NCEC in the News!
Jamie King: A Self-Made Music Man
Researched and written by Tai Caldwell
When Jamie King bought his first ADAT four-track audio recorder, he was in high school. He did it out of necessity, not because of a particular interest in audio engineering. He and his band wanted to record their songs, but they could not afford the tens of thousands of dollars professional studios charged to produce albums. He learned the ADAT system through trial and error, feeling his way towards the heavy metal sound the band sought. Even later when he was afforded the opportunity to record in a multi-million dollar studio, the in-house audio engineers could not grasp hold of the tone and texture King and his band-mates wanted. An innate musical ability combined with an attuned ear gave him the basic equipment he needed to create that special sound, and so he moved forward and began producing his own music.
King produced his first full-length album in 1999 for his band, Swift. The record, “Thoughts are Thought,” was well received locally due in major part to King’s skill as an engineer. Most “indie” recordings of the time tended to have poor sound quality, but this one sounded nearly professional. Because of “Thoughts are Thought,” Swift had several years of popularity in the region, and King’s name became notable as a local music producer. At the time, he was working in Winston-Salem at Music Loft, a musical instrument store catering to rock bands. People would hear the album and ask him to produce theirs, and he steadily developed a second job engineering for local musicians. His reputation spread through word-of-mouth, and he never sat down to create advertising or any sort of business plan for himself. King’s business grew of its own volition, and soon he had a list of bands waiting to be recorded. It was about this time that the owner of Music Loft decided to close the store, and King was forced to make a choice: he could seek employment elsewhere or set out on his own as an engineer. With his wait list guaranteeing income for at least the time being, King set up The Basement Recording.
He’s not joking about the basement part. Until recently, King’s studio was located in the basement of his parents’ Rural Hall home. This enabled him to keep his overhead low, meaning he could produce for much less than professional studios. Not that the music he engineers does not have the quality; in fact, with advancements in audio recording and editing technology, King can produce an off-the-shelf sound for a fraction of the cost. When people hear his work and find out that they can get that quality for a tenth of the price of the big places, it’s “kind of a no-brainer,” he says. As his skill has improved his rates have increased somewhat, and he now makes a comfortable living. The Basement Recording has since moved to another basement—this one at King’s house in Winston-Salem.
Aside from his low rates, one thing that makes King appealing to local musicians is his feel for metal music and his creative use of audio engineering hard- and software. He never had a mentor to instruct him, and was often forced to improvise with what little knowledge and equipment he had. Over time, he’s developed his own unique style of production. “At this point, I’ve learned all the industry standard procedures, but there’s still a lot of things I do my way,” he comments. “That’s part of the reason why people come here.” King did consider enrolling in a college audio engineering department, but the type of music that appealed to him was not being taught at places like Appalachian State University or the trade school, Full Sail. He settled for figuring out which programs were used in the industry and tinkering with them until he achieved the desired sound. As a result of this discovery process, he is often more efficient than the studios and is always able to give hard-rocking bands the texture they seek.
Although he has recorded around 370 bands in the past nine years, King still works on the audio engineering alone. He once trained a friend to be his assistant, but his apprentice became so talented that he left The Basement to form his own recording studio. This is the catch-22 of audio engineering; it is difficult and time-consuming to learn on one’s own, but few will mentor for fear of teaching their tricks to the competition. King is now reluctant to train anyone new, as are most experienced music producers, because it often amounts to handing one’s battle plan to the enemy. That said, he will work with other engineers on aspects of a recording. For instance, someone may record the initial tracks for a song and send them to Jamie for post-production to polish the sound.
