I finally got an interview with the hard-to-catch Heather Sturm on July 30, 2008 at 5pm. She came over to my house after work so we could relax away from gear and clients.
Heather works at East Iris Studios in Nashville and has been there for over two years now. She is the Assistant Engineer for East Iris' Studio A, both during the day and night shifts - it is a tough job, no doubt, but she seems to really love music and love being a part of the creation of it.
To say Heather is a "good hang" would be an understatement. I think she is the best hang! She has many fascinating stories about sessions and the stars she has gotten to work with through East Iris. It is truly a waste on me, however, as I am celebrity-retarded for the most part. But I love hearing the stories nonetheless.
Heather is a great addition to this book project, not as a pioneer, but more as an up and coming talent. She is able to depict how it is to be starting out and working your way through a career at a larger commercial studio. Most females I know and have met along the way have started their own studio (coincidence?) for some reason. But Heather is one of the rare ones who are employed in the more traditional studio fashion.
I had the opportunity to tour the facilities at East Iris maybe a year ago, and it is truly a beautiful facility - amazing piano, the rooms are acoustically well-designed, top-of-the line equipment, candy all over the place, a larger kitchen than the one in my house - a spectacular building with a unique location.
Heather started as an intern and quickly was hired as a full time staff member. Above all, I get the sense that she is a true professional in the studio - one who likes to deliver a great service and product to her clients, and one who is perfectionistic in her work. Like most new engineers, she works long hours and isn't getting wealthy off of it, but she is committed to doing a great job every time.
One common theme amongst the chicks thus far - pride in their work. There is a certain pressure to not make mistakes - ever - for females in this business, and the by-product of that is a top-notch work ethic for any potential employer.
Heather was a blast to interview - she is sincere and funny - and gives great advice to the upcoming generation of chicklets that want to enter this business and work in a commercial recording studio facility.
This is a blog to mark my research journey for a book I am writing, entitled "Audio Chicks".
On the left column you will find blogs on each interview, with the most recent one first.
On the right you will find info about the author - a full background and commentary.
***** NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART *****
Please feel free to subscribe to this blog. Enjoy!
Jill in the Studio
This is a post-production studio at NYU (aka Studio B) - a place I called "home" while I was there.
The Author: Jill Courtney (formerly Armstrong and Kares)
I am a woman who holds a lot of jobs within the music field. First, I am a business owner and recording engineer through my own indie company, JCreative Multimedia, formerly known as Sharkbait Studios, which I owned and ran with my now ex-husband. This is my job currently, but I also teach, write, and sing.
Recently I ran Quad Studios Nashville on Music Row in Nashville, TN.
Recently I ran Quad Studios Nashville on Music Row in Nashville, TN.
I also taught full time for Lamar State College-Port Arthur, where I functioned as the Coordinator of Commercial Music and Voice for the school. Previously and currently Nashville-based with my company, I was employed by Belmont University as an adjunct professor of commercial voice, and was employed by The Arts Institute of Tennessee-Nashville as an adjunct professor of audio recording. I also taught analog and digital recording, voice, and was the director of the jazz vocal ensemble at Tennessee State University.
Currently, I am traveling all over the US in search of answers for a book I am writing. This book is the focus of this blog, and is entitled "Audio Chicks," subtitle pending. It is about females who are in the audio industry (or were back in the day!). Said females can shed some light on how the industry was, is, and maybe how it will be. This has been and will continue to be a slow process.
The book has several purposes:
1. Selfishly, I want to meet people like me who entered the industry and are thriving within it.
2. I searched and searched for another text dealing with females within the audio recording field and came up empty, so I decided there needed to be one out there.
3. I see so very few females entering the programs with which I am affiliated (and also vicariously through my ex-husband's experience with MTSU, SAE and Lamar), that I want to try to put this possibility out there for the future females who may be interested in pursuing the field.
4. I want to see how the industry has changed as women begin to trickle into this particular segment of the workforce. Current statistics (which are very hard to gather) place female presence in the industry at 2-5%. I am hoping to make that 7-10% in my lifetime. I wanna change the world! HA!
5. I want to examine the trials that women face within this male-dominated field, but also look at the benefits associated with being a minority - there are both, in my experience. I want to see if others agree.
6. We are living in a time when the original women who entered the field are still alive and working! Their stories, even in a small 3-hour interview sort of way, should be documented. If I could profile each and every one of them in a 30-minute documentary-style video production, I would. But I can only start small right now.
