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Ryan Brisbine
It's humbling to know that I am being mentored by Hollis Greathouse, a widely successful engineer who has worked with some of the most successful musicians in the world. The first time I meet him was during the interview process to determine if he would accept me as his apprentice. I could tell right away he was the perfect mentor for me. Hollis has a patient and calming demeanor that is inviting, but demands respect. He's the type of person that you're more afraid to let down rather than upset. People like him will help you unlock your true potential.
I meet with him one on one for the first time Friday to review chapter 1, Sound and Hearing. The chapter was very interesting and extremely informative about the subject matter, but I'm the type of person that needs substance so I was looking for examples. The first thing he asked me was if I had any questions. That was important to me. He didn't go directly into anything because it may have caused me to have more questions, or confused me about the ones I already had. As I stated before, Hollis has a patient personality. He told me to ask ANY question no matter how simple it may seem and ask it more than once if I don't understand the answer. That helped ease my mind and reassured me that I would never be left with questions without answers. In fact, there was a question that took multiple examples for me to truly grasp it. Hollis would not move on to the next question until he found an example that clarified things for me. For every question I had, he not only showed me multiple examples, but explained it in a way that made what I read and the examples support one another in a way that made it easy to understand. After he answered all my questions we went onto the review, which went fairly quick since we covered most of it with my questions.
Leaving the studio, I felt very confident and excited about what I learned and the one on one with Hollis. We scheduled some studio time with a client for the following day.
I got to the studio on Saturday around 12:30. Hollis let me in and we sat in the lobby waiting for the clients. We talked about some of his experiences and some of the people he has worked with. The more we talked, the more I felt like a little kid. My whole life I've wanted to work in the music industry. Hearing some of his story's had me grinning from ear to ear. The more we talk, the more I realize that I'm finally following my dreams and making them reality.
The clients arrived at 1:00 and that's when reality started to set in. I have been in a studio before. A friend of mine was in an up and coming band and wanted a female to do some vocal tracts for his first two singles. Another friend sang for a local cover band and had one of the best voices in the area. I talked to her about it and she agreed to do the backup vocals. We were in the studio for about 4 hours, but even though I was friends with everyone involved, besides setting up the meeting, I had nothing to do with it. This was different. I have a purpose this time. I am here to learn and in the process get to meet people who have made music their life.
The session was to record some drum tracts for a Gospel CD that is to be released during a musical in December. Believe me when I say this, this CD and its release is a big deal. I'm not going to mention any last names of any of the clients or musicians. The person who wrote the music, lyrics, and was the main producer was a young woman named Jordan. She is an incredible person with a vision that blew my mind. I'll get into that in a bit. Her producing partner is Anthony, aka "Tone". Tone has one of those personalities that just draws people to him and he takes a genuine interest in what other people are saying. He also plays several instruments and teaches music. Both he and Jordan are very involved with local churches and mentoring children. But the most amazing person I meet was the drummer, R.J. Jordan meet him at a church a year ago and after hearing him play immediately wanted him to play the drums on her next CD. The interesting fact is that R.J. is a huge follower of Jordan and all her music. It seems it was meant to be that they work together. There is one thing I left out that is very important. R.J is a 12-year-old young man that stood about 4'6" and weighed probably around 50 pounds.
R.J and his parents, Ron and Marie, were an absolute pleasure to meet, talk to, and be around. Incredibly humble and positive people, their son was a little gentleman who was just as humble as they were. Soon after we all went into the studio as little R.J. adjusted the drum set to his liking. Marie told me this was R. J’s first time in a studio and that he was so excited. You couldn't tell though. He was so poised and calm, almost like he'd done this a dozen times. After he set up and sat at the drums we all went into the control room. Hollis told R.J. what the first track was and that it was ready to play. The music came on and what happened next not only blew my mind, but Hollis’s as well.
Little R.J. started playing and it was like all the greatest drummers in the world came together as one. I watched him for about 30 seconds with a dead stare in amazement. I looked at Hollis and he had a smile on his face and was shaking his head. Tone and Jordan just nodded and said "see why he's hear?" I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about the session from here. Not because I don't want to, but because I don't have the words to explain what I saw. It was so mesmerizing that you had to be there to understand. Hollis told me that what I was seeing is special. He said that in all his years in the industry he may have only seen this 3 times. His parents said that he started drumming in his churches choir band when he was 6. They showed me a video of it. And it turns out, he also plays the keytar, piano, and is trying to learn the guitar. And on top of that he’s an actor and public performer. He is one of the main characters in the CD release musical. Needless to say. I asked R.J. for his autograph and a picture with him. He was excited because no one has ever asked for his autograph before. I said get used to it. I will always remember the day I got to see this young man lay some tracts in a studio.
Jordan is a remarkable young woman with a musical vision that I was in awe of. Her music literally reaches out and pulls you in. It's not your typical Gospel music. It's modern but embraces the history of the religion. Beautiful harmonies and beats cause a feeling of waking up to a beautiful sunshine with a light breeze and the birds singing. Jordan was very uplifting and had some very encouraging things to say to me which I took to heart.
It was an absolute privilege and honor to have had the chance to be a part of the session. I got to meet some remarkable people with beautiful hearts and personalities. Little R.J. is a special child and soon the world will know who he is. I'm overwhelmed that I got to see how good he is a such a young age.
After everyone left Jordan, Hollis, and I talked for a while. We talked a bit about the session, the future, and stories about past clients. Jordan asked me to come back for her next session next week. I can't wait.
Hollis and I meet Tuesday for the review of Chapter 2.
