Question 1

What is the single biggest suggestion you would give to someone wanting to get into this career?

Jeff Barnes · Accepted Answer

“Don’t do it for the wrong reason. When you look at Record Plant’s discography you see we do Justin Bieber, Alicia Keys, Beyonce, Black-Eyed Peas — and you know they’ve all probably been here. That’s glamorous and exciting, but at the end of the day, you have to do this because you love the music and want to create an atmosphere so artists can make the best music they can make.”
“If your goal is to be around famous people or you want to go down any other avenue other than providing this space, I don’t know if it’s necessarily the right fit because it requires a lot of flexibility to begin with and if you don’t enjoy what you do — the process of the recording — it won’t work.”
“We had a project in January that was very big and we needed to rent additional equipment for additional rooms because they had so much of our gear in their rooms. The Producer of that session was like, ‘I didn’t know if you’d want to have us here because of all the gear’ and we’re like ‘No, this is why we got into this!’ It’s exciting to see a studio filled with gear and great musicians using the gear.”

Question 2

What’s the #1 mistake people make when trying to get into this career?

Jeff Barnes · Accepted Answer

“If you’re not doing this because you love what a recording studio is capable of being I don’t think that’s the right reason to do it. You’re going to burn out really quickly.”

Question 3

What is the question people should ask about this career but rarely do?

Jeff Barnes · Accepted Answer

“The only thing I can think of is potentially unique to my position because a lot of these other studios are owned by corporate companies. When it comes to the ‘people skills’ and HR management, that’s a whole other job in itself and we’re really intentional and conscientious of who we hire because of that.”
“The best approach to human resource issues is to not have any issues so if we’re able to assemble a team that’s able to work well together and accomplishes what we want to accomplish that’s great. In that sense, we really pride ourselves on doing a lot of work to hire the right people so we can have that higher level of service provided. We usually interview upwards of ten to twenty people to hire for one position.”
“Just because one studio doesn’t hire you doesn’t mean another one won’t. Don’t get discouraged by that. I’ve hired people who are really smart and hard-working but maybe better suited for a smaller facility. We have four bigger studios and tracking spaces downstairs and three production rooms upstairs so when it’s running on all cylinders, it’s a lot of work and some people might be more successful in a smaller setting.”

Question 4

What is one thing I should have asked which I didn’t?

Jeff Barnes · Accepted Answer

“The only other thing I can think of is which other jobs are integral to what I do — because it’s a huge team effort.”
“The Runners who do all the cleaning, maintenance and picking up food for clients and the Assistant Engineers, who have done a lot of work to understand their craft and be prepared for any technical requests or issues that may arise: they’re the first line of defense. They’re in there with the client all day. Our technical staff makes sure everything is working.”
“My assistant: if I want to go on vacation I need someone to take over for me. There’s only so much time in the day and I need to focus on financial stuff. If there are any issues downstairs like ‘so-and-so’s beverages aren’t right,’ she’ll take care of it.”

Question 5

If you could describe in one word what makes you successful, what would it be?

Jeff Barnes · Accepted Answer

“Flexibility. The best advice I got from somebody in this industry when I was younger was from Fabian Marasciullo, a big Mix Engineer who was a client of ours. He said, ‘You should never turn down a job in this business because it’s not what you thought you’d be doing.”
“When I got into this business I thought I wanted to be a Recording Engineer; I ended up finding something that worked very well for me on the management side of the business. So, having the flexibility there and the flexibility to perform the job.”

Question 6

Extra Credit: The Beatles or Rolling Stones?

Jeff Barnes · Accepted Answer

“Beatles, hands down. We’ve done a lot of work throughout the years with the Rolling Stones, but Beatles, always.”

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Recording Studio Manager