Insights In Sound 197 Julie Tan, AEA Ribbon Mics S20 E7

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I’m here with Julie Tan at AEA Microphones and I want to get started
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here with just some of your personal history because you’ve had this kind of pinballesque
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career just like myself. And so I always really love to find out like how you got
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to where you are now. Well, I I I I laugh because I wonder if some of that the pinball factor of us because in our
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hearts we still really just want to be rock stars, you know, just I’ll show up anywhere just to play, you know, kind of
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thing. and um and coming out of out of school out of a recording program in
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1992 in LA, you know, things were starting to go digital and and the only gig that was available, you know, for a
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recordings a grad a recording graduate at that time was laying cables at Pop Sound. Remember that? The first digital
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studio in Santa Monica. Oh yeah. And it was in and they had done the first uh all digital TV show. I think it
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was NYPD Blue at the time, right? So that so they were on the map. was a was a hot studio. I was like, “Yeah, I want that gig for seven bucks an hour.”
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Couldn’t even get that gig. Um, I worked as a PA for MTV for for a while because
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I I did really I did. Oh my god. Okay. I because I I was an intern and like the
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college rep or whatever, you know, uh because back then they didn’t have
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um offices, production offices in LA, so they were always working out of Universal
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um when they were in town. So they always hired local crews and everything. What year would this have been?
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I I think I started with them around 90. Did Did a bunch I I was a PA and back
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then it was 75 bucks a day and the day could be 14 or 16 hours and show back up
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6 a.m. the next day. Um did about 70 plus episodes of those halfhour comedy hour shows. And then a
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couple times like if their personalities were to come into town, I would have to pick them up from the airport. No, no
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reimbursement or anything. Just part of the gig, right? And and and I had a this is actually funny. I had a Honda Escort back then
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and and there was a a rap show they had. It was it was Dr. Dre and Ed Lover. Not the Dr. Dre, but a different Dr. Dre and
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he was um a formidable guy. He got in my car and my car literally kind of tipped to one side. I’m at LAX picking these
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guys up. They both get in the car and it’s like, “Okay, now I have to adjust my suspension and I’m not getting paid.”
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Um, but then from that, you know, I paed for a lot of like MTV Unplugged shows. Got to
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work with big artists at the time, like, you know, I did Elvis Costello Unplugged. We did Jane’s Addiction. Um,
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and then I and then I got to work a bunch of those um video music award shows and back then where they were
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still relevant. I mean, in one night, I I was kissed by both Mick Jagger and
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Sammy Hagar separate times. I love it. I worked a couple of those shows, too. Uh, weren’t they just so much fun? When I was in Europe, they did
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the first um you remember the the MTV VMAs. Yes, that that’s what they were with the Little Moon Man and everything.
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And so the very first one was in uh the very first European one, I guess, was in Berlin.
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Oh. And they set up this big, you know, building sized tent right outside of
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Brandenburgg Gate. Oh, wow. And uh yeah, I remember that was where I met Tom Jones.
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Oh. And uh Tom Jones. Tom Jones is a big man and uh very large uh very hairy man.
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They shook my hand up to my elbow. I mean, you know, hysterical. I got that impression even as a kid from the 70s. And it was one of
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those awkward moments where like I you know he’s he’s introducing we’re introducing to each other and he we’re
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shaking hands and all of a sudden somebody else yells to him and he’s like and so he starts talking to them for a second and meanwhile we’re still like in
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a handshake here you know and I’m like this paw is grasping my like my half of
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my arm paws got your arm that’s hysterical. So yeah but I mean I so and and MTV was
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always like that. they were everything was kind of, you know, um, oh well, we’ll just do this, you know, and
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there was nothing really like an established procedure for anything. It was all very very loose.
