Podcast with Casey Combest and Evan Walley, Producers and Engineers at Blue Sky Studios

Casey: Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Blue Sky Studios Podcast, where I'm normally your host. Today I've got my buddy Micaiah Hall here and Evan Walley. Micaiah is going to be guest hosting, which is going to be super fun. Earlier last week, we talked about writing some blog posts and he was like, Hey man, what about these topics?

[00:00:22] And these questions? And I said, man, that's great. Why don't we do a podcast show? So Micaiah, I'll hand it over to you and Evan and I will be bouncing back and forth. Maybe it'd be good if both you guys told the audience a little bit about who you are and what you do. So let's start with you.

[00:00:38] Evan: Yeah, my name's Evan and I am a producer, engineer here at the studio joined the team back in June of 2020, which is kind of crazy story right in the middle of pandemic.

[00:00:50] I had texted, Casey asked him about what it looked like for, you know, me to kind of started a journey of becoming a producer and engineer. And he was, it was like, well, do I have a place for you. And so I ended up talking about that over a couple weeks. And I ended up joining a team and then spent a good ride.

[00:01:10] Micaiah: Yeah, my name is Micaiah Hall, I edit podcasts for Blue Sky. Casey approached me after graduating and I used to jokingly make..

[00:01:18] Casey: When you say approached you that sounds like super weird .

[00:01:21] We were friends.

[00:01:23] Micaiah: We were friends beforehand and he didn't it wasn't off the street. I jokingly made like rap beats in high school.

[00:01:30] And so Casey knew that I could use audio software. And so he asked if I would be interested in editing podcasts,

[00:01:37] And we have a separate

[00:01:39] Casey: company under the super creative name of blue sky podcasting, which is what Micaiah has been helping with. So not great at naming things. So I just name everything blue sky, and then the service that it is. Very creative.

[00:01:51] Well, let's fire away, Micaiah.

[00:01:53] Awesome.

[00:01:53] Micaiah: So let's just start with introductions. As far as audio goes, how long have you been audio engineers? How long have you been doing stuff for the studio stuff in the audio realm? How did you learn what's your go-to software? If you want to start us off, man

[00:02:09] Evan: I guess my journey kind of starts with music in general, started playing drums when I was seven.

[00:02:15] Yeah. Picked up a guitar when I was 13 and then really start paying attention to production stuff till I was maybe 15 or 16. And it was watching a Quincy Jones documentary. And yeah. And so then at that point, the first time, like one of the first times I ever. Got into logic. I was like recreating Michael Jackson songs with SM 57 and all this dark logic stuff.

[00:02:43] And before then I would do like garage band build garage band loops with my dad's laptop and stuff. So I guess I I've kind of always had a little bit of interest in, in production, but it wasn't until I got logic started doing all of that, but then I'm pretty new to, in terms of professionally doing this.

[00:03:02] It was maybe 2019. When I was working for pine lake church, I started doing some just in-house production stuff for them working on different arrangements of songs that we were seeing in maybe like, you know, cut, not remix in, but just revamping the songs production wise. And then that ended up turning into us cutting Christmas Eve.

[00:03:26]That I got to produce, and that was like my first full production project. And that was kind of like a, a green light for me that I was like, this is, this is addicting. Like, this is fun. This is what I wanted to be doing. And, and so then, like I said earlier, back in June really as the pandemic started, I started thinking about like, What it would take to be really serious in getting into this field and producing and in Casey has kind of been helping me along with that ever since, you know, through joining the team and just learning from him.

[00:03:58] So

[00:03:58] that's awesome.

[00:03:59] Casey: Casey, what about you? I actually am, I guess, a part of the recording revolution. So I remember my dad and I had, and I actually think it's in that other room, this cassette. Four track recorder. And he, I would like get my dad to play something and then I would record him and I'd go back and overdose.

[00:04:17] And I was like, man, this is crazy. This is super fun. And then I think in 2000, no, 2002, I graduated high school. And my mom got me a Dell laptop and I was like, holy smokes. This is cool. And then they had com came out with the first Tascam interface that changed analog to digital. And so I got that for Christmas one year and I was like, this is a whole new world.

[00:04:41] And, you know, I can create as many tracks as I want, which was incredibly dangerous. Cause I just kept adding stupid stuff on top of it. But over the years, me and my buddies would make songs that I hope never see the light of day. Mostly they were about like, Or like funny things that would happen,

[00:04:57] Evan: say boys and bullies.

