Imogen is a sound engineer and musician, and the manager of Esche Haus Studio, a recording studio in Blackburn.
Three main setbacks, and how we overcame them
Sexism
As a female trying to break into a predominantly male-led industry I have experienced numerous flippant sexist remarks that have made me feel like I have to work twice as hard to be taken seriously. I am the manager at Esche Haus Audio, which James and I co-own, and I'll regularly receive messages along the lines of 'can I speak to the person who's actually in charge?' or my personal favourite was 'I have some gear that the studio might be interested in buying, can I speak to the guy in charge?'
I think as a female working at a recording studio, it's incredibly difficult to get people tosee you as anything more than a receptionist or brew lady, and a lot of people (females included) almost seem shocked when I take an active role in the studio producing their music and engineering their session alongside James.
It's almost like we have to prove ourselves as a studio that we're good enough to work on an artist’s music, but once we've managed to secure the booking, I then have to prove myself again as a female working in a studio to show our customers that I actually know what I'm doing in a way that James doesn't need to because he's male.
At this point it's almost water off a duck's back, but it definitely hurts when I focus on it.
My only way to overcome this is to make sure anything I work on is of the utmost quality to assure people I know what I'm doing, sign my emails off with 'Imogen, manager', respond to any messages we get on the Facebook page that are addressed 'Hi man' (yes, this happens far too often!) with 'kind regards, Imogen' so people know they're speaking to a female on the socials. I do all these things to try and establish myself as more of a part in the studio than just a studio hand or telephone operator. It's difficult to not feel very negative towards the music industry as far as this is concerned - I think the only way to combat this level of ignorance is for as many people as possible to keep shouting about women in music.
Age
Once again, I think it's been a struggle to get people to take us seriously because of our age. I think when people think about studio engineers they generally think of older gentlemen and you can almost see the apprehension in people’s eyes when they arrive after having booked over the phone, email or via our socials (where they won't have seen what we look like).
I'm 25, James is 23, we've spent our whole time at uni building up equipment and working on recording and producing ourselves and other people - we have a lot ofexperience in what we do. We've recorded sessions for Virgin Radio UK, Glamour.es Magazine (online) and a song we recorded for Alder Hey Children's Hospital Charity was featured on primetime BBC news. We've been flown out to the Isle of Man to film and record, and we regularly record vocalists for international events company BTID Events.
We appreciate that we may be younger than most sound engineers and producers in established studios, but we have worked so hard for many years to be where we are because we knew that opportunities weren't going to be handed to us on a plate.
The only way to combat this has been consistently producing quality work. We need to make sure we are absolutely at the top of our game to give people zero reason to negatively judge our work. We have, thus far, received zero negative feedback regarding quality and if anything, a regular comment we receive is 'we knew it would sound good but we didn't think it would sound THIS good'. If anything, people being ageist has worked in our favour - they don't expect their recordings to be as good and then they're pleasantly surprised when they are.
Money
Whilst we have both been born into very loving, supportive families, we have not been able to just turn to our parents to help us build up our business financially. We put all our student loans into music, we've both had multiple part time jobs to fund our passion. I currently don't have a car because I'd finally saved up a few grand last year to buy a car and ended up buying a Neumann U87 microphone instead for the studio!
We've continually had to make choices financially between the things our peers are doing (nights out, holidays, clothes, cars) and funding our passion (studio equipment, training, plug-ins). I fully appreciate it's paid off, because we're now able to work a job we love but we've also lost friends along the way because of the choices we've made. It's one of those where you look at people with money blowing it on casinos and trips to Dubai and as someone who works at a studio you think “do you have any idea how cool a mixing desk you could buy with that!?”
One thing that has been really helpful has been the amount of courses available for young people to help us progress without having to pay a lot of money for information. The Liverpool Sound City training course helped me more than they'll ever know. I still repeat quotes that the different speakers said even now, and I think having access to free courses when you're still in college/uni and perhaps aren't able to afford to pay for music industry courses is vital for motivating and inspiring young people in the music industry.
We also went on a Prince’s Trust under 25s business course that gave us incredibly helpful info regarding managing finances/cash flow and sorting your taxes as self-employed people.
Advice we would pass on to someone who is in the same position we once were
Be a yes person
Saying yes to things and grabbing important opportunities with both hands is so important for progressing through the industry. Take opportunities that come your way and do them to the best of your ability.
That being said, it's also important to assess which opportunities will benefit you best, and don't just say yes to everything, spread yourself too thin and then be struggling under a mountain of different tasks that might not necessarily benefit you. Give important opportunities your all, but don't take on so many that you're drowning under the weight of it. It's all about that balance.
Don't let your gender, age, race, disability or mental health issue define you or come between you and your goals.
It's important to believe in yourself and know that anything is possible if you work hard enough. Set small, manageable goals and stick to them. One of the speakers on the Liverpool Sound City training course said to me 'There's no such thing as luck, luck is just when hard work and opportunity meet'. This resonated with me on a deep level because it makes so much sense - you make your own luck and if you work hard enough you'll be prepared for when the opportunities arrive.
Be a nice person
LONG-GONE IS THE APPEAL OF THE OASIS SWAGGER! We've found some of the most valuable assets for making contacts and keeping them within the industry is being kind. Having a sense of humour. Helping people.
Far too many people try and 'play it cool' and almost have a frosty attitude to try and appear more 'cool' but they end up just coming across as arrogant. Who wants to work with you if they can't even have a laugh with you? People underestimate the power of being kind in our industry, where relationships with your contacts are so important for being put forward for other opportunities.
Advice we would pass on to established music industry players
Take the hard workers over the swaggerers. Far too many labels seem so quick to sign a band of four semi-attractive lads who have one great song and four bad attitudes. Then they get dropped because they thought they'd instantly be in the charts and weren't prepared to put the hard work in. Take a chance on the hard workers who just need a bit of guidance and help with marketing.
I think it's so important for people to look after people - reaching out to them who admire them, because they were them once. I think it's incredibly important to 'remember where you came from' and appreciate and understand that usually you're in the position you're in because you’re being propped up by the people underneath you, asking for your help, guidance and advice on how to be just like you.