MN Music Note - Ep 32 - The Sound Behind The Scene with Rick Dobbelmann

In this episode of Minnesota Music Note, we sit down with Minnesota sound engineer and live audio tech Rick Dobbelmann, one of the key people behind some of the biggest tribute bands and live shows in the local scene.

Born and raised in Saint Paul, Rick shares how he first got into audio through car stereos and basement band rehearsals before stepping away from music for nearly 18 years to build an online auction business and study web development. But in 2018, something pulled him back into live music, and since then, his journey has completely exploded.

We talk about:
• Running sound for bands like Hybrid Theory, Queen of the Reich, Exit Stage Right, and Arch Allies
• What it’s really like touring and working behind the scenes in live music
• Building PA systems, mixing huge festival stages, and handling massive live productions
• Why loud cymbals are every sound engineer’s nightmare
• The rise of AI in music, business, and content creation
• How he uses AI daily for websites, eBay listings, graphics, and more
• The reality of burnout, reinvention, and finding your way back to music later in life
• Why passion matters more than money in the live audio world
• Minnesota venues, festivals, tribute bands, and the local music community

This episode is a deep dive into the people behind the curtain, the ones making the music sound incredible while rarely standing in the spotlight themselves.

Also, at the end of this episode we are doing a giveaway for free tickets to The Legends of Rock event happening June 6, 2026. Be sure to watch until the end of the episode to find out how to enter.

Resources:
Minnesota Music Note FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/minnesotamusicnote

PodcastCrew YT Channel: 
https://www.youtube.com/@PodcastCrew-MN/podcasts

Legends of Rock Event Page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/2024521578116577

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:17

I mean, how how long have you been a part of this Minnesota scene? Were you born here?

SPEAKER_02 0:21

Yeah, I was born in Minnesota, born in St. Paul. Um lived my whole life in St. Paul. Um yeah, and then uh started um messing around with this. Um I don't know, the 2000 era, maybe a little bit earlier that, uh, with some friends' bands and stuff like that, and then just didn't do anything for quite a while and got back into it in about 2018-2019. Started my own uh sound business and started doing bands here and there, and it's just exploded.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

So would you that there's like 18-year gap there? What'd you do?

SPEAKER_02 1:00

What'd you do in the middle? Yeah, I started my own business. Okay. I started a online auction house and went back to school and got a degree in in web development and uh really yeah, just a bunch of different stuff that I've done.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Yeah, a man. I was I was joking when you picked the locks coming in today, by the way. He he got into the building somehow on his own. And I was joking, you're a man of many talents, and it sounds like you really are. You got quite a few things up your sleeve.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

I do have quite a few things up my sleeve, and uh I never thought it would actually do a full 360 and come back to music, which is uh pretty awesome. So, I mean, I do a full-time uh my day job, I work out a lifetime uh corporate in their A V department. So never thought I would be working in the A V department when I was had my own auction house, and you know, just things happened around 2012. 2020 was a pandemic and just shifted focus and went a different way.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

Nice, nice. You happy you did it?

SPEAKER_02 2:00

Sometimes? Sometimes. I mean tell me about that. Well, sometimes it's true. I mean, uh I go to work every day, not not every day. I get I mean, my job I have now is pretty awesome. I get to work from home a couple days a week and go into work, but it's actually going into work. I've never really gone into work if I was done my own thing. Um, so that's different and I I do miss that. Um, but I don't know. I like what I do. Cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

So in terms of AV, are you you hands on with the video side as well or pretty much the audio guide? Pretty much audio.

SPEAKER_02 2:36

I program um all of our right now. I'm reprogramming all of our uh sites for a mood music player upgrade. We're upgrading our music that we our music players that you hear in the clubs throughout the country. So I gotta go in and reprogram all the program, all of our uh QSC head ends throughout the country, 230 or so. Hmm. Yeah. That sounds pretty daunting. It is, and it's all it all has to happen here in the next month. So it's it's quite a lot of work. Yeah, I bet. But it's it's I'd rather do that than sit around and do nothing.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Fair enough. Fair enough. Well, let's talk about the you know, where you and I met, you know, which is obviously through music. You are the sound guy of how many bands? Like the official guy of how many bands, or do you even have a count? Well, I I do have a count.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

Um, not that I'm counting. But I uh uh ran sound for Arch Allies was when I s you know, when I really started running sound for a main band. Uh toured with them for two, two and a half years, and then um got the job at Lifetime. Uh so I quit that. But I still wanted to do it, so I got got a job at the dog house doing the same thing um as their house tech, which is a little bit better and easier than going on tour and loading and unloading you know, 12 hours a day. So uh through that I met Beth and I told Beth I wanted to be part of her Queen's Rake tribute that I was starting up. So that was the first band that I really dedicated myself again to uh doing sound for, and then uh the hybrid theory came along and was talking to Johnny Ramirez, and he invited me to do uh a show with him and been with them ever since.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

So nice. I see the hat you're representing, I like it.

SPEAKER_02 4:36

Right, yeah. Um actually I'm representing the the dog house. Dog houses I got my lifetime on too. Do you really? Um so yeah, and then um just recently uh uh started working with uh Beth's Megabeth project and um also uh Casey's uh Rush project exit stage right.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Ex right. Glad you remember the name because I was like I had to think about it for a second.

SPEAKER_02 5:08

And I got a really great opportunity coming up uh this Saturday coming up um running sound for trilogy out in uh St. Oh really?

