Phillip Thornton is a 3rd year student in the Bachelor of Media Arts (Commercial Music) degree. Over the summer, he completed the ‘Internship’ module, in which students negotiate an industry placement relating to their chosen field. Supervised by David Sidwell, Phillip spent his internship in an American recording studio. We asked him a few questions about the experience.
How did you go about organising your internship? Who was it with?
My internship was with a private medium-sized studio called ‘Fool on the Hill Recording Studio’ located in Berryhill district in Nashville, USA. Firstly I contacted a whole lot of studios in Nashville with no success – due to the recession in the US at moment they don’t even want free workers, which is strange. I then contacted a friend in Australia who runs an entertainment company and he put me onto the studio. As I found out while I was there, I was extremely lucky to get an internship in Nashville due to many students coming out of the SAE Institute there and trying to get into studios.
Another misconception is that Nashville is a ‘yee haw’ country music place. Sure, it’s built around it, but it is also the mecca for song writing for all genres, with people like Bon Jovi, Katy Perry and Pat Pattison going there to hang out. It’s my second trip there and we have met people like Tommy Emmanuel, Vince Gill, Lonestar, and many other industry figureheads, which has helped the careers of my wife and I.
What did you mostly do while you were over there, and what were the most useful things you learned?
While I was there I helped in every way possible such as office work, cleaning duties, making lots of coffee, liaising with clients, and setting up sessions ready for recording, and helping the engineers where possible. In any quiet times they trained me in using their SSL console and outboard rack equipment, and gave me pointers on mixing. I also learned how to run a recording studio from a business perspective and how it works in Nashville.
Did your Wintec study prepare you well for industry expectations?
Doing the BMA Commercial Music degree has definitely helped me with skills needed to work at the studio. Comparing myself to the other interns there, I was further ahead in some areas such as music theory which helps when working with the recording artists and session players, etc, while they were more experienced in using the SSL and Neve consoles. It didn’t take long to catch up to them though. The program here with the tutors we have is second to none, I believe.
Would you like to go back there to work?
I would like to go back when I can and have been invited to by the studio if I move there.
What advice would you give a student interested in doing an internship overseas?
Advice to anyone trying to get an internship in Nashville: market yourself well and if you have contacts use them, as it’s a hard town to make it in. Also they love Kiwis, so if you make an impression you’re set for life.
What are your aims for this year?
My aims this year are to improve my audio production skills more and hopefully do Honours postgraduate study next year.
Special thanks to Rob Potts at Entertainment Australia and Kiwi Pro Am for their support.
