April 28th, 2020
A Day in the Life - FOH Engineer
I first met Greg Smart in the shadows of the long loved Edinburgh music venue - The Mash House. The 200 capacity sweat box was the upstairs room of a techno club when I studied in the city. The hard warn surfaces have some history and the old church that houses the venue has hosted both angels and demons for many over the years. As house production manager Greg was in charge as our band passed through town and would eventually join us on the road for a European tour as FOH engineer. The best technicians often start out in clubs and go onto much bigger things. Greg and I recently caught up again in Berlin as our tours crossed paths, here he explains what it is to be a FOH engineer on the road.
TM - Could you describe a day in the life of Greg Smart on tour?
GS - Interesting first question! This really depends on how far we’re in on the campaign, as mental/physical energy levels diminish over distance and time. So let’s start fresh. As lobby-call closes in, I’ll usually do my best to get some exercise and a decent breakfast before setting out for a long day in the van. On buses, the day begins with Google Maps looking for the nearest coffee shop or shopping centre (if you know, you know.)
Back to the van, and after a couple of hours I’ll have done my homework on today’s venue and written my console show file, if not carrying a desk. If not vegging out in the wagon, we’ll have done a good bit of city sightseeing since otherwise the bus will have been parked up at the venue from early morning. Big perk of the job!
We load-in, shake hands, have the usual chats with in-house/local crew, tell artist where the toilets are and what the WiFi code is. Set up, sound check whilst engaging peripheral vision to navigate for the best local scran for our dinner. When there’s in-house catering provided, this is definitely my favourite time of day. All sat together, eating fresh local food, and generally having a laugh. Feels like family! Avoiding a third dessert, I’ve got about enough time to check in at home whilst on the search of towels, bottles of water and setlists. After traipsing about the venue for all these things, I do a full line- check on stage to and make sure we’re prepared for a silky-smooth show!
Of course, the best part of everyone’s day are those anticipatory minutes before your show goes up. Intro track up, lights down and panning the audience, hair standing on end. If it isn’t just the best feeling, something’s very wrong.
Show finished, packed down and loaded up, whether it’s been a good, bad, or “meh” experience, we’ll have all certainly felt a sense of teamwork and achievement. If we’ve managed to avoid the “PD-busting” pitfalls during our pre- soundcheck wander (“$10 for a lemonade?!”), then it’s time to unwind with a beer!
TM - What made you want to become a sound engineer?
GS - Some might say “Sound guys engineers are failed musicians”. Well, I’d always played music and worked in many bands since I was 15, studied got a degree in it, but knew I wouldn’t cut it as a top-end session beast. Didn’t want to force passion into profession. Paralleling my interests, I kept myself in music to learn more behind the scenes which I became obsessed about after attending a Pink Floyd tribute gig at my local town hall, aged 16. Having spent many nights in that hall, I was amazed to see it transform from a dated, boring, horrible sounding room to, well, Pink Floyd. I was so intrigued to learn about all the speakers, lights, buttons and faders.
TM - How did you become a sound engineer? What was your big break?
GS - Funnily enough, later that night on my 16th birthday at the Pink Floyd tribute, I took a gulp from my bottle of “juice” and approached the engineer who was packing up on stage. I did the nervous and naïve, “So um, like, how do you get into this kind of work; do you need a degree or something?” The rest is history. Roy took me under his wing. I spent every moment I could with him going out on jobs aside of my studies/pot-washing gig. He did a lot of the big rock ‘n’ roll tours in the ‘90s/’00s so was a massive inspiration and driving force to get to where I want to be. Leading on, the best thing I could have done to pursue my dream job was to move away from my hometown, so I went to university in Edinburgh and cut my teeth in the local club scene. Again, I picked up my first regular venue gig thanks to a Mr. Alex Fenton at the Edinburgh College of Art.
TM - What skills and/or qualifications are required for your job?
GS - You need a First- Class Honours in Venue Washroom Navigation and WiFi Access Code- Breaking. No I’m not joking! I feel any suitable candidate requires the kind of skills which cannot be taught, or even defined. Of course, you need great people skills to get on with any team. You’re on the road with them for weeks-on-end, so it’s essential to be personable and open-minded. It’s also important to be able to work and troubleshoot under pressure. This skill only comes with experience though. I used to flap like a bird back in the day! Higher education is useful yet optional – many of my esteemed colleagues did just fine graduating from the University of Life.