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And I think it was back then and and but it was at the height of it, too. So they had a studio in um in in London in
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off of Camden High Road. Oh, they did. Well, I think in the US they were they were all because back then they were based in New York and
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like my little poultry paychecks would come out of you know and and as a 20somes like oh I got this check from Viacom
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from from New York City you know oh I know I know like a month and a half after I worked but you know so so those were the days
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and then coming out then I couldn’t find work and then I was trying to work as a PA because it was you know day gigs it
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was a hustle but I couldn’t find work otherwise and that’s how you make connections too PA
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gigs. It is. So then, so because of that, I was looking in the back of Hollywood Reporter for a PA gig when I
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saw an ad and it was a small ad. It’s uh, you know, uh, legendary audio
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company needs a office administrator and it was Neve. So, you know, back in the
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day, you get a resume together, you mail it off to Connecticut, and then I get this phone call from their uh from the
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HR person and said, “I just have to let you know, you were the only person that applied to this job that actually had audio experience and
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and I and Wow.” Well, it was a back Hollywood reporter and you know and it was it was entry- level position and um
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and so I got that gig and and basically it was just it was literally answering
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the phones and and I want to say 80% of calls were somebody like this is Paley Park channel 27’s down again you okay
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and you arrange for the tech you know you page the tech they call them back um or it was back then it was typing up all
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those um lease contracts and you know how those things or on a old school IBM
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typewriter where here let me type type threequarters of the page down you hit one button let’s do this one again
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carbon paper exactly oh yeah five you know five page carbon copies um
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and that’s kind of how I got into the industry and from there I had some
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friends met some friends who were working at Elas at the time and that was when ADATS first came out and a friend
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of mine who was who was a design engineer I mean he actually He he did a lot of software, you know, behind like
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HR16, you start the drum machine stuff and the drum modules and everything. And he said, “You need to come work here. You know,
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you can’t you’re not going to believe we get these crazy, you know, Christmas bonuses are double your salary at that
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time, you know, blah blah blah blah blah.” And and and you you would, you know, you need to come work at this company. So I
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gave him a resume and because I speak three languages, you know, and and funny and that’s that’s how résumés are
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analyzed. Like we think people actually read resumes even back then they don’t it’s all AI now, but back then all they saw was three language. Great
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international sales. They needed someone to type up export paperwork or something. So that’s how I ended up
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there. And initially, you know, it really was just prepping shipments because at the height of ADAT, I mean,
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most of these for and for export, most of the distributors were making like 40 foot containers every month.
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Oh, I know. And I mean, in fact, when I was living in Germany, um, uh, BMG
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bought me 38s and a BRC and shipped it from the US. It still never quite synced.
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But it was fun listening to him squeal. I I still hear that sound in in in my
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dreams, you know. Oh, understood. Oh, that’s so funny. But those those were the heydays, you know. Oh, absolutely. The $2 million n
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parties and everything and and being a young person in my 20s, I mean, that was fantastic.
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Oh, absolutely. And then and and fortunately, you know, I had great mentors at the time. I rose
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through the ranks pretty quickly. And then I was, you know, within like a year I was the international marketing
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manager, you know, for all the export accounts. And then and then I moved up into uh being like the regional sales
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manager for all all of Asia Pacific. Well, that was one of the things about those companies back then too was that
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if you were really competent, you could advance very very quickly. And the Lisas was one of those feeder
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companies. I mean I feel like even now like meeting people everybody’s kind of come through there like Elis Mackey were
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were those companies at that time you know where a lot of people came through we all came through those companies you
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know and we and we and we learned a lot back then too and and you know that was one of the running jokes for years and years when
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you’d go to a NAM show you’d see somebody and you’d say who are you working for now exactly
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you know because it was it was like you know there were a few hundred jobs in the industry and we all just kind of moved around like musical chairs
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right and in LA there there just a you know few big companies obviously Yamaha Yamaha is one I still I haven’t worked
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Yamaha and Roland are the two that I haven’t worked for you know but but those those are kind of I interviewed for one you know
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I interviewed for Yamaha but I ended up at TASM I was say but then I guess technically since go having gone through line six
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it’s like technically you know by relationship now right exactly it’s still that same that same family
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yeah so it’s a family tree kind of thing exactly so um and then around
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the time so So people know now of course that that um
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line six was was kind of the the software design team behind all those Elisa’s products. It was fast design.