SPEAKER_01 5:16

Yeah, nice. Yeah, that's good. Where's that happening this Saturday? At St. Croix. St. Croix, yeah. I I heard uh one of the other members, not Beth, is also in my feed. I think she said it's a sold-out show. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's cool. That's pretty nice. I love it. So, what's sold out up there? How many, how many people are you talking? Oh, a lot. Yeah, a lot, a couple thousand.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

Yeah, yeah. It's a big room, yeah. Big room, big PA. Nice, nice. I I like the big PAs, yeah. They're just easier to handle, you more headroom, right? Uh just they sound better.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

You could push it without having to push it.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

Yeah, exactly. Big room, big PA. I like that.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Yeah, cool, man. Nice. So that's kind of that that kind of wraps it up what you're involved in. So you're not involved with Arch Allies anymore, but you used to be. Yes. We'll still tag them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So right.

SPEAKER_02 6:03

I mean, I've I learned a lot of tops from our Arch Allies. I learned a lot of stuff. Kevin Todd knows what the heck he's doing. I mean, there's people say shit about Kevin, but he'll he'll give you the shirt off his back if if needed. He's a great dude and he does a lot of stuff for the community, and he he is very successful at what he does, and it's pretty awesome to see. So I got to learn a lot from uh touring with Arch Allies.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

And who's Kevin Todd in the band? I I don't know. I mean I'm uninitiated.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Yeah, Kevin's the owner of Arch Allies.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

The owner, okay. So does he play in the band? He's guitar player, guitar player as well. Okay, so cool. So he started was his brain child, he started the whole thing, and yeah, and and there's a lot of bands that formed out of that band.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

The hype is yeah, uh Rival Five is another band. And oh really, now they're on another iteration.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

Yeah, yeah, because I think John used to be Arch Ally, yeah, right. The drummer, yeah. Yeah, cool. Yeah, well, awesome, man. Well, I mean, um take me back to high school, you know what I mean? Young you thinking about what you wanted to do in life and kind of how did you get your hands on the knobs and why?

SPEAKER_02 7:14

Yeah, um, I don't know why. I guess maybe because I was really into car stereos back then. I mean, you know, building car stereos and putting them in my car, and then you know, friends started a band, and I went down there and there was a mixer down there, and I just started playing with that and the effects, and you're like, Oh, that sounds cool, dude. So just kept on doing it. Right on.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

Right. And never were you uh in a band, or did you pick up an instrument? I can't play any instrument. You can't play any instrument, you just know how they sound their best.

SPEAKER_02 7:46

Oh, I can sit on a drum set and hold a beat. Okay, no, to any tune that comes on, I can just catch the beat right away. But if there's a drum roll, my arms are like, no, I ain't doing that. So I can't play drums, I can just hold the beat. That's about it.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

That's all right, that's cool, man. That's cool.

SPEAKER_02 8:03

Nice, but no guitars, bass, nothing.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

I can't play any of that. So, what what kind of prompted way back in uh what would you say it was 2000 that you kind of got out of it? And you got back into it like in 2018?

SPEAKER_02 8:17

What kind of got you out of it initially? Unfortunately, there's was I hate bringing this up and hope it doesn't get out there. Maybe I don't know. It doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

If we need to go past, we can. If you just something you want to drop, it's okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

We can it's just you know I thought about this when I was thinking about talking to you and you know, anticipating maybe this question coming up and what got me out of it. And there was a band member that wasn't very influential and kind of talked down to people and like you're talking out there, I thought, you know, yeah, there's very egotistical there there are people like that out there.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

Right.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

So that kind of disturb discouraged me. And then I then I went back into you know what started my own business and I was fine with that and that was keeping me busy. And then I'll I don't know, 2018-19, I just decided I wanted to do it again, I guess, and got back into it. Bought a PA off an auction and started.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

What talk talk to me about your headspace then? Then do you do you remember where you were, what you were thinking, like what kind of really just you did you hear that old song on the radio and you're like, shit, I need to get out there and do that again? Or did you see somebody else with a p you know running a board and you're like well, I was I was kind of still interested in it, right?

SPEAKER_02 9:40

I was still I wanted to do it. Well, maybe that's not right. Uh I was still interested in it, and I found a PA uh at an auction since I was you know in the auction business. I was able to source stuff super cheap. So found it found a PA at an auction, bought a mixer, and just started putting myself out there and uh got a couple gigs. And how big of a PA were we talking about when you first bought that one at auction? Two eighteens, two EAW eighteens, and two a EAW uh 12-inch tops. So really good sounding uh uh PA system, and then I bought a Midas mixer and um I don't know, just just worked out.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

Nice, man. Yeah, nice. And the speakers have slowly grown, I'm sure, since then. Yeah, I got a so now you probably need a a trailer tractor trailer truck to be able to pull them around in well, not that quite Arch Allies is that big.

SPEAKER_02 10:35

We had a 24-foot box truck that was full.

unknown 10:38

Is that right?

SPEAKER_02 10:38

It was full, wow, right, and we had to unload and load that every time. So that also taught me what I want to put into a PA, right? I do have two rigs, one's a smaller rig for small uh small venues, and then I have uh larger one for uh large venues or outdoor uh outdoor gigs, uh about 30,000 watts on that one. So my small ones, a couple thousand watts and large ones 30,000 watts, and that's not very large. You know, when you're talking uh huge PA, they go into the hundreds and thousands of watts. And I think Metallica's on the last one was a couple million.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

Wow, right. A couple million, couple million. Seriously. Well, they're playing that round stage now, too. They've got to like push air out in 360 degrees. Yeah, I went to the the the first iteration when they came to Minnesota for the two days I went to both shows.

