Ever been a recording studio intern? I have, and it was very interesting.

Back in 2002, I was searching the internet as usual looking for music production, recording sites, home studios, and music info, etc. I stumbled across an ad for an intern to do music production at a recording studio. My heart skipped a few beats. Then I looked even closer, and what do you know, it was in Minnesota. My heart skipped a few more beats. I called the number as quick as humanly possible. It took quite a few calls before I actually got through to anybody.

He explained to me that he was looking to hire a recording studio intern to eventually run the studio when he was not there. He was going to start with a group of studio interns and weed out the guys he didn't like. He told me to come on down and to bring something that I had recorded and produced myself.

So, my first day there, I went to the recording studio. He was located in Bloomington and I lived in St. Francis, it was over an hour drive to his studio. When I first met him, he seemed like a nice enough guy. He had an awesome studio with tons of recording equipment. Everything was brand new. I was envious of his setup and all of his recording gear. Not to mention the studio space was laid out really nicely and everything was soundproofed.

I brought him a copy of my first CD SX1000 which I recorded and produced myself. I was a little nervous about having a real studio engineer listen to my first time effort. But, he was very receptive to my recording. He said he thought my drum tracks sounded great. He liked the sound of the song. Which made me feel a lot better.

Since I was already working a full time job, the only time I could work in the recording studio was at night and on weekends. At first, everything was very dissorganized. The guy didn't even have a schedule setup for all of the studio interns. We just had to call him to find out when to show up.

He always had the interns work in pairs. Mainly what we did in the studio was, answer phones while he was in session, assemble discs, copy discs, organize cables and mic stands, and anything else he wanted us to do. I felt lucky to be there at all. He would also make sure to show us what was going on as far as the computer, the mixing board, mic setup, drums, etc. Remember, his goal was to find an apprentice to fill in when he was gone, so he wanted us to know exactly what he was doing.

It was great seeing all of the equipment he used. I also really enjoyed seeing the treatments he used in the booth, the mics he used, the way he placed the mics, and just the entire process of recording an entire live band.

It was a really great experience, and I learned a ton of stuff. But things started to really go downhill toward the end. The studio guy started getting really lazy about letting the interns know what was going on. On more than one occassion, I'd show up when he told me, and I'd be the only one at the studio. I'd finally get a hold of him and he'd say "Didn't I call you? The band cancelled today." A bit on the rude side if you ask me, considering I drove over an hour to get to the recording studio.

Also, the having the recording studio interns working in pairs was not a great idea. On two seperate occassions, the person I was working with would screw up and I'd have to take the heat with him, making me look bad.

Also, as time went on, I could see exactly what was happening. There was one intern, fresh out of recording school. He was a drummer in a local punk band. I could definately see the favoritism. I knew the guy had the job, and the rest of the interns paled in his shadow.

So after about 3 months of being an intern, I was tired of the "organized" chaos, not getting paid, getting blamed for other interns mistakes, plus I knew that one intern was going to get the job. I just quit going.  I had gotten what I wanted out of it...knowledge, and it was a great experience.

It also taught me one other thing. When you're recording someone elses music, it can get extremely tedious. Somehow, when you are recording your own songs, listening to them over and over doesn't seem so bad. But when it is some cheesy 90's rap metal band doing the same song over and over. It was a bit sobering. Music production can be work. Work, huh. Who knew?

If you are lucky enough to find an intern position at a recording studio, do it. Nothing can teach you more than seeing a professional recording a band and the techniques he uses. It will boost your music production confidence. Just because I had some negative experiences, doesn't mean you will. I would do it all again, if given the chance. The things I got out of it, I could have never learned on my own.

The number one thing I learned as a reording studio intern is to just spend as much time in the recording studio as you can, things will eventually start clicking!

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