Sleeping at Last

Last week was full of fun and excitement. On Saturday, Rock Harbor hosted a "community" concert in HIU's auditorium. The headlining band was Sleeping at Last, which coincidentally, I discovered and fell in love with a few years ago. In an effort to just reach out to the Fullerton community, Rock Harbor teamed up with a unique concert promoter called Sounds Like a Movement. It was founded by a guy who attends Rock Harbor. The idea behind this organization is to promote community development through hooking up bands with venues and audiences at a cheap price. That way bands can get their music exposed, hosts can get their venues exposed (such as HIU), and people can come together and listen to good music.

I had a unique opportunity to serve at this event because I was asked to run sound for the night. Because Rock Harbor was helping put on the show, we used our portable sound equipment for the house. This was an amazing experience for me not only because I got to help out with an event happening in my community but also because this was my first time mixing in a concert/performance setting. I had the task of mixing for three difference performing artists who had particular "sounds." It was an exciting challenge to say the least.

I was also fortunate enough to work with very friendly, patient, and understanding people in the bands. I've heard horror stories about bands being picky and difficult to work with - even downright rude to sound people.; and being a portable church with a portable sound system, I knew it was not going to sounds as good as a well-tuned house system. Fortunately, the bands understood our circumstances and were able to work with us the best they could.

Sonically, mixing for Sleeping at Last was a little different than mixing for the worship teams at Rock Harbor. For one, the band was only three-piece and often played to a click track with prerecorded stringed instruments. Most of the time Rock Harbor bands are at least five-piece and never use click tracks. Sleeping at Last's "sound" was much more dark and ambient than Rock Harbor's as well. They liked their drums and bass guitar to be dark and boomy, usually leaving out a lot of highs. They didn't play hard, driving beats often either. Most of the time the drums and bass were low-key. The lead singer would play his piano or acoustic guitar; and if he played electric, it was mostly ambient. Learning to mix for a different sound than I was used to helped me grow significantly as a mixer.

At the end of the night, I felt confident in saying that I was able to provide a solid mix. I thoroughly enjoyed mixing to one of my favorite bands and seeing my two communities united together for one night.