[00:05:00] Casey: Yeah. Let me enunciate a little bit better. And then through college, same thing, like just working with my friends on projects, just being goofy and then some serious and eventually. How was working a job it's similar to Evan's story. I was at a great church enjoying it, but I just felt like there was something missing.

[00:05:17] And so I started trying to score for film a little bit for some friends who were filmmakers. And I quickly realized that a one. Pretty solitary thing most of the time, unless you have a team that you're doing it with, and that's not me. I like being around people. I like working, collaborating with folks and say that was a bad fit.

[00:05:37] And then two, I have a mediocre amount of talent and most people who are really good at scoring have a good amount of talent. So there were two bad fits there, but eventually some friends started saying, Hey, why don't you mix these tracks or help us record, you know, this part of our record or this record.

[00:05:54] And. Really started to lean into that and see that there was some excitement, some future sort of to use Evans language, a green light of light, man. There's something here. I really need to lean into this. And about 10 years ago, when and started blue sky studios, and then seven years ago, I went full-time.

[00:06:11] So I worked, part-time just building the studio with the first few years. And so where we are. That's awesome. That's awesome. I don't think I answered the interface question in, oh, what'd you say? The doll? I like logic. I started in pro tools and then recently I've been trying to use ease pro tools a little more for some tasks.

[00:06:29]Just have such a love, hate relationship with it, but Hologic primarily. All right. So while

[00:06:33] Micaiah: we're on the technical side, then if you guys had to. One plugin that you couldn't live without one, whether it's EEQ compressor, anything that comes to mind, what is one plugin, if you had to delete all the other ones that you would need, you would say is

[00:06:51] Casey: irreplaceable, EQ and compression, which I'm just going to say that those are part of my that's five.

[00:06:58] Okay. Outside of that, I think the capita taters pretty cool. It just can take anything and you can do so you can do so much with it. 

[00:07:08] Evan: I use a lot of plugins. So this is really crazy amount of plugins, the same thing, devil lock. So just a different little, a little bit similar to decapitate her. But I mean, I just reached for devil luck all the time.

[00:07:25] Yeah. Cause it like, it brings out so much more of the original source. I use a lot on them. Room mix and things that are mics that are real live lively, picking up a lot of room noise and it does, it does something really cool social and percussive stuff. So probably that one.

[00:07:42] Casey: So sound toys, a, you guys just call us for that sponsorship dollars and you can use our referral code, which is blue sky.

[00:07:50] 2021. Just kidding. It's not a referral. Okay. 50%. Don't tell us that.

[00:07:55] Micaiah: Okay. What would you guys say is your secret sauce on a mix? What do you do individually that you say sets apart your mix from another engineers or another studio? What is the one thing that you do that differentiates and that

[00:08:11] Casey: enhances a track.

[00:08:12] And we sort of just to pause there for a second. Could we answer your question a little differently? So currently we're not mixing a whole lot in house. I would say about 10 to 20% of our projects. We're mixing this month in house and then the rest we use some partners and folks that we trust a lot.

[00:08:30] And so yeah, with the let's, let's answer the like secret sauce for arrangement or production. I want to hear Evans first because. Super talented. I'm kind of going through

[00:08:38] Evan: a phase where I'm just. Using anything in everything that I can think of in a, and what I mean by that is like, if I had this seven B set up and I need a percussive track, or like I need a snare head or something right there in the past where I would reached for like a sample or a sample pack, I just find something that kind of has the texture or the tone of, of what I want.

[00:09:06] And then I'll figure out how I want to hit it. If I want to use a brush stick or whatever. And same thing, like if I want to do piano loops or guitar loops, just finding a different way to, to Mike home, use them. I use the iPhone. A lot, just because you can get really creative with it and has a pretty unique sound compared to a traditional microphone set up.

[00:09:29] So, and you know, have a lot of plugins and stuff that I'll use. I use gates on a lot of things. Kind of make it make tracks feel real weird, very progressive producer driven by, by rhythm and things like that. And so gates help with that a lot. I don't know.

[00:09:46] Casey: It's awesome. Terrible answer Evan. Oh, I'm just kidding.

[00:09:50] It was a great intro and yeah, I feel like it's fun to hear Evan. Evan's answer. And incredibly talented musician where I feel like I lean on the artist and the studio musicians a whole lot more because I don't have quite as much skill as Evan in that area, I think too. Okay. So one like more big picture thoughts would be pulling out what the art, what makes the artists unique?

[00:10:13] I feel like that's something that can do well is like, Hey, this is there. Unique thing even when they don't necessarily see it, just helping them to get some clarity around that. And then to, and I've probably mentioned this a whole lot, but I just feel like second verses are super important because that's usually where people fall off.

