We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ben Kliever a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Ben, thanks for joining us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?
I have been able to earn a full time living from working in Audio and Music, and I feel very fortunate to be where I am at, and know there is still farther I can go. You have to start at the bottom in this field and work your way up, so I started as a musician hoping to make a break there and found my way to audio. I was a knowledgable musician, but not as knowledgable as I needed to be in audio. I attended The Recording Conservatory in Austin to improve my engineering skills and help me become a professional. From this I went into internships (unpaid) and assistance engineer (unpaid) positions under other professional engineers in my city to build my skillset and credits, which is where my skillset and professionalism really took off. This lead to opportunities as an engineer at these studios which was my first milestone in getting paid in this field. From these positions I was offered opportunities to be a professor at TRCOA, the music school and college here in Austin, as the Recording Techniques Instructor. This lead to a lead engineering job at Stinson Studios, and I also work with clients through my personal business (Nebula 88 Studios) in music, podcasting and dialogue. Building an organic network and creating great product is what will open the doors to new opportunities, so putting in as much time and effort is crucial. Determination, persistence and consistency is key.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My journey of music started at a young age when I began playing piano and guitar. As my skills improved and grew into my instrument, I found others like myself and created our first band as many may do in high school. This lead to my first interest in audio engineering by wanting to record the band and songs we had created. At that time I learned all I could from books, as youtube was not a viable source yet, so I learned the basics of the craft. I realized some years later, I would I need a more professional approach to my work to work in this field. So I then took the steps I outlined in the previous question.
Services I offer and help clients with are recording, editing, mixing, mastering, production, audio and dialogue cleanup, and session musician work. I am most proud that my clients tell me how detail oriented, attentive and the passion and care I put into their projects and art. I am here to help make my client’s art improved and help achieve their vision with the best possible audio work I can provide.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
Being able to think and work creatively in a field that I am passionate about and truly enjoy. One of the most rewarding aspects is completing projects. There is a satisfaction with seeing a project get to the finish line and this piece of art you are proud of has reached the world. Finally, feel very rewarded when my artists and clients are so excited about how their song and release came out, there’s not many feelings that are more satisfying.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
In the large picture, I would love to be able to fully own and run a recording and post production studio big enough to handle full live and band tracking. But in simple terms, I want to continue to be able to fund and live my life doing creative work that I enjoy for rest of my career.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://nebula88studios.com/
- Instagram: @anomaklie
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-kliever-b87271136/
- Other: [email protected]