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Correct. So then um and then they were starting to move away. At the time when
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I joined Line 6, it was still the the original U access 212 giant green Kermit
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amplifier. Oh my god. And then and then when I was there they transitioned into pod and and some of the smaller units.
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Um, so I went there, uh, I was recruited to go there, um, to head up their export
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department. So, so I kind of build distribution at Line Six. And then, and then at some point, you know, gosh,
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it’s so long ago now. Um, when I hit 30, it was just kind of I felt like my whole life was because I was doing I
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specializing export. I was on the road so much and and the it goes back to the artistry, you know, that
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I wasn’t able to play gigs because I can’t book gigs because I don’t know when I’m going to be in town. It got to the point where I can’t even commit to
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going to a birthday party or anything because I didn’t know when I was going to be in town. And not to mention all
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the trade shows, you know, because back then we had so many and you know, it was like, okay, uh, next month is music and
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then is this and then, you know, constantly NAB and Yeah. And then and then, you know, the guitar
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show in in the in Manchester or, you know, and then there were and then there was the shows in Italy and then the
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shows in Spain and then in Japan, oh, Beijing and it’s like every month. I
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mean, as a 20 something, late 20some, it was great to think like, oh, I really want a great croissant. Okay, I’ll
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schedule myself to go to Paris next month. Having that freedom, I mean, I wish I had that freedom now. You know what I mean?
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Oh, I know. I know. It was fun, but at the same time, it was wearing on me. And the thing that really struck me um was one time on my way out
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to Asia, I stopped by San Francisco to visit my mom. She picked me up at the airport and she just looked at me. She’s
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like, “Are you okay? Because you look terrible.” And I thought like, “Wow, you know what? I I actually feel terrible
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and and so um I after a while I just thought like you know what I just need
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to take a pause. There were some management changes and I was and I was commuting from you know I I lived near
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Santa Monica. I was and and fast forward had been down here, you know, on the west city. They were in Culver City. So
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for me that was always like almost a bicycle aable, you know, right distance. And then when they moved
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up to Thousand Oaks, so I was out of the country like two weeks a month. And then when I was in town, I was having to
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commute more than 40 miles of, you know, each way to go to work. Spending all that time just getting to and from places.
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Yeah. And and I think I I I really just burnt out. And and and for me in 1999
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you at that time I was just like you know what I need to go focus on music for a little bit because one of the
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hardest things especially in selling a guitar product is you’re spending a lot of time in music stores and you’re talking to musicians and everybody’s
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working on a project and it’s like I want to work on a project. Yes. I want to release an album. Yeah. Yeah.
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So then I said um to my boyfriend at the time who’s now my husband I was like you know I’m just going to take a couple years off and I’m going to make that
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album. I feel like I need to do that in this lifetime like just to do it. I know that feeling, you know,
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too well. Yeah. So then so I took a few years off and to do that and then then toured a little
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bit and got got lucky because it was when the Borders bookstores were around. So
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they they were distributing our albums. So they were booking us in the store. So
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So we were able as a trio was me and a bass player and and a fiddle player. We were able to play like a couple hundred
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borders bookstores. Fun. And it was just like a built-in tour and then to build an audience and the courtesy at the time was if you play
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the store they usually buy five or 10 of the CDs and stock them. So I mean it wasn’t paying our bills but
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it was it was getting us distributed and and we were out there and establishing a a track record basically.
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And then you know like I mentioned to you prior to to us sitting down here is then I thought you know I always wanted
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to do marketing. So then I kind of instead of coming back into the industry, I went into more traditional
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marketing just to learn marketing from an a from an agency side. So you worked for a traditional agency,
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not not marketing music or No, it it was it was peripherally uh
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tied to music. So it was a a company that worked for that service like KRQ,
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the the local rock station. Um the artist endorsement side of Marshon
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Eyewear. So it’s like Calvin Klein, Nike, all that. It’s an eyewear artist relations artist artist relations stuff and then
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they did diesel jeans and all that kind of stuff. I did artist relations for another microphone company
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and it’s fun because because but you know how it goes like no matter how big the artist they’ll call you at 3:00 in the morning go I need another pair of
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jeans like really? Yeah. Oh, I know. I know. And then since I was in Europe, I would get, you know,
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I would get anybody who was coming through on tour, you know, and uh, you
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know, hey, uh, we’re going to be in these countries and and, uh, for me it was, um, I was covering the whole
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continent of Europe in the early days of wireless. Oh, wow. So, you know, of course, every country
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had its own spectrum that they were using. I remember that. You have to give a special SIM card everywhere you went. Yeah. And so, you know, we have to give
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you um we have to give you uh you know, this set of wireless for Western Europe and then oh, when you go over to Poland,
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you’re going to have to have this, you know, and so you know, I had a ton of stock of every
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wireless system, you know. And it’s funny because I still have friends and relationships from those days.
