Episode 16: Touring Monitor Engineer w/ Kevin "Tater" McCarthy

Описание: What does it take to be the very best Monitor Engineer? Listen in to today’s episode and head to www.gigrent.com for even more info on how to excel at in-person, virtual, and hybrid events.
Today we're talking to "Tater" McCarthy about what it takes to be the very best and how to make your artist know that they are the only focus that you have on-stage.
Touring Monitor Engineer is not for the faint of heart.
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Here’s an excerpt from today’s episode:
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Welcome to the gig ready podcast. So excited to have you here. We have a great show for you today, and whether you're from the touring industry or the corporate events industry, or somewhere in between, we want you to know that we are here to help you learn and get better at what you do each and every day. This podcast is a little bit different than most. I'm not going to sell you on something. I'm not going to promote some product here. We merely want to give you value that you could give value back to us. That's what we call value for value and each and every one of you are a part of this show. As a producer, as someone who can contribute to this show, a couple of ways you can contribute. Number one, tell your friends, let them know what we're doing and how we can help them become better professionals.
Speaker 0 00:00:49 Number two, leave us a review on iTunes. Go out, let us know what's going on. Tell other people the great experience that you've had from listening to our podcast. Uh, number three, send us messages, send messages to me, gig [email protected]. And we will get back to you by sending us messages. You can let us know how we're doing. What are we doing? What do you want to hear? Are there topics that you want to hear about something you want to learn about that maybe you just don't know where else to go? Let us know. We would love to help you become a better event professional, because this is the gig ready podcast.
Speaker 1 00:01:29 inaudible
Speaker 0 00:01:44 Welcome back everybody. This is Jordan Goodfellow gig. Ready? We're excited to be here today. We've got the man, the myth, the legend, Kevin tater, uh, audio engineer, monitor engineer, specifically rock star in his own. Right. Tater. Thanks for being here today. Appreciate having ya. Thank you for having me. Tater audio is a company I was introduced to a long time ago. Um, actually when I first started with Lincoln park back in 2010, um, you've mixed a lot of the heavy metal greats, uh, over the years. What, um, what got you into the world of monitor engineering and, um, talking about, you know, what drew you to that versus other parts of the audio, audio, audio world.
Speaker 2 00:02:30 Oh, okay. Yeah. Well, I don't think I was originally drawn to the monitor position. I was drawn to the, uh, just the sound and PA rental business and, you know, I landed, it monitors a lot during that time. And you know, I teamed up with another guy doing local gigs around Detroit and he always kind of did front of house and threw me back on the monitors. That's kind of where I learned, you know? So, um, I kind of, in the end, as I started getting bigger, better gigs, I found more satisfaction and mix mixing the band. You kind of knew right where you stood, um, you know, right at the end of the performance or during it, there was no, you know, anything with an audience complaining or anything. It was just them instant gratification. You knew what happened that night and it was over and onto the next night. So I kind of just stuck it out there. And, you know, I think in the long run it was a good move because I think really, um, I don't know now, but when I, when I've definitely first started, there was we're monitor engineers and the ones that wanted and wanted to go to front house. And as soon as they got an opportunity, they did. So there was always tons of work for a monitor engineer. So, um, I just kind of stayed there. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:03:42 A hundred percent the, uh, actually a monitoring, another monitor engineer. I know who loved to do monitors, always told me, monitor engineers, like the easiest gig, because you don't have to please yourself. You just have to please someone else.
Speaker 2 00:03:53 Yeah, that is true. But sometimes that's hard to do, maybe easy for him, but sometimes it's hard to do. And sometimes you have to mix something that you personally don't like, you're, you're delivering what he wants or she wants, and you don't necessarily like that mix, but you got to sit there and all night and, uh, try to enjoy it. So sometimes it can be tough.