Thinking In Sound: The Magic in Collaboration with Steve Gadsden
Steve is a director, composer, engineer and the president of TA2. Steve began as one of the most sought after audio engineers in the country. A true chameleon, embracing all disciplines of audio and pushing technical and creative boundaries. Beginning his audio director career at the renowned Louder Music in Toronto, Steve moved on and started his own award winning audio production company.
LBB> When you’re working on a new brief or project, what’s your typical starting point? How do you break it down and how do you like to generate your ideas or response?
Steve> It’s always interesting starting a project. People are engaging me for a wealth of studio, production and musical knowledge. So I usually start with what are we trying to achieve with this overall and help shepherd them through with creative ways to get there.
There are thousands of sound voices and palettes I can employ, but what are we to take away from this? How should we feel at each moment and each touchpoint. Once we nail the emotional arc, it’s then really down to style, flavours, tones and the math of music to fit the strategy or the brand or tone of the piece.
LBB> Music and sound are in some ways the most collaborative and interactive forms of creativity - what are your thoughts on this? Do you prefer to work solo or with a gang - and what are some of your most memorable professional collaborations?
Steve> I always like to work with a team. We may go off to our corners to dig down and create a piece that fits the strategy and vision, but when we can share that, and the music or sound gets to evolve and grow around the project through the edit or as visuals shift (depending on application) that’s when it really takes form. That collaborative process can be where the magic happens.
LBB> What’s the most satisfying part of your job and why?
Steve> Honestly I love the variety. All throughout my career I’ve been told to pick a lane. Film/long form work, or albums. Sound design, producing, engineering, voice direction, composing, dialogue editing, music, commercial or games, whatever, and I’ve rallied against limiting myself to just one. The labels and the, “jack of all trades master of none” way of thinking feels just so incredibly limiting and wrong. I’ve focused on audio in all its forms and applications. That’s what I love about each day, there is a new challenge each time.
LBB> Who are your musical or audio heroes and why?
Steve> Oh! that’s a hard one. Clint Mansell for composing and sound creation. I love what he’s done across the his career. From PWEI to his film scores, always finding new voices to express through sound.
I love the visual and sound mastery crossover connections of Bjork, though I still can’t forgive her for cancelling her shows in Reykjavik last year. Ben Burtt for showing us how space sounds, David Farmer for his creatures, and I guess Tony Iommi. I learned to play guitar playing along to Black Sabbath's 'Paranoid' album.
LBB> And when it comes to your particular field, whether sound design or composing, are there any particular ideas or pioneers that you go back to frequently or who really influence your thinking about the work you do?
Steve> We are very lucky in Canada to have a rich creative and technical field. I’ve relished getting to learn from some of the world's best right here in Canada. As a learning ground, I did some of my core skill building at Sounds Interchange, which at the time was the largest recording facility in North America.
I could jump between disciplines there and learn in a unique way. A huge variety of some of the world’s best engineers came through there and I was lucky enough to get a incredibly diverse and deep understanding of sound in all its applications, film, TV series and IMAX, Animation voice records, music, sound design, foley and mixing, albums, film scores and composing work and commercials.
LBB> When you’re working on something that isn’t directly sound design or music (lets say going through client briefs or answering emails) - are you the sort of person who needs music and noise in the background or is that completely distracting to you? What are your thoughts on ‘background’ sound and music as you work?
Steve> I always have some kind of media playing. I have managed to gather a fairly large and varied vinyl collection. So on days when I’m just doing office work, I’m making my way through and discovering 'new to me' old records.
When composing, I have a monitor on usually playing movies, (the 'Godzilla' films being one of my favourite). I find I can look over, get lost in the visuals and new ideas have a chance to move from my subconscious to the surface. Sometimes its random streaming of songs during dinner or just wandering around the house. My Spotify plays are incredibly random and diverse.
LBB> I guess the quality of the listening experience and the context that audiences listen to music/sound in has changed over the years. There’s the switch from analogue to digital and now we seem to be divided between bad-ass surround-sound immersive experiences and on-the-go, low quality sound (often the audio is competing with a million other distractions) - how does that factor into how you approach your work?
Steve> There have been a few major shifts for sure. For the most part, we are not expecting people to be seated comfortably in the optimum listening position anymore. We can still take advantage of that if it is the case, and expand the field, but for the most part people are wandering, listening online or just a screen or earbuds. All the different mediums require things to be much more compatible across platforms.
Much of it is simplification and really being aware of sculpting the frequency range, managing phase relationships for placement and finding spaces for sounds to live clearly and effectively.
LBB> Do you have a collection of music/sounds and what shape does it take (are you a vinyl nerd, do you have hard drives full of random bird sounds, are you a hyper-organised spotify-er…)?
Steve> I’m really loving rediscovering vinyl. I’ve got a great collection of new and old. I was gifted a couple hundred records a while ago and they were all really outside of what I might have picked up in the record store. I’ve slowly been going through all of them and discovering some really amazing things. I also have a huge CD collection and hard drives full of new releases. I always try to stay up on what is happening out in the world, but there are always surprises and new finds.
LBB> Outside of the music and sound world, what sort of art or topics really excite you and do you ever relate that back to music (e.g. history buffs who love music that can help you travel through time, gamers who love interactive sound design… I mean it really could be anything!!)
Steve> Oh yeah, I love museums and art galleries and have a diverse love of the traditional masters and the impressionists. The visual mastery can be a very moving experience and again it’s all about how it makes you feel. I love getting lost in video games when they have done really in depth world creation. When there are no tells to take you out of the world, no seams, you can get lost inside the creation.
LBB> Let’s talk travel! It’s often cited as one of the most creatively inspiring things you can do - I’d love to know what are the most exciting or inspiring experiences you’ve had when it comes to sound and music on your travels?
Steve> I love to travel! I haven't really done as much as I want and have been making up for lost time in the last few years. I love old cities and can wander looking at architecture for days.
We just got back from Lisbon, and we made our way to Sintra and Obidos, which were amazing. I love the raw creative feel of Iceland, I still need to get back to Florence, I did not allot enough time for the Uffizi, it is way bigger than you think. It is all very inspiring, the food and culture, learning how much people are the same are all over the world, the same sky connects us. It inspires and reminds me how music can connect people from vastly different parts of the world through the universal language and emotion.
Experiencing more of the world has allowed me to see the commonality that binds us all as humans and commonality and math of music across genres.
LBB> As we age, our ears change physically and our tastes evolve too, and life changes mean we don’t get to engage in our passions in the same intensity as in our youth - how has your relationship with sound and music changed over the years?
Steve> Oh yes, I’m not on stage blasting through Marshalls much anymore. But it’s always a cumulative thing. I still have my iron Maiden and Clash records but I've expanded in almost every direction. I'm loving Nordic electronic in Fever Ray and Royksopp and everything from there to Classical, Jazz, World music, Cuban, Latin, my relationship with music is always evolving and growing.