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Yes. You know, who will still call me every once in a while just to say hi and stuff like that, you know, but again, it’s
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like, you know, you I think the the value of that is in the relationships, isn’t it? It is. It is. And and and
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you know, you and I were just talking about this beforehand and and in people who don’t value relationships, so
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everything’s transactional like we don’t see a lot of those people. So in the industry,
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yeah, and you you could you’d learn to identify those people very quickly. You really do. And you learn to identify the
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folks who are just calling you because they know you’ve got free gear for them, you know, and eventually it’s not
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they call you for free gear. Yeah. Well, yeah. You know, absolutely. you know but and and you know it’s like
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okay I’ll take this person’s call but what happens is it becomes transactional for you too unintentionally because you
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realize okay I have to take this person’s call because if I don’t you know then my company will be unhappy
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with me right but you know you you learn very quickly which of those people be are becoming
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friends as opposed to just you know somebody who calls you when they want something no I get that absolutely and and having
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you know My last gig in the industry prior to this was, you know, working at
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Music Tribe and and you when you have like 9,000 SKs, I mean, and doing artist relations, you know, marketing support
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and all that kind of stuff. It’s like you get crazy calls about everything. Yeah. And it’s really And it’s to the point
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where you’re like, “Really? This is a $9.99 interface?” I said, $9.99 interface. You’re going to call me for
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this? Just order from Amazon. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And then you know you get and the weird thing about
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that too is you get people from all different walks of the industry. You know you get your live sound people, you
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get your studio people, you get you know um you get everything from the rank amateurs to the pros. Absolutely. you
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know, and we um in fact we uh we worked
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out a an artist relations program at Shore where we literally like we created
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the program. We created tears of, you know, like, okay, you’re you’re an artist that has been with us for years
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and years. You know, we had some we had some lifetime artists. We had, you know, the who we had um Ian Anderson, you know, a few
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of those artists. of course always take a call from their people and you know you get whatever you want right and then
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you had the next level up who were the wannabe stars you know who maybe we had to provide them because um you know I
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remember at one point I got a call um they wanted us to uh to provide for
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the tour of the Spice Girls. Okay. And um you know several people within the company were like oh you know
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they’re not not really a legitimate you know band or a prefab band right
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you know and and also with all that exposure in real time. Oh exactly exactly. Well that’s that was the thing you know um and then of course
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you know it was uh their management was company called 19 management which was um
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Simon Fuller and Simon Cowell. Got it. The Simons. Okay. And uh Simon Cowell is um
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everything you think he is. I could imagine. Yeah. And so, you know, there were there
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were the personalities and like I say, you know, the people who just were transactional. Yeah. Um but you know, you also realized,
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okay, well, you know, this is an act that we’re going to support anyway because you want to get your microphones in front of them. Of course,
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you know, and you want to get those photo ops and all of that stuff. So, you know, but at the same time, there were
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people in that industry who, as I say, I mean, I’m friends with to this day. Yeah. You know, and they still call me, but
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they don’t call me because they want something. They just call and say, “Hey, I’m coming through town. You want to come to the show?” That’s the thing. I mean,
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you know, it’s I think you and I are similar in that way. I mean, you do take every call because you never know
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because some people I mean, like I wouldn’t have wanted to talk to me
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now. I don’t want to talk to me from that time period when I was working, you know, for Behringer or something because
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there are things that we had to do because from corporate, oh, you have to, you know, have certain stipulations or whatever,
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but then I would hope that someone would recognize that’s not me. That’s me in that role.
