Unlike other careers people choose, the music industry is one of the strangest anyone does. Although nothing is guaranteed in life, the path to become a doctor, engineer, accountant, etc., has been traveled by many before and is a reasonably safe journey. When you enter the music industry, there is no path. You only have a vague map to your destination, whatever tools you have with you, and off you go. When you talk to others that have entered the music industry, they can only tell you what worked for them. Sometimes that will work for everyone or it will only work for them. Sometimes you guide to point you in the right direction or you won’t have anyone. Sometimes you just throw your hands in the air and see where the wind takes you. It takes a certain kind of person to take on a business like this.

So this is an on-going series for those who are working in the music industry and for people trying to break into it.

While the Band is Playing

by Jesse Davidson

In this edition, we sat down with Sean Gilmer over lunch at Mi Ranchito on Palmdale Blvd. Sean is a live sound engineer at the Lancaster Performing Arts Center, a recording engineer, song-writer, producer, and musician in the band Lamarche.

 How did you get your start?

“I started with piano lessons when I was about 6 years old. I took lessons from a lady named Joyce Garrett, who was really instrumental in my music career. She had directed gospel choirs and played piano. Then I started to take more trained piano classes and play in classical concerts. I was playing by ear mainly. I wasn’t a great note reader. Then by the time I was in high school, I just played in bands from the D.C area. It was the Go-Go scene so I played in Go-Go bands through most of my teenage to young adult life. That was my heart.”

Like Chuck Brown and Trouble Funk?

“Yeah like Chuck Brown, Trouble Funk, Rare Essence, E.U. (Experience Unlimited), and it goes on. There were different stages of that type of music, which I considered what most people knew to be more commercial. We did that for years. Playing in bands like that for parties and different concerts. Then I got in a Top 40’s band and sang Top 40’s music with a big twelve-piece band. I went to college and played music in a smaller band called Three Way that was doing really well. We started producing for people and had a group we produced music for. Then I went back home and decided to get into engineering because I wanted to stick with the music industry. I felt like if I could be an engineer, I would at least be near it and I would always hear music. So I decided to either go to New York, Tennessee, Atlanta, or L.A. I ended up flying from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles to follow the big dream in ’97.”

“I went to school and worked with engineers Doug Kern and Steve Miller. I also worked with John Barnes who was the musical director for Michael Jackson. I got to work in his studio as an intern and learned how to use a lot of equipment. Stuff like drum machines and different keyboards I liked. Then it was like ‘Let’s build a studio!’ and my partner and I built a studio called Plugs Entertainment in North Hollywood. We worked with artists that are fairly well known. There were a lot of facilities around us and artists would record in them for their label. But they wanted to record stuff that wasn’t on their label. They would work on tracks or record with other artists they couldn’t normally work with. It was just a cool spot. This was the place I told you about that got robbed.”

Yeah.

“It was a real sketchy thing. Whoever robbed us didn’t want us to be in North Hollywood, let’s put it that way (laughs). I ended up moving to Palmdale and continued the dream of recording and did some solo work. I’ve recorded probably 100 songs on my own and put out about 10 of them. I also did some music with Raptile who is an artist in Germany. “

When you first started out, you also played worship music with your family, right?

“Yeah. We sang at different religious events. I would play keyboards. My dad plays guitar. Basically it was just piano and singing. Over the years, my dad has evolved into this big musical director for the Baha’i House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois. Every year, they have a huge event and I would go. That’s where I met Meredith (the singer of his current project, Lamarche.). We started working on songs and we became real close. We’ve been going to this event every year and it is our ninth year attending. About three years ago or four years ago, she came to California and told me she wanted me to produce her. We were working on something and I played keys, she sang. The first time we met, it worked out. The second time we met, she said, “ I got a show for us”. I said, “What?” She said, “Yeah I booked us on a show”. She wanted to do a whole concert with just her vocal and piano and I suggested doing an acoustic group. We found a guitar player and I played percussion. And that was the origin of the group.”

That’s awesome. Did you attend college for music or did you just end up going that way?

I went to Tuskegee University as an Electrical Engineering major and I changed majors to Business Administration.

Has the business knowledge you’ve gained in college helped you navigate in the music industry?

In a lot of ways, it has. And in a lot of ways, it hasn’t. The music business is different from other businesses. There are basic techniques like marketing and how to manage money that help. But overall, the music business is so different. There’s some shady things, not shady things, and things can just happen on luck. People can get opportunities handed to them because they know people in certain places. Almost everyone I know that’s a star has someone in their family that’s a star. They were all helped by someone because originally, it was really expensive to get things recorded. People could charge anything to do whatever in the music business. You can’t charge anything you want for a cup of horchata. There’s only gonna be one price. But for engineering, you could charge whatever you want. If I could have re-thought what I would have done, I would have take music entertainment or law. But that wasn’t really what I wanted to do; I just wanted to play (laughs).

