3 Tell-Tale Signs You Need to Be Freelance: Why I Quit Every Staff Engineer Gig I Had
Travis discusses why he quit every staff engineering gig he had and how to know that you're ready to go freelance as a recording engineer, mixer, or producer.
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Credits:
Guest: N/A
Host: Travis Ference
Editor: Travis Ference
Theme Music: inter.ference
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I want to make this video for. A while because I know how important going
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freelance was for me. It absolutely changed my life. It could
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change yours, too. And so because of that, I've bounced a lot of versions of
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this around in my head, felt the pressure to make the perfect video.
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But I think the reality is that I just need to share this because I
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think it'll be valuable to somebody, even in an imperfect form.
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Welcome back to the show. I'm Travis Farents, a Grammy nominated recording engineer and mixer.
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And today we're talking about why I've quit every gig I've
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ever had. So I spent almost six years as a staff engineer at
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Capital Studios in Hollywood, an absolute, legendary, classic
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recording studio. And I also worked on staff for several independent producers.
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And don't get me wrong, all these gigs are dream gigs for
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anybody, including me. And I did love them. But my goal was always
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to be a freelance engineer and mixer, which I've now been fortunate enough to do
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for. The last six years. So if that's your goal as well, stick with me,
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because we're gonna talk about why I quit these gigs and how to know if
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you're also ready. To make that jump to being a. Freelance engineer or
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producer. But before we get into all this quitting. Right. Let's briefly talk about
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why a staff engineer gig is such an amazing launching. Point for a
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career. So when you're a staff engineer, you start at the bottom. You
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are essentially assigned mentors because you get to work alongside people that
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have. Done this for years, if not decades. A great
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studio is great because of the staff, and those veterans
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know that. So they are always ready to pass down their knowledge to you,
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which is amazing. And you're not just going to learn from the staff.
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A studio is a rotating door of people. You get the chance to work with.
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So many different artists, engineers, producers. You'll get to see
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different styles of production, different micing techniques, different
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workflows. You'll probably work on everything from rock to pop
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film scores to tv commercials. You'll see film shoots live in
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studio performances. I mean, I could go on forever, obviously. You name it, it's
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probably going to happen. If you work in one of these big rooms, the wide
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range of things. That you'll be exposed to will help. You learn what you like
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and what you don't like. And the more things you experience, the more options you
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might see for your future. Right? You may have started in this business thinking you
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wanted to record rock bands and then one day work on a film score and
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realize that that's actually what you want to pursue now. That same wide
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range of experiences that's helping you figure out what you want to do. It's
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also shaping your sonic tastes. You'll pluck different tricks
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from different sessions and different people, and over time,
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you'll start to build that palette, that is your sonic
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preferences, and that will give. You your own unique style. And finally, that
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same rotating cast of characters I mentioned earlier, they will become your
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client base. Because it's important, even as a staffer. To think of
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the people you work. With as your clients. Having people
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remember that they enjoyed working with you and to request to work. With you again
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is one of the. First indications you'll get that you're doing something right,
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something that could carry over. To a freelance career. So by now, you're
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probably asking yourself, if being a staff engineer is so great,
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why would you quit? Well, earlier I said that I had
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quit working at Capital Studios, which was a little bit of a lie, because
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I actually quit twice. And so I started my career
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there. As a runner, the classic entry level position. Right?
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After a few years, I realized that because it was such a great
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gig, there was not a lot of movement, people were not leaving anytime
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soon, and I wasn't going to wish death upon any of my buddies. So when
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an opportunity to go work for an independent producer came up, I took it. Now,
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I was grossly underqualified for the job at the time,
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but I was. Good enough to get by. And I think the guy saw an
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opportunity to shape a young engineer to do things the way that he
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wanted them done. So we did a lot of music for film and tv, a
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few big Disney projects, and a whole slew of songwriting sessions, all mostly
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pop. And I was constantly given
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new responsibilities, and if I handled those well, then he would just give
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me more. And so it got to the point. Where I was recording, editing, and
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mixing every project we did, unless the label wanted a fancy name
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mixer. And it was great. I loved all of it. It was
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amazing. Until I started to feel
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unchallenged. We had such a routine in the way that we
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worked that every day started to feel the same. Every EQ move started to
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feel the same. The guitar sounds were the same, the vocal chain was the same.