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That’s me that in that gig. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean? Mh. So, so it’s it’s kind of like
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we’re put in those positions and yet at the same time you have to be like you and I had this conversation earlier too.
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Recognize people for who they are and and and in our industry as small as it
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is, we do tend to run into the same people again and again and that’s for better and for worse.
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Yeah. You know. Exactly. I want to shift gears a little bit of course. And let’s talk about the whole woman in
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the industry thing. Oh, I know. I know. But you know the reason I want to talk about it with you is
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because you are and we talked about this earlier too. You are exemplary of what I
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wish we could all aspire to which is what I call and and I did a panel on this at NAM years ago. Um gender
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agnosticism. Yeah. We fully acknowledge that it’s very very difficult to be a woman in this
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industry. If anything, it’s harder now than it was when the industry was young. I think so. cuz when the industry was
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young, you could just show up and if you could do the work, you got the gig, you know. But now, I think there’s a lot more
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challenge with it. At the same time there’s um there’s almost a certain
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there’s an anger there’s a bitterness with among some people and not that it’s not justified but I don’t know that it’s
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really productive you know because a lot of times what I see is that there’s almost um
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there’s a situation where there’s some women that I meet who only want to work with other women and I understand that
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because they’ve been burned by guys but at the same time you know we’re all in this together and what I’ve always
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loved about the way you conduct yourself and your business is, you know, we’re all just humans and we’re all just we’re
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all professionals. We’re all trying to do a job. How has it been for you in terms of
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dealing with that stuff, you know, I don’t I mean, you know, I try to avoid it, right? Yeah, I know. I know.
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Um I saw your eyes roll when I brought out the subject. Well, the thing is I mean it’s it’s like
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I you know like on in the panel that we just did for for AES. It’s like you know
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competence leads to confidence and and and because I do have children of both
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genders and and and part of it is our society. It’s because women tend to be
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more emotional and I and I feel like we’re more attuned to other people’s emotions. Yeah,
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for sure. And I see it in my in my own children which makes you really good at certain games. Yeah. But but at the same time it makes
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you aware like oh I think eyes are army I think or or it makes us perceive that we’re being shunned on and and for me
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especially early in my career it’s like well am I doing this wrong you know am am I doing this right but it gets to the
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point where you’re like you know what I think I’m okay I I think I think I’m at least 52% competent more competent than
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not then I’m just going to keep doing my gig and if someone yells at me they can say it nicely or they can say it in a
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crude way then that allows me to reassess myself and not take it as an
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insult first, but reassess. And once I can decide, hey, you know what? I’m actually right
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in this instance, then roll with it. And that in or that slight is on that person.
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But everything you just said is gender agnostic, right? It’s it’s like I’m
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either good at this or I’m not good at this. And if I’m not good at this, I want to get better at it, you know? But it doesn’t have anything
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to do with because I’m a woman or because I’m not a woman. Well, I mean, you know, and and there are and certainly I mean I
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could list a hundred instances where being the only woman in a room was super awkward to the point where it’s like
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kind of dangerous, you know, where where you just don’t know. Um I I I don’t I
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don’t totally agree with that. It’s le it’s worse now because I feel like
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just even at this last AES show I saw more women present in technical positions.
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I know and I think even having groups like Sound Girls like Women’s Audio Mission
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you know and so on. It’s like it’s it’s showing the women that it is possible
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but I don’t feel like there is more hostility. I think hostility from both sides comes out of the fact that there’s
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actually more scarcity now. Now, that’s a really good point. That’s a really good point. You know what I mean? What do you mean?
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I got this degree. I learned to do this and I cannot go engineer at Oceanway. I
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cannot get this gig at East West, you know, whatever. But I feel like those gigs were never there to begin with
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either. Well, and to your point, not only is there more scarcity, but there’s now schools turnurning out people who
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have expectations that I think that that is is part of the problem. You’re absolutely right. You we
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have so many schools and and so many great schools. Yeah. And you know, even just I was just at Blackbird in Nashville um last week.