TM - What is the most difficult aspect?
GS - Being away from home takes its toll. I gave a rather gleaming fascinating insight to my day-to-day earlier, but when things at home aren’t great, they’re even worse-felt thousands of miles away and in an inconvenient timezone. The amount of birthdays, weddings, and otherwise important events of people’s lives we miss is something that duty-free chocolate simply can’t fix.
TM - What is the most enjoyable aspect?
GS - There’s nothing greater than feeling a room erupt with energy and excitement. It’s a sensory experience you can’t emulate anywhere else other than a live event. Seeing everyone’s hard work go into a finished product the performance is so rewarding when the punters are crowd are going crazy for it. Visiting places new (and old) is also massively enjoyable as I’ve always wanted a job which allows me to explore the world.
TM - Do you have a favourite moment or story from the road?
GS - A few years ago I travelled with an artist to Des Moines, Iowa (Slipknot country) to play a 20-minute live-broadcast performance at a golf tournament. The day before show I took the band in search of guitar strings. Deep in the middle of nowhere, we walked along the highway for an hour in 40-degree heat. Now, what we had seen so far in Iowa was very stereotypically American. Guns. Confederate flags. Billboards for crooked defence lawyers. We were already full up. It was nice rocking up to a familiar sight – a big old music shop. After drooling over vintage guitars and amps for a while, we get speaking to the owner. For forty-five minutes. We were the only customers he’d had in all week and was intrigued to what brought three young Scottish guys to Des Moines. He looked like a hippie Rasputin in his 60s. After picking up some strings, he wouldn’t let us leave without a “free ‘vial’ with every purchase”. We thought he was pointing to the bottles of guitar neck treatment oil on his counter. Nah. It was little homemade jars of pure THC oil beneath his counter. After politely rejecting the illegal oil, the bass player thought it would be a wise distraction by asking him what else he had beneath his counter... Next minute we’re in the hairy prog-rock wizard’s back-of-house bunker where he manufactures his “herbal medicines”, waving a loaded f*#%ing Glock about and casually viewing all his other FULLY-AUTOMATIC RIFLES. Suffice to say the rest of the work trip maintained its very stereotypically American feel. For weeks I couldn’t get the image out of my head of a stoned hippie in his backyard letting rip with his MP5 sub-machine gun.
TM - Who are your notable/best clients?
GS - Last year I spent most of my time with Glasgow band SAINT PHNX. They’re absolutely nuts but they’d say the same about me tbh. Lovely guys and never a dull moment in their company. We had the pleasure of jumping aboard the YUNGBLUD and Lewis Capaldi tour support runs in North America and Europe. I worked with Arcane Roots for two years previous to that. Big love to them! They were good to me.
TM - What has been your worst moment on tour?
GS - Ahah! I’ll try keep this short. On the morning of a big Paris sell-out we unfortunately had to take a poorly band member to hospital. After a long day’s wait to get processed and tended to, we were obviously prepared to cancel the show. Health comes first. But instead, the sick musician insists they’re fit enough to perform and defies us all with a “the show must go on” attitude. After bracing the Parisian rush-hour gauntlet, we park up, let go of our Jesus Handles and get ready to shove shove sh*t. It’s fifteen minutes to Doors and the audience are queuing outside as we inch our equipment past them on the busy street. It’s a good thing I was prepared and brought a show file for the in-house mixing desk. Nope. Instead, the venue’s installed a prototype model of a brand-new console I’ve never seen before. And of course, they didn’t advance it – super! Anyway, we get on with it, the show goes on, audience very patient and understanding. Everyone pleased we pulled it off, and glad we did so – the end of a very stressful evening. But wait, there’s more! Later that night, we’re on our way to make the ferry crossing back to the UK. BANG! The LWB van drops on my side and we pull over to a juddering halt on the motorway. We came within one bolt of losing a wheel, and probably our lives. This resulted in standing in a freezing field overnight waiting for recovery, all at the mercy of French traffic cops. Everyone was amazing with us. What a way to celebrate the end of a tour leg!
TM - Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
GS - Well, if you’d asked me where I saw myself in five years time, five years ago, I wouldn’t have expected to answer with “Applying for Tesco Delivery Driver, or Universal Credit”. These are testing and uncertain times, yet us we event industry professionals are all in the same boat together. We’ve all got some amazing experiences to reflect on, and help us maintain hope with, so long may that these adventures will continue someday.