SPEAKER_02 11:34

The second time I didn't go, but that was a pretty impressive show at the at the stadium, US Bank Stadium, yeah. I've heard mixed reviews about that. Like if you're right in front of a speaker, it was good, but other areas it was just completely echo.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Uh, I'm sure we probably could have got better sound, different place than we were, but it was Metallica, man. We were we we we loved it, we had a great time for sure. Yeah, uh Metallica's awesome. So it would have been uh really would have liked to have been like in the middle of the circle, which probably are like six thousand dollar tickets or something like that. So yeah, but yeah, that uh that we were more like in the nosebleeds where we could afford to be. So that's where I would be. Yeah, yeah. It's I mean, it's it's those shows are cool. It's uh I mean I I always find big stadium shows are are a hit and a miss, anyways, because sometimes you're so far away that they're this big on stage and you have to watch the TV screen. It's like, well, you know, I really want to be down there, but you get you know, some of the smaller venues, uh like the armory, for example, it doesn't really matter where you are in that room, you're still gonna get a pretty decent experience because it's small enough. You know, you can only fit three, four thousand people maybe in there. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:38

Another thing, Minnesota has some great venues too, right? I mean, there's some great, great venues around that uh we all get to play with here and there.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Yeah. Like like what? Like what what sort of venues have you been have you been able to go into and have you run sound of some of these bigger venues?

SPEAKER_02 12:54

I'd say probably the biggest venue that I ran is the Pablo Center in Eaure, Wisconsin. I'd say the most expensive uh uh place is the Pablo Center, and it was it was awesome. What is the Pablo Center exactly? Is it like a convention center sort of thing? It's kind of like a convention center with a big old theater in it, and it's just beautiful in there. It's absolutely beautiful. Nice, probably the nicest uh venue I've ever been in. Nice. Um, and then you know, all the way down to the small venues like the dog house. So yeah, it's it's pretty cool. My favorite though is the outdoor festivals. Yeah. You you know, your wide open space, huge PAs, and people everywhere, and you don't have to worry about being in nosebleed because you can just move up front if you want to. Yeah. So those are pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

So you do a lot of summer shows as well? Are you out there? Yeah, we're doing a few work with some magic. We're doing a few shows this year. Cool. Tell me about that. What would you got coming up that you can tell me about if you can tell me about it?

SPEAKER_02 13:57

Well, I think we'd tell them about all of them. Um, so the hybrid theory, we're doing Rockfest. We're also doing Rockfest with Queen of the Reich. So that's pretty cool. Both of my bands are in uh yeah, I saw that.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

That's awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:13

Um, and then we are putting show our own my own. I'm putting my own show together uh June 6th at the doghouse where we got seven bands. We're doing an out live outdoor show. Uh Rick Copeland's gonna be providing the PA and stage for that.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

So that's kind of like the the the bunch of tribute bands, right? Yes, yeah, we got seven tribute bands on that one.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

Nice. That's good.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

What's the what's the what's it called? So we got a name for the Legends of Rock, Legends of Rock. We'll we'll try to tag all these as we're sharing photos around and stuff like that. I appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah. What else? What else you got going on, Rick?

SPEAKER_02 14:52

Yeah, we got that going on. What else do we got going on? Um, so the hybrid theory is like I said, we're doing Rockfest, and the following week we are up at Midsummer Music Fest, and then we're also doing uh headlining tribute fest up in Duluth. Uh so those are all great, great opportunities.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

So for these sorts of things, I mean you're there with the band. I'm there with the band, yeah. But there's uh probably a different crew running the sound. Yeah. What what what do you do in that sort of scenario?

SPEAKER_02 15:26

So yeah, PA is provided. Um, I just advance the show, let them know that I'll be coming in and running sound for our bands, let them know what we need, and uh ask them what they have for drive lines or you know any kind of thing that uh I need to connect to. So that's cool.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

So I didn't yeah, as as an uninitiated, I didn't realize that's how it works. So you're still putting your hands on the knobs and oh yeah, and keeping your band dialed in the way that that you already know that they should sound.

SPEAKER_02 15:54

Yeah, I bring in my own mixer, I bring in my own uh show file and uh sometimes my own stage box if they don't have what we need. And we're pretty much all self-contained. We just plug in, plug into their PA and let it rip.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Nice. So a lot of the bands you're working with now are they mostly like in-ears or monitors, a mix of both? Uh all in ears. All in ears. Yeah, yeah. So it's nice clean stage sound, and you have pretty much everything in your hands. Correct. Yeah, nice, yeah, nice.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

So low stage sound is nice for us uh sound engineers. Yeah, it's pretty, yeah. Well, when you get a a loud guitar or loud bass, it just overpowers everything and yeah, it it it muddies everything up. So anytime you can have a nice quiet stage is is really good.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

Yeah, a loud snare drum. I don't mind loud snare drums. That's those symbols. I've had a few uh sound guys tell me my snare drum's too damn loud, so bam. I I'm a hard hitter.

