Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Tess Mangum . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Tess, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you?

Two times, during two concerts (gigs–shows I was working), a decade apart, in different towns/cities, an audience member walked up to me and gave me jewelry, as a sign of belonging (a tiny bluebird pin, to initiate me into the Leon Russell Fan Club), or as a token of appreciation for bringing that night’s artist to town (a beautiful, hand-beaded black, red, purple and blue bracelet–literally off his wrist to mine).

I still have, and wear each of them, to this day.

Live music unites people–at times of three or four generations, in that huge shared experience of listening, and of witnessing something that will never happen exactly that same way again. It’s fleeting, but if you really love music, you have these flashes of memory that stay with you your entire life. The act of someone being so moved they wanted to give me something to take home was beautiful, and helped me remember the beauty (and chaos) of the evening.

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?

Sonic Pie Productions specializes in concert & festival production, curation and consulting. We also provide sound production services (P.A., & staging) to events.

I’ve always known I wanted to work in the music industry–behind the scenes. My father is a musician. My brother is a producer, engineer and owns his own recording studio in Athens, GA. My grandmother was a musician, guitar teacher and mill worker. She learned from her father, a farmer and fiddle player.

Though UNC-Chapel Hill was my first-choice school, it didn’t offer a formal music industry degree, so I majored in Journalism, with a concentration in Public Relations and created my own path with an independent studies course, as well as an internship and part-time jobs at local record labels in Durham and Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Many of our clients don’t need, and can’t afford a full-time staffer to do what we do, but when they do need someone, they need it turn-key and on a professional level, so they can concentrate on what’s already on their plate, such as fundraising, grant writing or sponsors. That’s the problem we solve for our clients.

The thing I am most proud of, in Sonic Pie Productions’ 10 years in business, is how I (and therefore we–thinking of my crew) put social impact (rather than corporate profit) at the core of day to day business. We break gender, genre and racial stereotypes, whether on stage or behind the mixer. We lift up women in the business. We’re pro-immigrant, pro-ADA accessibility and anti-asshole. So, we are often the production company or curator of choice at diverse, community-building, non-profit and LGBTQ events.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Oh yes. One evening, at sound check, my sound engineer told me the artist (a national singer-songwriter) said the way I walked was distracting, like a bad toupée.

I was born with cerebral palsy, weighed 2 pounds 11 ounces and am lucky to be alive. Instead of going into the bathroom and crying, I am really glad my engineer knew I could handle it, and told me. I got back to my work but never booked that artist again.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Word of mouth!! And that’s such a huge compliment, because it’s hard-earned and no amount of money can’t buy positive word of mouth.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sonicpieproductions.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sonicpieproductions/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sonicpieNC/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tess-mangum-b2a3286a/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/SonicPieNC

Image Credits
The one by Lis Tyroler Photography is labeled. The one with three people (me peeking out from the middle) is from a party celebrating Sonic Pie Productions 10th business birthday. That one should be credited to Ricky Garni.