Brian Johnson - Working With The Sound Team | Question & Answer

this is I love this scenario right here because this is one of those um what we're going to talk about today is honestly it's all the stuff that no one ever sees it's all the stuff that a lot of people including leadership and a lot of churches don't even know that happens or think is important but the reality is is the whole sound man worship leader sound system technical stuff is what holds everything together you know it's like there is a verse in the Bible and this is going to be completely out of context but it's funny so it's I'm going to say it unless the army hears the sound the trumpet sound how will they know to go to battle so so what I say is unless there's really good sound you can hear everything it's awesome and it's impacting you how will you know to raise your hands and worship it's out of context but it's okay because it's a joke but these two guys right here know you don't need to clap okay good these two guys right here are two of the most important people to me even relationally but in our world here at Bethel in with both amuse ik they hold everything together they always pushing us for excellence the reason why we've got a - console on the back and we've got all automated monitors and we've got new subs last night you know saying and and so that the sound can be really good and impactful and you can go to the next level and them so what we're going to do is we're just going to open it up we're just going to start talking about worship leader sound men relationships and I always say this like when we teach on this I always say they're out of the gate like and it's real important I honestly believe that probably next to the leader the soundmen is the most important person on the team I really do because I've been at places where like where I hear a band I'm trying to give a scenario real quick I have a fan that I really like and they're amazing and I've base we bowed down to them you know as a kid like these guys are amazing well I did a conference with him one time and it was at a hotel and it was through a Mackey sound system and they had a volunteer doing sound I'm not going to say names cuz that'd be terrible right dishonouring so I went to the soundcheck and I was sitting there in the set I like this is the band that I have thought was amazing all these years but now they sound like normal they don't sound very good and it was 100% because of the sound and so the next night what would happen next days it went out we bought a whole new system to this whole thing and then the next night apparently magically the Holy Spirit showed up magically and it was amazing and of course no one would say this but I'll say it and I'll be bold enough to say that it was this sound it was the sound and so it's very important that we have those things in place and these two guys are are not just good at what they do but they are the best Martin Smith came along ship with us on tour and said that Chris Greeley over here is one of the top three Salman in the worship movement ever so and Clint right here has had opportunity after opportunity to be a production manager for some of the largest bands in the secular world and chooses to stay here and help our world so I just want you to know you're hearing from the best today so you're welcome um I'm gonna I'm gonna ask you guys some questions you guys won't jump in or Joe me just go ahead hi I agree what about you should you should cuz it's true just don't let it get to you I think I think it's a huge privilege to be able to work here of myself this is the best environment I've ever been in in a audio position for sure because there is a lot of respect for our position here and and just everybody's so dang nice I don't know I you know that's not always the case and I mean I am just so grateful to be right and you know I had no idea what I was in for when it when I decided to move to Redding California place out ever want to live before I moved here that it would just be this awesome all the time and it's been really great alright thank you Chris I'll receive that let's talk about this I think let's talk about the lack of connection with worship leaders in the Solomon Clint go for it so probably the most common question I get from people is it's like my worship leader is is is like it they're not they don't listen to me and and I and I that's a really common problem and I think that like the reason that that's the case is because you're not developing a relationship that's more than just service level and I think that's really common it's like man you're just such a blessing but like becoming real friends with your with your tech guys and and building really strong relationships so that you can trust them and and be in a close relationship with them and I think that solves like so much communication issue it always does really but it it just I don't know it makes it so much easier to deal with problems feedback when you love them and you appreciate them and you're you're like friends with them it's like hey man it fed back and you don't feel like offended that something bad happened oh yeah no because you have you know that they're not attacking to you because you have a real relationship that's really important well I think it's the best feeling in the world as a worship leader and I think this is the goal for all of you if you're not in this position but um to know that your sound man monitors stage crew and then the front-of-house mixers have your back as a worship leader and um there's not a worse feeling out about you when you're leading and you know there's not a relationship there and you know they don't have your best interest in mind and and vice versa so when you're up there leading they're not going to you know like they don't really care they're not taking it serious and they're just kind of like whatever you gave me I'm just you know you know I'm saying so these guys you know that we've built a good relationship enough to her like I will ask and when I'm leading or doing sound check like are we good is there anything we could do to improve and what they tell me I respect and I believe it because I know that they've got my back and I've got their back so I think