NYC
SandBlast Productions
SOUND MATTERS AT SANDBLAST We take a stroll up Broadway to visit the guys at SandBlast Productions, based right in the heart of midtown Manhattan. It’s a stunning post production facility, but with a truly creative twist. We speak at length with Loren Toolajian and the rest of his hard-working team to find out just how much work and ‘out of the box’ thinking is required to keep a place like this firing on all cylinders, if it’s to thrive in today’s ever-changing music business. Words Paul Watson “Mike [Ungar] and I always wanted to make a creative environment where creatives could... create!” smiles Loren Toolajian, co-founder at SandBlast Productions. “Ralph [Kelsey] was the same: let’s bring people together to collaborate in creative ways, and see how we can make that collaboration interesting, provocative, and hopefully meaningful. It’s always what we have tried to do.” Toolajian, along with his co-founders, Mike Ungar, and Ralph Kelsey, run the show at SandBlast; Ben Soifer (assistant engineer), Melanie Reed (operations director), and Sean Canada (chief tech officer and senior mixer), make up the super six, as it were. And they all have extremely key roles. At the time of writing, for example, SandBlast is in the midst of scoring a 26episode animation series coming out of China; producing and recording up and coming NJ-based songstress, Stephanie Schulte; and working on a nine-episode podcast series with a couple of renowned
48 Headliner
playwrights. An eclectic one stop shop, right? “[smiles] Well, one of the key things is that we listen – not only as audio guys, and as musicians - but we listen to you,” Toolajian enthuses. “Our business is about creative problem solving; we are there to interact at that level.” Interesting concept, and smart, certainly. At this point, Mike Ungar makes a point that resonates with me. “Sound matters, and not just to us, but as an emotional component to all the outsets of sound: the music, the overwhelming effects when you watch a movie like Star Wars,” he says. “Imagine watching any movie without sound: be it things blowing up, heartfelt moments, or a car chase scene; there’d be more than a little missing without the audio! “And molecularly, too: the vibration of sound touches people on a physical, emotional, and spiritual level. It’s a very, very creative business that we have made for ourselves, and I think the point is that it has to be that to be successful, and for us to
continue to be profitable. We all have to be engaged with the creative process in a lot of different ways.” Each of the three partners are quite exceptional musicians, too: Toolajian is an accomplished pianist; Ungar plays trumpet, and the planetary gongs (worth a Google!); and Kelsey is an established percussionist. All bases covered there, then!
Experience Prevails
The fact that not only each partner in the business - but each person involved - brings something unique to the musical table, has set SandBlast in good stead over the years. “Because of Loren’s experience in the theatre and radio, my experience in producing music, and Ralph having started his career off at Regent Sound - he was one of the first guys to get into audio post as a specific place for television - the depth and breadth of our experience really adds to all of the projects that we work on, as well as bringing a unique perspective to them,” Ungar explains.