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Everything was the same. And when I felt
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like I was starting to just go through the motions, I started to think that
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maybe it was time for a change. Because careers are about growth,
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and growth. Comes from being challenged. I'm a big believer that when you.
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Stop learning and you stop being challenged, you start to get
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frustrated, and you may not identify exactly why you're feeling that
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way, but it's because you're not growing. And this
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is why I left capital the first time. I saw more potential for growth by
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leaving, so I did. And when I felt that growth start to slow down,
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I started looking for other opportunities. So if you're feeling this in your career
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right now, I encourage you to look for a way to grow. Maybe that growth
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is from moving on to be freelance, or maybe it's not quite time yet, because
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it is a big jump. And in my case, it was
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not quite time. It was instead time to go back to
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capital. So I leveraged my years of pop vocal recording and mixing to get
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rehired, but this time as a staff engineer. So they were expanding
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the facility to have a few rooms dedicated to vocals and overdubs, and
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hence were hiring more people. So it was perfect. It gave me the growth and
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challenge I was looking for, and it put me back in the mix of different
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experiences and different people. But over those
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next six years, I'd find that there was something else that was missing that would
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eventually drive me to quit again. I think it's safe to say that
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what drew most of us into music to begin with was the
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ability to express ourselves. For me, it was playing what I thought was cool
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on guitar in my bedroom all night. Just turns out that I was a horrible
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guitar player. But in the studio, I can still have that creative
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expression, especially when I'm mixing. And that's what I
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lost when I returned to capital. I was engineering great sessions, but I wasn't
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mixing. And most of the engineering I was doing was the same one
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mic, one player overdub engineering that I had been doing before. Now
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I was for sure being challenged. The stakes were often higher. The artists
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were usually bigger. But because of that, I didn't have the
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freedom to always do what I wanted. Nor did I have the freedom to choose
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the projects I wanted to do or to work the way I wanted. And these
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things didn't bother me at first. I knew the gig I was taking when I
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took it, and I loved it. But as I grew more and I got
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better at my craft, I started to crave that choice.
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I wanted to develop my own sound and build my own credit list with. The
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artists that I wanted to work. With, things that every engineer
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wants to do right, but they're also things that are generally out of your control
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if you're on staff somewhere. So if you feel like
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you've grown your skills to the point that you want to be making records your
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way with the people you love working with, then
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you're right where I was at this point. And I think this is one of
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the biggest telltale signs that you might be ready to be
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freelance. Because this feeling of not having the freedom to do what you
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want, it's rooted in the fact that you've developed your musical
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identity to the point that you have to live it. And it's that kind of
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confidence that you need to be a freelancer. So what did I do?
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I quit. I quit capital again. But yet
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again, it was not to go freelance, which, looking back on, was
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a mistake. I should have made the plunge, but I had to do one
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more gig. And learn one more lesson. So, like a broken record, I
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left capital to work for a producer. I was hired to run his label, Studios,
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which on paper was an amazing gig, but in reality, it was not what I
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wanted to do at all. And so I ended up doing this little side quest
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for, like, six or eight months before finally realizing it was time to be
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working for myself. Because despite the fact that I was running two rooms
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and managing small staff, I somehow still felt unchallenged in this
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gig. And even though I was in charge of the studios, I still
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felt a lack of freedom. And this is when I realized that the true
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core of my frustrations, the thing that had been festering behind the scenes,
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is that I'd lost sight of my goals. That first time I quit
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capital was the only time I was working towards the goal I mentioned in the
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beginning of being a freelance engineer and mixer. All the
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other choices I made after that were based on chasing credits or making
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money. I was trying to gig hop into bigger records and waiting
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for those credits to miraculously get me mix work, even though they were
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engineering credits. Id mixed for years on the side. But when
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youre on staff, you only have so much free time. And yes, I was making
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a living working in music, but I was not working towards the things I wanted
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to work towards. And that realization that I had been out of
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alignment with my goal for. So many years was the final catalyst in going
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freelance. So if you're still watching and you feel these things, you feel
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that you are unchallenged and not growing and that you don't have the freedom to
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be who you want to be artistically and that what you're doing is not in
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alignment with your goals, then I encourage you to change that. And
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it might be that going freelance. Could be the answer. You're looking for.
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And if it is, and the thing that's holding you back is not knowing
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what to charge, then check out this video I did about how to set your
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rates.
