Many Roles
For Stock, the hardest thing about being on the road is missing her three cats (two of whom have their faces tattooed just above the COMP and GATE on her hands). “Touring is not for everyone but I really love it,” she says. “I don’t mind the long hours and being away from home; if I didn’t have my cats, I might not even keep a traditional home. ”
She’s worked with both headliners and support acts. When we talked, she was in the middle of a North American tour with party guru Andrew W.K., and previously she was out with KING and ABRA as both tour manager and FOH.
She recalls a support tour that was particularly difficult as the headliner made it hard for her and the band; other tours have been more kind, where the headliners offered the opener the same treatment and flexibility as they had. It’s something that has definitely shaped her philosophy as a tour manager.
“As a headliner, I’ve never restricted a support act sonically, and have never understand why some headliners try and restrict support acts or treat them poorly,” she explains. “You never know where you next paycheck is going to come from. For instance, I was working with Empress Of as the tour headliner in 2015 and ABRA was our support act. She and her tour manager traveled with us, and now, a couple years later, I was ABRA’s TM and FOH, and she took me all over the world.”
Straightforward Matters
Since Stock often handles the dual role of TM/FOH, her workbox has changed quite a bit from when she was just FOH. “Now, I carry a printer with me and leave most of my tools at home. I can’t get by without my headphones, my USB portfolio, a Sharpie (or three), and Yelp instructions to the closest third-wave coffee shop.
Her preferences in gear are pretty straightforward as well: “If I get to choose, I would have a d&b [audiotechnik] J Series rig that I tune myself. With consoles I go back and forth; I love the Midas PRO Series consoles and any of the large-format DiGiCo desks, and I’ve had some great shows recently on the Soundcraft Vi300. Really, though, it all comes down to the source. I’m fortunate enough that I work with some incredibly talented musicians who care about their sound – that makes my job at FOH much easier. My current band is very loud on stage and there are several vocal positions, so I go direct where I can and use Audix OM5 and OM7 vocal mics for the off axis rejection ”
It’s always fun to ask folks about the advice they’d offer their younger selves after years of making the climb; it frequently produces some interesting answers in addition to being helpful to those just starting their journeys in pro audio.
“What I would say is to find the smartest audio person around them and become the person’s friend,” Stock replies in answer to my query. “It’s so much easier to learn these abstract concepts when there’s someone around to help you along. When I was in school, I started out terrified of audio. It took me awhile to understand it, so I aligned myself with people who were much smarter than I was, and eventually, their smarts rubbed off.
“I also advise ‘newbies’ to ask questions but don’t be annoying – it’s a fine line that you have to figure out yourself,” she continues. “If you’re in school, use all of the equipment available, even if you’re just recording random sounds going through the gear. Learn, understand, and master signal flow. Learn how to troubleshoot, it will save your butt. I wish I’d had a mentor when I was 19, but I was lucky enough to have a good group of friends and a couple of instructors who believed in me. I learned to speak up and not just accept the status quo, regardless of the personal cost. There are times I wish I’d spoken up and still regret my silence today.”
She’s passionate about mentoring those who are newer to the business, in addition to participating in several online forums and “talking to anyone who is interested,” she adds, noting that she’s also addressed several audio production programs in both the US and UK.
Her Own Path
As we wrapped up our conversation, it was time to return to the topic of tattoos. “I’ve got a lot of them,” she laughs, “and have always been pretty heavily modified with tattoos, piercings, weird hair, and so on. When I was still in college, I knew that I was going to be involved in live sound forever.”
At a certain point, she decided that she needed to have her knuckles tattooed and started making list upon list of fun four and eight-letter letter words when a friend offered the “COMP GATE” suggestion. “I just kept coming back to it and laughing,” she says. “I never get tattoos for other people; I get them for myself, and even though 90 percent of people out there don’t understand my knuckle tattoos, I get a kick out of it.
“I also have two FFT equations on my wrists, the discreet and inverse versions of the equations,” she concludes. “They include variable functions, so they’re essentially never-ending math equations, which is a song by my favorite band, Modest Mouse. It’s my subtle fan-girl tattoo.”
Based in the northwest U.S., Phil Garfinkel has worked in pro audio for 30-plus years. He lives with two cats and has no tattoos.