We were lucky to catch up with Tony Blade recently and have shared our conversation below.
Tony, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
Best way that I’ve found that builds my self confidence/ self esteem is keeping the promises I make to myself. If I tell myself that I am going to wake up early and workout for example, then by me actually waking up and doing it it builds my self confidence over time. Purely based on the fact that I know that when I say I’m going to do something, that I have the discipline to actually do it.
I found that doing the little things excellently, it translates to when I do the big things. That’s what helps me personally build my confidence.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Blade studios and the Blade Brand has been something cooking for a few years now. It’s been amazing to see the brand and space grow over the years.
It started out as a microphone in the closet in a tiny Hollywood apartment.
Now we are a state-of-the-art recording, mixing, and mastering facility that’s home to over 100+ artists. This my second year in business and I’ve taken the jump and brought a couple guys on the team. It’s been a blessing to work with Tony Draqo and John Blaze. They have brought so much life to the studio and really make it an enjoyable experience.
We are beginning the expansion to a full production studio right now. We are still going to be music and audio focused, however we are building out our podcast facility and will be offering podcast recording, film, and editing in the next couple weeks!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Best skills that an audio engineer can acquire, and I’ll be very career specific, it’s gain staging, active listening, and client acquisition.
Gain staging because the core of all audio engineering is understanding sound levels and creating a balance. You can do a lot with just pushing faders. All the rest of the mixing tricks just build off great gain staging.
Active listening is HUGE. As an audio engineer, you are an extension of the artists creativity. You need to be able to put your ego to the side and really LISTEN to the artist. Do the work to understand their vision THEN translate it into the DAW. You can’t do that unless you actively listen, ask clarification questions, and ultimately care about their art as if it’s yours. Trust me… do this right and you’ll have a client (and more importantly a friend) for life.
Okay, you learned to mix and your the best engineer in the world! But now what? You have to be able to find artists to work with. That’s client acquisition. It’s essentially figuring out the best route for you to get your talents in front of as many people as possible. I did it through a mixture of showing up to events, saying yes to EVERY session (even “waste of time” ones) , social media , and referrals. You find what works for you but this is the key to having a lasting career in this job. No one is going to build your book of business but you!
Good luck and hope to see you in the field.
We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?
I’d say focus all in on your strengths. If you are an entrepreneur/ freelancer, it’s easy to fall into thinking that you have to do everything because in the beginning you do have to do everything. But over time when you start getting more revenue coming in, focus on delegating tasks out that you aren’t as good at (or administrative tasks) and focus all in on income generating activities. This will save you time, heavily improve your bottom line, and give you the ability to scale down the line.
Contact Info:
- Website: Bladestudios.la
- Instagram: @bladestudios.la
Image Credits
Anthony Taylor, Tony Draqo
