PROFILE
Josh Rob Gwilliam
By Andrew King
I
t’s fair to say that the art of recording saved Josh Gwilliam’s life.
In his early 20s, Gwilliam found himself at a significant and
serious crossroads – one where his decision could carry literally
the gravest of consequences. Having moved to Calgary from
his native Regina at 18, he bounced between lousy jobs before
finding something permanent and well-paying – albeit totally outside
of his interests. His mental health spiraled downward and, ultimately,
he gave himself a choice.
“It was like, ‘I don’t want to live anymore.’ I was just kind of done
with it,” he very candidly tells Professional Sound. “The choice was: Do
I end my life, or jump into something with both feet that scares the
absolute shit out of me?”
Fortunately for many, he opted for the latter, which took the form of a
career behind the console. “So I just went for it,” he tacks on. “Completely.”
Gwilliam grew up as a “shy little punk kid,” discovering skateboard-
ing and its burgeoning culture at eight years old. “That kind of jump-
started everything for me,” he says, pointing to his affinity for punk rock
and the DIY attitude that permeated so many aspects of the lifestyle.
By his mid-teens, he’d joined a few bands and started logging some
studio time. He loved the environment and developed an intense
interest; however, he always felt overwhelmed and daunted by all of
the gear and jargon. That made jumping in with both feet after his
life-saving decision all the more significant.
With his new lease on life, he approached a Calgary-based studio
owner and offered to work for free to learn the ropes, spending days
at the studio and nights in a lacquering plant to keep the lights on.
“As soon as I started getting into it, everything came super easy to
me – it all just kind of made sense,” he recalls, which was particularly
encouraging. He also had the benefit of working on everything from
music to advertising to sound for picture, which expanded his skill set
while solidifying that he wanted to specialize in music.
Next, he joined the staff at Calgary’s MCC Studios, where he had
the chance to work on JUNO-winning projects by the likes of George
Canyon and The Road Hammers. Wanting to keep pushing the enve-
lope, he left MCC on good terms in 2008 and joined David Kean at The
Audities Foundation. Working with tape and other vintage technolo-
gies – including a Helios console Kean was rebuilding – he learned a
lot about sonic texture and how to shape sounds in the studio.
“That was so valuable and rewarding, but then I really wanted to
explore more on working with artists in a particular space, and how
a room will shape the vibe and how they work.”
Obviously, he was serious about that mission, because in 2012,
he purchased a decommissioned CBC mobile recording truck and
launched Pilot Audio. Over the next three years, he took the studio to
over 200 different locations – from churches to warehouses and more.
“Now, I can walk into pretty much any room and just start talking,
and I know how it’s going to translate on recordings,” he says of his
experience. That said, he grew a bit tired of lugging temperamental
gear from place to place – especially in the middle of winter.
Serendipitously, he was leading a drum-tracking session at OCL
Studios just outside of Calgary around that time, and after making a
deal with owner Dan Owen, he “basically just never left.”
Since 2015, he’s been the full-time tracking engineer at OCL,
working closely with mixer Spencer Cheyne and the rest of the staff
to bring a myriad of projects together with everyone from emerging
artists to award-winning superstars.
Lately, he’s been collaborating with artist Michael Bernard Fitzger-
ald on an upcoming album – a “simple record but with very strong
intent,” as he says, going back to the early days of recording with the
focus being an accurate capture of a great performance. OCL also
had Canadian/Japanese pop band Monkey Majik in for a few weeks,
and he’s now amidst pre-production with modern folk singer Lauren
Mann for an upcoming release they’ll track on B.C.’s Pender Island.
Looking back on his list of credits, he mentions a few others as
being particularly memorable, like tracking Ghosts of Modern Man’s
City of No Light to tape in the mid-aughts, taking a thorough approach
to The Rocky Fortune’s Back of the Beeside, and doing Black Mastiff’s
Pyramids live-off-the-floor in just four days with the Pilot Audio truck.
While he admits it can be difficult to “shut off” his brain outside of
the studio, spending time with his daughter and hitting the road on
a motorbike – either his vintage Harley or modern Supermoto – are
his ideal winding-down activities. He’s planning an extensive ride
throughout the U.S. in the coming months and, while it counts as
studio work, is also looking forward to mixing the Michael Bernard
Fitzgerald album in the U.K. next year.
Reflecting on his favourite part of the business that saved his life,
Gwilliam offers: “It’s between the relationships you build with the peo-
ple you work with, and how you can basically shape the soundtracks
to other people’s lives. It’s really powerful thinking of how something
can help somebody through a breakup or discover their first love or
push them to change something in their lives.”
Of course, that’s what music and recording did for him to the
fullests possible extent, so it seems only right that he returns the
favour for others.
Andrew King is the Editor-in-Chief of Professional Sound.
PROFESSIONAL SOUND 19