In January of 2023, I embarked on my journey to Nashville as part of the University of New Haven’s Nashville Study Away Program. Now, in May, I’m left to reflect on the past few months. I ate some great food, visited multiple studios and museums, and met numerous incredible people. One thing about Nashville, everyone knows each other, and everyone’s connected to music. I watched studio musicians perform on music row as a day time gig, talked to shop owners who knew anything and everything about random pieces of music history, and tried to casually introduce myself to famous musicians.
I was fortunate to have an internship this semester at Loud Recording. There I learned the inner workings of a studio, including the intricacies of preparing for a tracking session, proper studio etiquette and hospitality, and how to make a good cup of coffee. I worked under the studio manager and in-house engineer, Jake Burns. I’ve gotten to know Jake well throughout my time there and I can confidently say he’s a skilled engineer and an even better person. Jake has taken time out of his day to not only teach me about audio, but also get to know me as a person. I see him as a role model, someone I really look up to and respect. Although I was an intern, I never felt less important than anyone else working around me. He respected me like I respected him, which I’ve come to greatly appreciate in the studio environment. There have been many times I’ve put hours into setting up or tearing down a session, to which Jake always thanked me for or complimented my work, even if some things needed tweaking. Jake is the embodiment of a great engineer with a great personality; overall, a great person to spend the semester with.
Another person I owe my success in Nashville to is Lucien Patten. Lucien’s title for the Program was “Studio Assistant”, which was the bare minimum for what he provided for the 18 students in the program. He works at Blackbird Studios as an Assistant Engineer and a Night Manager, though he’s a big part of keeping the inner clock of the studio ticking. Lucien is a perfect example of an excellent studio-hand and engineer. He’s always around for help in the studio and is always happy to help, no matter the task. From anything as simple as making copies or grabbing pencils, fixing problems with the board, or pulling an entire drum set out of thin air in seconds, Lucien would step in. He takes his job very seriously and never fails to make sure all the students are following his steps and understanding what’s going on. As an educator, Lucien could pin point all of our individual strengths and weaknesses, giving us each a chance to shine in our strengths and improve on those weaknesses, when the time arouse. Being around Lucien felt like being around an old friend, joking around when the work is done, providing a great working and learning environment. You can tell we were more than just a babysitting gig to him, he took time to get to know us as engineers, musicians and people. As a class, we spent time between set ups and engineering to talk about our favorite super powers or our plans for the zombie apocalypse. Lucien’s a great guy, someone I’m proud to have learned from, someone everyone should want on their team.
Our classes were taught by professionals in the industry, one of which was Grammy Award winning Engineer, David Leonard. David is a truly incredible engineer, to be fair, they don’t give a Grammy to just anyone, but it was insane to watch him work in his element. On one of the first days of class, he taught us how to check if microphones were in phase by just listening. Honestly, most of us could barely tell the difference, as this is an incredibly hard skill to master. This was our first introduction to how skillful David truly is and set us up for what was to come. David continued to teach us his little tips and tricks as the semester went on, casually dropping names of famous people he’s worked with because it was so natural for him. For example, David once asked us to set up drum mics. As we were working, David quietly entered the room and started taking Gaff tape and sticking it to pieces of ply wood he found in the corner. We all stopped, wondering what he was doing, to which he looked at us like we were crazy. He explained some weird technique he used when recording a Metallica album. We all tried to get our hands on some Gaff tape to follow his lead. Later, he toured us around Universal studios, where he works. We followed him from room to room as he explained how he designed each element. It took us about half way through the tour to realize David meant he single handedly designed everything from buying materials, cutting, sanding, and installing everything we were looking at. I’ve never met someone so nonchalant about the most insane pieces of information, a truly mind-blowing individual.
The last person I feel deserves a special thanks to my success is Producer, Grammy Award Winner, and kick-ass steel guitar player Steve Fishell. Steve taught our Music Production class, where we split into 2 groups of 9 to create a cover song and an original song throughout the semester. This seemed like a simple task after hearing a single tracking session in Nashville can produce multiple hit songs, but this project provided a handful of real-world problems for us to work through. For most of us, this was our first time creating songs start to finish incorporating so many ideas from different individuals. Weirdly enough, I’m incredibly thankful for the issues I had in my group, as they were great learning experiences. I’m grateful to have experienced the problems I had with my group in a classroom environment for the first time, knowing Steve had our backs if anything got too out of hand. Steve talked to us as if we were already professional producers instead of students, which led to immediate respect and comfort in his presence. He made it clear we could come to him if there were issues, which was genuine. The point of his project wasn’t to create the next hit single, but to learn the importance of communication in a studio environment. In class, Steve would emphasize the importance of communication, bringing up multiple mock and personal experiences that could arise. We learned from everything he said, most of the time not realizing it until a problem arose in our group that we could connect to something he previously said. Another big aspect of Steve’s class was watching professional tracking sessions. He would book a band to come in that we could observe and help where we could. He also made time for a band composed of 4 of our classmates, Zion’s Blood, to have a tracking session day. As helpful as Steve was to our class, he was equally as kind and welcoming. He genuinely wishes the best for all his students and loves interacting and getting to know them. He came to support Zion’s Blood at their first Nashville show, bought us all pizza at his favorite restaurant, and showed up to our end of the year pot luck. Steve’s incredible, all around.
As you can tell, the most memorable thing about Nashville for me was the people I met. These individuals have had an impression on me I know I’ll always cherish. Above everything else, they taught me how to grow up. I feel like I’m a completely different person than I was 5 months ago. Being imersed in the industry like I was in Nashville was a surreal experience. Getting first-hand experience in different studios, shadowing and learning from professionals, and navigating the world on my own was so different than being on a college campus. I’m incredibly grateful for the University of New Haven Nashville Study Away program for exposing me to so much about the music industry in such a short amount of time. I’ll never forget my semester down in Nashville, or the friends I made along the way.
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