that's so important and you would be surprised I mean some of you experience this now but I think the anxiety goes away and you become a better leader when that happens because you can step out and you know that they've got your back you know your team you even though there's separation that we are a team you know so that's the goal going along those lines a little bit like when you have their back that is I mean I feel like that's never lying to them ever even if it's not good if you're like yeah this wasn't the best and it could be better or this was the best it's ever been and either way if you always tell the truth tell the truth a hundred percent of the time that just goes so far with with your team you know just I'd say that vice versa - like I think that if you're encouraging your saram got like man that was killer you know like you know and then sometimes we're for him so I'll be like yeah that wasn't so great I've heard you do better and and because we have a relationship we can tell each other that and you know usually is this way or in that way about the bad part because he just always just boom all the time but I mean but to be able to have that relationship to where you could do that it's so much support and if you don't have a relationship you have people coming at you which we've experienced we're like like oh man I mix just does it sound good you're like I don't know you why are you talking to me yeah that never works never they just turn it up and make a man yeah how do I do that never do that ever but we meet weekly yeah we meet with what we do and we meet with our main musician leaders that lead all the different musicians and he and our sound head people we meet weekly and we talk about real stuff you know at times we pray to each other and where were since we started doing that I think everything has really gone up a notch on a level so now Chris can go during the soundcheck to like a guitar player and say hey you're Tony's - whatever and the guitar players do it and they change it like like it's a it's a dream right normally there's always fight with Salman but it's one of the most valuable relationships for church is the worst polluter in the some and and then and then in a lot of churches the worship leader is a bridge from leadership to the some and because the leadership a lot of times goes you know they don't they're only looked at when there's feedback or there's a problem and the Salman really gets the kudos and the path in the back if it was amazing you see it's if it's amazing man the band was amazing today but let's just get honest okay for a second worship leaders you're Salman is everything to you you know if you did a good job 50% of that reasons because the soundman's back there working his butt off there's tons were like I'm like man it was a mix amazing today and it is because Chris really has worked his butt off in the back and so there's got to be honor where honor is due and you never in the second you start forgetting that that's a problem so I think it's important and you got to get cushion from leadership to the some and to and you got to really portray to the leadership your church all that the Salman is doing and the hard work they're doing and everything because leadership a lot of times you know they're it's out of sight out of mind and so I think it's important as a worship leader that you're got your settlements back and you've got a real good let's talk about that for a bit how we had a structured here um with Dan myself and then the whole thing someone for me I got here you actually I interviewed for the position a year ago like this week last week yeah its fourth of July week and I didn't know anyone here so I knew Brian and I got here and and you talked about the bridge for me it took six months to learn all the pastor's because there's so many we have a lot of pastors here you know this and and it took a long time to just to build even a relationship for me with the senior leadership and so you talked about the bridge and your that especially for me when I got here because I deal with a lot of the other other ministries of the church and so be able to get a direct conversation with with Chris or Eric Johnson her bill and was very difficult until like probably three months ago either nothing you know and so yeah that's been it's been huge for me you know to have that to know that you know and in the past I've had that I've had that work really well because I've been in other churches where they were the worship leader and I would you know they'd help me with it with a different pastors and I've had it kind of the opposite way where it's like oh they come up to you and I really mean to you and they don't know it they're just talking you know they're not trying to be mean but they were just talking and they just say it and you're like ah oh man but because you know we built a strong system here and so dan fairly is actually my technically my boss and Brian's tight with my boss and Eric's technically my boss so we have a lot of different input but it works really well because we all again goes back to relationship we all have really strong relationship together and you know each person oversees a different thing so yeah it's interesting how it works here because we have um we've got streaming and we've got like the movement part of the church and then we've got the local part of the church and then we've got streaming which is kind of both departments and so it's interesting because a lot of a lot of it is and theirs isn't just like one boss over certain people there's several and we have to work to interweave and our communication so you've got like Eric who's in charge of the local church but Bethel is not just a local church the biggest part of Beth was like the movement piece and so you've got like that's where I would fit in with the streaming and then the buff of music piece so it's really complicated but if you can build things that's on a relational level it just makes things like it just doesn't work if there's not there huh not at all I mean I think that I think that I actually had fears of that because I didn't know anyone when I got here like okay it's great we get along great yeah but man what else cuz it's like a theme