment. Besides that, I never get dropouts, and they’re backward compatible with a huge range of Digital Hybrid transmitters as well as the newest Lectrosonics digital stuff.”

That compatibility comes into play when Polczinski is using one (or rather, a great many) of his favourite transmitters, the Digital Hybrid SSM. “Actors just love those things because they’re so small,” he enthuses. “On Queen of the Ring, which was about the first women championship wrestlers, we used a slew of them because of the tight costuming and athleticism of the ensemble cast. My receivers were the DSQD at the time, which are also four channels each but in a larger half-rack space, and compatible with the SSM. I love to test out the newest gear, so in the very near future I’m looking forward to trying the DSSM, which is the alldigital iteration of the SSM. I’d like to do a large ensemble-cast shoot, like a comedy TV series, to see just how many channels I can fit into the evershrinking limits of the RF spectrum here in L.A.”

When shoots push those limits, Polczinski calls upon Lectrosonics’

Wireless Designer for frequency coordination. “I love Wireless Designer and use it all the time,” he says. “It’s such a fast way to scan, then have command and control of all my wireless. I have the FreqFinder app on my phone, but Wireless Designer is just aware of so much more. It finds radio stations. It finds the second unit’s mixer bags. It finds basically everything that’s in the air and then coordinates around it. That’s amazing.”

Of both his gear purchases and career decisions, Polczinski has few regrets. “I suppose I might go back and tell myself to ease off on the credit cards and rent more,” he reflects. “But looking back, I made a lot of right moves that I didn’t know were right moves at the time. Committing to Lectrosonics early on was certainly one of them,” he grins.

LECTROSONICS.COM

WORDS

MUSIC AMBASSADORS FOR 2025

BY ALICEGUST A F NOS

YAMAHA MUSIC LONDON

Yamaha Music London has announced the new cohort of music ambassadors who have been selected for their talent, creativity, and passion for music. The four London-based musicians chosen to represent Yamaha’s music store are CODYY, Kevin Davy White, Cian Downing, and Matt Kent & Liv Lester.

In February 2025, 10 finalists were selected to perform original music in a showcase final in front of music industry professionals at Yamaha Music London, Wardour Street, London. The judging panel was made up of a team of music industry professionals from Headliner, Yamaha Music London, and TikTok’s music distribution and artist promo service, SoundOn. The judges were impressed by the finalist’s potential and ability to inspire others through their passion and dedication to their craft, continuing to push the boundaries of modern music. The chosen winners will benefit from a prize package which includes being made a Yamaha Music London ambassador for one year; winners get an instrument of their choice to play; they will receive mentorship, recording studio time and marketing and PR support.

The first ambassador selected is Irish singer-songwriter, CODYY (Andrew Cody), whose unique blend of organic instrumentation and electronic undertones set him apart from the competition. A prominent figure on the Irish and UK music scenes, his songs, ranging from the feel-good energy of White Lightning to the introspective beauty of Quarter To Midnight, have earned him soldout shows and millions of radio impressions. CODYY is currently recording his debut album and

plans a UK and Ireland summer tour, with multiple festival performances confirmed. As a Yamaha Ambassador, he aims to further elevate his music, using Yamaha instruments to fuel his songwriting and performances as he strives to reach global stages.

The second ambassador for 2025 is Kevin Davy White – a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and multiinstrumentalist. With successful stints opening for Texas, Simply Red, and Westlife, he has established a loyal fanbase across the UK and Europe. White’s music combines elements of pop, rock, and soul, showcasing his powerful vocals and instrumental proficiency. A third-place finalist on The X Factor, he has since released singles and an album, and with Yamaha’s support, he is excited to take his music career to the next level, aiming for worldwide recognition through touring and further releases.

The third ambassador is Cian Downing, an emerging voice in the British indie scene known for his infectious energy and insightful lyrics. Drawing inspiration from the likes of Billy Bragg and The Specials, Cian’s music blends indie rock with ska influences, delivering a sound that resonates with audiences across the UK. With plans for a debut album release and a passion for live performances, Cian is excited to work

with Yamaha to elevate his music career. As a Yamaha Ambassador, Cian hopes to reach new audiences and strengthen his presence within the indie and mod scenes.

