2023 was a transformative and productive year for me. I am still living in Los Angeles full-time and working at Larrabee Studios in North Hollywood. I am a full-time assistant engineer at Larrabee and have had the opportunity to begin taking on sessions as the lead recording engineer. It is certainly true that no day feels like work when you’re doing something you love. I now work regularly with many artists that I was only a fan of just a few years ago. This summer I was requested to work with an artist during their 3 month lockout in one of our studios while they were working on their upcoming album. Sadly it did cause me to cancel my usual summer trip home as well as miss this year's MVYouth party, but it was an incredible experience and easily the highlight of my year. This year was my first full year in Los Angeles without visiting home, and as amazing as it was I am hoping to not have to go another full year without visiting MV. The Vineyard really is a unique place and I was missing it by the time I made the trip home this past Christmas. It’s the perfect place to relax and reset from the hectic lifestyle I’ve become accustomed to in LA. As I’m writing this update in the employee lounge of Larrabee I am incredibly excited for what 2024 is going to bring and hope to have the opportunity to give you all a much more vivid update of my life at the MVYouth party this summer. I am in the process of working on many amazing projects and hope to be able to share them with you this time next year as they get finished and released by the artists.
Liam Weiland - Berklee College of Music
It’s hard to believe a full year has already passed since my last MVYouth update. I’m still working full time at Larrabee Studios in North Hollywood as a General Assistant. As the past year has gone on I’ve been offered increasingly more opportunities to be an Assistant Engineer for sessions at the studio. I’ve now worked and become familiar with many prominent artists that I wouldn’t have believed I’d have the chance to work with this time last year. My experience and skill level as an engineer has increased exponentially. I could not be happier with my current position and day to day work life.
As an Assistant Engineer I am responsible for the technical set-up for any sessions I’m assigned to. I am in contact with the Recording Engineer prior to sessions, discussing with them their ideal set-up and any specific gear they are planning to use. I am setting up the room to the artist's liking and responsible for maintaining the overall workflow so the artist(s) and Recording Engineer can work as quickly and comfortably as they would like. The hours are intensive and unpredictable, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. My ideal lifestyle is busy and unpredictable, and this job has played into that perfectly. I never know what challenges or successes each day will bring, which makes the job incredibly rewarding.
I could not be more grateful for the opportunity of a higher education that MVYouth awarded me, which has ultimately led me to my current job and lifestyle. I can’t imagine doing anything else. As this next year progresses, I hope to take on increasingly more sessions as an Assistant Engineer at the studio and begin to make the transition into working as a Recording Engineer there. I would not have been prepared for my current work if it were not for my education at Berklee.
Liam Weiland - Berklee College of Music
This is my first post-graduate MVYouth update. I graduated from Berklee in May with a degree in Electronic Production and Design. My past four years of education were incredibly rewarding and I could not be more grateful for the opportunity the MVYouth founders and donors gave me in awarding me the scholarship in 2017. The biggest life change for me since graduating is that I now live on the west coast. I decided to move to Los Angeles this past June and have been there the last 7 months. Having gone to Berklee gave me a strong base of classmates and alumni to help me acclimate to the new city.
In early October, I accepted a position as a General Assistant at Larrabee Studios in North Hollywood. Larrabee is a world class recording studio that is a favorite of many A-list musicians and artists. It is exactly the institution I was dreaming to work at when I moved to Los Angeles and I could not be more grateful to have been offered the position. I’ll be learning the operations of a studio of the highest caliber, where the training involved to eventually become a full-time engineer will be a massive learning experience.
The great education I was afforded the opportunity to receive at Berklee is what prepared me to land this position at Larrabee Studios. With this new job I am now looking forward to work every day, and get to spend my time working in a music studio- which has always been my dream. I have the opportunity to bring the education I received at Berklee to the next level- working in a professional facility filled with staff that have decades of experience in the music industry. I could not be more excited for what this next year will bring as I keep working to become a full-time recording engineer.