park here I'm really happy yeah we you know we have so much going on during the week in fact Tuesday is our busiest week day of the week actually you're not Sunday and so and I immediately jump build a relationship with Bethel media built a relationship started with Eric and of course with Dan fairly as well and and now I'm you know even more branching out it's just kind of feels like you know and it's if I hadn't done that it would have been a disaster it'll be out yeah Clint like in the middle of everything you know he has to be he's the production manager so he takes care of all things having to do with production but then when you take it to just like there's a few of us guys are just mixed guys and we our job is to make sure it sounds good and if we didn't have this structure we have a structure basically where we have Brian and we have Dan fairly and you know any of the senior leadership pastors and those are the people that basically get to come and tell us what we can and can't do and having like the open soundbooth policy where any church member can walk into the sound booth and just start screaming at you is probably the most unhealthy thing ever for that position because all it does is just makes the sound guys really angry or just like bums amount huge and makes them want to quit or you know because most people that are angry about sound are just really actually hate music I've noticed with a lot of them they don't listen to any music they sit in the house and read books with their dog and you know I had true scene with so many times but you know it just that whole stream line thing has at least for me and I think any of the other guys in the mix position it it's been obviously they can tell Clint to but there's there's a way about how how we receive our feedback that is like a cushion to where you never get that super offended super upset feeling because you know this is the boss man one of the boss man's comes up says this is what's going on you know it whether it's too loud or you know every once in a while it's pretty difficult to what's going on up there you know and we have people stand next to the subs here and they can be like hey the base is a little heavy today or something like that and you know you know that it's good or somebody comes to them and talk to them and and it is really been it's a really good system I laugh a lot I think for we did it wrong for years you know sometimes only way to figure out how to do it right is to do it wrong for a long enough time to realize I'm doing something wrong and it's not working so this everything we're talking now is because we've been doing it I'm not going to say wrong for 15 years but I wouldn't say exactly the right way so a lot of the reason why it works here is because these guys had experience outside the church and in upon a professional level working with normal people that maybe aren't you know and so they don't get quite as offended because they're used to how things really are and so when you're picking your people I think it's important to pick people um number one that can lead without you in the room because that can be leaders you know and communicate communicate and if they cannot the best communicators having a system like we have that there's cushions and there's filters and stuff so um um so the ship can run without being a disgruntled angry sound man who can ship rough can meeting without anyone really knowing it because you want your Selma to be pumped you know and be pumped and and I feel like we work hard at keeping things going you know like even relationally and like I think it's always important works better just to be encouraging do some and all the time and if it sounds good text them like like give you know just like you would your electric guitar player we were joking for this we're talking let it be known that every electric guitar player in the world's number one love language is words of affirmation that's why they play electric guitar well a sound man might have that same love language but it's they hardly ever get told anything unless it's bad so got it you got to work extra hard as a band member or worse fitter to encourage yourself and you know it's important if you want to keep good people around you you got to work extra hard if you're a leader and I've learned this the hard way you got to over communicate to keep people around you that are strong it's just not going to work if you don't so I think when you're encouraged you to when you when you talk to encourage the sound guys one thing to do is pay attention to the little things that they do that Buster will don't notice like you know you talked about it's like great to be like oh so great mix you know but like they're usually the ones there before anybody else afterwards it's just the little things you know like for me I'll go to see I just do this recently we're here to just to build a set four days until 2:00 in the morning and you know the people that don't get credit are sitting back there right now that we're here busting our tail you know it's exactly right and and there you go so take a heart on a packet it's good it's good but I mean nobody notices AB and that's like that happens you know clean the stage up when you're not there getting you you know all that stuff what happens when you do that is they'll do it more and they'll serve you more it's always the case when you're encouraging those little things you know so I think one thing especially like because a lot a lot of you know um churches you know we grew up in Weaverville small town 200 people in the church which is huge it's like a mega church for 30,000 people you know in a town but um you're dealing with volunteers how many have volunteers for the most part and you're like sound yes see so most of you have volunteers and so that's it's so much more important even then like when money is not attached to encourage and let like they're they're serving we and we can't ever forget that you know they're serving and and so what I always like to do is like you know take them to coffee or lunch you know stir like show them your appreciation but also like give them music to listen to get on the same page do whatever you need to do that you're on the same page together so that