“Over the years, I've learned that this business is not for the faint of heart. To make your living from music is quite difficult and it takes dedication and determination. Above all, a good sense of humor about this whole business is very healthy. At the end of the day, working in music is a job like any other.”
What he does:
Backline Technician – primarily guitars, but I’ve been known to dabble in drums as well.
What this means:
Day to day, you take it out of the box, tune it, fix it, play with it, let some famous man or woman play with it, put it back in the box and put that box into the truck-shaped box.
Other duties include making sure you have all the boxes you need at the start of the tour and that the truck-shaped box will allow for all your boxes to fit. Of course, someone at an airport or border crossing may want to look at your boxes, so you should make a list of your boxes and what’s in the boxes ahead of time and get the list stamped by someone with an expensive looking and hard-to-copy stamp.
They may also want to peek into the truck-shaped box, so prepare to be rudely awoken by Customs Officers asking to see all your boxes and your boxes’ papers. Management may want you to curtail spending on your boxes, so bear that in mind when planning on designing and buying new boxes. Put wheels on your boxes; that helps the pony-tailed men handle your boxes at the shows.
Count your boxes – never leave a box behind. Tell your musician friends to keep their robbing mitts off your boxes. Don’t lose your boxes. Don’t mix the boxes’ contents – I HATE that. I’ll kill over that. Make sure your boxes are black. No one wants to see a yellow box with a 4 x12 on it.
That’s pretty much what I do on a day-to-day basis on tour.
How long the road has been. And where it’s leading.
Well, I’m 33 and I’ve been doing this professionally, (if you can call the early, drunken and confusing years ‘professional’) for around 14 years. As an amateur enthusiast, I’ve been doing it far longer, since I was around six, taking things apart and not putting them back together very well. (I have since developed skill improvement in the latter but that is, as always, subject to the opinion of the client!)
No matter how long you’ve been doing it and how good you are, there is a very good chance that someone else has been doing it longer and better.
I’m still an enthusiast, because I keep looking for challenges above the daily norm. One can only change so many sets of strings before one (the Royal One, that is to say) goes cuckoo-bananas. There is always something to learn and always someone else to learn it from. No matter how long you’ve been doing it and how good you are, there is a very good chance that someone else has been doing it longer and better. A good rule of thumb is to keep your trap shut until you know who’s in the room.
My goal is to be the very best in my field. That means I’ll stick to it a few years longer, if not the rest of my life.
Sooner or later, the day will come when I will be utterly powerless to hide my frustration in regard to the same mercilessly bland food, same ineptitude, same “music biz” politics, stifling working environment, terrible living conditions and recurring human rights violations faced day-in and day-out and I will unleash a torrent of verbal abuse to the wrong person and never work again. I believe this is how old roadies who don’t fade away get the chop. Until then, I’ll just say no to the “wrong” tours.
How did you get started?
It really took off was when I started to play guitar. I was 16, living at home in Northern Ireland and pretty much penniless. I bought my first guitar from a 15 year-old alcoholic for £15. It was pretty much a piece of garbage but I figured out how the guitar worked and made it tolerable to play. I didn’t have an amplifier back then, so I modified an old cassette player to act as one. It sounded pretty good.
I became known, in our little circuit of bands from the Belfast area, as the guy who could actually set up a vocal PA, solder something and plug this thing into that thing. As one of the bands in the circuit, (namely Ash) got picked up by a label, they eventually needed a guitar tech. Since I was the only guy locally who would work for bread, tap water and shelter, (or at least a combination of two) I quickly jumped onboard and our relationship blossomed.
I have now been working on and off for them since 1995 – if it wasn’t for geographical reasons, I suspect I would have done every show from June 1995 until now.
How have your job responsibilities changed since the very beginning?
Dramatically. In the beginning I was basically changing strings, tuning guitars, loading and unloading gear. I didn’t know one end of a 12AX7 from the other, anything about customs documents, chain of command, the wingspan of a 747-400 and so many other things. The workload can be stressful nowadays in comparison with the old me, but as you get older, you drink less and worry about your reputation more.
“When our UHF guitar wireless system was acting microphonic, Shure replaced the voltage control oscillators free of charge”
“Our in-ears have never failed due to anything in Shure’s hands. When you drop the pack into a toilet, I guess you have to expect it may not work for a day or two. Can you get waterproof packs?”
I’m quite fond of working from home these days – the hours are good, my tools are always set up, I get to use bigger, more sophisticated toys and I get to sleep in a strap-free bed that isn’t screeching down an Irish “motorway.” Of course, the money is better on the road.
My best gig has been Ash. They’ve had me out on the road for over a decade and we’ve been through all sorts of adventures. Supporting U2 last year was great and a reminder that touring can be made so much better by working with good people.
The most important lesson you’ve learned along the way?
I don’t think there can be only one. I’ve seen so much of the world and feel so privileged to have learned what I have about people, their surroundings and their ways of life that it makes me sad more people can’t do it. I wish everyone could get out more.
Best advice for a newbie?
Keep your head up, figure out who really is in charge, listen to them and learn from them. It will most likely be several YEARS before you get any respect from the old pros.
Do the best job you can, always try harder than the next guy or gal and for the love of John Entwistle, DO NOT trust everything you read on the Internet.
Buy books and read them from cover to cover two or three times.
Remember, you’re not in the band – go to bed!
I have actually outlived some people I’ve spent time with on the road and that puts a lot into perspective; so take it easy - it’s not all about the beer.
Above all else, learn from your mistakes; you WILL make tons of them.
Shure Notes thanks Leif for his good advice, great insights and wry observations. For readers who just can’t get enough of Leif, check out his website at www.enforce.ca.
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Back Talk: Leif Bodnarchuk
Back Talk: Kelly Macaulay
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