Meet Matthew Vigil

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Matthew Vigil a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Matthew , thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

My biggest work ethic comes from my parents and my family. I am not a military brat but several of my family members are military and/or where raised under that type of household. Growing up my parents were kind of strict yet fair. My brother and I didn’t get rewarded for just nothing we had to work for it. Even something small, our parents would teach us the value of hard work and just what it can lead to. With that we did grow up quite comfortably in the middle class, making it easy to help us pursue our passions. At a very young age I discovered music and began playing and leaning the violin. I wasn’t forced like some children, I willingly wanted to learn as I was interested. With that I took my own free time learning a new skill, developing a talent that then became more instruments, how they work why they work etc. I can ultimately say my dad was and continues to be my main driving force for my work ethic, keep going. There is always pressure but its how you handle that pressure that will prove an end result.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

My story begins when I was around the age of eight when my parents took my brother and all of us to see Trans Siberian Orchestra. I was just blown away I remember asking how? Just like how do I do that. It was the next year in school that I decided I wanted to learn how to play the violin and began learning how to read and understand music. This progressed through middle school until I hit about 13, at which point I switched to the stand up bass in the school orchestra started playing electric bass and guitar as well; my career started then I just didn’t quite know it yet. When I got to high school I no longer played in the school orchestra or band, but still began to learn about the guitar and bass, various genres and tuning playing styles and techniques then to create my first band at around 15. I was a lead guitar player in a metal band and when we thought we were good enough to record we approached a studio and asked what the process was. Well, being that young and very limited on funds I gathered a bit and got a few items to start learning how to record our band. It was from there Iearned that you cannot record drums in a bedroom with one microphone and make it sound like a radio hits, that’s a little bit pushing the limits no physics right there.
Now basically going into my junior year of high school I started to work my first real “big boy” job just working cash register at fast food but acquire more and more gear throughout the years, learning the concepts of multitrack recording, compression basic equalization prior to college. I began working with the schools tech and theatre department being the main audio person to run the plays, battle of the bands and smaller events of such. I did a few things outside of school that were audio and light tech related.
After graduating high school I obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from The University of Colorado Denver going through their music program with the record arts emphasis trach at the College of Arts and Media. During my time there I started working at, and continue to this day, working at Rhino Staging to get my hands into the industry. While living in Denver I made many many worldly connections or various professionals, performed live to several hundreds of people, recorded many bands, mixed some very popular live artist at some major venues. I’ve worked along side industry professionals I can call friends for over a decade now. My work has lead me to learning quality control services of electronic audio components, setup and use of major line array systems to fill stadiums.
My personal business of MV Audio is now currently operating at three years and counting with a few clients and several more on the way. MV Audio also is a custom guitar maker and has been recently dabbling into luthier skillset.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Patience is key: You WILL NOT do it right the first time, nor the second and probably not the third. You’ll find many solutions to the same problem all being very much different but tend to work the same way. This is wisdom. Knowing things is important, to fail and try again and again until something works. All that time invested is a learning experience.

Never stop learning: You will learn something new everyday. Question yourself, question what you already know. You may find an easier way, a better way, or something. You always want to challenge yourself to be the next best version of you. Take that new task and adventure and ask the questions you don’t know along the way what you are told may surprise you. Two years ago I was basically dead I had to question what was more important,

Lastly Shut the F@#& up!; Listen, always listen, know when its right to speak. Most of the time if you are unsure, do not have a solid platform or proof to back it up just don’t speak. You’ll learn more if you just keep your mouth shut and nod with a yes sir, yes ma’am or a simple okay.

What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?

This gets a little personal and I can actually answer two of these in one. My biggest obstacle in the past was substance abuse. It caused a lot of emotional and physical damage. The arts and entertainment industry is not an easy one to deal with. Long days, weird schedules, not enough sleep or pay, little time with loved ones and family so in turn substance use and vices are quite common. I suffered for s very long time with alcohol, destroying an engagement and almost killing me more times than necessary. My adult life I’ve struggled until, very recently, to maintain sobriety and keep it away from those I care about. It was off putting in relationships and when meeting new people. I didn’t like myself and kept lying that everything was going to be fine when it really wasn’t I was dead. I met death and they weren’t ready. I’m hoping now my positive recovery will be one for many to look up too. Those reading my story can only just think of the pain I put myself through and yet kept as clean and happy face on the other side. I did it to make my career still happen to make those around me happy when I wasn’t.

Contact Info:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/matt.vigil.372/