Liam Weiland - Berklee College of Music
This past semester was my final full-time semester at Berklee. I have spent the past four months finishing the last of my liberal arts courses and preparing my Capstone project. I had a remote internship with a sample production company based in Los Angeles this past summer and I have continued similar sample production work on my own time since that internship finished. I have recently confirmed a position as producer/engineer at a studio outside of Boston which I will begin working at as I finish my last few classes this spring. As isolating as this quarantine has been in my apartment in Boston, it was undoubtedly the catalyst for an onslaught of studying and creative work I have done since I began to be stuck in my apartment for weeks on end. The time I’ve spent at Berklee has been the source of much development and realization about what I hope to do with my life. I have built for myself an incredibly talented group of collaborators and have spent much of the past year making great music with them and realizing each artist's identifiable sound. I am still planning to relocate to Los Angeles come next September, circumstances regarding the pandemic willing. I am more confident than ever committing myself to the rocky, unsure world of life in the music industry. I have had a great experience in all job interviews I have landed in the past months and proven to myself my ability to earn a spot in rooms I hope to be in. I have a new found love for mixing other peoples’ music/ productions, which has also proven to be an area of strength for me. The process of taking another person's work and being trusted to bring it to the next level of professionalism is inspiring and gratifying.
Liam Weiland - Berklee College of Music
This past semester at Berklee College of Music has been the quickest and most productive semester yet. My studies have become much more intensive. I have finished all of my Core Music and Liberal Arts courses, save for one Arts History course. Now all of my classes directly relate to my declared major of Electronic Production and Design. I take courses focused in Digital Mixing, Musical/ Audio Synthesis, and Studio Technologies including the use and understanding of MIDI SPEC. I am currently planning out trips to both New York and Los Angeles to scope out potential areas to move post-graduation. There are a limited number of cities in the country with a presence in the music industry, and of those I am finding myself interested in LA. I am incredibly excited for a serious change of climate and scenery since I have grown up and spent my entire life in New England. I love my home and will always be incredibly grateful for the place I grew up, but I am excited to spend some time on the other side of the country. All of my courses in the coming semester look great, but the most highly anticipated for me is called Circuit Bending and Physical Computing. This class involves learning how to build your own custom analog synthesizer. We will do this using both traditional technology and unorthodox objects such as video game controllers. By the end of the course every student will have developed their own expressive MIDI and audio control system.
Liam Weiland - Berklee College of Music
This second year of Berklee has been nothing short of a reality check for me. I have now nearly finished the core music curriculum, resulting in more available time for studying the more refined subjects I am interested in. Subsequently, this has lead me to really sit down and think about what I want to get out of the incredible opportunity I was given to study at this world-renowned institution. Through this persistent mental dialogue, I decided to switch my major from the original path of “Professional Music” to Electronic Production and Design. The Professional Music curriculum is the best opportunity at Berklee to study multiple aspects of the music industry at once, allowing you to declare up to 3 concentrations of study. As of last year I had declared concentrations in Performance, Music Business, and Recording and Production for Musicians.
I decided to spend this past summer in Boston, staying in the apartment I lived in during my first year of classes and working at a restaurant on Boylston Street. I spent nearly all of my free time working on music, without the distractions of liberal arts courses or the company of friends I made over the past year. Spending this time working on my own projects, I discovered a true passion for Music Production. Beyond just writing and playing songs, I learned how sound itself works, and how to create texture and atmosphere to bring to music. During this past semester I interviewed for and was accepted into Berklee’s Electronic Production and Design program. I am incredibly excited to begin the curriculum next semester and study in greater depth the aspects of the music industry I feel I have the capacity to truly thrive in.
Liam Weiland - Berklee College of Music
My first semester at Berklee has been incredible. The level of musicianship surrounding me is simultaneously inspiring and daunting. I have never spent so many continuous hours practicing, writing, and listening to music. I was lucky enough to be granted a scholarship for the Berklee Five-Week Performance Program this summer by MVYouth and the Fialkows. My growth as a musician has been exponential from the beginning of that program to now. The staff here are world class musicians, but I’ve found myself more inspired and influenced by the students around me. I spend most of my free time writing and jamming with Saebin, another first semester freshman from Virginia, who has become my closest friend here. From the very first time we played together, it was clear that we had a connection through our mutual ambition to become successful artists. Since then, we have written an EP that we plan to record second semester. The community at Berklee is like no other. Berklee creates a highly motivating environment that keeps you in the mindset to work on your music 24/7. I’ve expanded from playing mainly finger-style acoustic guitar to exploring blues, rock, and jazz styles. Students are allowed to pick their classes starting in the second semester, and I am excited to start taking music business and production classes that will help me explore my possible career paths here at Berklee. I could not be more thankful for the opportunity MVYouth has given me to develop and refine my craft.