SPEAKER_02 16:53

Hit those hard, man. I'm I'd rather have you hit them hard? All right then, yes. Than hit those. I like it. Just lay off the symbols indoors because they overpower everything. They're the loudest. Yeah. Yeah. If there's no shield or anything around those symbols, you just gotta try to play those with finesse. I tried telling the drummers at, but it's hard. Yeah. Because when you're in the moment, it's it's momentum and it's you know, memory, right? Yep. It's hard to think, hey, I gotta lay off those.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

Yeah, it's it comes all in practice, you know what I mean? It's it's the it's the patterns that you've gotten into because yeah, I'm the same way when I get the my adrenaline starts to go, or maybe I decided to have a drink before the show or whatever. I'm just you know, a little pumped up. Oh yeah, and the heavy song hits, and I'm like, I gotta go with this, and yeah, symbol knocking my cymbals over and everything else. So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:42

I don't mind the loud, the loud snare. The snare is good. It's the it's the symbols that really really hurt the year.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

Is that right? Yeah. Oh, that's good to know. I've seen a lot of drummers with the the shields up these days, and yeah, I didn't realize how much of an impact that might make.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

Yeah, you know, uh, especially at our venue, the dog house, uh, it's a very, very loud, loud room. There's no real sound protection in that room besides a curtain that we put up uh uh uh upstage. But we have nothing above the drum riser, we have nothing on the floors or anything. Um, and it's tin above above the drum riser, it's tin behind the drummer. So it's a lot of reflections, lots of reflections, yeah. So it makes it it's still the most difficult room to mix that I mix it. Well, that's probably why they hired you, man. I don't know, man. It's Chad though has done a lot. Chad's the owner of the doghouse, he does a lot of good stuff for uh the music scene in Minnesota, so he's always trying to improve the room. So nice. We've done a lot of stuff since I started, and we're still doing stuff, we're gonna address those issues, and it's awesome. Hopefully, it just keeps on getting better and better and better. Try to restore that uh place. Uh what am I trying to say? Try to restore the legend of the rock, maybe because the rock used to be legendary, right? They had some big, big shows in there, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

Yeah, I mean the dog, yeah, the doghouse has definitely made a resurgence in in what I've seen. So it's yeah, it's definitely starting to do a lot more shows, a lot more people playing through there. Yeah, that's pretty nice to see. It is, yeah, cool. And it and uh I gotta put a bug in your ear to put a bug in Chad's ear because he'd be a great guest on this show. Oh well, I know at the end of the show that you uh suggest some. Oh no, did I already did I already take away the surprise? Well, that would be one of them. That would be one of them. That's okay. As long as you got some more, then we'll we'll leave that for later. Yes. All right, so let's see. Tell me a funny or crazy story.

SPEAKER_02 19:47

I'm terrible at stories.

SPEAKER_01 19:50

Oh, you got a few, I could tell.

SPEAKER_02 19:52

I don't know if I have a crazy or funny story. Oh man, what it puts me on the spot.

SPEAKER_01 19:57

Maybe out on the road with Arch Allies, something crazy happened, or you know, you guys pull up to a venue and it's closed for the day, and you're supposed to be playing later, or you know.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

Well, I suppose the funny story was something that made me laugh really hard. Is with Arch Allies. I mean, you brought up a memory that uh myself, Gensmer, and Eli Pete were hanging outside after a show, and they started talking like Jesse Ventura and just made me crack up. I mean they were doing that for an hour and it was just hilarious. So, you know, helps the camarad camaraderie, right? And yeah, absolutely. So I mean that's my story. I'm not good at stories, but uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

That's all right, that's pretty funny. Some good stuff. Um all right. AI. Yes. What do you think about it? I love it.

SPEAKER_02 20:51

Tell me more. Uh I just love what it does. I mean, I'm not a musician, but I can go into AI and I can maybe throw some beats at it and it will come up with something for me, right? Uh-huh. Um, I recently took one uh Beth's original songs that she made with uh Sugar Buzz, a few members of Sugar Buzz. Yeah. And I put it into AI and redid it, and they're they just loved it. I don't know if they're gonna do it, but I had it made uh a metal version and a pop version, and it was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 21:23

Nice.

SPEAKER_02 21:24

Yeah, and you mentioned that you use AI. So what do you think of it?

SPEAKER_01 21:27

Oh, I uh yeah, I mean, AI is is a part of my daily routine now. Yeah. Um like many, I think it's a it's a tool. Yep. And you know, have to you have to garbage in, garbage out. So you have you have to know how to use it properly and how to prompt it properly. But you know, some stuff in in my marketing agency that would take me a really long time. It's like deep creative stuff like writing or website, you know what I mean, just kind of like thinking about structure. It's really great. It's just kind of giving me some some ideas. And, you know, I don't, I, I don't like. Anybody who only uses it because I it's very obvious, you know, when you're just kind of sp spitting out what the AI has spit out rather than putting any of your own creative spin in it. Yes. Um it I think that's a great point.

SPEAKER_02 22:11

It's very, you know, you can make suggestions and it comes up both ideas. Uh I mean I use it every day. Literally, I use it every day. Um, I'd still do an eBay. So, like I said, I many, many uh what am I trying to say? I got a lot of jobs, a lot of different things that I that I do, and eBay is one thing. I'm still doing it. So I use it is that the auction thing?

SPEAKER_01 22:33

So you still got auctions going on, but you're using AI to help you with the auctions.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

Yeah, so when I was doing the auction business, I owned actual uh uh auction house here in Twin Cities, Tcbid.com. I still own the website. I just it's not developed. TC bids TC bid. TC bids, okay. TCB ID, that s. That got confused. A lot of people call it TC bids, but it was bid. No big deal. Anyway, um, but I'm still doing eBay side of that now, or I started that back up. Um just trying to retire here in 10 minute 10 years, so trying to make more money. Um, anyway, I use AI to research items, come up with a description, copy, paste, and put it online, and it takes me a minute to lift an item. Yeah. So works great. I've also used it to create flyers for uh our shows. Um I helped I used it to create a website for the hybrid theory.

SPEAKER_01 23:28

So um you created the entire website using AI.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

No, I just came up with kind of the structure pages and you know some ideas. Yeah, okay. And then went in and you know, edit it with uh an editor and and cleaned it all up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:43

Cool. Yeah, yeah, man. I'm totally totally game, man. AI is is you can't stand in front of a of the ocean, stop a wave with a spoon, right? No, it's just it's coming.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

It's just ridiculous. And like you say, it's a wave. Yeah, it's you know, and it's just in its infancy right now, too, right?