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One of my favorite places. Yeah. But it’s like the facility. I mean, I came out of a program at USC and it
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makes USC look like, you know, trade school, like like podunk trade school
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kind of thing. And USC did today. I mean, I get no offense to Richmunk. I know they just got a whole bunch of new
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equipment in there and so forth. um have have upgraded. But but it is that false
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sense, you know, but even in the late 80s, early 90s going to a music school,
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you don’t expect you’re going to be on a stage and be assigned artist. You know, I went to um I went to San
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Francisco State. Yeah. And um I came out of that program and it was actually kind of amusing, you
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know, I came out of that program and I uh said to my professor, a gentleman
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named John Baradi who just recently retired. Brilliant dude, you know, and uh he taught us on a fourtrack on a
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tangent console, you know, and I even brought my band in there to record. That’s, you know, Yeah. And um you know
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I said to him, well I’m moving down to LA and I’m going to look for a job in the studios. And you know he was like
25:18
well you know keep your expectations low you know and he gave me a couple people to contact. Um
25:24
you know one of whom Eric Zeler I’m still dear friends with to this day you know but um
25:30
I did not expect anything. I went around looking. I I looked at every studio in
25:35
in in town. I got lucky because I landed at Cherokee at a time when they needed a tech, you know, but again, it’s all the
25:44
luck of the draw and it’s back then you had more studios to work in.
25:49
That’s true. And now, absolutely, you know, a lot of people come out of these schools, they’re like, well, what am I going to
25:54
do? You know, where am I going to work? And a lot of times it’s like, well, you may have to find a gig in a private
25:59
studio. you may have to look at possibilities for things that you know
26:04
you didn’t even know existed. And that’s one of the things that I think um we’re
26:10
doing a disservice if we don’t teach people coming into the industry now
26:16
about all the other gigs that they don’t know exist because they all want to sit in the big chair. They all want to be the engineer, the
26:21
producer, you know, I want that Grammy nomination. Exactly. And you know then and that’s
26:27
one of the reasons I do this kind of a thing because in in talking to people in this show I can always point out that
26:35
you know here’s somebody doing something that you didn’t even know was a job you know here’s somebody doing you know
26:42
either building microphones or working uh you know working as a sound designer or working in you know Foley or whatever
26:49
it is you know doing stuff that maybe you didn’t even know existed and That I
26:55
think is the key. It’s always been the key to survival, but it’s even more so now
27:00
learning how to be adaptable, learning how to to evolve, right? And basically, you know,
27:06
because especially in our industry, things have been changing so dramatically and so quickly. That’s
27:11
true. That if you don’t know how to do a hundred different things, Yeah. you’re at a disadvantage.
27:18
Well, or or you do a couple things and you do it really well. I mean because a lot of these kids coming out of the
27:23
schools, you know, they just think in terms of like you said, sit in the big chair. I want to be that engineer. I want to be that producer, you know, I want to write
27:30
a hit song. And the reality is there are jobs in our industry right now and that we’re they
27:36
are recruiting people. I mean, you go to Clare Global Analytics. Yeah. And that and live sound is where people
27:42
are still making money. It’s it’s one of the healthy healthier aspects of the industry right now.
27:48
Definitely. Yeah. And and and and for some of those maybe it is a technical job. Maybe you are that person that just rolls up all
27:53
the cables and puts them in the cases at the end of the day. Or maybe, you know, it’s like I um I was talking to somebody recently who um she
28:00
was telling me, you know, I came out of school and I didn’t even realize there was a gig as a wireless tech, you know,
28:06
and systems techs and things like that, you know, especially in live, you know.
