Brad Schiller on
HOW TO BUILD A LONG &
SUCCESSFUL CAREER IN LIVE SOUND
Plus , an exclusive excerpt from Livng the Audio Life : A Guide to a Career in Live Entertainment Sound
By Michael Raine
No matter what industry we ’ re talking about , most people ’ s career aspirations centre around two things : fulfillment and sustainability . In an ideal world , we ’ d all have a career that is personally fulfilling ( you enjoy it and don ’ t dread going to work ) and professionally sustainable ( you ’ re not worried about becoming unemployed ). The entertainment industry is no different , of course . But live entertainment sound is certainly unique in countless other aspects . Like few other industries , it really requires equal parts creativity , business acumen , people skills , and technical knowhow . And so , that is why we jumped at the opportunity to speak with Brad Schiller and share an excerpt from his recently-published book , Living the Audio Life : A Guide to a Career in Live Entertainment Sound .
Currently , in addition to being an author , Schiller works at Harman International where he is the business development manager for the Martin lighting brand . He has more than three decades of experience in the entertainment technology industry , having begun in the ‘ 80s as a technician and programmer . Since then , he has worked on countless shows and for manufacturers like High End Systems and Vari-Lite before joining Martin Professional .
PS : Since your career has been mostly in the entertainment lighting world , how did Living the Audio Life come together ?
Brad Schiller : As I was working on the other book , Living the Lighting Life , it dawned on me that a large percentage of the information can actually be applied to audio careers as well , because in lighting and sound , we do a lot of the same types of things . Everybody needs to know how to behave at a gig , everybody needs to know how to set up a company , how to pay taxes — all those
BRAD SCHILLER
things that aren ’ t really taught anywhere . I am also involved with audio now through my current job at Martin with Harman as I get involved with all the Harman audio brands , so sound is often on my mind . I thought this would be great information to share with the audio world and I also interviewed some audio people to add their expertise and career paths into the book .
30 PROFESSIONAL SOUND