King is happy where he is, feeling that he has reached his goal to become a successful local music producer. At this point, he cannot move further without relinquishing control of his time and becoming the employee of a record label. He has received producer-manager offers from places like Century Media Records but has turned them down. The money would be better in a professional studio, and he would have the opportunity to work with bigger names; but the downsides outweigh the benefits in his mind. Operating as his own boss, King currently has the flexibility to take time off and set his own schedule, reducing his stress and enabling him to remain creative. The recording industry standard operating procedure is to record seven days a week until an album is finished, a grueling process that can last for weeks. King has engineered some albums under these conditions but admits, “I hate it.” In addition to this grievance, he disagrees with industry pricing. Most studios will charge a flat fee--often $50,000--for production of an album, whether it takes two days or two weeks. King charges by the hour, which seriously undercuts the competition; he will engineer an entire record for only $5,000 to $10,000.
King speculates he can continue as he is now for another five to ten years before making a change, though he does have some concern regarding financial security. With no health insurance or retirement plans, King says he is considering “getting into something like real estate” to protect himself from any unforeseen problems such as the current trend of self-recording. “The stuff that’s making my job easier is also making it easier for people to record themselves,” he says. “People will settle for a less-than-perfect product that they did by themselves just because they did it themselves.” Despite that, King still receives a steady stream of work and says there is room for more independent audio engineers in the area. It is an art, not a science, and as such, different people excel at different parts of the process.
King’ most important piece of advice for those interested in production is first simply to establish whether or not they have the inherent gift for music. “You’re born with it or you’re not,” he states frankly. He tells of many who have spent tens of thousands of dollars on equipment, only to discover they cannot determine pitch. He advises persons wanting to learn the ropes to first buy a basic ProTools setup and a few audio engineering texts like Modern Recording Techniques (Huber and Runstein, 2001). This way, one can get an idea of whether or not he or she is suited to music producing before investing money in equipment and/or time in school. Schools in the area such as GTCC offer audio engineering programs but in his opinion fail to weed out those students who lack the natural talent needed to produce, meaning that while the regional market may be somewhat saturated, it is saturated by sub par engineers. There are, according to King, only a few good producers around, “so if you’re good, there’s room for you.” For those who are skilled at one aspect of the process but cannot grasp it in its entirety, he recommends working with others. For instance, an engineer who has natural rhythm but cannot hear pitch should work on drum and bass tracking and find someone to help with vocal recordings.
For young adults interested in audio engineering, King offers a program where they can sit in on the process of recording a rock album. This gives them hands-on experience with the technology and tools, providing them a sense of the work. He suggests UNCG set up a similar program with producers in the area to give students an opportunity to see a record in production. Also beneficial would be a studio class, one in which students bring in local bands and record a full album—from setting up the microphones to the final polish. “With nurses . . . they’re familiarized with the lingo and the concepts [in the classroom], and they go to the hospital and that’s when they learn, when they do the hands-on stuff.” King argues audio engineering should be taught in much the same method. He also believes schools should take it upon themselves to have a stake in their students’ success and therefore need to create rigorous standards the students must meet in order to continue in the program. “I guess that’s not very politically correct,” he admits, but if a student does not have the intrinsic capability to be an audio engineer, he believes it is dishonest to let them continue in the program. Either a person has the ability to be a producer or they do not. “I can’t run a quarter of a mile without getting winded,” he comments. “Why would I want to try to run a marathon?”
In addition to Swift, Jamie King also produced for Beloved until they disbanded three years ago. He has worked with nationally renowned Between the Buried and Me since their self-titled release in 2002. He produced their most recent album, “Colors,” which sold over twelve thousand units in its first week. For more information on King and The Basement Recording, visit his web site.
This case study was conducted in November 2007 by Tyler "Tai" Caldwell, a Media Writing major in the Media Studies Department. Her work was part of an undergraduate research assistantship funded by the Office of Undergraduate Research, under the directorship of Dr. Mary Crowe.
These case studies were compiled and archived as part of the former BELL (Building Entrepreneuruial Learning for Life) Program's Entrepreneurial Innovation in the Arts (EIA) initiative to provide a library of examples of how artists in many different fields have achieved success. The cases were researched and written by UNCG students.