When Jared Anderson ’12 isn’t in the recording studio as an engineer at OmniSound Studios, he’s busy playing guitar and writing with other Nashville musicians.
Jared Anderson ’12
Making a Career on Nashville’s Music Row After graduating from Durham Academy, I attended
Berklee College of Music for three-and-a-half years with a double major in Music Production & Engineering and Songwriting. I graduated a semester early, in December 2015, and moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to take a staff engineering job at OmniSound Studios. Omni has a long history in Nashville and has recorded artists such as Luke Bryan, Jewel, Randy Houser and Miranda Lambert, to name a few. Often I get asked what I actually do as an “engineer,” so for anyone wondering, I’ll outline it briefly. When a band or artist comes into the studio there are two main leadership roles: producer and engineer. The producer’s job is to work with the musicians to arrange the song and decide what parts each person will play or sing so that the song can reach its greatest potential. The engineer’s job revolves more around making whatever music happens sound better to our ears. I choose the microphones I want to use, place them in front of the instruments, and then use EQ, compression and other tools to make everything glue together. Very simplified, the producer is the
musical leader and the engineer is the technical leader. Besides working in the studio, I’ve been playing guitar and writing with other Nashville musicians. The songwriting community is very strong and close knit in Nashville, so the sooner you can become a part of it, the better career you’ll have in the long run. Also, this summer I’ll be playing shows with fellow DA alum Erin McLendon throughout Tennessee and Kentucky. It was a nice bonus to have some connections from DA in Nashville when moving here, especially in the music scene. Attending DA for high school prepared me more for college and the real world than I could have ever imagined. Arriving at Berklee, I came in a step ahead of most of my peers, which led the way to many opportunities such as advanced level classes, freedom with electives and perks like the MP&E London Recording trip. I traveled with 10 other students and three teachers to London for a week to tour classic studios as well as record at Real World (Peter Gabriel) and Abbey Road (The Beatles, Pink Floyd, U2, Foo Fighters, etc). I’d like to give a big thank you to all my teachers from DA, especially Michael Meyer and Trevor Hoyt, for always pushing me to be the best student and person I could be. I would not be doing the things I’m able to do today without all of you! If you want to stay up-to-date on past and future music I’ve worked on, follow Evergreen Productions on Facebook and Soundcloud.
DUR HAM ACADEMY
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