Recording - November 2016 - 61

Continued from page 58
career, but it got me and my wife through a tough
time. But L.A. was the place to come to, so I had to
be around people that I could connect with. You've
got to be... And it doesn't mean you have to do it
straightaway, but at some point you have to be close
to the industry that you want to be involved with. It
just increases your chances of success.
I've always said, "Use TAXI as your ticket out of
town. Use us until you don't need us." And then
maybe keep coming to the Road Rally so you keep
networking after the fact. Look, Lindy Robbins used
to be a TAXI member. I remember hearing her stuff
probably back in '93, '94, '95, and I called her up
one day. She was nobody, and I enthusiastically
said, "You're gonna have a hit. You are writing
almost at a hit level. I mean, you're 3% away in my
estimation." And now she's a very in-demand writer.
Richard: Yeah, Lindy's my best female friend,
and I spoke to her this morning. But Lindy
worked long and hard for a lot of years. She was a
theater writer, and she wrote for the circus, and
then she made a conscious effort to shift into Pop
music. But it was a long haul for her, and she networked. Part of the reason, besides being a great
songwriter, she writes with all the track people.
She is so in demand as topliner. They are all her
friends; she came up with them. But it was not an
overnight thing. And now she is one hit after
another, because all the people that she's been
working with are all top, top; everything goes right
to record.
Now, that's not going to happen to you, but you
may be sitting next to a producer who ends up
being a hot producer, or you may end up sitting
next to a person who is an artist and who is a great
singer, and she becomes a recording artist and you
happen to write some songs with her, and she's
gonna take you along.
But I have to reiterate, there's a chance that you can
get famous quick, but for the most part it's gonna
take steps and levels to get higher and higher; then
one day something clicks.
Marlin: Lindy was a friend of mine. I love Lindy-
she's amazing. I agree with what you said about her
circle, I think to simplify it even more, it's like going
to school with the same group of people. Because
your peers eventually grow into being very important people. Or like if you're around it... Like
Richard said, you get around it you're in like a frat
almost, like you're in college with a group of people. Everybody's starving and everybody's trying to
work on it and build it. And then over years of time
you are part of this really cool community. Some of
them become A&R people. So it's really not
overnight unless you sign with a publisher, a production company or... And even then...

You've got to be good enough for them to want to sign
you.
Marlin: If you look at it like I want to be a part of
the songwriting community, then you can kind of
realize that, "Oh, I actually do have to show up; I do
actually do have to make friends; I actually have to
be really good." So slowly people will know your
name, and the next thing you know, boom!
There's a great book called Startup Nation. It's the
story of how the little tiny nation of Israel has
more inventions, patents, booming companies, all
this great stuff that we didn't realize, like Intel-
Israel; WAZE, the navigation app-Israel; all this
stuff. And you know where it comes from? The
Israeli Army! Everybody in Israel has to go through
two or three years in the army, and that's where

they build their "fraternities." Some of the guys are
plumbers, some are electricians, some of them are
chip designers, some are software code guys, some
of them are entrepreneurs, and some of them
become investment bankers. But they've all come
from this fraternity where they became a band of
brothers, and then it translates into business relationships down the road. That's exactly what you're
talking about with songwriting-how Lindy came
up with that group of people. And that's what goes
on in Nashville. Same thing. It's "rising tide floats
all boats," but if you're not present, as Ralph says,
and you're not in the boat on the water in the pond
that Richard's talking about, it ain't gonna happen.
Don't miss the final installment, Part 4, of this
incredible interview in next month's TAXI Insider!

Continued from page 59
sat down and dialed all that in for us,"
Ballard said. "On a day-to-day basis,
he sets up the entire monitor rig, including the desk, amp rack with our wireless
unit, all of the wireless frequencies for
our ear mixes, dials in our wedges, and
then drags out the long cable and mixes
up our front house. He's pretty busy."
Now that Ballard is making a name in
Nashville, including
three No. 1 songs
from his debut
album, "Sunshine &
Whiskey," Ballard is
able to bring on
another hand to
help Hanna.
Dave Carlton graduated from CRAS
six years after
Hanna and was
also working in
Nashville. Hanna's
CRAS cap caught
Carlton's eye one
night and the two
struck up a conversation. As both
advanced in
Nashville, the two
kept in touch and ultimately Carlton was
able to join Hanna and Ballard.
"CRAS taught me that there's an entire
world of audio engineering out there,
which is awesome," Hanna said. "They
teach the foundation and the basis of
what anybody needs to know to
become a successful engineer. What
you need to do in the real world is
develop your personal technique and
find your style, that's what it is. This is
an awesome job. Every night I get to

take a sweet band and I get to work
them at 110 decibels every night. That's
awesome! I get to sit in front of these
giant speaker arrays and just blast them
and throw the sound pressure at the
audience. I absolutely love what I do."
The Conservatory of Recording Arts &
Sciences is composed of two nearby
campuses in Gilbert and Tempe, Ariz. A
CRAS education
includes broadcast
audio, live sound,
film and TV audio,
music, and video
game audio, all
taught by award-winning instructors who
have all excelled in
their individual fields,
including sound reinforcement, audio
recording and production, digital
recording, troubleshooting/maintenance, and music
business.
The 11-month program is designed to
allow every student
access to learn and train in all of the
Conservatory's studios which are comprised with state-of-the-art audio recording and mixing gear, the same equipment used in today's finest studios and
remote broadcast facilities, including
Pro Tools 11, API Legacy consoles, SSL
AWS consoles, Studer Vista consoles,
and much more. All students must complete a 280-hour industry internship to
graduate from the Master Recording
Program II that may ultimately lead to
industry employment.

For more information on the Conservatory of
Recording Arts & Sciences, please visit www.cras.edu,
contact Ghery Fimbres, Director of Admissions,
at 1-800-562-6383, or email info@cras.edu.

http://www.cras.edu

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