Mentor News
Control Room in Virlouise Recording Studios
ON THE LOST ART OF PERSEVERANCE IN THE MUSIC BUSINESS:
“Kids want instant gratification, but you’re supposed to grow out of that. A lot of the people I meet . . . Even sometimes I’ll get guys in their 30’s and 40’s, and they’ve never been able to accomplish anything because they want everything now, and no matter how much they hear people telling them that, they don’t listen.”
HIS THOUGHTS ON ONE OF HIS STUDENTS WHO IS TAKING THE MASTER’S PROGRAM:
“Right now, if Nick Becker finishes this Master’s program, then he’s just knocked out over 90% of the competition if he goes to apply for a job in a pretty good production house or something…It’s all about value and what you have of value…The fact that he has a genre of music that he’s very familiar with, that means he can go everywhere where they play that genre music, have engineering skills and have drum skills. Man, that guy, if he stays with this and he gets this done, he has a real shot.”
ON WHAT HIS MOST SUCCESSFUL APPRENTICES SHARE IN COMMON:
“Every one of my students who succeeded were really into what I was teaching. And they’re all working. Nathan [Lata] does the band. One guy is an engineer at a church. Coby Thomson, the last student that finished, just called me up, and he’s mixing a rock band. He actually has a band he’s working with. So they’re working and getting paid. But all those guys had one thing in common: they were into the program and they learned the stuff, and they’re smart and they read and they studied. You have to do 10 times more, 100 times more. Learn to learn on your own…You have to have be able to know how to research and find information on your own. The great advantage of our program is you have a mentor that will keep you from going off track…They have to come in with the attitude that they will be, for the rest of their life, educating themselves always. Learn that attitude of always educating yourself and never stop growing.”