Get emotionally involved

There’s a particular sort of dude-focused music engineer worldview that you've probably encountered online — tell me if this sounds familiar.

In this worldview, recording isn’t about communicating, or even really about music; it’s about sound. It’s not about emotion (ew); it’s about knowledge and gear (bro.)

And, further: in this worldview, sound is not something to approach with humility, but rather to dominate. To control, with the knowledge and equipment that you have acquired.

“I made it sound great” is something you hear expressed frequently by this type of engineer. Taken as a whole, this perspective always feels to me like it’s not so much about art as it is about dominion. Conquering; subjugation; power.

And, don’t get me wrong: the technical aspects of what we’re doing are very important! Engineering is at its core a technical discipline, and we ignore that to our own detriment.

But what I would like to suggest is that the technical aspect of things should not be the point — it should merely be a tool, to be used in service of the actual point.

So, what’s the actual point?

To me, it’s the emotion. And, in my view, everything else is necessarily, and distantly, secondary.

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I have a dear friend who runs a high-end party band. This is the kind of band that plays clubs and outdoor events, but also plays high-stakes weddings and corporate events. We were talking recently, and he said this:

I go to a lot of educational seminars about the event industry and event planning. There was one class I recently took that put different event planners into categories.

The category that matched me perfectly was “the buddy planner.”

Basically, I try to become friends with the client and let them know that I genuinely want their party to be awesome. It’s a very real feeling. I really truly feel that way.

And I replied:

I'm exactly like you in that way. I get personally involved with every single thing I work on. I mean like emotionally involved.

And it’s true!

Because I view music through an emotional lens, I see my job as identifying and signal-boosting what artists are working to communicate emotionally. Which, at a certain level, has nothing at all to do with technical ability or prowess, and everything to do with intuition and curiosity.

And if that’s where you’re coming from, how could you not get emotionally involved? Not to do so would feel like malpractice! Or at very least it would feel like a failure to connect — when connection should be, I think, the entire point.

You can have the most technically impressive mix in the world — but if it isn’t serving the song emotionally, then what have you really accomplished?

As engineers, we’re often expected to exert an influence that changes the music. We should also be open — even more so, I think — to the idea that maybe the music could change us.

Lead with your heart — jamie