7. I also want to interview a few men who work with women to see how it may differ from their perspective (hoping that they can be honest with me, a woman!).
8. Because I also married a recording engineer (Gregory Kares), I have the vicarious experience that he lived in comparison to my own. There is a difference in how we attain jobs, get salaried, work with clients, etc., and I feel that I can gain a balanced look at the differences by using his career as a reference point. I certainly have a unique insider's perspective, so I feel I might be able to get to the heart of the matter. Aren't I lucky?
In addition to the personal interviews, I plan to survey all the schools who have audio programs in the nation. I will be asking for statistics on enrollment, separated by gender, for the last 5 years - to see how the trends are. I will also be asking each school if they help diversification by giving financial aid to minority (female) applicants.
I also want to see if there are specific scholarships available for this specific cause, and if I find them, to get the word out.
Certainly, my life would have been more informed (not sure if it would have been easier) with a reference such as this when I began on my road to audio recording.
My educational background:
* Manitou Springs Elementary School and Junior High - Manitou Springs, CO
I was in a touring choral group throughout my childhood (road gigs were normal!), called the Colorado Springs Childrens' Chorale, let by the infamous Bob Crowder, I took piano lessons from age 6-14, and picked up the trumpet to be in the band in 6th grade. I wanted to play the drums but Mom and Dad said no, no, no! Dumb move, Mom and Dad. :)
* Manitou Springs High School - H.S. Diploma - 1993
Went to audio camp one summer during this time - thanks Gramma Ruthie, RIP! I also was in a rock band throughout high school - called Valhalla, and was also in musicals and choirs and such - went to All-State twice as a vocalist (led by Weston Noble, who I absolutely fell in love with - he wanted me at Luther hard core!), got a scholarship to musical theatre choral camp, learned to play guitar via guitar class with Stevie Astley, played trumpet and piano for the high school jazz band (and occasionally served as the jazz vocalist) - took jazz piano privately from Steve Barta, and also played trumpet for the high school band under Dr. Brian Hopwood. I also was in all the musicals offered during my tenure at the school, and also some straight-up theatre. Most notable, I guess, I once had the lead role of Dolly in "Hello, Dolly!" I participated in jazz choir all four years, and learned how to make really amazing jazz hands during choralography moments. I think I won some MVP award for choir or something. I dunno. That was a long-assed time ago.
* St. Olaf College - BA (Music Ed. k-12) - 1997 - Northfield, MN
I got my music degree from this place, though I honestly have no idea how. I took St. Olaf's one music tech class offered (with the amazing Peter Hamlin) and began to record some of my singer-songwriter songs at this time. I started recording using a dual cassette deck karaoke machine that my aunt Sharon had kindly given to me for a Christmas present, and just kept rotating the tapes to layer the "tracks," all the while using a microphone that resembled a "My First Sony" brand, until I remembered that I had a sweet EV microphone that I used in live performances. The results of these recordings are hilarious and most definitely short of professional. Otherwise, I mainly had others record me as a performer, and wrote some cool arsty-folk songs with a guy named Carl Skildum. I was also in several short-lived bands during this time - mainly rock-centered, and I also did some musicals and some forced classical concerts as a don't-really-wannabe opera/classical singer. I studied voice under Dr. Robert Scholz and Mary Martz, and guitar was my declared secondary instrument. I barely tested out of piano. I studied conducting with Dr. Robert Scholz and Dr. Anton Armstrong (director of St. Olaf Choir).
* The American Musical and Dramatic Academy - Professional Degree in Musical Theatre Performance - 1998 - New York, NY
This was a 2-year professional program very centered on performance only. I was also writing songs on the side, and was always a bit annoyed with singing (and portraying) other people's lyrics when I had something of my own to say. I loved acting though. I was also in several short-lived collaborations and bands of various rock-based styles at this time, but I did write a few great songs with a guy named Jonathan Lopes - more pop-rock stuff. I studied with some of the best musical theatre teachers in the business, and my primary applied vocal coach was a freakin' diva named Jacklyn Schneider. She commanded respect upon birth, I have no doubt. My peers at school always marveled at how high I could belt. I didn't know what they were talking about. That was my rock voice, dude.
