So here's the deal;
I'm 24 and I've been in college for going on 6 years now. That, my friends, is WAY TOO LONG. This wasn't in my original college plan (staying forever) but let's face it - sometimes things happen that we can't foresee. For example - losing all motivation. Getting real scared of the future. Feeling like you're just not good enough to do the job you thought you wanted to do.
Everybody goes through it, but some people let it affect them more than others.
I'll spare you the gritty details.
The point is I got stuck in college. I managed to complete all of my classes and even walked across the stage in my cap and gown in what is at this point still just a "mock" graduation, back in May of last year. What I didn't do was complete my internship, do a senior project and turn in my portfolio before that little ceremony back in May. Thus, here I am.
I haven't been totally unproductive however. Immediately after graduation I attended the Tape Op Convention (now called "Potluck Conference") in New Orleans where I met indie *engineer/producer/pAper chAse front man John Congelton after a panel where he was a speaker. After a few messages back and forth on myspace a couple of times and running into each other randomly at the Tom Waits show in Dallas, he offered to let me sit in on some sessions he was recording in an "internlike fashion" if you will.
Unfortunately, things didn't get rolling as quickly as I needed them to. I considered moving to Dallas for awhile and focusing on interning and what have you up there. Dallas, isn't really my scene though, and since John is a pretty busy guy (see above asterisk) I wasn't sure how much time I would get to be in the studio. I don't know, it was a lot of things and I won't try to sum it up in a few sentences.
I instead began my search for internships in the Central Texas region, and soon found myself at Tequila Mockingbird - where they sometimes even let me touch the equipment! Egads!
hehe. I think I speak for everyone when I say interning isn't my favorite past time. I'd much rather just have a job and get paid to do what I'm watching other people do. Oh wait....
I eventually did get to observe John in the studio some last month. He was recording a band from the UK called Tom McKean & Emperors at a new (and badass) studio up in Plano called The Track. I actually witnessed an analog recording process - on a Studer A820. That never happened at the Firestation, but totally should have and was really intriguing. John and the house engineer, Drew, were entertained by the fact that I'd never seen a tape machine used (probably a little disturbed too). Oh, and by the way, that's the biggest remote control I think I've ever seen.
Here we are in the present. I needed a senior project. I had mulled it over time and again in my head, coming up with and subsequently abandoning several of my previous ideas. I wanted to do something original instead of the same old full-length album business everybody else did. Everything I came up with was either not involved or ambitious enough, or involved doing something I really had no interest in.
Then it came to me.
Mindlessly surfing the waves of the internet, I came upon some instructions for building my own binaural dummyhead microphone. I've always been intrigued by these microphones ever since I was first introduced to them in the beginning of my college career (circa 1969, post summer of love). I've also been trying to figure out a way to incorporate field recording into my senior project. This seemed like a great opportunity to have it both ways.
I now enter the present.
For my senior project, I am going to build a binaural dummyhead microphone, test it, make it work, then go hog wild, toting that thing everywhere I go - from house parties, to bars, to bus rides, the river, the dentist, mardi gras on 6th street, the east coast, japan....(ok, i wish). I will then edit the recordings into a lovely presentation, macgyver a way to obtain 40 sets of pro-audio headphones (and enough headphone boxes/splitters to support all that mess) and then present it to a group of my closest friends, teachers, peers, family members. I will simultaneously work like a crazy person throwing my portfolio together, and at the end of the academic year, hand it all in, accept my diploma and dance and laugh all the way to the...unemployment office?
(hah, too bad I already did that after I turned down a fat job with Rupert Neve so I could ... be an intern? awesome.)
As a side note, I'm also trying to come up with a good idea for bringing the recordings together in some kind of short film, but as of yet I still await that stroke of brilliance.
Well there it is. All laid out for god and everyone to see. Let's hope this works.
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