(Laughs) That’s the good thing about working as a tech is that you can still be near music. Can you talk more about your experience in recording engineering?

Yeah. When I was working at West LA Music (a music store in Hollywood), because I had helped build my friend’s studio, I could refer them there. It was called Platinum Sound and I was working there. as a producer lets say. People would come in and ask, “Do you know where there is a facility we can use an SSL (console) with 2-inch (tape)?” And I’d give them my card and get them over there. We had people like Missy Elliot, Mya, and B2K. We also had a bunch of different engineers that came through. It was amazing to hear all these things first hand. You learn a lot of techniques because everyone does things differently. And what you might work or sometimes it doesn’t depending on what kind of music it is. Even so, some things can cross platforms. Even in rock now, you hear mixes that a hip-hop producer would make because artists want a big bass or snare sound. It’s different from the rock we knew of because things are recorded differently and there are new types of equipment. Something new comes out everyday.

Definitely. It’s funny to hear about how all these things just came into your path and you just took advantage of these opportunities.

All of them were lucky situations. There was an engineering school and my friends in school. All of them graduated and went out and started working. I was still friends with them and they helped me with different things. Then working in West LA Music on Cahuanga, everyone came to that store. Artists would come through because it was kind of hidden and underground.

Anyway, when I told you I was in a group called Three-Way. In that group, we wrote and produced music for people. One of the groups that we wrote songs for, they always got these shows. They were like a Boyz 2 Men type of group. Every time they would show up, they’d show up in a limousine! Everyone would be trying to figure out who they were. We were in Tuskegee, Alabama and they would do that every time they played. Someone from that group told me, “If you act like a star, people will treat you like a star.” So I kind of took that idea when I came to California. I went to the Los Angeles Recording Workshop. It’s now called the Los Angeles Recording School. That’s where I learned how to splice tape and all that good stuff. A lot of those guys in my class were really smart and ended up getting really good gigs. So my friend and I decided to start our own business. We found a guy that did construction, started buying equipment we needed, and took our time. We knew the world was going digital even though everything was analog at that time. So the first console we bought was a Mackie DAB. Then we had the blueprints made up and built the studio ourselves on Camarillo in North Hollywood. That’s how Plugs Entertainment was created. How we got popular was that I took the idea of that group I knew in Tuskegee who acted like stars. We found a guy that had a limousine service. He was my neighbor and had nowhere to store his limos. He had to keep moving them because of street cleaning and he couldn’t park in places on certain days. So we told him he could park them in our garage at our studio. Provided we could use those cars. Then we started advertising big and said if you’re an artist, we’ll pick you up in a limo and drive you to the studio. Our first clients were The Intoxicants from New Orleans and we picked them from the airport in a limo and drove them to the studio. They were so excited, man. We became kind of popular because of that. Anytime we had something big we wanted to do or even just going to the club, we never drove. He was driving us (laughs).

What year was that?

1997-1998. We would just go to these big clubs and mingle with people. We’d give them cards for Platinum Sound or Plugs Entertainment. We just kept going and we met artists but mainly producers. A lot of them were around my age and easy to talk to. Many of them were from Washington D.C so we had a lot in common. We went from studio to studio and helped each other out, sharing sounds and ideas. I did stuff for films I never got recognition for but it was fun. I learned a lot because I got to use equipment I didn’t own.

That’s awesome. When you were going through hard times, is there any advice that has helped you through those times?

That’s a hard question to answer but I can tell you this. I have had times where I thought I had an idea and it worked for a time. But the music industry is changing continuously. You always have to be thinking ahead. A lot of people my age didn’t think of the digital world and they totally got stuck. They only knew how to do one thing. So I would say stay on top of technology. The other thing is to learn how to manage your money. That’s probably the most important thing. The second most important would be understanding contracts. If you’re going to be an artist, you need a lawyer. There were so many things I was supposed to be paid for but I never was because someone got the one up on me. Someone will always get the one up on you. But the main thing is, if you’re going to be in charge of your own stuff, make sure you’re actually in charge of it. Because someone could end up getting 50% of something you did that had nothing to do with the song, which is not nice. Or 100% in my case (laughs).

What I’m talking about was a deal through Universal where I worked with some guys that were apart of LA Confidential. One of my friends was in LA Confidential. I made a song with him and it got placed in the Lawrence Fishburne movie Biker Boyz as credited as LA Confidential had produced the song. But I produced it and I never got paid for it. And that happens. Right after that, there was another opportunity for a Paris Hilton movie called The Hillz and my partner and I knew what to do that time to negotiate the proper deal. You have to know what you are getting into and how to get your dues (laughs).

To find out more info on Lamarche or Sean, go to http://www.facebook.com/LaMarcheBand

http://www.reverbnation.com/seangee