It's been nearly nine months since I've been back in europe to pursue and forward my career in sound engineering and, even though I love it, it happens to be a rocky road:
There's neither anything romantic about a job like that (as many people would like to think), nor is it for the faint-hearted; it's a rock-hard, working-your-butt-off job, where you meet people who're 10 times as crazy as you are.
The company I'm working for is an international one and the biggest in the live-sound-circus, however, our branch in Switzerland remains a pretty small one compared to the main branch in the States and things here are way different than overseas: It remains a field of political correctness, paired with Swiss-German mentality and a combination of who you get along with; it can be tiring and exhausting to see behind all the games that people like to play.
However, I try to remain "neutral" and get along with almost everyone, BUT I was promised my first tour after a half year of being there and still....NOTHING. I am currently touching the void! It's not that I'm not ready to go on the road with a bus full of dudes or that I don't have the drive, nop, just currently we're either doing a lot of corporate or "apparently" the tours that are coming through aren't good enough. WELL, I have no idea and I wouldn't mind a chaos-tour such as Mtley Cre or Kiss- Mtley's monitor dude is half-deaf, funny as and 5 times my size horizontally. I reckon I could learn heaps from him but where's my fuckin' tour for fucks sake?
I've been working in the shop (our warehouse) almost constantly throughout the whole winter, apart from the odd lighting set-up or corporate gig they put me on (and believe me: I HATE LIGHTING but was so glad to get out of the shop that I jumped out of joy when they told me). On top, I've never been a 9-5- gal and hate sitting behind the desk. That's what I love most about this job: It combines a mix of brain activity paired with physical endurance and believe me, you gotta have a lot of nerves as well. With the digital age these days, electronics in our field become more and more complex and instead of being a sound tech you end up being in IT. You constantly have to stay updated about new technological developments, do new courses on digital amps and mixing consoles, new systems, etc. and then after the show you gotta load a truck with heaps of sweaty stagehands. It's brilliant and I love this whole combination, hence, I hate being in the shop for too long. I mean, I DID learn a lot, specially over the past few weeks but the routine you get is awful and every time, we prep something really important and cool to learn I seem to be on outdoor gigs, right?! So what's the point?
Ah, well, but what am I complaining about? Most people in our industry are struggling to get a full-time job and have to do heaps of other jobs they actually don't like. So I definately shouldn't be nagging:
BUT for fuck's sake: WHERE'S MY TOUR?
Apparently it's a long way to the top if you wanna rock'n'roll!!!
There's neither anything romantic about a job like that (as many people would like to think), nor is it for the faint-hearted; it's a rock-hard, working-your-butt-off job, where you meet people who're 10 times as crazy as you are.
The company I'm working for is an international one and the biggest in the live-sound-circus, however, our branch in Switzerland remains a pretty small one compared to the main branch in the States and things here are way different than overseas: It remains a field of political correctness, paired with Swiss-German mentality and a combination of who you get along with; it can be tiring and exhausting to see behind all the games that people like to play.
However, I try to remain "neutral" and get along with almost everyone, BUT I was promised my first tour after a half year of being there and still....NOTHING. I am currently touching the void! It's not that I'm not ready to go on the road with a bus full of dudes or that I don't have the drive, nop, just currently we're either doing a lot of corporate or "apparently" the tours that are coming through aren't good enough. WELL, I have no idea and I wouldn't mind a chaos-tour such as Mtley Cre or Kiss- Mtley's monitor dude is half-deaf, funny as and 5 times my size horizontally. I reckon I could learn heaps from him but where's my fuckin' tour for fucks sake?
I've been working in the shop (our warehouse) almost constantly throughout the whole winter, apart from the odd lighting set-up or corporate gig they put me on (and believe me: I HATE LIGHTING but was so glad to get out of the shop that I jumped out of joy when they told me). On top, I've never been a 9-5- gal and hate sitting behind the desk. That's what I love most about this job: It combines a mix of brain activity paired with physical endurance and believe me, you gotta have a lot of nerves as well. With the digital age these days, electronics in our field become more and more complex and instead of being a sound tech you end up being in IT. You constantly have to stay updated about new technological developments, do new courses on digital amps and mixing consoles, new systems, etc. and then after the show you gotta load a truck with heaps of sweaty stagehands. It's brilliant and I love this whole combination, hence, I hate being in the shop for too long. I mean, I DID learn a lot, specially over the past few weeks but the routine you get is awful and every time, we prep something really important and cool to learn I seem to be on outdoor gigs, right?! So what's the point?
Ah, well, but what am I complaining about? Most people in our industry are struggling to get a full-time job and have to do heaps of other jobs they actually don't like. So I definately shouldn't be nagging:
BUT for fuck's sake: WHERE'S MY TOUR?
Apparently it's a long way to the top if you wanna rock'n'roll!!!
8ball2:
Hope something comes along soon for you ☺
spiderman66:
Just curious, are you still around? I do a lot of freelance light and rigging work for ARC.