We were lucky to catch up with Cedrick Courtois recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Cedrick, 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?
First and foremost, the environment that my family provided has set it in motion. My parents set a great example for me and my siblings in terms of working hard to achieve your goals. Nothing comes easy. Then it was the aforementioned goals. When I was 15 years old, growing up in France, it was my dream to one day, live in Los Angeles and ‘be a rockstar’ 🙂 Rockstar I didn’t become but ultimately living in LA for a few years and work as an Audio Engineer has not only fulfilled this dream but has shaped the course of my career from the first day I landed in the US in 1996. Finally, I am a perfectionist and I refuse to put my name on anything I work on until I have made I know I have done my best and I can be proud of what was accomplished, weather it’s a solo or a team project.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
Well, I was born and raised in France until I decided to pursue a dream of working in the music industry and made a move to the US in ’96. I landed in Houston, Tx where I made my way from studio to studio by way of interning and eventually moved up the ladder and worked at a Studio called Sunrise Sound where I was mentored by my friend Skip Burrows. At the time I was also playing guitar in different bands. I eventually moved to LA to further my career which led to some amazing opportunities and experiences. I now reside in San Diego where I am a freelance engineer. I have also become an Audio Instructor. I teach at a private, post-secondary school called The Recording Arts Center, as well as at Mira Costa Community College. My focus is now online mixing which allows me to work with any artist around the globe.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The number one thing that I feel helped in my journey is my resilience and determination to be the best at what I do. I’m still learning though. I’ll forever be a student. This determination is what pushes me every day to be better. In terms of skills, my troubleshooting and problem-solving abilities have helped tremendously since problem-solving is an everyday occurrence in a studio. The best advice I have for anyone starting in the recording business is to spend as much time in the studio as possible, learning from others, as well as yourself. The more time you spend in a studio, the more situations you’ll be exposed to and learn from. Even if it’s just learning how to talk to your clients and put them at ease before recording. The more comfortable an artist is, the better the performance you will capture. So learning how to create a fun and comfortable environment is paramount.
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?
If I find myself overwhelmed with too many things to do, whether it is work-related, or otherwise, I have to write things down on a big whiteboard so I can look at everything. Then I prioritize. Most of the time the priority comes from deadlines. If no deadlines, I prioritize what is difficult first and go from there. On a smaller (time) scale, if I feel overwhelmed during a mix session, the best thing for me is to take a step back, leave, get some fresh air, and come back with fresh ears. But overall, taking a step back and assess what I’m confronted with, put, then tackle things in order is what works best for me.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.cedrickcourtois.com
- Instagram: @cedcourtois
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cedrickcourtois/