28:12
Absolutely. But again, these are things where if you don’t if you don’t educate
28:17
yourself in the big picture, I mean, yes, you’re right. You can specialize in certain things, and it’s good when you do,
28:22
right? But if you don’t have the ability to zoom out and see what all those different jobs are, if you don’t experience all
28:29
those different jobs, you may have your, you know, I call it aperture blur, where, you know, you’ve
28:36
got your your mind set on this one thing and you don’t see all this other stuff in the periphery, right? I think there’s there’s argument
28:42
for both sides. I mean for people like us because we are flexible and versatile
28:48
so to speak and add and add Yeah, absolutely. That that’s for sure. A lot of people in our
28:53
industry are. Yeah. Um that we dabble in things and then and then then we become jacks of all trades,
28:59
but then I’m never going to be that master guitar player I’ve always wanted to be. You know what I mean? Yeah. And
29:05
so so so and and and there’s a part of me that still kind of laments that, you
29:11
know. Well, now I understand that, but um you know, in fact, um I had a I had a
29:18
conversation just recently with um our mutual friend Marcus Riyle. Yeah, of course. And Marcus and I come from the same kind
29:25
of who’s genius in every way. Absolutely. And crazy keyboard player. Yeah. Absolutely. But you know, he said
29:31
something that really kind of stuck with me, too. He said, you know, um, we get down on ourselves for being jacks of all
29:37
trades because we don’t focus on one thing and we always envy like, you know, that great guitar player or that great,
29:42
you know, whatever. And he said, you know, you’re a master of jack of all trades,
29:48
you know, and it’s true if you think about the fact that we are able to see that big picture to zoom out.
29:55
Yeah. And because a lot of people, they can only zoom in. they can only look at
30:01
those particular areas that they’re good at and they don’t see how that necessarily u you know when I worked as
30:08
a tech at Cherokee we had um it was an insult if somebody said to you
30:14
I’m a component level tech that was a real compliment okay if they said you’re a systems level because I was a systems
30:20
level guy right you know that was an insult you know because I didn’t a generalist exactly exactly but at the same time you
30:28
know I came out of that with an understanding of like, you know, I I
30:33
understand how like I ended up going from there to helping people install their rooms and uh you know, uh
30:41
installing consoles and rooms and stuff like that. And I understood enough about like, you know, I I know how to wire an
30:46
Elco cable, you know. Yeah. But at the same time, yeah, I’m not the guy who’s going to really get into the
30:52
intricacies of all that stuff, you know, but I think being a generalist can sometimes be an asset. But do you think
30:58
do you feel like some of that came with age? Like just just accepting it
31:04
and like you know what I’m not going to learn any everything about this and then I’m going to let it go. I mean and I and you saw just now when
31:10
we were setting up for this you know five years ago I probably like okay hang
31:15
on I’m going to go open every box and set these mics up. Yep. And then and I and I got to the
31:20
point where it’s like you know what in order to serve this business my time is more valuable doing the five things I
31:27
do well. Yes. And and I had to take like that bird’s eyee perspective of like okay
31:34
me my place in this company is I am leadership and I have to do executive
31:39
functions and and just now right before I walked in here to talk to you I had to ask our office manager to
31:45
order lunch for the for for our lunch meeting today because normally I would do that just because like oh well it’s
31:51
just one thing I just but then when you do 10 small things who’s overseeing you
31:56
know this week’s production schedule or who’s those executive functions. Exactly. And there, you know,
32:02
that’s another thing in doing that, you have to learn to let go of certain things. Yeah. You have to learn to trust other
32:07
people’s competence. Yeah. And I, you know, would I have said that? I don’t know. But you know what? I asked someone else to come in here and
32:13
do this here, make this look good. Yeah. You know, I um I started out as a PR writer. I ended up getting enough
32:20
work that I had to start hiring other people. Then I hired a marketing director. Then I hired a creative director. And in each of those cases, it
32:28
wasn’t just that I had to find someone who was competent in that, but I also then had to be able to let go
32:34
of those tasks and say exactly what you just said. You know, my time is worth more. And you know, the thing is those
32:41
people are never going to do it just the way you would do it. Yeah, absolutely. That’s not a bad thing, right?
