We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Anton Tumas a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Anton, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

When I started hosting events around 2011, we need to rent a sound system for these shows. In the beginning, it was literally borrowing speakers from friends, who helped me set them up. I then bought a couple of small speakers for a tiny rooftop on Santa Monica pier (80 person capacity), where we started an event series called Subtract On The Pier.

After our first event there, I realized we would need even more sound. This is how my relationship with local sound providers started. Many trials and tribulations later, it was apparent that I prefer to control this element of our production myself. Having been involved with audio and speakers one way or another for most of my life, against the advice of my friends, I decided to bite the bullet and purchase my own sound system. The speakers were made by one of the only USA manufacturers called Danley Sound Labs. Based in Georgia, they have invented and patented some of the best sounding speaker designs that I’ve ever heard, and I was instantly hooked!

Now that we had our own sound system, however small it was, it was time to throw more events in our Long Beach residency. As we booked West Coast legends such as Doc Martin and Marques Wyatt, both of them asked me if we could provide the sound system for their events. An offer we could not refuse, but this required an additional investment as they wanted bigger sound systems.

This became the pattern with us over the years: As we worked hard to build our reputation, this “pulled in” demand, and more requests for sound systems came in, now working with some of the best promoters all over Southern California’s dance music and festival scene. At the same time this was unfolding, Burning Man Festival, an event I’ve been attending since 2005 was happening every year, and I decided to take all of my growing sound system inventory out there.

We ended up providing sound for some of the most respected camps out there. Without a doubt, Burning Man is one of the harshest environments for any electronics, and has been a huge area of learning for us. Every year we overcome a multitude of challenges out there, and in the end, it makes us evermore resilient, having gone through all those trials and tribulations.

The path has been an endless adventure, and I see myself keep investing into more sound toys, which bring me a lasting satisfaction and to continue serving our clients at the highest level while learning to be at our best.

Anton, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m a sound engineer and event promoter, with 12 years of experience in the electronic dance music scene. I started hosting events in 2011, which eventually led to me starting my own production and sound rental company. We now serve a multitude of promoters all over West Coast and specifically in Los Angeles.

My approach has always been to have my work be my business card, with word of mouth as our primary method of attaining clients. I’m known for extreme attention to detail, and always doing things right, and achieving efficiency at scale, so we can stay competitive in a challenging event environment.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

We are a no-compromises organization, and we let our clients know that via the quality of work that we do. There is a certain way how things should be done, and that’s something that we continue to refine with every show that we work. It’s an endless learning experience, and we like to keep an open mind of how we can keep improving.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

I started organizing events as a hobby, but as I pivoted to more production work and started my sound rental operations, it turned into a full time career. Having a business background, after I ran my own tire shop for 10+ years, was an important foundation upon which I developed these new skill sets, and learned how to navigate a new industry.

Hiring my first sound engineer was a big milestone, as well as buying my first box truck with a lift gate (made our life a LOT easier), and then getting my own warehouse would be some of the most memorable moments.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://subtractmusic.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/antontumas
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AntonTumas/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antontumas/
• Twitter: @antontumas

Image Credits
Anton Tumas