The Importance of People Skills

This blog is going to be quite straight forward, I will be addressing my ability to create a enjoyable and comfortable studio experience as a way to subtly coach an artist into a better performance. Callum and Myself have been working with our Main Project artist, Mufaro, we felt that we should implement some tactics and environmental improvements to get the best result from the artist we could. We figured that acting in a transparent manor and staying casual and light-hearted would improve the overall environment we are recording in, which would in-turn help the artists be more comfortable and ok with their performances. Below are a few things we did that had great results in the session;

Turning the lights Off

In our recent vocal session, Callum felt that it might create better results if we turned off the lights in the control room to remove some of the stress of the artist. For all recordings that day, we removed the lights and resulted in fantastic takes from all the artists. I Figured I would ask if the lights did anything for the artists, seeing as we had previously gotten good takes from the band with the lights on. When asked, Mufaro said "yeah, it really helps create a mood in the studio, there is less stress of seeing everyone." then wen onto to say how cool the Neve console looks in the dark.. And you cant argue that!

Product Importance

To push our hopes of creating a good product for Mufaro and letting him know how motivated we are in making the best product for him we can, we opted to test a series of microphones on his voice to see what suited him better. This attention to detail as well as explaining to him why we were doing this really solidified in his mind the motivation we have to created a great product for him. This doesn’t only translate to making him feel better, but it also allows him to feel a sense of importance, in what he is recording is important to us as much as him. Having trust in the Engineers you work with is important, allowing your artists to trust you will put you a step above the rest.

Light-hearted Humour

This is a bit more "obvious" and more a case-by-case situation, but incorporating light-hearted jokes and topical conversations really helped the social dynamic between Mufaro and us. Callum and myself have a lot of enjoyment in messing with each other, calling each other silly names, acting silly and being all-round-goof-balls. Keeping this friendly interaction present and open translated really effectively to our clients. It allowed them to enjoy our company on more then just "these guys are helping us record", though, this is most defiantly a case by case situation. What makes light-hearted humor so powerful to the client is when it translates and contrasts seamlessly with our level of effort and work ethic. Callum and myself have shown a powerful work ethic, giving our artist feedback-turnarounds within hours of information given. This blend of Humor and Work Ethics has resulted in an incredibly happy clients!

Reflection

Looking back upon our recent sessions, I am very fortunate to have someone as smart thinking as Callum in my group. His forward approach to social situations, creative blocks, problem solving and overall engineering is very motivational. Though I feel he can get a little stuck in 'doing the same thing', as most of us can, he still finds a way to push through or reason with the idea to find a just answer. This work ethic has translated through our 'Artist Coaching' and Studio Session, helping both push the artist but also my own ability to engineer. I am happy looking back upon the sessions to see our social interactions and work ethic behind our project work. I feel like I have brought to the table a up-beat and lighthearted social setting capable of relaxing the artists while still producing high quality work. I think there is a lot I can improve upon on that front, though I am still getting the great results, I feel like there can occasionally be some disconnect between Callum, The Band and myself. I think this could just come down to character traits but it doesn’t seem to infringe too much upon our work or studio output, mostly just something I feel I can improve upon.

Thanks!