* New York University - MM - Music Technology - 2005 - New York, NY
My first class was September 10, 2001. Yeah. Those years were difficult in so many ways. I also worked full time while in school full time. No idea how I did that. My degree program had an "Audio for Multimedia" concentration, with a studio recording foundation. I minored in Music Business and took as many video editing classes on the side as I could. During this time I sang with two not-as-short-lived bands in my spare time. The first was a band then called the Kosmic-nots, but now called Lucky 13 or Cherry Bomb - still in Brooklyn and rockin' it out, centered on classic and modern alt-rock and 80s female rock - total party band. The second was a funk/soul-based band called Mama Feelgood - we did a lot of Aretha-Jill Scott-Mary J.-James Brown-styled music. What a blast - we had a logo, a demo, a website and everything....all designed/produced by yours truly! I also studied with a great vocal teacher named Jennifer (last name?) through NYU. My ex-husband was the bass player in the last two bands mentioned.
I am now an audio engineer and video producer who records others, and am also devoting much time to creating my own songs and teaching/mentoring up-and-coming artists.
Currently, I am traveling all over the US in search of answers for a book I am writing. This book is the focus of this blog, and is entitled "Audio Chicks," subtitle pending. It is about females who are in the audio industry (or were back in the day!). Said females can shed some light on how the industry was, is, and maybe how it will be. This has been and will continue to be a slow process.
The book has several purposes:
1. Selfishly, I want to meet people like me who entered the industry and are thriving within it.
2. I searched and searched for another text dealing with females within the audio recording field and came up empty, so I decided there needed to be one out there.
3. I see so very few females entering the programs with which I am affiliated (and also vicariously through my ex-husband's experience with MTSU, SAE and Lamar), that I want to try to put this possibility out there for the future females who may be interested in pursuing the field.
4. I want to see how the industry has changed as women begin to trickle into this particular segment of the workforce. Current statistics (which are very hard to gather) place female presence in the industry at 2-5%. I am hoping to make that 7-10% in my lifetime. I wanna change the world! HA!
5. I want to examine the trials that women face within this male-dominated field, but also look at the benefits associated with being a minority - there are both, in my experience. I want to see if others agree.
6. We are living in a time when the original women who entered the field are still alive and working! Their stories, even in a small 3-hour interview sort of way, should be documented. If I could profile each and every one of them in a 30-minute documentary-style video production, I would. But I can only start small right now.
7. I also want to interview a few men who work with women to see how it may differ from their perspective (hoping that they can be honest with me, a woman!).
8. Because I also married a recording engineer (Gregory Kares), I have the vicarious experience that he lived in comparison to my own. There is a difference in how we attain jobs, get salaried, work with clients, etc., and I feel that I can gain a balanced look at the differences by using his career as a reference point. I certainly have a unique insider's perspective, so I feel I might be able to get to the heart of the matter. Aren't I lucky?
In addition to the personal interviews, I plan to survey all the schools who have audio programs in the nation. I will be asking for statistics on enrollment, separated by gender, for the last 5 years - to see how the trends are. I will also be asking each school if they help diversification by giving financial aid to minority (female) applicants.
I also want to see if there are specific scholarships available for this specific cause, and if I find them, to get the word out.
Certainly, my life would have been more informed (not sure if it would have been easier) with a reference such as this when I began on my road to audio recording.
My educational background:
* Manitou Springs Elementary School and Junior High - Manitou Springs, CO
I was in a touring choral group throughout my childhood (road gigs were normal!), called the Colorado Springs Childrens' Chorale, let by the infamous Bob Crowder, I took piano lessons from age 6-14, and picked up the trumpet to be in the band in 6th grade. I wanted to play the drums but Mom and Dad said no, no, no! Dumb move, Mom and Dad. :)
* Manitou Springs High School - H.S. Diploma - 1993
Went to audio camp one summer during this time - thanks Gramma Ruthie, RIP! I also was in a rock band throughout high school - called Valhalla, and was also in musicals and choirs and such - went to All-State twice as a vocalist (led by Weston Noble, who I absolutely fell in love with - he wanted me at Luther hard core!), got a scholarship to musical theatre choral camp, learned to play guitar via guitar class with Stevie Astley, played trumpet and piano for the high school jazz band (and occasionally served as the jazz vocalist) - took jazz piano privately from Steve Barta, and also played trumpet for the high school band under Dr. Brian Hopwood. I also was in all the musicals offered during my tenure at the school, and also some straight-up theatre. Most notable, I guess, I once had the lead role of Dolly in "Hello, Dolly!" I participated in jazz choir all four years, and learned how to make really amazing jazz hands during choralography moments. I think I won some MVP award for choir or something. I dunno. That was a long-assed time ago.