SPEAKER_01 24:00

It's it's really young. So interestingly, my my guest I had on earlier today actually said that he feels like AI is a fad that's gonna go away. No, anything about that?

SPEAKER_02 24:10

No, no, sorry, whoever that was. I disagree. I think it's gonna be taken over quite a bit uh of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

Well, do you think we're in in danger that when AI becomes smarter than human intelligence and self-aware that AI is gonna that we're gonna be in Terminator 3 suddenly?

SPEAKER_02 24:30

No, because there's gonna need you need people to run the AI, right? They say that about everything that's gonna replace, or I don't know who they is, but yeah, you know, they're always out there, they're always whoever they are, wherever they are. They they say stuff, you know, about other stuff's gonna take over, but it never does really. And as well as other jobs that replace it.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

So well, you remember the Y2K thing? Yeah, yeah, that's I grew up right. The whole world's gonna fall apart because computers won't know how to change the date, and suddenly they change the date, and everything's fine. So yeah, interesting. Um advice for young people out there thinking maybe they want to get into your profession.

SPEAKER_02 25:15

Um, you gotta wanna do it. Um you have to study up on it. Um I'm all self-taught, I didn't take any classes, but I read books. Um I watch videos. I mean you can find everything you need online, but and then you just gotta do it. Just gotta put one foot forward and do it. Uh you're gonna make mistakes, you're gonna make a lot of mistakes and you gotta learn from them. So if you want to get into it, it's great. I love it, so is it for everybody? No, it's not for everybody. You're not gonna make a lot of money at it, right? It's it's um it's you're gonna love it. You gotta you know have passion and you gotta really wanna do it. I don't think it's for everybody, but not everything's for everybody.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

And if you're gonna be up late mixing bands a lot, you gotta drink a lot of rock star. Yeah. Yeah, a couple of those a day. Gotta get your energy right so you can keep going, huh? Right. Yes, for sure. All right, so um, we talked about some stuff you're doing with bands, and you've still got your eBay thing going on. Um, what other fun projects are you working on?

SPEAKER_02 26:30

Fun projects that I'm working on. I'm not really working on any other fun projects. I I'm pretty much uh booked out all day, every day.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

You're maxed out, okay? You've got the full-time job, you've got the after hours job, you've got lots of rock stars.

SPEAKER_02 26:45

Lots of rock stars, you work with a lot of rock stars. I do work with a lot of rock stars, yeah. So it it keeps me busy and I like being busy. So yeah, I'm pretty full. I don't have any other projects. I mean the other the only project would be would you know starting to get into um booking shows and stuff like that. Okay. So, you know, putting shows on.

SPEAKER_01 27:06

Like an agent, like putting oh, so like d developing your own stuff.

SPEAKER_02 27:10

Yeah, that's cool, right? I mean, but that's gonna be a slow, slow process, and we'll see how it goes on this June 6th. And if it goes well, we'll do another one. Yeah, cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:20

Well, that's nice. I didn't know I knew the June 6th thing was happening. I just didn't realize that you were the brainchild behind it. So yeah, that's awesome, man.

SPEAKER_02 27:28

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, it's uh it's fun. It's first one that I've ever done, and uh Chad's had a few shows out there, but they've never really uh taken off, so he's always hesitant, but he's he's really he encourages me to uh put shows on. So anytime I have something, an idea, nice, he's always a hundred percent in. So that's cool, man. Yeah, it is cool. That's great. It's cool to have uh a venue owner who's supportive of that, yeah. For sure. You know, it does well, he makes a lot of money, so of course, yeah. You know, it does well. We make everybody makes money. And the thing about this show is I negotiated with Chad that the bands and production are gonna get 100% of the door. So, you know, most of these festivals, all that money goes to the organizer and stuff like that. Where all, you know, this one it's gonna go to the bands, and uh I think that's why all the bands are probably one of the reasons why all the bands they all said yes.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Yeah, sure. So and they know they're gonna have good production, they're gonna have good production, good lights, good lights, yeah. So yeah, why why not? Yeah, so you're gonna set up uh where where exactly would it be, you know, in reference to where the dog house is. You're gonna kind of are you in the front parking lot? Yeah, in the in the parking lot on the side of the there's a side parking lot, yeah. Okay, yeah, cool.

SPEAKER_02 28:46

Fit a few thousand people, so nice, nice.

SPEAKER_01 28:49

Yeah, I've been out to several festivals or many many shows like the the Nordick out in Montecellos. I used to live out west of the cities, yeah. I still live west of the cities, I guess. I mean, Maple Grove, but I used to live way west, like you know, the Boonies, Albertville.

SPEAKER_02 29:02

So yeah, so Rick Copeland used to provide production for those Nordic brew pubs. Oh, is that right? So yeah, okay. The same guy who's providing it for us.

SPEAKER_01 29:10

Nice.

SPEAKER_02 29:10

Yeah, I've worked with Rick a a few times.

SPEAKER_01 29:12

Cool. Yeah, I know I've heard the name Rick Copeland a couple times. I don't know if I've ever met or or spoken to that guy.

SPEAKER_02 29:17

So yeah, he owns uh Itasca Sound and Light. Nice. Yes, yeah, we can take them to Big Outfit. Yeah, he does it, he's got a nice big PA, man. It's it's a really, really good sounding PA. I like it. And uh got to run it a couple times, and he was my first choice uh when I was thinking about this, and he was on board on how we're gonna how we're gonna fund it. And so hopefully it it it does well.

