Adapting

Welcome back to the Industream! If you didn't catch my post last week, I talked about a story that was told to me by an industry professional (in which he was in a foreign country on tour with his band and had his briefcase stolen, containing his work visa, money, and passport). You can find that post below.

This post is going to be a two-parter- I'll be recounting an experience I had tonight at Taylor Down Under, and I will be analyzing a booking agent's personal account of what it takes to do his job successfully.

Jon Folk, Red 11 Music

Jon Folk is the founder of Red 11 Music, a booking agency that focuses mainly on country and Americana music. The following quote was obtained from the website "careersinmusic.com" (an invaluable resource for those of you interested in music industry careers!). In it, Folk describes what his day-to-day looks like:

“My typical day is in the office during the week, on the phone while answering emails, talking to as many people as I can, negotiating deal points on all of our clients, planning tours, securing support acts, looking at developmental artists, meeting with staff, helping solve problems and helping our artists achieve their goals.”

From just this short quote, we can already clearly see that this career is trying. To speak with so many people on behalf of an artist requires a great deal of natural people skills, and the so-called ability to "work a room". Introverted folks, such as myself, are already put at a disadvantage! These skills, however, can in fact be taught, and I'm of the opinion that it boils down to one things: practice. The more you practice something (even something as difficult as people skills for someone who's more shy), the better you get, inevitably.

In such a hectic environment, one may infer that being able to adapt quickly would be an invaluable skill to have as well. You'd be absolutely right. Folk continues:

“My day is mostly working with Promoters and Talent Buyers on upcoming tours. I negotiate and contract all personal appearances for the artists we represent out of our Nashville office. Also, [I spend time] talking with our artists to really customize their touring needs. There is always a goal in mind on whatever we do with our artists’ objectives. For example, one artist may want to really focus this year more on solo shows and building his core audience as opposed to another who is really looking for maximum exposure through supporting larger artists, or large festivals, or a large scale headline tour, etc. In general, though, I am on the phone, the office is buzzing, people are cutting deals. It is a very fast paced environment: a perfect symphony of controlled chaos.”

The phrase "a perfect symphony of controlled chaos" sums it up beautifully. In a career where no two days are the same, being able to adapt to sudden change (no matter how drastic) is not just useful- it's necessary.

I had a situation in Taylor Down Under (TDU) tonight where I had to rapidly adapt to a situation. TDU is the James Madison University student union, and they regularly have music-related events (including an open mic night every Tuesday evening from 7-10 PM). Incidentally, anyone can sign up for a time slot at this event by signing up here: http://info.jmu.edu/studentactivities/2017/08/28/open-mic-night-form/

Anyway, I work there as a sound engineer. My job is to set up the stage and run the sound board for events that require them. Tonight's gig was "Chewata Night". I had no idea what that meant going into it, but from the event worksheet that clients are required to fill out, it looked like all I had to do was set up our two wireless mics (a simple matter of turning them on and handing them to the performers). Easy.

This wasn't the case at all.

The TDU board (an Allen & Heath MixWizard 16:2) as I had it set for tonight's show

I arrived, set up the two mics, and proceeded to pull out my laptop, thinking my job was done. As soon as the performers arrived, they went immediately for the snake (which is the input box kept underneath the stage). Ordinarily, clients aren't supposed to touch that (let alone know where it is), so I approached them and asked them if I could help them with anything. As it turned out, they needed two wired mics on stands, a direct input (DI) box for an electronic drum machine, and two DI boxes for two traditional Ethiopian instruments that I'd never seen before in my life. 

They were set to start at 7, and it was now about 6:45 PM. I had 15 minutes to haul stands, mics, DI's, cables, and monitors out to the stage. I then had to wheel the board to the amp in the back of the room and plug the 16-channel snake in, not to mention complete a soundcheck. 

It was stressful. I went from being done with my job to running around the space setting things up, while communicating with the performers the whole time about what they needed from me. While in the end I got it all done, it was not at all how I expected the night to go, and I had to adapt immediately to the situation. I plan on taking this experience as a valuable lesson learned about how important it is to adapt, and to not let things stress you out to the point where you can't do your job to the best of your ability (something that is still exceedingly difficult for me).