[00:10:31] So that's a little more like in the weeds, but yeah, secret sauce. Just trying to make the second verse of songs. Interesting. Cause if you can usually keep the listener engaged with the story. Production movement in the second verse. You'll you'll kind of have them the rest of the song. Yeah. That's awesome.

[00:10:45] Micaiah: So you do have a lot of in-house musicians and artists coming through. And what would you say is your favorite thing to hear from someone who comes in about your mix about the studio? About, I mean, it could be anything from complimenting your cup of coffee to how unique your sound is. What's your favorite thing to hear from, from a client?

[00:11:04] Evan: I think a lot of times. We see a good number of people who are recording for the first time. But also like, I hear this from people who have been here before and then come back a couple of times. They're just always not surprised, but just kind of like overcome with joy and excitement once we, when we're going through the process.

[00:11:26] But once they've, you know, at the end of the long tracking day, and we're either sending it to mix or it makes us come back, like everybody. Says that it came together better than they imagined, or, you know, they, they speak very highly of the process and, and, you know, they highlight things that I did that they enjoyed or, and then that encourages me to.

[00:11:51] To remember them and say, speak the same thing of them. But I don't know. It's just something that's super encouraging, but also really humbling to know that, that the people we get to work with see the effort and they, they, they see the process and they appreciate it and they, they enjoy it just as much as, as, as we do really.

[00:12:09] And they're, they're just as proud of their songs, their music, even more so than they were coming in. Yeah,

[00:12:16] Casey: I think that to echo that, just that partnership element and the idea of being able to make something meaningful for someone when you're able to sit at the desk and you've got the faders or the EKU beside you, and then you turn around and look at someone's face and they're excited about what they're here.

[00:12:31] And like, man, that's, that's just a great feeling. That's awesome. And we Almost strictly use Folgers coffee. And so everybody compliments how great our coffee is because it's the best part of waking up undeniable, man.

[00:12:42] Micaiah: Yeah. That'll wake you up. That's that's that's all you need. You know,

[00:12:45] Casey: Miguel loves coffee, so that's like, I do grind his ears right now.

[00:12:49] It hurts. We have started buying more specialty coffee as of late. Thanks. So one of our buddies, Jay Taylor, he brought some good coffee over and we just can't get enough of it so we can. That's

[00:12:59] Micaiah: awesome. That's awesome. There is worse than

[00:13:01] Casey: Folgers Maxwell house. My mom and dad, or my mom has that. The other one community.

[00:13:08] I don't know the communities like Maxwell house, bad. God, I just don't like chicory in my coffee. Like, that's just, that's just weird. I just, a lot of people love community. I don't like dirt in my coffee. We're going to get so much hate mail about Maxwell house

[00:13:26] Evan: canceled by

[00:13:28] Casey: Folgers is going to be ambivalent. They're gonna be like, yeah, whatever that Maxwell

[00:13:32] Micaiah: house, if you

[00:13:33] Casey: want to sponsor, I don't think, I don't think I would allow that to be on the same page as our Lego. So much maximalist

[00:13:42] Micaiah: slander. Okay. So for someone who might be looking into the audio industry and being in the music studio realms, whether it's recording within house musicians or doing mix, or what would you say is your favorite.

[00:13:58] About what you do. And then also, what would you say is the hardest part about what you do? Okay. So

[00:14:04] Casey: sure. Cause we do about once a week, get an email about an internship opportunity or something like that. Some of them are confused with blue sky animation who make like Rio and Rio three, which is a dumb branding thing up there.

[00:14:20] Yeah, well, they are still a little bit, so I've gotten a lot of re emails recently where people were asking can they tell me their idea for a Rio, like 16 or what are the other blues guys age? That's the other one they're like, Hey, and I say six had we fill in plan. I'm like wrong blue sky, bro.

[00:14:39] all these ideas. Maybe we can buy the editor. My wife actually asked me because they are I think either becoming obsolete assets or moving over to Disney or something, she was like, y'all could probably buy the.com. I was like, nah, that's like easily a million dollars for that.com. So yeah, we get a lot of emails about that for people who are just starting out and that kind of thing.

[00:15:00] And a few things I would say is first and foremost, do the work, like get out there and start making projects. Because one of my first questions is, well, tell me about your experience. And most of the time people were like, yeah, just love music. And they'll tell me the artists. They like I'm like, but tell me about your experience with it.

