This past Tuesday, I went to lunch with our publicity specialist, Chrissy Clark, and our GRAMMY AWARD WINNING sound engineer, Brandie Lane! We all were working that morning for the Young People’s Concert that the West Point Band hosts annually. I played in the Concert Band and also with Quintette 7, Chrissy took photos of the performance and talked to the kids, and Brandie ran the sound. The concert was attended by hundreds of local students, between 4^th and 7^th grade.

SGM James Mullins and SSG Kristen Mather perform for the Young People's Concert:

Quintette 7 performs "New Years Even in a Haunted House" by Raymond Scott.

KM: So, I have been dying to ask you this question… how did you feel about wearing your uniform to the Grammys?

BL: Actually, I was pretty proud to wear it. I was definitely overdressed; it was the Saturday event, which is a little more casual… the lifetime achievement stuff. It was nice to represent not only the band, but also the Army and myself…. So that was pretty special.

SSG Brandie Lane having her official nominee photo taken.

KM: I find sometimes when I am performing in my uniform I try to make my hair look really fancy, but it never works. Did you spend like twice as much time on your hair than you normally do?

BL:  Um, yeah. I actually went to a professional hair stylist. I went in telling her that it needed to be in a tight bun because I wanted to look super professional, but then I got there and told her “you know what, just do something fun… It just needs to be off my collar and we’ll stay within the rules, but I want it to look nice… because I’m at the Grammys, and even though I’m in a uniform I can still have a little bit of fun!” She was awesome and did my hair for the Sunday event too.

KM: And what did you wear to the Sunday event?

BL: I wore a black dress that I got on sale for 80 dollars! And red shoes…

SSG Brandie Lane during her acceptance speech.

KM: I saw the red shoes, they were good!

BL: Yeah, but they blended in with the carpet a little bit, so it looked like I didn’t have any feet. I wore my mother’s pearls and earrings I got from Target! I was really hoping someone would ask me where I got my jewelry!

KM: I know this is very personal, but will you talk about what happened with your mom?

BL: Yeah, I can say a bit about it.  She fought an 8-year battle with Parkinson’s, and she passed about a week and a half before I interviewed here at West Point (in April 2010). She died on Easter morning, but she knew about everything that was going on and my plans to try to get into the band. She was very, very proud. With the way things timed out, everything fell into place with perfect timing, and I know that she watched over everything… and that is a cool feeling.

KM: Before you came to Army, you were in another recording studio and that is where you mastered the album that you won a Grammy for. What was your job like there?

BL: My title was Head Audio Engineer. It was my job to work with our producer to track the album, and we would have some sessions at our studio, which was in a mansion on a farm. Kinda weird. The studio was on the 3^rd floor, and the sessions were done in a ballroom on the first floor. Half of our stuff was done there, and the other half we went out to track. Towards the end of my tenure, we would get albums in that we would license out. They would be tracked at Skywalker in San Francisco or other studios, but then we would finish them with the mixing, mastering, and editing. That’s what the album we won the Grammy for was. It was recorded in Seattle and California and we just did the mixing and mastering for it. Those were the main duties… Also, when you master you have to type in all the information, and then send out a master to the CD pressing plant. A lot of people send discs that aren’t mastered properly. There are a lot of errors in them or the info doesn’t show up, or there are clicks and pops, so we have to go through and make sure that every single master disc is correct. That took up a lot of time; I was basically working 70 hours a week.

KM: Wow, that’s a lot. So tell me now what your job is like at West Point…

BL: It’s basically splitting the studio stuff and running sound now for the concert band and the Jazz Knights. One of the reasons I wanted this job is because I spent 4 years just in the studio and I wanted to do more in the audio field. There is so much stuff you can do. You can go from design to forensics to anything else, so this job gives me the opportunity to get out of just working in the studio.

KM: Do you think you will stay in this position at West Point for your career or do you think you will just do it for a while and go on to a different job?

BL: Yeah, I hope to be here for the full term. The flexibility here, I won’t find anywhere else… so I can keep this job, and keep learning with this job, but also do the freelance stuff I want to do… which I was not allowed to do at the record label.

KM: What do you like to do after work?

BL: I enjoy cooking a lot, and hiking. I hope that once it gets warmer I can take advantage of the beautiful hiking trails in this area.

KM: You mean the beautiful and majestic Hudson Valley for all of our non-New York readers out there??

BL: Yes, that one. I used to play soccer, haven’t for a while, but I want to do that again. I also like long distance running.

KM: What was your favorite CD of 2010?

BL: It’s a tie between Mumford and Sons and the Black Keys…

KM: I hadn’t heard of Mumford and Sons until recently.

BL: Really?? Yeah they’re really good, but now they’re getting popular.

