A young audio engineer recently got in touch with me asking for some career advice. As always, I’m happy to help and I invited him to my studio for a chat. After taking over a month to make a booking, we actually got to the date and he didn’t show up. He didn’t send me [...]
Teaching this kid a lesson about punctuality
by Kim Lajoie on May 31, 2012
Drew Magary, on Justin Bieber: Now I’m back at the studio, ready to fight. Bieber is running late, I am told, because he’s procuring the boxing equipment. The PR lady, Melissa, warns me that Bieber boxes regularly and that his father, Jeremy, is a former MMA fighter. Now I’m starting to get a little worried. [...]
…and the worms come out of the woodwork
by Kim Lajoie on March 15, 2012
Well, it looks like all ten of my readers had something to say about yesterday’s post about sexist language. Vincent, George, Ilter, Shane: Thank you for your calm and rational response. I appreciate that you were able to respond without resorting to name-calling or other derogatory insinuations about my upbringing. I don’t mind it when [...]
Is sexist language ok if you’re an audio engineer?
by Kim Lajoie on March 14, 2012
Graham Cochrane: For all you ladies out there reading my blog (and I know there are some!) I apologize for the terminlogy [sic]. But the honest truth is your mixes are never done by themselves. You could tweak away for years and still find things to “improve” or try. The only way to be done with [...]
Know yourself – for the sake of others
by Kim Lajoie on March 1, 2012
I recently had an experience where an artist let me down. Put simply, she promised something that she couldn’t deliver, and didn’t give me a chance to find alternatives in time. This is what happened: I asked her if she could do a thing for me,which needed to be done by a certain date, and [...]
Are singers more sensitive than other instrumentalists?
by Kim Lajoie on December 12, 2011
Have you worked with singers? Have you worked with other musicians? Have you found that singers – generally – are more sensitive than other musicians? Have you found that they respond differently to criticism? Perhaps they take it more personally? If you’ve spent any serious time as a producer or engineer working with other musicians, [...]
What artists need
by Kim Lajoie on July 25, 2011
What do you think artists need? As a producer, this question should be at the top of your mind. Before I go on, have a guess… Do they need time to practice and hone their craft? High quality instruments? A record label to provide funding and expertise? A good rhyming dictionary? Oh, I know – [...]
My industry contacts won’t help you
by Kim Lajoie on April 18, 2011
Don’t ask me for my industry contacts. I’m not selling them. I don’t do everything myself – I partner with other people and businesses in order to achieve more than I could on my own. Some of these partnerships are open and available to anyone – you or anyone else can partner with these people [...]
The vibe of a session
by Kim Lajoie on June 26, 2009
I recently came across this article, with this great paragraph: THE REALITY is that 90% of the time, the artist (and probably the producer) dont want to sit around and watch you turn knobs and swap mics until you get your idea of the most awesome sound. They want to record. Instead of the perception [...]
Producers and “producers”
by Kim Lajoie on June 4, 2009
I’m an old curmugeon. Something interesting has been happening to music production. More specifically, something interesting has been happening to the role of the music producer. I commonly see the term “producer” to refer to various roles, usually something like “the guy at the computer” or “the guy who does the mixing”, or even “the [...]