[00:15:18] And they're like, I mean, I've seen a microphone. You know, a stage before I'm like, well, that's not, you know, that's not experience. And so I'm, I'm picking on them a little bit here, but like work on projects, go record your friends for free. Cause that, I mean, for me, that experience was just so valuable to be able to walk through a low pressure situation.

[00:15:39] And some of it never got released and some of it did, but I learned so many lessons early on just trying to do things the hard way and learn the hard way. And you know, that that would kind of lead me to my second point is educate yourself. Like the beauty about recording is, I mean, Evan, I don't, I hope this isn't like picking on you at all, but I mean, you didn't graduate with a recording degree or something like CRE

[00:16:04] but I had seen Evan's talent. I'd seen his abilities and I was like, oh yeah, this is. Huge add to our team here. And so whether you're wanting to be freelance and do it by yourself or with a team that skill and that ability that you develop by just doing it is just man. It's just so paramount to build a career.

[00:16:22] And so I think that would probably be my, my biggest answer is just, just do it, just start it. And the other thing is don't be afraid for it to be a hobby. Yeah. I think currently I have about five businesses and there's a sixth one that means some buddies are kicking around a little bit and having ran different businesses.

[00:16:41] There are a lot of easier ways to make money. And so don't get into recording for, for The ease of it or the profitability get into it because you love it. And even that's not really enough, like you've gotta be able to be really, really exceptional at it. And I would love to say that I'm exceptional.

[00:16:57] I just really had a lot of great breaks and the Lord's Providence was just all me. And so I'm incredibly grateful for that, but yeah, I'm rambling a little bit, but yeah. Don't be afraid for it to be a hobby for a while while you're getting that experience and have a good job selling insurance, because insurance is incredibly profitable.

[00:17:13] I would totally

[00:17:14] Micaiah: echo that. Yeah. Again, in high school it was like me and buddies just like recording raps in my upstairs. And it's like, I know how to do the dumbest things in life. It's like, oh, I can reverse an audio track and put it on a mini keyboard, you know? And it has nothing to do with my job. It's like figuring that out and being in.

[00:17:32] Yeah. You know, it's valuable. What

[00:17:34] Evan: about you? I would say the best part about it for me personally, just the things I'm passionate about when it comes to, to, to my, my work. Yeah. Is just the ability, ability to stay and freedom, really, to stay curious. Like, like I said, there's no, there's not really any rules.

[00:17:56] That I feel like I have to abide by or any guidelines. I have to follow any specific way to do things. Like I can pretty much try anything I want when it comes to working with artists and they get to experience that and that that's really rewarding to, to watch them see some that's pretty different.

[00:18:18] Yeah. Yeah. Even sometimes I try to bring, bring them into my process and things that I'm doing, the things that I'm trying and that's fun for them. And so that's probably the best part, but the, the hardest part, Hmm. I feel like a lot of people, and this is true. A lot of people, when I tell them what I, what I get to do, they say, oh, you got the dream job.

[00:18:40] And it's true. Like, it's exactly what I want to be doing. And it's a really cool field to be in, but it's still like a job and it's still work kind of like what Casey was saying. You know, he, he. About three or four years, four years full time. And so with all that time comes a lot of hard work and a lot of ugly work.

[00:19:01] And thankfully I get, I get to stand on the shoulders of, you know, 10 years of, of him doing way far more intense work than I'll ever have to do, probably, but still like. Pretty dependent on ourselves to really drive the business for, we kind of just talking about it earlier today and Yeah, that's hard to do.

[00:19:25]Some days you wake up just because you're in a good mood and you're ready to do it, but most days you have to choose to do it. And I just feel like this, this field, this, this business is very different from majority of, you know jobs you can get with a degree, you know,

[00:19:42] Casey: so I had a mastering engineer.

[00:19:44] Tell me early on. I think it just really struck me. He was like, you're in the service business. I was like, what do you mean? He was like, you're a lot more like a fast food restaurant than you realize. I was like, you know, what do you mean? And the more he talked about it, it's like, we're, we're here to serve folks.

[00:19:59] And I think that might be the hard part. Kind of what Evan's saying is like, you just, you don't always realize that, you know, it's like, it's easy to see the pictures. We're doing music today. This is awesome, but there's still a lot of. Donned ourselves and serving other people that comes into play. And a lot

[00:20:18] Evan: of

[00:20:18] Casey: editing the whole first month here.

[00:20:22] I think he tuned like 200 or something songs in automation. It was crazy, man. Evan jumped in, in a pretty busy time. So he didn't, he didn't get a, he got a pretty hard taste right off the bat of that. So just to wrap

[00:20:34] Micaiah: it up, Two guys who are in a field that is probably like you said, very interesting to other people.

