Music student amps up audio production experience with Rock & Roll Hall of Fame internship
CLEVELAND—Standing backstage at a sold-out rock concert for a nationally touring band is an ideal night for any music lover. Aiden Lambert got to do it for college credit. The Western Michigan University student just finished an epic summer as an audio production intern at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
“It was an amazing experience,” he says. “I learned so much more and was able to do so much more than I was expecting.”
Lambert, a multimedia arts technology major, was among a handful of applicants chosen from a pool of hundreds for the gig.
“Western’s program taught me the basics for running a live sound setup,” he says. “That gave me a really solid foundation going into the internship.”
Backstage pass
Lambert’s internship kicked off with a behind-the-scenes tour of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame museum—including the private vault where priceless rock artifacts are stored.
“I got to see the original lyric sheet for ‘Purple Haze’ by Jimi Hendrix, which he’d written in a hotel room and crumpled up and threw away, and the original lyric sheet for ‘Enter Sandman’ by Metallica,” he says.
“They also had guitars like one that Muddy Waters played. There’s something about everything being right in front of you and not on display that just was so cool.”
Outside of being awestruck by the sheer volume of music history, Lambert stayed busy learning the ins and outs of the industry. Internships at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame include weekly career development sessions and panels with Rock Hall staff as well as a heavy dose of hands-on, project-based learning. An aspiring music producer, Lambert was in his element.
“Music is my biggest hobby; I love listening to music,” he says. “I chose my major because I thought it would be very fulfilling for my job to help other people make or perform good music.”
Showtime
Lambert had plenty of opportunities to put his ambitions into practice. His cohort of interns took the lead in setting up Lunch by the Lake concerts featuring performers from the Artist in Residence Program live on the Rock Hall outdoor stage.
“The production interns basically worked the shows by ourselves,” he says. “I had a good enough foundation from Western that I was really able to contribute during the internship.”
Lambert also worked alongside professionals during the Rock Hall’s summer concert series. Show days consisted of rolling equipment onto the stage and setting up power, monitors, microphones and drum kits if needed as well as audio consoles.
“Once the band arrived, we would do sound check to set the levels and monitors at the front of the house to create a mix that sounds good before the show starts,” he says.
During the shows, Lambert and fellow interns would shadow professional crew members to learn their work process.
“Toward the end of the summer, I got to mix a couple of shows, which was really awesome,” he says. “I had gained enough experience from lectures and shadowing that I felt confident in what I was doing.”
One of the biggest shows he worked was a sold-out concert featuring indie rock bands Spoon and The Beths.
“The bands that are on tour have their own crew and their own engineer, so those days we mostly helped load in and load out and then were able to shadow and ask questions,” he says. “It was really awesome because I knew the bands and had listened to them before, and all of a sudden I’m backstage and Spoon is right there.”
Going into the internship, Lambert leaned toward a future in studio production. Now, he has some other ideas.
“Working live events changed my perspective, and I could definitely see myself considering a career in live sound,” he says. “When I’m working at the front of house creating a mix or setting up for a show and then I can watch the crowd and see them dancing and having fun because of my work, getting that immediate feedback is really satisfying. I’m just so glad I got this experience.”
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