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

Raelynn, looking forward to hearing all of your stories 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?

The idea of audio engineering being a career did not even occur to me until I was in college. I was in an a cappella group at the time that was tracking our first EP and I somehow ended up assisting the tracking and mixing engineer, Rick Thomas. I fell in love with the entire process and soon thereafter switched my major from Computer Science to Audio Engineering.

Once I graduated, I lived in Boston and worked at a studio there, but moved to Nashville a year later to pursue my dream. A week after moving here I met Tommy Wiggins, a local mastering engineer and artist. I basically showed up on his doorstep not knowing what I wanted to do as an engineer, but just eager to learn as much as I could. After a few weeks, Tommy encouraged me to learn mastering. Being the 23 year old I was at the time, I was like “yeah, okay!” The mastering process seemed like the perfect balance of creativity and problem solving that my brain needs to feel fulfilled in a career. Not to mention we did all analog mastering, which is just awesome as a concept. I sat with Tommy 10-3 every day then bartended 4-2 for three straight years. His patience and excitement was honestly the ideal environment for me to learn this craft. He encouraged me to make mistakes and mess around until I found the right workflow for me. He taught me everything from loading sessions into Radar to manipulating outboard gear to create the image I had in my head.

Around the three year mark with Tommy, I was approached by Pete Lyman to join the Infrasonic team. It blew my mind that someone I looked up to wanted me on his team, especially being a young gun in the industry. Of course I said yes without hesitation. I have now been with Infrasonic for over three years and am both a mastering engineer and the studio manager. I still get the perfect balance of creativity and problem solving in the mastering position while getting the fulfillment of working with people, which is also something I need in a workplace.

I have learned more in my time at Infrasonic than I ever could have imagined. Being able to add digital mastering to my analog foundation has been a total game changer. I honestly wish I would have experimented with a hybrid system earlier than I did! That would’ve helped me learn a lot quicker, but at the same time I think the analog mastering made me more intentional since I had limited options on what I could do. I think having my hands “tied” in that way made me a better engineer because I had to do what I could with what I had instead of having a million options like you do in the digital realm.

I think what got me to where I am now is a combination of my work ethic and the mentors I’ve had. Tommy and Pete have given me every tool under the sun to succeed and I would not be where I am without them.

Raelynn, 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 grew up in rural Upstate New York and always knew there was no career there for me, haha. Music has always been one of the main pillars in my life and I think I subconsciously always knew I would end up doing something music related. I played alto saxophone from elementary school through high school and sang in chorus, but I think the bigger influence was my family. Both of my parents are metalheads (Pantera was the music of my childhood) and my sister introduced me to the punk and hardcore scene. My dad would bring us to shows until we were old enough to go by ourselves and those are some of the best memories I have. Having this community outside of school was HUGE to me. When you spend your entire school career feeling like you don’t fit in, having a glimpse outside of those walls changes everything.

I went to the Rochester Institute of Technology for Computer Science. I liked the idea of job security and enjoyed the coding classes I took in high school. My sophomore year I realized this was not what I wanted to do with my life and after having the experience with my a cappella group, I switched majors. From there, everything fell into place!

As I mentioned, I am now a mastering engineer and the studio manager for Infrasonic. We have locations in Nashville and Los Angeles, both of which I manage. I provide all services ranging from digital mastering to vinyl mastering to immersive mastering. Along with these services, I also work with our clients to make sure they are taken care of and often educated throughout the mastering process!

Many clients that come to us have never been through the mastering process before. It is my job to guide them through each step of the way, especially if vinyl is involved because that is a whole beast in and of itself, and make sure they feel supported and understood! Infrasonic is rooted in helping people, period. Being able to help people is honestly what I believe I’m supposed to be doing on this spinning rock in the sky, and I am so grateful I get to do that while still fueling my passion for music.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

PERFECTIONISM. I grew up always pushing myself to be perfect and beating myself up when I fell short. The instance I remember most was being bummed that I only got 3 scholarships to college when other kids got 4 or 5. THAT IS INSANE. Looking back, I wish I was nicer to myself. It literally took until this year to learn that me just being a human makes me worthy and that my productivity/quality does not define me. Perfectionism held me back from so many good things for so long, and I hope whoever is reading this can break the cycle too!

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

I think building clientele is a combination of being present in the scene and also being a good human being. A lot of the clients I have are people I have met through going to shows or that have reached out to me on social media. I think it’s important for clients to know who we are as people and not just as engineers. And the best way to show that is to be kind and honest!

Contact Info:

• Website: infrasonicsound.com/raelynn
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raelynn_jae/?hl=en

Image Credits
Watershed Media