[00:20:42]Not a lot of people get to do, though. What is an interesting memory that sticks out? Maybe your favorite memory, maybe your least favorite memory, but something interesting that's happened to you because you're here and able to be in the music industry. In

[00:20:55] Evan: general, I attribute it to people. In my life, I probably would have never considered producing and making, like making music as something I'd want to do with my life.

[00:21:08] I know early on I wanted to play music and be involved with music, but I didn't think like I would be wired and even driven to. Really make music and work in this field, but a good buddy who influenced me as I was growing up as a teenager, Kyle Smith, he was working as a church that I was going to, and he had experience in the studio and had pretty much done all these things that like, I think I would.

[00:21:36] Well, like growing up that I wanted to do. And so being able to sit under him and him show me like what goes in to making music and just little tricks that he knew that, you know, could, could just a little tricks that he knew, adult seeing all that really inspired me. And That kind of like kick started me wanting to dive more into producing.

[00:21:59] And I started to pick apart records, like I mentioned earlier, just from watching him and, and even being around him. And, and so I, that was really kind of the driving force for even, I think thinking about doing this with my life, it was just having good people to look up to and, and, and influenced me.

[00:22:23] And, and wanting to be around those people too, because I feel like a lot of people wait for those people to show up in their life. And a lot of people wait for things to happen to them, but like me asking to spend the time and me seeking other people and send emails and stuff, asking for their time, I feel like has plays a part in that too, you know?

[00:22:47] Would like to think that it didn't just fall in my lap because I know it didn't, I, I think just wanting to be a part of conversations and wanting to see things and learn from others helps that too. So, yeah.

[00:23:00] Casey: Yeah. I think I've got a, a trillion really funny stories that I'm not going to mention of things that have happened.

[00:23:08] People are crazy sometimes. So I'd like to tell those tours, but I'm not going to, but the good, the good things, the good memories that stick with you. I think there's two sides of the coin. One going back to the story earlier of seeing someone's face, when they, you know, hear that song that they wrote on piano and vocal or acoustic guitar and vocal, and it's fully produced, it's a sounding great.

[00:23:34] It's got an energy that they just need and never thought it could have. That's that's really special and helping people. Whether it's their first time recording. They're a part-time recording artists or full-time recording artists, just helping them along that journey. Again, if it's their first time, maybe it's just getting those songs actually done and completed and out in the world.

[00:23:55] Like that's, that's cool to be a part of that for somebody. And then on the part-time full-time, it's just neat to see people who came in the studio. You know, there's one guy who I met him when he was, I think, seven, 16 or 17. And he's full-time music now. That's all he does. And. He's in his mid to early twenties, mid twenties.

[00:24:16] And it's so cool to be a part of someone's life like that. The other side of the coin that I didn't anticipate when I first started the studio was, you know, seeing guys like Evan have a playground to play on, you know, place to make stuff. And yeah. Tucker who was with us for a few years. And even some interns we've had in the past who have gone on to, or studio music to gone on, to make studios of their own life.

[00:24:39] That's really cool to be a part of that in a small way. And I hope in the future that both sides of that coin will continue to have impact and hopefully more significant impact to see more artists and bands come through here that we can really shape and help in their career or. Their hobby and then more producers and engineers who are wanting to learn and grow to continue to do something they love too.

[00:25:06] Micaiah: That's awesome. Well, any final thoughts, boys?

[00:25:10] Casey: Evan?

[00:25:11] Evan: Better jump shot than Casey.

[00:25:12] Casey: That's true, man.

[00:25:13] Micaiah: That's good.

[00:25:14] Casey: That's true. I ain't got..

[00:25:15] Evan: Learned that early on.

[00:25:16] Casey: I ain't got no game. We did have a staff, a weekly staff game until I got injured. Tucker rammed me, like broke  my wrist. Tucker, If you're listening to this, I'm coming for you, man.

[00:25:28] Man, I think just closing words like this is our real, I know we've, we've both said this, but we really love what we get to do and we love helping people with their music. And if we can help you, give us a shout. Yeah.

[00:25:41] Micaiah: Thank you guys so much for opening up about all that.

[00:25:44] Casey: Absolutely, man. Thank you for hosting.

[00:25:46] Micaiah: Yeah. Thanks for having me.

[00:25:47] Casey: Decent job. Not great. No, I'm just kidding. You're actually a pretty good.

[00:25:52] Evan: We'll keep you around.