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

Hi David, thanks for joining 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 started out playing music in crappy rock bands in Indiana. So sometimes plugging in gear to see if it worked together was all trial and error. (thankfully I didn’t blow up too much gear) When I got to high school I started working in the theater doing tech work for choir/band/musicals/plays and had sooo much fun with all aspects of production work, but making the music sound just right was my passion, so I gravitated towards the audio aspect.

While still in high school I convinced a local small sound company owner to let me shadow him and I would just show up to street concerts or concerts in the park where I knew he would be doing them. Smith Sound in Lafayette, IN would eventually take me in as basically an apprentice where I would go and learn more about audio from him. During this time I got a job working at Walmart during the week, so I could do shows on the weekends. After I would get done with a shift at Walmart I would just try to glean whatever information about gear, how to use it, how to make it sound musical, how to troubleshoot it if and when things went wrong.

A couple years after high school I convinced my parents that being an audio engineer could be a real job for someone like me, and we made a plan for me to go to a trade school. This way I would have a formal education in audio. We decided I would go to SAE(School of Audio Engineering) in Nashville.

To speed up my learning and grow more as an audio engineer I would have gotten a mentor earlier in Nashville and worked for bigger audio companies more often to get more familiar with the gear I get to use now on a regular basis.

Some of the most important skills I think that have helped me along the way is always sticking with something until I get it right, not giving up, continually trying to learn from my mistakes, showing up with a positive attitude, to not let the pressure get to me and make things as musical and fun as possible.

The biggest obstacles in my work is often dealing with technology that’s supposed to work, but sometimes is quirky and doesn’t always respond the way you think it will, meeting the right people to help me learn more and accomplish what I wanted, and be able to scale to levels bigger than I thought I wanted.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a live audio engineer in Nashville, Tennessee. Originally from Lafayette, Indiana. I’ve worked in audio production for 17 years professionally, doing sound for live concerts and events, some names I’ve worked for include Trent Tomlinson, Levi Riggs, Little Texas, Easton Corbin, Pam Tillis, Alison Krauss, Jesse Keith Whitley, Miller Holler, Journey From The Heart, Gretchen Wilson, Stacy Mitchhart, Shaun Murphy, Olivia Wolf, and Tanya Tucker. I realized pretty early on that I wasn’t a good enough guitar player to be in a band that could “make it”. Even more than being on stage tho, I enjoyed being behind the scenes and knowing how everything technical works.

I am the guy in the usually roped off area of a concert behind a sound board, directly responsible for making your ears happy. There’s such a wide variety of problems I have to solve on a daily basis, depending on the environment we find ourselves in. Some of those things could be what speakers are in the venue, and making sure that all patrons get the best possible concert in every single seat, as well as any assistance I can provide if the vocalists are having an “off day” and can’t give 100%.

As much as audio engineers sometimes get a bad rap for being “grumpy curmudgeons”, I choose to stand in the face of that with my positivity and joyfulness in the face of adversity and struggles.

I am most proud of getting to walk into a venue with people I love and care about, to do an awesome performance together. What moves my soul is the connection that is made during concerts between artists and audiences.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

So after I completed trade school at SAE in 2010, I began working at Bourbon Street Blues and Boogie Bar, in spite of being gainfully employed, I was struggling financially. I confided with a dear friend from school that I was having trouble making enough money for my rent. He offered to help give me the money I needed to make it another month. I was able to pay my rent on time. Later on that year I was able to pay him back thankfully. The story came full circle when just THIS year I was able to offer him free tickets to see Tanya Tucker play at Red Rocks in outside of Denver near where he now lives. His kindness and generosity made it possible for me to stay in Nashville and live my dream of working for amazing artists and musicians.

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

I moved to Nashville 15 years ago eager to learn and get better at what I do every day. To this day, I have always made a conscious decision to try and be positive even when things don’t go my way and I really think that people can see that I love what I do. I show up and give 111% (because it goes to 11, Spinal Tap reference) to hopefully give the audience everything they deserve and more!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dstant06
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidlstanton
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dstant06/