SPEAKER_01 29:43

Nice, man. So come on out, yeah. Bring bring your people, bring your people. Yes. Oh, but the bands you've got lined up. I mean, that's it's gonna be a great show. So they're all top-notch. It's it's really good. I know when I I saw was actually at the Nordick when I saw the hybrid theory for the first time at one of their outdoor shows, and I I didn't realize how many Lincoln Park songs I knew, man. I was like jumping around and singing every single one.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

It's amazing how how good they are, man. Yeah, Lincoln Park, everybody loves Lincoln Park. Yeah, they have so many good tunes. I I was the same way. I was when I when I first got into it, I was like, wow, I know this tune, I know this tune, I know this tune, I know this tune. Yeah, it was really cool.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

Yep. And I was also shocked to see how many, how much of the crowd had stayed around specifically for that. And we're just going absolutely nuts for the Lincoln Park stuff. So yeah, it's it's fun. And and Cobb. Is Cobb gonna be your Cobb will be there? Yeah, there you go. Mentalica, Mentalica, yeah, Mad Alice, Mad Alice, man, all all phenomenal bands.

SPEAKER_02 30:44

Exit exit stage right. Wow, rush. Uh I'm missing some audio stone, audio stone, yeah, yeah. Tribute to and then uh also uh the ACDC tribute. Uh come on, I can't be drawn up blank now. Uh Old Voltage. Yeah. With Danny Lee Jorgensen. That dude is amazing. Oh, yes, he is.

SPEAKER_01 31:08

He's gonna be a guest on air soon. Is he? Danny, you're coming. Yes, nice. He already said yes, he signed up. I don't remember exactly when it is, though, but I know he's he's coming. So that dude slays. Yeah, yeah. He's got he's got such a it's like he was born with the on stage antics. Like he knew what to do as soon as you womb. He was already doing power stances and he's gonna whipping the hair whipping the hair around, yeah. Which he probably had like one curl when he was little, but you know, yeah, awesome. Give me the names of those bands again. So it's audio slate, uh, audio stone, old voltage, extra stage right, uh, Cobb, Mentalica. Hybrid, Mentalica, Matt Ellis, Matt Alice, yeah, cool. Yeah, so we'll make sure we tag all those guys too. Is that a great lineup or what? That's a that's a tremendous lineup, yeah. And I yeah, I'm I'm a I'm a heavier music guy, so this is this is my jam.

SPEAKER_02 32:05

Yeah, I I've been getting into heavier and heavier music lately too. Have you? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:10

So what you know, what kind of music is your mainstay?

SPEAKER_02 32:15

Um, I don't really buy music. Uh I just you know, these bands come in and I get to mix them all the time, so whatever I hear from them, but the harder the rock, the the uh more I've been into it lately. So is that right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:30

Okay. It's pretty good. And that, you know. What's one of the heaviest bands you've seen lately that you might have done sound for? Ooh, good question.

SPEAKER_02 32:41

The heaviest bands I've seen. Well, we I'm gonna draw a blank on these names, but we do some original shows up there that were pretty heavy and yeah, those ripped.

SPEAKER_01 32:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 32:53

I can't remember names.

SPEAKER_01 32:54

When do you do the original shows? I don't think I've seen that advertised.

SPEAKER_02 32:57

It happens once every few months.

SPEAKER_01 32:59

Okay. Yeah. It's not a not a not like an every weekend thing.

SPEAKER_02 33:02

No, it's it's all pretty much cover bands every weekend. Yeah. Covers or tributes.

SPEAKER_01 33:07

Yeah, cover covers bringing the crowds, right? Yeah, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_02 33:10

The original shows are a lot of fun. They are a lot of fun because you don't get to hear them, right? Yeah. Via, they they put on some great, great music.

SPEAKER_01 33:19

Yeah. Lee Lee Underwood is somebody I want to get on the show, but I have a history at. She's great. Yeah. Yeah, she's awesome. She's phenomenal. So we've wanted to, I've wanted to see that band and Yukia, I think, is another one she's in.

SPEAKER_02 33:31

And you know who also has some great uh originals is Rebel Queens. They have oh really? They have original tunes. Yeah, they've they're awesome, too. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 33:40

Have you had those guys? They are they were actually scheduled to be on last week, but got stuck because of the snowstorm in Nebraska or wherever they were, and so we're rescheduling them for early April. Yeah. Yeah, but I'm gonna have the whole band on for that one. So that'll be fun.

SPEAKER_02 33:55

Yeah. They are opening for us um at Midsummer Music Fest. Oh, nice. So they're the band before us, and then we're the band before the hype. Nice. The Hyper Theory. So nice. Yeah, that should be an awesome show.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

That'll be a lot of fun, yeah. They I haven't I we haven't seen them yet, but I've seen lots of videos, and they just got so much energy on stage. And right, I think a couple people, we the last time my band played, a couple the people who were over at Route 47, a couple of them came over to us were just like gushing over how awesome they were. So yeah. Unfortunately, we were playing, so we couldn't watch them that night. So next time. Next time. Nice man. Um let's go, let's let's talk about little you, anyways, even if you didn't pick up a guitar. Let's talk about music and how it became like a part of your life when you were young. Like what were you into?

SPEAKER_02 34:45

And oh, I used to come home from grade school, and uh my parents would not be home, so I got to play with my dad's stereo, which he had a nice stereo, and uh, every day it seemed like Quiet Riot would come out at the same time, and I just crank that up as loud as I could go. And I don't know, that got me into car stereos, I think, because then I started building car stereos after that.