Fourth to be announced as ambassadors were classical-pop fusion duo Matt Kent & Liv Lester, who are revolutionising the way classical music is experienced. Kent (violin and vocals) and Lester (piano and vocals) have been gaining recognition for their unique reimagining of classical themes through pop songwriting. Their viral TikTok series, Turning Classical Music into Pop Songs, has amassed over 40 million views, and their single Lacrimosa has over 13 million streams. As Yamaha Ambassadors, they aim to bridge the gap between classical and contemporary music, using Yamaha’s pianos and keyboards to showcase their artistry and connect with a broader audience across the globe.

“It was hard to whittle down our winners!” says Rachel Young, head of product, distribution and monetisation, SoundOn EMEA – one of the judges. It is great to see a brand with such a rich musical heritage and prestige as Yamaha commit to supporting upcoming independent talent. On behalf of SoundOn, we encourage the contestants to continue to express and share their art with the world.” YAMAHAMUSICLONDON.COM

OW R DS byMIKE DIAS

THE ART OF BEING EVERYWHERE

MIKE DIAS

In his latest Headliner column, pro audio executive Mike Dias discusses The Art of Being Everywhere All At Once, and how to turn the impossible into a reality.

Getting noticed is a funny thing. It doesn’t matter if you are a band or a brand, there are no shortcuts when it comes to cutting through all the noise and standing out. And there’s no luck either — even when it might appear that way. Nope. It’s just maths. Growing your brand is simply a function of time plus an endless amount of grit and work. I’m talking about the kind of work that it takes to move a mountain from point A to point B, one rock at a time. But if you set your intentions and processes right from the get go, eventually strangers will show up to help you move those boulders as a collective team.

Whenever I’m hired to help brands grow, here is how I start. This is the

framework that I employ every time, and I invite you all to make this your own. As a warning, this is going to sound deceptively simple — and it is to some extent. There is nothing novel about the strategy or tactics that I’m going to mention. And in fact, those don’t much matter. It’s really all about the mechanics and the follow-through. The detail’s in the execution. I affectionately call this “The Art of Being Everywhere All At Once,” and when I’m feeling overwhelmed by it all and notso-affectionate, I simply refer to this process as “Stacking Wins and Herding Cats.” Here are my five simple steps for growth — for anybody or for anything.

CRITICALLY AND BRUTALLY ASSESS WHERE YOU ACTUALLY ARE RIGHT NOW

This step is rough and not for the faint of heart. We all want to be bigger, better, stronger, more powerful, more relevant than we really are. So we seek out counsel from the people we know who are going to blow smoke and fluff us up. And that’s unfortunate because if we start from a foundation of misalignment, the rest of this process won’t work. If we can’t start with reality, then we don’t have the heart to commit to the actual amount of work that growth takes. And we’re telegraphing to everyone else that we prefer to pay for shortcuts and false-promises rather than rolling up our sleeves. Not taking proper stock screams that we’re not willing to do the work ourselves and yet we still expect strangers to come and do the lift for us. That never works! So just be honest and really think about your place, your standing, and your resources. Think about this holistically and at every level: where are you now? Who are your partners, how are your sales, how’s your global presence, and how are you and your offerings perceived in the market compared to everyone else? Then think about the tools that you have available to employ on the road to growing into what you want to become.

TAKE

AN INVENTORY OF YOUR FRIENDS WHO WANT TO HELP

At every stage of growth, there are people who have helped you achieve your level of success. These people are your true assets and unless your culture treats them as such, then you will be on a perpetual treadmill –always paying for new friends, new help, new sales, and new growth. If you truly want to be everywhere all at once, then you need an army of people helping you create wins and amplifying your successes. So start with the team that you already have in place and expand from there. And I use the word team liberally and in the largest context. Your team is everyone who cares about your well-being — everyone who wants to see you grow and flourish. Celebrate them. Communicate with them. Enable them and give them the tools to help you achieve all your goals. Then you need to allow and empower your people to bring their friends and their teams into the fold. Your job becomes focused on welcoming and inviting and setting the stage for the party of strangers who will show up to help. You need to make sure that you make it worth peoples’ time to want to help and support you. So really think about how you are going to do that. It matters. A lot.