KM: (jokingly) So you mean they are about to get terrible?

BL: (Giggling) I still love you Mumford and Sons!!

KM: Who do you think has a shot at best album of the year for 2011?

BL: My vote would be Quintette 7 and The West Point Band!! But seriously, I am really impressed by the album that Adele just put out.

KM: Yeah, I love her too.

BL: Yeah, I really like her album a lot. I don’t listen to classical music much outside of work now.

KM: Before you were a sound engineer, were you a musician?

BL: Yes, I was a percussionist. I started in the 6^th grade, and it was my main musical focus until my second year of college. That year I started to really get into the technical side of music. I was still in about 4 student ensembles in college, so performance was a major part of my life until pretty recently. I’m hoping to kind of get back into it.

KM: Are there a lot of sound engineers who were musicians before?

BL: It used to be that you saw a lot of musicians transition over, but now because of the way that the music business is going with a lot of midi sounds, making beats and sampling… the actual musician ratio is going down because you don’t really need to be a musician to program that stuff into the computer

KM: So now that you won a Grammy do you feel fancier than you did before?

BL: It’s scary, because I feel like the standard is set really high…

KM: Yeah, because you’re at the beginning of your career!

BL: Exactly! It’s really exciting and I’m really grateful. At the same time, I didn’t get here alone. There were so many people that were involved, not only with the album, throughout my entire life.  I have a lot of people that I need to thank who were in my life that made this happen.

KM: (jokingly) You would like to thank the Academy…

BL: Yes, I would haha! Actually I forgot to thank the artist during my acceptance speech…

KM: No Way! Are you kidding?!

BL: I thanked everyone else… I didn’t prepare anything to say because we didn’t think we would win. So I get up there and I’m thinking…. I have to thank my parents, I have to thank the producers, have to thank the record label, and the Army… and I FORGOT TO THANK THE ARTIST!!! So Alicia Nelson, thank you! I’m so sorry! It is because of your vision and because of your playing that the album even happened!

KM: Yeah, well maybe she’ll read this blog J… (Long Pause)… I really should have prepared questions ahead of time…

CC: I kind of like that it is loose and the questions are different than a lot of the other interviews… It’s more personal.

KM: What have other people wanted to know?

BL: A lot of people just want to know why I joined, and why I was dumb enough to leave a record label to join the Army, which is a ridiculous question.

KM: Say that you stayed in the civilian sector of audio engineering, is the salary competitive with what you get here?

BL: There is no comparison, and there is no stability in the civilian world with audio stuff. I mean studios are literally closing every day, and there are no major studios left around here except for maybe one or two in the city. New York City used to have hundreds of them! It’s the same in L.A. and all of the other major cities except for maybe Nashville. Nashville still has some major studios… But it’s hard to find a job. You basically have to wait for someone to die or decide they want to be a yoga instructor before you can get a job in one of those major studios. Everyone is just starting one because the gear is so cheap now, you can just start your own project studio. That’s what a lot of people are doing. It’s good and bad… I think there is a certain skill-set you have to have to make a good recording.

KM: What could you recommend to musicians who want to record their own CD, or what makes a good CD in your mind?

BL: There are a lot of factors, but there’s a very basic principle within the audio world, it’s called the “Good Rule.” If you have good musicians, a good space, and good gear… then you’re going to get a good recording. That’s been the principle that I’ve always tried to go by. A lot of times it doesn’t really happen, and it may not be a realistic thing, but that’s the key to a good recording… The “Good Rule”

KM: What are your aspirations for you job at The West Point Band and what are some things you’d like to “bring to the table?”

BL: Probably the biggest thing right now is to bring more studio focus on the groups like Quintette 7, or the Jazz Knights. That’s pretty much my near future goal. Long term goal would be to set up an audio shop that runs itself, and to bring more positive focus on all of the West Point Band’s groups, not only in the studio setting, but also in a live setting.

KL:  I feel like you guys are doing that already… today was the first time that I have been amplified on stage where I didn’t feel uncomfortable. I was thinking to myself “this sounds like me, but slightly louder.” Sometimes I’ve played into a microphone that sounded so hot, it made me feel weird and I ended up playing worse because I’m trying to compensate for whatever the microphone is doing…. So good job!!!

BL: Yeah, we’re really trying to make it sound like there aren’t any microphones there and you just notice that it’s at a pleasant volume. It is impractical with a large ensemble to use a lot of microphones. If we were on a scoring stage, making film score, then yeah… we would use the microphones. For a live concert, you really don’t need to put a microphone in everyone’s face

KM: Thanks for everything you’re doing Brandie, we’re so glad to have you here. You’re a great asset to the West Point Band, and the Army!