PROFILE
Kyle Gallagher
By Andrew King
M
any might regard playing
in a punk rock band as
the antithesis of a career
prospect, but that turned
out to be a pretty good
start to a pretty successful
stint in the pro audio industry for Kyle Gal-
lagher – better known to his colleagues and,
well, pretty much everyone as KG.
The native and still-proud PEI-er played
in a few punk bands and subsequently orga-
nized a lot of all-ages shows during his high-
school days. “It seemed like there wasn’t ever
a weekend where I wasn’t playing or pro-
moting a show,” he tells Professional Sound.
“As anyone from the all-ages scene knows,
money is pretty tight, so I had to learn how
to do it all, and audio was included in that.”
Fast-forward to 2009 when a friend in-
troduced Gallagher to a production labour
company after extra help for the summer
festival season. “As soon as I started working
the larger events, I knew this was the field
I wanted to work in,” he says emphatically.
“For the next year, I worked with them as a
labourer, played music with my friends, and
recorded bands at my house."
In 2010, he met John Bulman, then
the owner of PEI’s House-Front Production
Services. After working on a few gigs with
House-Front, he approached Bulman about
an audio tech position. “He hired me, and
I’m grateful to this day that he did,” says Gal-
lagher, who’s been with the company ever
since, now serving as operations manager
and FOH/monitor tech.
In 2015, he also started his own produc-
tion labour company, PFL Solutions, which
he admits was a goal he’d set during his first
festival season as a labourer. The company
has been busy with larger events in Atlantic
Canada the last few years – particularly in
the summer months.
In 2017, after 30 years at the helm, Bul-
man sold House-Front to Lee Forster, owner
of SSi Audio in nearby Moncton, NB. “With
the new ownership came the opportunity
to update processes and restructure, and
it’s been exciting helping to facilitate these
changes,” Gallagher says, though he admits
the change came with a few challenges.
“When a company has been around for 30
years, their ways are kind of set, so there
were some growing pains in the beginning,
as one would expect; however, this allowed
us to change up our staffing and restructure
how the business was operated. Challeng-
ing, but extremely rewarding.”
The current House-Front team is one
Gallagher is proud to be a part of. “We all get
along and enjoy what we do,” he says, “and
the personal and professional relationships
we have with other East Coast production
companies like Ground Sound [in Nova Sco-
tia] and SSi [in New Brunswick] are amazing
as well. We’re all buds and help each other
with various gigs throughout the year.”
Thinking back on specific highlights
from his decade in the business, more than
a few come to mind. Launching PFL and
helping to usher House-Front through its
ownership change are the first two he men-
tions. “I also worked on a Salt-N-Pepa tour
a couple of years ago, which was my first
crew bus experience,” he says, before joking,
“Actually, is that a highlight?”
He also cites the summer of 2018 as a
particularly memorable one. “I got to work
with some of my best friends in the produc-
tion world, doing a gig over multiple weeks
with great acts,” he says. “I was originally
hired as crew chief but quickly had to jump
in and take over the roles of production and
stage manager.” Ultimately, he says it was
a great learning experience, and tacks on:
“You could write a book about our experi-
ences on that gig. I’m just gonna leave it
at that…”
He also jumps in a moment later with
“Oh! And we got a few of my crew guys
posted on the @sleeping_stagehands Insta-
gram page last year – an absolute highlight!”
Gallagher resides just outside his na-
tive Charlottetown with his seven-year-old
daughter, Scarlet. “She’s the greatest thing
in my life,” he says. When he’s not enjoying
his time with her, he’s listening to music
and podcasts, playing video games and
Dungeons & Dragons, or taking in the news
and various documentaries. “I also play in a
punk band called Savage Reality,” he adds.
“So in general, I keep pretty busy.”
That’ll certainly be the case as House-
Front and PFL head into another summer
of events, and in his downtime, he’s hoping
to enjoy a few days on the beach.
Ultimately, it’s been quite a trip for Gal-
lagher to this point, from performances on
some of PEI’s smallest and most notorious
stages to now working behind some of the
biggest in Atlantic Canada. Not bad for a
die-hard punk rocker…
Andrew King is the Editor-in-Chief of Professional Sound.
PROFESSIONAL SOUND 19