BUILD A CULTURE THAT CONNECTS NEW FRIENDS WITH NEW OPPORTUNITIES

To be everywhere all at once, you need to dominate the airwaves and the zeitgeist. You need earned media (reviews of your products and services,) you need paid media (placements, ads, etc…) but more than anything, you need word of mouth, free-media. That’s direct one-to-one personal stories and recommendations coming from the people who interact with your products and services. And this is where the real work comes into play. Because for true growth to happen, people have to talk positively about what you do and what you offer, and to share their wonderful experiences with your products, services, and brand. But for people to actually want to talk about what you do and offer, you need to figure out how to go above and beyond just your services. You need to figure out how to be flawless in every action and interaction and you need to find real reasons to keep people engaged and wanting to help. There is never a shortage of opportunities or people willing to help, if you are willing to do the work and to create those real bonds of engagement and those true experiences. But this doesn’t scale and it can’t be automated. This has to stem from your internal culture and from your people. This is where you must invest and where you must inspire your team to perform. If not, you will never grow past the beginnings of that previous stage. You will be stuck on that treadmill running flat out just to slowly lose ground.

CREATE THE WINS. STACK THE WINS.

When you invest in your culture and your team, and when you build processes that help you go above and beyond for your customers and fans, people will notice and there will be wins. Your products will get mentioned more often. They will be used more often. They will be visible more often. They will be sold more often. And they will be shared and reviewed more often. You create mass. You create gravity. I like to think about this phase of growth like a dance party. It’s hard to get it all started but once it’s going, it builds its own momentum. No one wants to be the first one out on the dance floor — all alone with all eyes on them. And as hard as that is, being the second one out there is even harder. (The first one is always drunk or crazy. It’s the second one who’s really going out on a limb vouching for it.) But the minute the third person hits the floor, then it’s safe enough for everyone else to hop on and that party keeps going until the needle skips or until the DJ misreads the room and throws on a dud. Business and branding are exactly the same. One win begets two more wins. Two wins beget four. Four should beget more, but by that point in time someone on the team usually throws a wrench into your game. Try very hard to avoid doing that for as long as possible. You don’t get too many chances to keep the party going.

AMPLIFY THE WINS INTO THE VOID

Here’s the best part. Just because it feels like you’re winning in your echo chamber and just because you’ve built a bit of momentum, it’s easy to go back to myth-making and to believing that anyone cares at all or that you’ve made an impact. You haven’t. You are still right back

where you started from. There is just simply too much noise and distraction to compete with. There is always something new and shiny. Always someone doing what you do cheaper. Or better. And there are still an infinite amount of people who have no idea who you are, what you do, or who simply do not care. Your job is to not be discouraged by that fact. And you have to remind yourself to not believe your own hype or to think that what you’ve already accomplished has mattered at all. You must find the grace and humility in this because you are going to have to keep doing this over and over again. And you are going to need to remind your internal team and bosses that no one cares an equal number of times. That’s the job and you can’t be discouraged by that. Because if those simple facts get you down, you’ll never have the fortitude to do what comes next. And this is the part that really matters.

As you are growing your brand and reaching out to build new opportunities and to bank new wins, most people will not get back to you. And when I say most, I mean (almost) no one will get back to you. Which is normal. You can’t take that personally. But every time that you have a win worth sharing, make it a point to circle back and to simply keep them in the loop. It doesn’t matter that they’ve never responded to you. Just keep having an ongoing onesided conversation with that open email thread. Don’t hound them. Don’t spam them. Just simply keep amplifying your wins and moving all your checker pieces forward. Some might even say that I simply create wins in order to amplify them.

Do this on all platforms at all levels and throughout your organisation and eventually — over time, over

years — and you will eventually turn the impossible into reality. And when you do that enough times and when you’ve created the culture and platform and process for others to adopt your shared beliefs and shared wins as if they are their own, you will look back and realise that what felt like yelling into the void without a megaphone was actually orchestrating the coordinated efforts of countless friends and strangers moving pebbles and boulders from point A to point B.

Mike Dias writes and speaks about Why Nobody Likes Networking and What Entertainers Can Teach Executives.

He is one of the few global leaders in Trade Show Networking and he helps companies maximise their trade show spend by ensuring that their teams are prepared, ready, and able to create and close opportunities. This column will be an ongoing monthly feature because Mike loves talking shop and is honoured to give back to the community. If this article was helpful and useful in any way, please reach out anytime at Mike Dias Speaks and let Mike know about what you want to hear more about next time.

MIKE-DIAS.COM

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