We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Gabi Grella a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Gabi, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Alright, so we’d love to hear about how you got your first client or customer. What’s the story?
I remember the first paying client I had very vividly. I was a sophomore in college at NYU and my friend reached out to me about a song he had produced that needed mastering. I was so excited because 1. It was my first paying customer (I made $33) and 2. The artist had around 20k monthly listeners and all of his top songs on Spotify had over 1 million streams. This was a huge opportunity for me to prove myself and get my name out there. Having my debut master get over 1 million streams?! It was so exciting and I felt on top of the world. Unfortunately my bubble burst because the artist decided to go with a different master. It was my first real project but also my first real loss as an engineer – both happening at the same time. I quickly learned the reality of how important and prevalent shootouts are in this industry. A shootout is when someone puts your master (or mix, vocals, etc) against someone else’s and picks the one they like best. This was a huge wakeup call that you can’t be 100% sure if you’ve secured a gig until the song is released and you can physically see the credits. That might’ve been the first but it certainly was not the last time I’d lose a song to another engineer – it happens all the time. You lose songs, albums, clients; it’s something that never goes away in the industry, no matter how many songs you’ve worked on or how established you are as an engineer. But it’s challenges like this that allow you to grow as a person and engineer. If my song gets chosen during a shootout, then great! If not, then I get to hear the version that did get chosen and compare it to mine. I can hear how their master differs from mine and get an idea about what that specific client likes for the next time. I genuinely love shootouts and I’ve gotten some of my biggest opportunities by doing a free master that would be in a shootout against a more established engineer. I haven’t won one of those shootouts yet but it’s only a matter of time – the more masters I do, the better I get.
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?
My name is Gabi Grella and I am a 24 year old mastering engineer from Morristown, New Jersey. I attended New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, where I was taught a very holistic music curriculum. I applied to the program as a songwriting major but during my freshman year I discovered my love of engineering with the guidance and mentorship of industry legends like Bob Power and Jim Anderson. The specialty that I decided to pursue is called mastering – it is the last step in the creation of a song before it is distributed to radio stations and streaming platforms. One of the most important aspects of our job is to make sure that the songs we work on are competitive with other releases – specifically in terms of level. We are a fresh pair of ears that come in and make any final adjustments; we don’t change any of the fundamental elements or foundation of the song, we just enhance what is already there. Throughout college I interned at Sterling Sound, where I was able to see the ins and outs of a professional mastering business. With my education and work experience, I found myself in a position to be able to distinguish myself from other engineers. I understand the perspective of making a song from both the artistic and engineering perspective because I have been both the artist and the engineer. Engineering in general is a very male dominated sector in the music industry, but I am extremely proud to be a woman in engineering and to be able to shed light on what mastering is. Running my own business for the past 3 years, Gabi Grella Mastering, has been one of the most fulfilling parts of my life. I am in control of my destiny and am writing a narrative that I am extremely proud of; I want to make every future woman’s engineering path easier and more accessible than mine was.
How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?
Because I am a one woman business, I am the person that is physically communicating with all of my clients; there is no middle man. I love that I am able to get to know my clients and their team on a personal level. I find that 9 times out of 10, I will have repeat clients because they not only like my work but because they like me as a person. I foster brand loyalty by posting about every song that I’ve worked on, specifically on Instagram. It shows that I care about and am proud to have worked with my clients. I also try my best to be active on social media in terms of keeping up with what my artists are doing. I’m lucky enough to be able to call a lot of my clients my friends.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
Word of mouth is the main way I gain new clients. Crediting in the music industry is extremely important but is something that engineers often need to fight for. Luckily for me, so many of my clients are amazing and always credit me in their song’s metadata and when they post about their releases. Artists are followed by fans and also other artists; if these artists need mastering and they see that I am tagged as the engineer on their friend’s post, they will often reach out to me. Besides word of mouth I try to do as much outreach as I can, whether that be through Instagram dm, TikTok, email, etc. Your message may not always get an answer, but it never hurts to try; I always jump on an opportunity to reach out to an artist that I really like. Developing relationships with mixing engineers can also be very beneficial; they often have a say in who the song gets sent to for mastering. Networking is an extremely valuable tool.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.gabigrellamastering.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gabigrella/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GabiGrellaMastering
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabigrella/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/gabigrella
- Other: https://engineears.com/gabigrella