when they say they think it sounds good and you're up here leading and you can't hear it you can actually trust that it sounds good so do whatever you need to do it so for what for a while when we get new sound went on or whatever I would not lead for like a couple Sundays and just sit with them and we just processed together so we'll get on the same page and so because when there's when there's not that there'll be some friction and then you never trust and then you'll you'll withdraw and there's lack of trust and then eventually it falls apart so work extra hard leave some on getting on the same page and um another thing too is you need to break you need to break any the attitudes are unacceptable absolutely unacceptable in your department number one and especially within your sound because we're talking about Selman and these guys right here um well the thing I really appreciate about them is they don't have attitudes then on agendas and and you know because we have time relationally and we picked we picked them based upon not just their skill level but their attitudes you know and that's really important you know because they're representing a movement they're representing a piece of you to even your leadership and you don't want your salmon flipping the bird to the leader that comes up or the old eighty year old lady that comes up and says it's too loud you know I'm saying you don't want that because that's a representation to use so work extra hard to make sure that that that that piece is intact is there anything else that you guys think is important that we talk about um relating to all this when you talk about volunteer I also think it's a good idea to uh create processes to help grow and I don't mean like hey you should go to that class to learn how to make sound because that does it correctly but I mean like you know I always wanted to go to conferences to learn stuff and there's there's stuff out there but the church never really that when I was young it never really valued me and so I kind of was stuck learning on my own and you know that sitting them out for that little bit of money or whatever to grow and learn just it pays off for you the end you know and and the other thing I would say about volunteers is remember I started off as a volunteer at 17 16 years old in the youth department and it hadn't been for somebody including me and doing those things that we talked about early on I mean I wouldn't be where I'm at now I wouldn't have a career I wouldn't have anything and so it's important to know that volunteers are awesome and there's there's more than just building you know their ability to run sound or ability to do lights or do lyrics or any of those sorts of things you could be started something that could carry on their whole lives you know um Yona okay one thing that I think is important to establish in your department regarding sound is you always want to get better and you always want to improve and we never ever stop growing spiritually and like technically in the excellence we never we have a thing around here where we never want to Plateau we never want to stop and sometimes our gift doesn't allow us to grow anymore you know skill we all have a certain amount of gifting you know and whatnot but what even with sound like we're it's like a relationship with the Lord you know we're satisfied a hundred percent in Jesus and what he did first in the cross we're satisfied in that relationship but but we're never satisfied right we're continuing to grow and learn and so with the sound we're never satisfied we're always wit as always could be better it always could be better it always could be better and we keep a posture and it really is honestly it's that humility you know like like you travel somewhere and you experience something that like oh man we could really learn from that and it's instill that with your Selman so that he doesn't plateau or she doesn't plateau and just get bored you don't want him to get bored when we start getting bored man it's dangerous I think it's really important that we remember that you know and the sky is the limit you know a lot of there's a lot of departments worship performance in the church and it's just like what do you what do you want do you have a vision form or do you have a vision for excellence you had a vision for that that that top level that you could could experience yeah I think along with that goes especially in your audio department I mean having the tools to get there I mean I I have the I had the opportunity of starting on junk like a Mackey console like when I was six with my parents you know my dad owned a production company and you know it's like you work that piece of gear until you have gotten better than that gear and it's time to upgrade but you need to squeeze every ounce of quality that you can out of that piece of equipment and prematurely upgrading isn't going to make you better you need to understand every single piece of that equipment before you upgrade and sometimes it goes fast obviously some stuff you just can't make it sound good but there most of most things you can I remember one time I was in Alaska and our sound system was a couple of huge stereo speakers in a little 12 channel console and funny enough it actually sounded good I don't know how but it did and you know just there's just you can't blame it on your gear all the time but at the same time one once there there is a point at which you're better than your gear now and you need to upgrade your gear I feel like a lot of churches will stop at that point and just start blaming everybody else on the problem when it's that's not the problem the problem is it's time to get a better equipment and so I mean that's why I mean we did that last night we're just like we got some new stuff we got some new subs were like these subs I'm not very good let's do something about it but at the same time you it's really really really important as a church that you guys have experienced people picking your equipment and you don't just trust anybody to pick equipment otherwise you're just throwing money away over and over and over again because there is a right direction to go and a right way to do it and there are people out there that know what they're