* St. Olaf College - BA (Music Ed. k-12) - 1997 - Northfield, MN
I got my music degree from this place, though I honestly have no idea how. I took St. Olaf's one music tech class offered (with the amazing Peter Hamlin) and began to record some of my singer-songwriter songs at this time. I started recording using a dual cassette deck karaoke machine that my aunt Sharon had kindly given to me for a Christmas present, and just kept rotating the tapes to layer the "tracks," all the while using a microphone that resembled a "My First Sony" brand, until I remembered that I had a sweet EV microphone that I used in live performances. The results of these recordings are hilarious and most definitely short of professional. Otherwise, I mainly had others record me as a performer, and wrote some cool arsty-folk songs with a guy named Carl Skildum. I was also in several short-lived bands during this time - mainly rock-centered, and I also did some musicals and some forced classical concerts as a don't-really-wannabe opera/classical singer. I studied voice under Dr. Robert Scholz and Mary Martz, and guitar was my declared secondary instrument. I barely tested out of piano. I studied conducting with Dr. Robert Scholz and Dr. Anton Armstrong (director of St. Olaf Choir).
* The American Musical and Dramatic Academy - Professional Degree in Musical Theatre Performance - 1998 - New York, NY
This was a 2-year professional program very centered on performance only. I was also writing songs on the side, and was always a bit annoyed with singing (and portraying) other people's lyrics when I had something of my own to say. I loved acting though. I was also in several short-lived collaborations and bands of various rock-based styles at this time, but I did write a few great songs with a guy named Jonathan Lopes - more pop-rock stuff. I studied with some of the best musical theatre teachers in the business, and my primary applied vocal coach was a freakin' diva named Jacklyn Schneider. She commanded respect upon birth, I have no doubt. My peers at school always marveled at how high I could belt. I didn't know what they were talking about. That was my rock voice, dude.
* New York University - MM - Music Technology - 2005 - New York, NY
My first class was September 10, 2001. Yeah. Those years were difficult in so many ways. I also worked full time while in school full time. No idea how I did that. My degree program had an "Audio for Multimedia" concentration, with a studio recording foundation. I minored in Music Business and took as many video editing classes on the side as I could. During this time I sang with two not-as-short-lived bands in my spare time. The first was a band then called the Kosmic-nots, but now called Lucky 13 or Cherry Bomb - still in Brooklyn and rockin' it out, centered on classic and modern alt-rock and 80s female rock - total party band. The second was a funk/soul-based band called Mama Feelgood - we did a lot of Aretha-Jill Scott-Mary J.-James Brown-styled music. What a blast - we had a logo, a demo, a website and everything....all designed/produced by yours truly! I also studied with a great vocal teacher named Jennifer (last name?) through NYU. My ex-husband was the bass player in the last two bands mentioned.
In addition, during this time I began what was known as Sharkbait Studios with my ex-husband in 2002/2003. Sharkbait began as a recital recording service, grew to include multi-camera video, and to record in giant concert halls and cathedrals in NYC, and then added studio and rehearsal space once the business was moved to Nashville in 2005.
My first album of songs, "Eyelash Wishes" was completed for my master's thesis project. It is on file at the NYU library. I wrote, performed, recorded and mixed this album all by myself (ok, I hired the bass player (ex-husband) to play over my MIDI and hired a drummer (Steve Gasser) to make the drum sounds to replace my hideous MIDI attempts at drums, and these songs still have yet to be re-recorded and mixed. I want to leave them in their original state. Mainly because I'm too lazy and like how they turned out as a flippin' amateur. Most people like the first track that I recorded while drunk to overcome technological phobias. It is called, "The Shower Song." It is ridiculous.
My first album of songs, "Eyelash Wishes" was completed for my master's thesis project. It is on file at the NYU library. I wrote, performed, recorded and mixed this album all by myself (ok, I hired the bass player (ex-husband) to play over my MIDI and hired a drummer (Steve Gasser) to make the drum sounds to replace my hideous MIDI attempts at drums, and these songs still have yet to be re-recorded and mixed. I want to leave them in their original state. Mainly because I'm too lazy and like how they turned out as a flippin' amateur. Most people like the first track that I recorded while drunk to overcome technological phobias. It is called, "The Shower Song." It is ridiculous.
I am now an audio engineer and video producer who records others, and am also devoting much time to creating my own songs and teaching/mentoring up-and-coming artists.
My songs and audio works (except for various early and embarrassing recordings that remain in the private vault) are found in full on www.jillcourtney.com
To Contact Jill Courtney
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Jill Courtney
An Audio Chick in Action
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