We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jay Alton. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jay below.

Jay, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I selfishly want to learn as much as possible so that I can be the best at what I do, and when working in a field that is both creative and technical, knowledge is at the heart of expertise. Some of the ways I have learned are from books, articles & videos, school, apprenticeship, and hands on experience. The quickest and best way to learn is with apprenticeship. Nothing beats sitting behind someone who is an expert at what they do and being able to watch, listen, and learn. It is by far the quickest way to get really good at something. For me, that meant doing internships at studios and sitting behind great engineers, taking notes and paying attention to every detail. School is great because you are surrounded by other energetic people who also want to learn, and for me it was a great way to network with friends, teachers and future clients, as well as to take a deep dive into all things music and really hone in my critical listening skills. I think books are amazing because they are a similar way to get a long format version of “sitting behind someone” by reading stories from other greats, learning from their success and failures. Books tend to be full of more substance than articles and short youtube videos, because they are long format, full story and more research behind them. Finally, it is important to get hands on experience, with trial and error, and accumulate “reps”. This helps to find your own style and push the boundaries as the future unfolds. The main learning obstacle I run into now is that the people I would love to sit behind and learn from are also competitors, so it becomes more difficult to be a fly on the wall the further along you get in your creative field. So you have to find other ways to experience that, whether that’s watching videos, sharing information on online forums, or trying to develop strong local communities within your creative field where you can freely share ideas without worrying too much about being competitors in the business. These types of communities raise the bar for everyone and can be multi-beneficial. Beyond that, the battle is keeping up with the fast pace of technology, so it is a constant battle to learn new equipment and software.

Jay, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I often tell people that I’m a professional listener. I spend every day listening to all things sound, music, dialogue, and work through the technical side to make sure those sounds are captured at the best quality, and ultimately translate back properly to the listener through the end medium of music or film. Some of this is purely artistic, and the other part is highly technical. My first love was music, growing up playing various instruments, writing songs, and recording my own music. I first came up working in the music industry, recording and producing albums for bands, and songwriters. I was also interested in doing sound for film, having had an interest video cameras throughout my life, and wanting to diversify my skillset, i explored this as well. Throughout my career, i’ve enjoyed the diverse types of jobs that I’ve been able to take on working on both music and film projects. My career path started when i was 16 and got a job at a Music Go Round store. Here I was able to meet a lot of people in the local music scene and make connections to bands and studios, as well as to build up a decent collection of gear. From here I met Jon Fintel, of Relay Recording, and he wound up recording my high school rock band. After we finished our record, I just started hanging out at his studio, being a go-fer and helping out however i could. I continued to do this “unofficial” internship while I went to school at Capital University to study Music Technology. Later on, i also interned with Joe Viers of Sonic Lounge and was able to learn from him as well. By the time I graduated college, i already had build up some of my own clients and was freelancing at multiple studios. Through Jon Fintel, i was able to connect to some folks in the video business and learn the ropes of location sound too. Through out my career it has been one connection leading to the next connection, brought together by doing consistent quality work. If you do high quality work, your clients will come back to you, and you will hopefully gain a few new ones from referrals, and it just dominos out from there. In the creative business, every job and project you do is a business card for the next project, so you can’t half-ass anything. I try to make every job i’m working on be the best work that i’ve done. What sets me apart from others are more of the humanistic things. There are a lot of people that can handle the tech side of making things work, but can you do it in a way that makes everyone feel comfortable, are you good to hang out with, can you make art that connects with people on an emotional level, can you collaborate well with others? These are the things that are harder to teach and have more to do with being a good people person, understanding how to work with multiple types of personalities, and understanding what your role is on a given project. Artistically, i think the music I make is about human connection and communication, and i try to capture honesty and emotion from the artists i work with. In a world where a lot of music is overly manipulated, autotuned, time-aligned, etc… i try to find a balance between honest human emotions and modern production techniques that sounds cutting edge while being deeply human. I am very proud of all of the albums I have put out. I’m lucky to get to work with some of the best musicians around. In the film world, I am very proud of the documentary film “Canary” that recently was released in theatres nationwide. I did a large portion of the location sound for this project and it has been very well received.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Getting into this business was hard. When I graduated college, I had to formulate a plan of how I was going to pay my bills. I wanted to be a full-time freelance audio engineer without resorting to a day job, but I had bills to pay. For me, that meant finding a super cheap apartment, and living as cheap as possible. This way I could be available all of the time and I could say yes to any job that came along. I also tried to always “go to work” even when I wasn’t working. For me that meant going to the studio every day, working for free, getting to learn and meet people. I counted this as part of my job. After enough time, I started to get more and more work, and quickly I was able to get out of my $200 a month apartment once i had more consistent work. As time progressed, I often found myself working late nights at the studio only to start early in the morning on a video shoot. I did this time after time during my 20s, because each job leads to the next, and i was in a place where I needed to say yes to everything and keep building up experience and clients. Obviously this is not a sustainable way to live your life, but it was necessary to grow and become successful in the business. There are lots of people that want to get into this field and if you aren’t willing to buckle down and put in the work, it probably isn’t the right job for you. I think finding ways to develop your own resilience and capacity to do hard things is very important. For me, I am constantly building my own resilience whether that’s through parenting, working out, meditation, or hopping into an ice bath. By continuing to do hard things, you can raise the bar for whats possible. Now that I am further along, I still have to hustle, but my day to day becomes more about shaping the types of jobs that I want to get, which often means saying no to projects I don’t want to do, and attracting the types of projects I want to work on. It’s also quite the balancing act between building a business and maintaining a good family life with my wife and three kids. So I try to attract the types of jobs that fit into that work life balance as well. I am very grateful to be able to make a living doing something I love while also keeping a solid family life at home.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is when the project is complete, and being able to sit back and enjoy the work. I think this comes from the root of why I got into this in the first place. Growing up and falling in love with records, and falling in love with movies. They have a magical way of taking you out of your current moment, out of your troubles and stresses of everyday life, and into another world. Art is one of the things that separates humans, and it is deeply integral to what makes us unique. I think there are some emotions that words can’t describe, and for that we have music. And film is one of the most greatest art forms, combining story telling, pictures, and music all into one. While the end result is definitely a nice reward, it is equally important to enjoy the process of getting there. I really do enjoy the process of making records and making a film. I would say it can sometimes be more grueling and difficult, and stretch you to your boundaries, but that’s sometimes what it takes to be a creative and make something that is truly special. I think part of the reason I like it so much is because it is so hard. Being a highly competitive person, the fact that it is so difficult to learn how to do these things and to make them, only makes me want to do it more, and to be better and better at my craft. I also think that art can be highly therapeutic for both the maker and the receiver. As proven during the pandemic, when things got tough, the artists buckled down and started making things. Both for themselves and also to help bring people together. In times of troubles, people need art. I’m happy to participate in this process and play a small role in connecting with so many other people.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.altonaudio.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jayalton/