doing and getting in contact with those things for your sound people is going to I mean that's going to advance it so much because you won't be during your money away it just don't throw your money way I feel so strongly about that we made that mistake here right we actually had to got new PA in it wasn't the right PA and had to buy a new one after that and unfortunately it's like ah could had all that money together and about a really big PA that'll been awesome but you know you mentioned about the also about blaming the people one of our other campus real quick is a just not too long ago we were getting a lot of volume complaints at and you know and they're pointing to the guy there and what it really was is that it wasn't there was the drums weren't treated well the room wasn't treated well we made some change it's just two different things no more complaints about the volume and it wasn't a sound guy it sounds great there now so same guy chicken tale it's interesting this whole thing because like being it being able to communicate to leadership but for the most part like our leadership or pastors or whoever's in charge like a movement of a church you know their their minds are most the time they're not in this realm right you know they hire you or you're a volunteer or splitter you're supposed to kind of be that person to handle it on but but but I'm being able to communicate to leadership about sound needs and all that kind of stuff can be really difficult and I just want to encourage you guys like it took me um you know 14 years you know to kind of like through trial and error to somehow convey what we're doing now you know and it was difficult like I got offended you know four years and because I knew I was right and I was right and I was you know and then and then now leadership would say that would say that but you know that's hence my message yesterday you know like learning learning how to communicate your needs and like what you know could because most of the times people it's like you know when you when you experience something for the first time you that you'd never experienced you didn't even know that you that was even a reality it's like you know the first time you taste a certain food you're like what if I've been missing all my life it's the same thing with with good sound you know and so you almost want to show them like what you could have you know in a humble way and remember that in a humble way because griping and complaining getting mad and bitter is not going to get you anywhere gosh I wish it could I wish it would you know like like but it just doesn't work and so figuring out a way to communicate to your leadership and you're putting yourself in their shoes you know like you know the difference between good and bad and like what you could have and like and in going going really low you know and in that I think it's really important that we um that we learn to do that as worship leaders because the reality is they're giving you 50% of the worship set you know we'll talk about that later next week when I teach on works bleeding they're giving you 50% of worship of the service and in their mind that's that's enough like they've given you the whole world and you're asking for more what you're asking for more I'm giving you you know what I mean so we'll talk about some of that dynamic and and I think it's important to kind of get in their shoes for a little bit and befriend them and encourage and pastors need just as much encouragement as anyone else in the church you know and so it's important that we're we're not always asking from the pastor's you know everything and everything and it's always negative and it you know I mean no one likes that you know I mean doesn't work in a marriage it's not going to work in that relationship either so it's really important that we approach this thing on a different on a on a level that that both sides can be heard in both parties can be heard so um hire people that hire people to do the job or volunteers to do the job that don't micromanage that can handle it they could do it themselves and work with them and spend a lot more time with them than you think you probably even need to all right so I think we could talk about this for you know a lot longer and I'm sure you guys have lots of questions and maybe you know we might have some question and answers time later next week about this and if you guys want to ask more questions about this these guys honestly and even probably even after the session I would say honestly like like these two guys right here is for a sound and all that kind of stuff there's there are people that that are um as good but but really in in the world that we live in there's none that's going to be better you know so and I'll really I mean that to you like I'm not just saying it cuz we have the mic I tell you guys that true he does so I have one we were in Nashville I'm going to say this right now I'm going to pump I'm saying it again we were in Nashville and everyone was there and we did that we did a show at this arena thing and Edie Cash and all the Christian guys were there you know and all the you know everyone was there and all the label guys are there and you know it was awesome everyone who came up to me afterwards and said who makes I said Chris Kunitz that that is I'm not kidding I'm not exaggerating they said that is the best mix we've ever heard saying man come on it's because the system wasn't mono this is true - the worst don't get mono sound systems I don't even I don't even know what to say to that that's it you don't know there's nothing to say about that at Chris all right we're done uh thanks thank you yeah

Channel: WorshipU by Bethel Music

Views: 45,743

Keywords: brian johnson, sound engineer, sound mixer, sound mixing, sound team, working with the sound team, worship leader, worship leading, how to lead worship, bethel church, bethel music, worshipu, worship u, worshipu on campus, worship school, worship conference, bethel music worship school, bethel music worship conference, bssm, redding california, worship leading tips, worship team tips, worship online, worship training

Id: CLqQxHWISfw

Length: 32min 39sec (1959 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 10 2015