It’s the best of both worlds. While working out of the LMG office in Orlando keeps him close to family, it also allows him to take advantage of plenty of corporate work between touring seasons and facilitates plenty of access to the golf course.
“Growing up in Canada, I didn’t play as much hockey as golf,” he says. “I started playing when I was three years old and always said if I can ever live in a place I can play year round, I want to do it.”
And busy he is, Yakabuski’s still looking forward to the next challenge, still looking to take his career to yet another level. Further involvement in the education of another generation of pro audio professionals is a logical next step – a continuation of both his work as an author and his ongoing involvement with Full Sail.
“The thing I would love to transition into is education.” For now, however, it’s only an idea. Taking the leap, he says – actually starting a school, for instance – is a prospect he finds a bit unnerving.
That may be, but “nerves” haven’t stopped him before. “The last time I felt nervous before a gig was at the UK’s Castle Donington Festival in 1994,” he says. “I was mixing Extreme, who were opening for Aerosmith.”
Just prior to Extreme’s set, absolute mayhem broke out on stage. “It went crazy. I barked into the talkback for someone to check the lead vocal mic, managed to hear kick and snare, and they said, ‘You’re on.’ Ninety-thousand people – the biggest show I’d ever done, and I didn’t have a line check, but within a third of the first song” – with the help of an Audio-Rent system technician – “we had it sounding pretty good.”
Momentary uncertainty aside, Yakabuski seems relaxed and optimistic about future possibilities. Given the right circumstances and partners, chances are, if he wants it, just as he has before, he’ll find the way forward.
Based in Toronto, Kevin Young is a freelance music and tech writer, professional musician and composer.