Joseph Winters - BA (Hons) Creative and Commercial Music

Why did you choose to do a degree and why did you want to study at University Studies?

I decided to do a degree because in the music industry it is quite well established that you need to have a degree of some kind in the audio or music field in order to get the higher-level jobs. And also, to gain the experience and connections within the industry. I decided to come to University Studies because of all of the fantastic work with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the fantastic connections that the lecturers have got. I knew the lecturers for a couple of year before the degree as well, so I knew exactly what was on offer here and with it being local to me it was perfect.

How did you discover University Studies?

 I was at the Cambridge Regional before this and Andrea (Healy) and Gary (Kelly) came and did a recording with us with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. At Cambridge Regional, the two music teachers there are graduates (of University Studies) so it is sort of connected in a nice circle.

As part of the degree, you have been off with front of house engineering for the Blue Eyed Soul Tour for Simply Red, tell us a bit about what that was like:

So, I turned up there, got my nice visitor badge on and everything with ‘Simply Red’ printed on it, I liked that, it was a nice little souvenir from it. So, I went and spoke to Davide (Lombardi, sound engineer and former student) and he talked me through all of their playback systems and the advantages that certain technology has over others. And how the tour has been for him and the whole live sound process. So, he talked me through how his system works which is made by Yamaha. Also, the guy who sets all the speakers up for the audience to hear back, he talked me through his challenges.

What does front of house entail?

Front of house is basically the mix that the audience would hear. So, whatever the band are playing, that would go through the engineer’s desk and they would mix it for the audience to hear back through the main speakers in the arena. So that was quite something, listening to them talk about all of their equipment and experiences and everything. Then also, I spoke to Chris Taplin who is the production manager for Simply Red and has been since about 2014, I think. And he has worked with loads and loads so of different artists over the years, so I think he was the original tour manager for The Pogues, in the 80s and he did Muse as well as loads of other people. He is one of those people where it is too many to mention. I had a good conversation and a good interview with him. And then I went and spoke to the guy who was doing the keyboard technician, so he looks after all of the keyboards for the keyboard players and his name was Donal Hodgson and he primarily works in the studios doing audio engineering. But his most notable aspect is that he works with Sting quite regularly and he produced three or four of the last Sting albums, so he works with him quite regularly in the studio so he was a fantastic person to interview.

What made you interested in Music Technology?

Well, my dad was always recording when I was growing up. He is a singer-songwriter, and he always had these bits of technology and tape recorders as I was growing up. So, I have always grown up around the music technology side of things, so I went and studied it at college and decided that it is what I want to do and do a degree in it and see where it takes me. With the degree you get a little idea about everything and that has made me realise what I would like to primarily focus on.

What is the ambition long term?

I would like to be a mastering engineer, so that is the person that mixes the audio before it goes out to the audience. The mastering engineer is the person who is the final quality control checker, so they make sure that all the levels are right and it is suitable for the different platforms like CD’s, Vinyl, Spotify and so on. That is one thing that I would really be looking into doing. The thing with the music industry is you never just have one job, or very rarely. So, you would usually have two or three on the side and alongside that I am also looking into doing my music journalism as freelance. If I had an interesting or high-profile project that I was working on I could do the project itself and then also write an article about it for a magazine and get more money from that. Which is what it is all about at the end of the day.

How did you find your first publication with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, did you feel under pressure?

To be honest it really wasn’t a lot of pressure at all. The guy that I was working with who is the digital marketing manager there, he was really supportive and any questions about the concert or the music he was straight on it. It made for quite an easy writing process from my side of things. I gave him my first draft and a couple of days later it was all done.

Read Joseph’s article at https://www.rpo.co.uk/news-and-press/rpo-blog/568-the-music-of-john-williams-is-celebrated-in-cambridge-on-his-90th-birthday-year.

What have you been most proud of on your journey?

I think, the work with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was a really good thing and doing the recordings with them. The first one was in 2018 so I am getting to know them and it has been all through that process that they have been trusting enough to let me go along to a concert and write about it. That has been one really proud moment. It was quite entertaining to be allowed to take pictures. And also the Simply Red work has introduced me to so many people in one hit from going along to that and seeing where you can end up in the industry.

What has been your biggest challenge?

Probably, doing all of the lockdown learning. You do have to really concentrate for long periods of time. So much of the work is studio based so it has been quite an interesting challenge for everyone.