SPEAKER_01 35:09

And um She've always liked the way good audio sounds, it sounds like. Yeah, yeah. Were you ever into like putting the big amplifiers in the back and the big old bass sound out of it? That was definitely part of it. Is that right? Yes, that was definitely part of it. Um, I'm kind of picturing you in a in a car with you know rim.

SPEAKER_02 35:29

No, no, you're not the rim part into the low rider thing, no, not the not that part, just the big stereo part. I had one that I built it was uh 91 Cavalier when they first came out. Um, and I put like 18 speakers in it. It was just ridiculous. It was just ridiculous. It was loud, it sounded good, but it wasn't ideal. It was just me just throwing speakers anywhere I could.

SPEAKER_01 35:56

At some point the speakers are canceling the other speakers out, right? Yeah, I didn't I didn't know about that back then. I just thought turn it up more is better. Yes, eight 18 speakers. So where the hell do you either there's some the foot pedals and is a glove box?

SPEAKER_02 36:10

Yeah, I and they were all hidden. I would take the uh I would take the AC vents out and mount them behind the vents or cut out something in the doors and build some uh fiberglass things to go over the top and I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 36:28

Found spaces to put it. So if you were to go buy a car stereo today, would you still put it in yourself?

SPEAKER_02 36:35

I would have no idea what to buy now. Really? Yeah, I'd probably have somebody else do it. Okay, old man. I can't uh I can't bend over like I used to. Those tough spots underneath dashes and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 36:46

Well, and now they all have all these plugs that just kind of one just plugs into the other, you don't even have to run the wires. Yeah, it's probably super simple though. Yeah, right. Super simple or super complicated, like you said. It's like, yeah, you've got every car model's got a different way that it does it. And yeah, interesting.

SPEAKER_02 37:03

Yeah, that the yeah, what's really interesting, I'm not into car stereos anymore. I don't want a loud, loud car stereo. Is that right? Yeah, I hardly ever listen to music in the in the in the car. It's either off or like talk shows or something. Well and why do you think that is? I think probably because I listen to a lot of music during the day at work, and then on the weekends it's music all all night.

SPEAKER_01 37:31

So I get that. Yeah, there's some professional fatigue that happens, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:36

Well, I don't know if it's fatigue or it's just you know something different. Because I I don't I don't mind I love music. I mean, obviously you do too, right? You're in a band and yeah, and you're doing this and you bring all these musicians in, and so you gotta love it too.

SPEAKER_01 37:52

Oh, I absolutely love it. I love having these conversations to get to meet people and go deeper than you know, when you're standing in a club and you can barely hear each other, you know. This is a nice way just to kind of have a 45-minute conversation with somebody.

SPEAKER_02 38:03

Yeah, it's pretty awesome what you're doing.

SPEAKER_01 38:05

But I, you know, on the on the professional side, I mean, I shoot a lot of video too, and I have been for many, many years. But my friend calls me up, wants me to come over and shoot something for free for him. I'm like, you know what I mean. I don't mind doing the friend part, but I'm just like, I just don't really want to take my camera out anymore. I might do that, you know, it's it's very 10 hours a day or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 38:25

And it's really time consuming. Those the video editing and the editing is what comes in, yeah. Yeah, I've been getting into that too. I mean, I've been creating videos and stuff like that, and that takes a lot, a lot of time. Yeah. Because you have to go through and pick what you want to use and then edit it all down, put it in where you want to use it, and it's a lot more time consuming than people think.

SPEAKER_01 38:46

Yeah, I mean, it's storytelling, you know, and uh some so i in my field, uh, you know, people often wonder why you have so many people on a production set on a bigger chute or whatever. And it's because the more people you have up front doing their individual jobs, the less work it takes to kind of assemble it all in the back end, right? Because we just and there's a higher quality value you get out of somebody who's really focused on that, you know, on sound versus you know trying to run the camera, run sound, run everything else at the same time. Yep. Um but yeah, when you get it when you get into post-production, if you've thought about all that stuff and you storyboarded everything and you really have it mapped out and you've got your scenes and they're in order, and you basically you just in the editor, you're just basically assembling what has already been well thought out. But what happens a lot in corporate video production and and really in most video productions, you don't have 12 people on the set, you literally have one or two people on the set, and now you really have to figure out where the story is when you sit down and start editing it. Okay, you interviewed 12 people, they all said different shit, you asked them different questions. Now you gotta go say, okay, what's where's the story at and rebuild it? And yeah, it takes a lot of time.

SPEAKER_02 39:55

So this 45-minute video that we're creating here, how much time are you gonna have into prose production on it?

SPEAKER_01 40:01

Uh well, Sarah Kreider, who was my first interviewee, uh, she's doing my video editing for me. So I don't know actually how long, but I I did edit the first couple of them myself and I edited enough. But um for podcasts, it's great. First of all, we got three camera angles, and so we just cut to whoever's talking. Yep. And you go in and you cut out the stuff that you don't want in there, like when you and I were just you know bantering for a few minutes trying to figure out what to do next, that'll just get cut out. So the podcasts are pretty easy uh comparatively to other types of uh projects. So uh for example, last weekend I shot a testimonial video uh for a fireplace company where people had installed a fireplace and it's the couple talking. Well, they were talking for quite a long period of time. I already knew I wasn't gonna use, you know, half of it, at least, you know what I mean? Because you got to cut it down and make it concise and get rid of all the ums and uhs and other things. And that took me, you know, four or five hours to edit. Right. And it only took me two or less than two hours to shoot. Right. You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:59

So it's definitely more time post than it is during or pre.