32:46
You know, but you have to get to the point where you can empower those people and trust them with those jobs. And
32:53
that’s not easy either. No, it isn’t. And and and that’s that’s been my learning over the past few years. I
33:00
mean, but coming in here and and you know, and I’ve said it and it’s not meant to be jokey because it’s the
33:05
absolute truth was when um when the purchasing manager that was working for
33:12
Wes and Sarah called me in the fall of 2021 after the pandemic um that they
33:17
needed because they needed a sales consultant. Wow. Like literally he says, “Oh, you know this so and so. I’m call I’m I’m calling you from AA Ribbon
33:23
Mics.” And I I was like, “Okay.” So, as I’m on the phone with him, I’m googling
33:28
AA ribbon mics. And I’m looking at the website like, “Oh, these are kind of fancy oldtimey mics.” And oh my gosh,
33:36
they’re like $45,000. Like, who buys four $5,000 ribbon mics? And then the
33:41
joke after I purchased the company from Wes, uh, one of the guys internally said, “Well, you bought them all. You
33:48
just bought them. Yeah. And I and I and I thought like, you know what, that’s actually a very funny line, but it also goes to show what I didn’t
33:56
know in that year where I worked for Wes and Sarah, I realized how much potential
34:03
there was out there that everybody else like me who actually loves gear, who loves classic sound, might not know
34:09
this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and that’s the thing, too. We don’t know what we don’t know. Yeah. Until we really start getting into it
34:16
and start peeling back the layers. Exactly. Mhm. And then and then then the marketing side of me was like, “Oh, you know what?
34:22
This is just one big marketing campaign from being, you know, more broadly
34:28
recognized and yeah, and more broadly available.” And so, so now the challenge is working on that
34:34
marketing campaign. Marketing campaign. You’ve done quite a bit in the time you’ve you’ve been here. Actually, I can
34:40
I’ve seen, you know, a marked change in the reputation of the company.
34:45
I appreciate that. And and I and I don’t know from the inside, you know, because because I feel like every day is still a hustle.
34:50
Yeah. Exactly. And that’s the thing is now you’re in the inside. You can’t it’s harder for you to zoom out and certain
34:57
things, you know. It’s true. Yeah. So, let me uh let me close with the question I always close with.
35:03
Okay. What do you tell 15year-old you now?
35:09
Somebody coming into the industry now. Uhhuh.
35:17
I mean, it’s it starts with a passion for music, and music is always going to inspire.
35:23
And and I think it’s it’s like what we just said right now, you know, figure out where your passion lies. Learn the
35:31
craft of servicing that passion. And then, oh, it’s going to make me a little teary. You could you could you could
35:37
see, you know, because it’s I’m going through it with my children right now. So, I have teenagers, like I mentioned,
35:42
they’re both college. They’re one’s collegebound, the other one’s already in community college. And uh and they both
35:49
decided independently and maybe with a little nudge from John Krivet is that they should study music industry.
35:54
Uhhuh. And then and literally and my and and uh and I don’t know how much you and I had discussed this, but my husband was um
36:01
was a Sony music uh guy for or he started as an intern at Columbia Records
36:06
u when we were both in college and then and then he was laid off from Sony Music in 2003. So my joke was like, “You guys
36:14
want to study music industry? Like both your parents are music industry refugees. Like why would you want to do
36:21
this?” You know, and don’t do what I do. Yeah. Like why would you do what we’re doing? Look at how hard we have to
36:27
hustle. But at the same time, I had to stop. I had to take a step back. And they see us and they see us as
36:33
successful because we’re still working at it. Yeah. Even though it’s it’s a much different hustle than it was back then,
36:39
just showing up every day and collecting a paycheck, you know. Yeah. So, to 15y old me, it’s like,
36:45
oh jeez, you did this to How many people cry on camera?
36:50
I’m good at making people cry. Oh, damn you, Barbara Walters. Um, at least I don’t talk like her. Well,
36:58
you you can learn that. Well, don’t be tell me. Yeah, Lily. Lily, tell me. Um the 15 is
37:06
like stay true and and have faith in yourself, you know.
37:13
Yeah. You’ve done a good job of that yourself. Oh, thank you. Ah, damn you. Damn you. Damn. Making me cry.
37:20
A It’s that kind of day, you know. Yeah, I get it. Julie Tan, thank you for
37:25
being my guest. Oh, I’m going to give you a hug. Thank you for being here. Thank you.
37:35
Hey, I’m Daniel Keller. Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button and join us each week for Insights and Sound.