PROFILE
Mark Scola
By Andrew King
M
ark Scola is an accomplished
veteran of the Canadian pro-
fessional audio community,
recognized and respected
across the country even
though some – even longtime collabora-
tors – know him only by his last name.
His background in audio and production
is remarkably diverse, as is the current bunch
o f hats he wears. In addition to his “day job”
as an audio engineer and systems designer
with Mississauga-based integration firm Dy-
max, Scola also tours with Burton Cummings
as his stage manager and recording engineer
and takes freelance work doing everything
from system design and commissioning to
DSP programming and automation to live
and studio engineering.
Scola was born and raised in Rexdale,
ON, and was put on the path to his future
career at an early age. His father was the co-
owner of a custom wire and cable assembly
company, and as Scola explains, “I devoured
[his] old DeVry school books, teaching myself
basic electronics, and summers were spent
working at his shop on the assembly floor.”
A serious car accident at 10 led to
him spending a full year at home, where
he had the chance to become “intimately
familiar” with an Apple IIe and the world of
computers.
The catalyst to it all came when his older
brother started playing in a band, and would
let a pre-teen Scola fiddle with their mixer.
That’s when he says he was “bitten by the
live sound bug.”
In high school, he assembled his first live
rig and a small portable multitrack recording
system. “There was quite the garage band
circuit around Rexdale in the early ‘90s that
kept me busy,” he says of the period when
he became known simply as “Scola.”
Comfortably sitting at the crossroads
of music and technology, he tried a stint at
Ryerson Theatre School in Toronto, though
laughs when he says the program dean
told him he was “a little too rock and roll for
theatre.” Instead, he sought to expand his
knowledge base and took a year to venture
into the world of security systems and CCTV.
“This gave me a whole new skill set,” he says
– “installations, troubleshooting, customer
service, and overseeing projects.”
Finally, in late 1998, he decided to at-
tend Toronto’s Harris Institute and had the
chance to study audio technology under
veterans like Bob Roper, Bo Cairo, and Doug
McClement. One of his first gigs post-Harris
was touring with Halifax’s Johnny Favourite
Swing Orchestra, which led to a chance
encounter with Cam Butler of BCB Pro Au-
dio in 2000. Scola had been “obsessed” with
Clair Brothers’ S4 system since seeing it in
action with U2 at Maple Leaf Gardens, and
BCB had one in its inventory. “Soon, I was in
his full-time employ,” Scola says. “Working
there taught me many facets of professional
audio that simply couldn’t be taught in a
classroom. It was truly the university of, ‘Out
of the frying pan and into the fire.’”
Scola went from being a system tech to
VP of touring and engineering in three years,
and in that time, had the chance to work
with a diverse range of artists including April
Wine, Kim Mitchell, David Wilcox, Blue Rodeo,
and Finger Eleven. From 2003 to 2006, he
was also the go-to FOH engineer for guitar
virtuoso and Triumph frontman Rik Emmett.
In 2006, BCB was sold to Metalworks
Production Group, so Scola stuck around for
a year to make the transition before deciding
to go freelance.
During his stint at BCB, he and colleague
Paul Caccamo met Burton Cummings’ tour
manager, Sam Boyd, and were invited to
join his crew. “He tapped my live recording
skills to come out on the road and capture
shows,” Scola begins. “One of the first projects
I recorded was ‘American Woman 2007,’ a live
recording from a rehearsal during produc-
tion of the Bachman-Cummings First Time
Around DVD.
The relationship with Cummings contin-
ues to this day, and Scola has also had the
opportunity to work with acts like Saga and
Buckcherry in the time since.
In 2010, he joined Richard Kuris’ team
at Dymax as a system designer, program-
mer, and AV tech. “I liked the idea of doing
something completely different and decided
to give it a go,” he says. “Thankfully, I’m able to
balance my freelance work and Dymax. It’s
pretty cool to keep one foot in each world.”
With a hand in so many areas of the
industry, Scola’s list of career highlights thus
far is remarkably diverse. He and a team
led by Dymax’s Peter Lima designed and
installed the expansive QSC Q-Sys paging
system at Calgary International Airport. He
also oversaw the DSP and amplification
design for the organ at Toronto’s famous St.
Michael’s Cathedral. With Cummings, there
was the trip to L.A. to cut the 2008 studio
album Above the Ground with engineer Joe
Vanelli, and recording the Massey Hall live
album in 2011.
But the biggest highlights of his life thus
far live at home with him in Mississauga: his
wife, Jordana, and their two children, four-
year-old Haley and six-month-old Enzo – the
latest addition to “the crew.” While he says
his main hobby is just spending time with
the family, he also enjoys collecting vintage
hi-fi tube gear and art deco and Bakelite
lamps. The best of both worlds is when his
daughter joins him for their shared Sunday
flea market hunts.
Scola says he’s looking forward to a
much-needed vacation in the near future
– somewhere “far out of cell phone range”
– though in the meantime, he’s just a call
away for virtually any pro audio project one
might have on the go.
Andrew King is the Editor-in-Chief of Professional Sound.
PROFESSIONAL SOUND 21