John Mills of the Chris Tomlin Band: On the Road with the Sound Man and Shure Fan We're talking to John Mills who is the FOH man for the Chris Tomlin Band.
		First of all, tell our readers how you got involved with the band. I've known Chris for about six years. About two years ago I did a tour with the folks at Passion. Right after that, they called me and wondered if I'd be interested in being the Production Manager/FOH Engineer. I accepted the role and hit the road with Charlie Hall, The David Crowder Band and Chris Tomlin. Chris and I talked a bunch on the road that fall and he offered me a full time role as his FOH Engineer/ Road Manager. I've been with him full time for almost two years now.
	Some folks come to this field because they know sound and for others, it's more of a calling. Which was it for you - or was it both? It was definitely a calling. I knew nothing about sound when I started almost 11 years ago. My first real job in the music industry was as a drummer. I answered an ad in a Christian magazine to play drums for a national touring company that did anti-drug and alcohol assembly programs. I was accepted and moved there to start my career as a drummer. Then, how did you make the switch to sound? Well through some amazing circumstances I realized God didn't bring me there to play drums. I realized I was supposed to run sound. Now remember - they hired me to play drums. How was I supposed to go into the director's office and tell him God spoke to me and that I "felt" that I was there to run sound instead of to play drums? It made absolutely no sense, since I didn't really know anything about sound. I went ahead and told him the whole story anyhow. He just sat there and grinned. When I finished, he told me that this normally would be a real tough situation... but only 10 minutes earlier, the sound engineer was there telling him that he felt he was to play drums. Well it turned out the he was a better drummer than I was and I ended up being a better sound guy than him. So that's how your career as a sound engineer began. How did you learn what you know now? I cracked open some of the owners manuals and just started plugging things in. I'm sure I wasn't any good then, but I was learning and loving it. Over the years, I've been able to hang out with some really great engineers and pick up tricks and techniques from them. But mostly I just did it, reading everything I could get my hands on, and spending countless hours in a rehearsal room with a mic and PA -making the mic squeal so I could practice feedback frequencies. Your band association started with the college ministry Passion. What's the band's involvement with it today? We are very involved with the folks at Passion. We've done two events with them this year already (Thirsty and OneDay) and starting at the end of September we will head out with them on a 7-week tour across the country. The tour dates are posted at www.268generation.com.
		It looks like the band has a pretty active tour schedule. What challenges does that create for you? The biggest challenge is probably the advance work. We do about 200 to 250 dates per year and over half of them are one-offs. So we're on a different system every night. I've got to be on my A game with all the different cities and rental companies coordinating our technical needs. If that's done right before we arrive, the event should go well.
	My job with Chris is to make sure he is free to LEAD worship. If he is concerned with how his guitar sounds or why his vocal isn't loud enough, he isn't really thinking about leading, he's distracted with the technology. The band is also performing at a number of churches. How does that differ - or - do the sizes of these churches, like Willow Creek, for example, pretty much make it a concert hall experience? It varies greatly. Some small churches have it together better than some large churches and vice versa. It really comes down to who's in charge technically at the facility. Our readers are always hungry to pick up live sound tips for church audio. Got any for them? First thing I would say is obvious but as a technician if someone notices you, you probably are not doing your job. We should be providing a distraction free environment. Everything from, "Can I hear all the parts the band is playing?" to the video guy being on the right slide. When techs come to an event, we are really lead worshippers as well as the folks on the platform. Any special microphone techniques? I've recently started to do a lot of double miking techniques. There are many advantages to this, but the biggest is being able to blend sounds and change tones for each song. I really try to recreate the feel of the record as much as possible and blending mics is a way to not have to re-equalize between songs. For instance on the kick drum I am using a Beta 52 and a Beta 91. The 52 is just inside the hole and the 91 all the way inside the drum on the pillow. The 52 is capturing more of a fluffy, really deep, low end and is kind of mellow-sounding. The 91 is getting some great definition and the real attack of the drum. Blending the two creates this larger-than-life sound that can really drive. Sometimes on slower songs, I'll drop the 91 back a little in the mix. Slow songs don't tend to need a real "in-your-face" kick sound. What about using the same blending techniques for the snare and guitar amps? On the snare, I'm using a Beta 57 on top and a KSM141 on the bottom with it set to the cardioid position. I like the Beta 57 on top because our drummer hits the hi-hat real hard. The Beta rejects a little more hat than my overall favorite snare mic - the SM57. On the bottom the 141 is getting a lot of the great sound from the snares that I can blend back in with the top mic. Note that on the bottom mic you have to invert the phase. Most soundboards have a switch to do this. If not , you can take a short mic cable and just swap pins 2 & 3 on one end. This will do the trick. It's the same idea with the guitar amp. I'm using a KSM27 and a Beta 56. Both mics are on the front of a Vox AC30, which is a double 12" open back cabinet. I put the KSM27 right in the intersection of the cone and dust cover and the 56 on the other speaker just a little more toward the edge of the same area. The 27 gets this huge driving sound and the 56 is a little mellower because of being more toward the outside of the cone. Again I blend them depending on what the song needs and what Daniel is giving me. It helps that Daniel's guitar sounds are some of the best I've ever worked with. Finally - what's your favorite Shure microphone and why? My favorite has to be the KSM32. I've tried it on everything from toms, drum overheads, guitar amp, acoustic guitar to vocals. I'd say if you are going to buy one good mic for your studio... buy the KSM32, it sounds great on just about anything. I currently use two of them on the drum overheads live and honestly all of the other mics I just mentioned in our demo studio. Good luck with the rest of the tour, John and we'll be watching the Dove Awards for the Chris Tomlin Band and the new CD, "NOT TO US". We'll make sure to let our readers know they can learn more about the Chris Tomlin Band at www.christomlin.com
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