SPEAKER_01 41:03

Yeah. I mean, I I often tell customers it's a you know, it's not a one to one ratio, it's usually a one to three or more complicated, it'd be one to five, one to six ratio, you know, for and that's even just the amount of time, not even the amount of time we're shooting. You might should only shoot for 20 minutes out of an hour. Yep, but you're spending an hour there prepping, getting it ready, whatever. But still, even that 20 minutes is gonna take you four or five hours sometimes to cut it all together, right? Color correct it, clean up the audio for whatever.

SPEAKER_02 41:33

Not being professional at that, it takes me quite a lot longer. I mean, I like to go through the videos, watch them again, so that takes a while and stuff like that. So you know.

SPEAKER_01 41:41

Yeah. I know how to cut cut uh the time down quite a bit because I've been doing it for a while, but yeah. I bet maybe I could start sending my stuff to you. Well, you you can you uh feel free to swing by with a with a project, and I'd be more than happy to sit with you for half hour or whatever and give you some tips of things that I've learned in my craft. So that'd be awesome. Yeah, a couple of other people have taken me up on that, and I really am more than happy to do it. So maybe I will. Yeah. Well, cool. Now I think we've done enough that we can kind of wrap it up with our last question, man. Who should be the next on this podcast?

SPEAKER_02 42:14

Well, I've already mentioned, or we already brought up Chad Hower. I think he'd be a great interview. Um another one, tech wise, somebody who is my mentor, and I've learned a lot from and is probably one of the smartest dudes I know is Tim Fisher. I don't know if you know Tim.

SPEAKER_01 42:34

I have met him a couple times. He does sound for uh Wicked Garden. Yes, yeah. I met Kat Perkins. Oh, Kat Perkins as well. So I've seen him with Wicked Garden before. And I think he's a drummer too, isn't he?

SPEAKER_02 42:48

He plays some drums, bass, a little bit of guitar.

SPEAKER_01 42:52

We we uh did a multicam coverage of an event called the MCFC. It's an uh MMA event that they do down in Rochester every year, and they had hired Wicked Garden. Oh, yeah. And I saw Tim set up like a whole ridiculous dude. First he had like a whole truck, I think, just for his stuff. Yes, and like everything was wireless, and he has this big module, but you know, I would have to talk to him, and he wasn't very friendly with me at first, right? Because I was just he probably thought it was just some dude interrupting him when he was trying to get his job done. But once he kind of figured out, you know, we were I just wanted to talk craft with him or whatever, he warmed up to me pretty quickly.

SPEAKER_02 43:32

He's amazing at what he does, he's built many, many inner rigs for all these bands that you see around the toilet. Is that right? Yeah, and he does he goes all out and he doesn't use cheap parts, so he builds them and they're amazing. They're absolutely amazing.

SPEAKER_01 43:46

Cool. Well, we'll get Tim on here then. Yeah, if he says yes. So nice. And then Chad, uh, I don't know if he's on Facebook or whatever, but he's on yeah, yeah, cool. I'll look we'll look for him. Maybe I'll need you to intro intro. Me to him because he don't know who I am from some dude off the street. But I'll say, hey, this dude from the street. Yeah, some some dude won't leave me alone. Somehow he got me on his podcast. Well, good man. That's it. That's awesome, dude. Yeah. Easier than expected, right? Right. That's what I love about podcasting, really. I mean, first of all, I I think I have a little bit of the gift of the gab. I just like to talk to people, anyways. Yeah. Um, and it's just really disarming to just sit down and have a conversation, especially when it's about music. Yeah, it's something we both love, anyways. Right. It brings people together, right? It does. It does. And like you mentioned to me, I think uh on a Facebook chat we're having, it's a great, great networking tool. Man, I've met everybody. Yeah, you know, and I'm meeting more and more of everybody because now uh the guy that came in earlier today I had never met before. He found me because Facebook actually brought it up in his feed because he likes music. So now it's starting to get the algorithm working in our favor. And then he saw Beth's episode and he's like, Oh, I could do this.

SPEAKER_02 45:02

So Yeah, I was kind of nervous coming in here because uh, you know, I don't really do interviews and I'm not the most social person. So but you made it pretty uh pretty welcoming and pretty laid back where Yeah, well you did a great job, man.

SPEAKER_01 45:16

You remind me a lot of my you have a personality similar to my cousin, so who also lives here. He's also a drummer or whatever. So I felt like we knew each other. Oh, nice. Yeah, it was pretty simple.

SPEAKER_02 45:27

Yeah, I mean that simple is very relaxing, very uh easy to talk to.

SPEAKER_01 45:33

Cool. Well good man, I'm happy to hear that. Yeah, awesome. So good job. Appreciate you. Hey there, Minnesota Music Family. If I haven't personally reached out to you yet, consider this your 100% official invitation to join me on the Minnesota Music Note. I'm Will McLeod, co-founder of the podcast crew here in beautiful Robbinsdale, host of the show, and the guy behind the kit for the band Hits and the Misses. I started this podcast because I want to get to know the people who make our scene tick. Whether you're fronting a band, spinning hip-hop, running sound, booking shows, running shows, or teaching the next generation of talent, your story belongs here. We've had everyone from videographers to festival organizers on the mic, and we're just getting started. It doesn't matter if you're playing arenas or just making magic in your basement. If you're part of the Minnesota music community, I want to chat. Slide into my DMs or hit the email below and let's hang out and talk shop.

SPEAKER_00 47:13

This is going to be insane. Seven tribute bands in one night featuring the music from Metallica, Lincoln Park, ACDC, Corn, Rush, Allison Chains, and Audio Displays. If you want to win, all you have to do is like and share the Minnesota Music Note Facebook page, find and follow podcast crew on YouTube, like and share the event page for Legends of Rock, and tag the friends you want to go with. We'll be announcing the winners too. Good luck.