Week 8: Styx and Post Production (Pt. 2)

Left to Right: Chuck Panozzo, Tommy Shaw, James Young, Ricky Phillips

Lawrence Gowan at the Keyboard

Super high tech backstage office for the managers and crew

Rear sound board (and behind it, the lighting board)

Sound board up close

Lawrence Gowan's keyboard in practice/changing room

The band's lounge room

Left to Right: Lawrence Gowan, Tommy Shaw, and Ricky Phillips

Hey everyone! To jump right into the rest of my day with Styx, let me just say that the band is one of the nicest groups of people you can meet. They were really friendly, and I was able to at least say hello to all of them!

It wasn't long after the band arrived that the first sound checks were held. I was given a headset with Lawrence Gowan's (keyboardist and vocalist) sound mix, so I could go between hearing the full sound (without the headset) and hearing just what Mr. Gowan was hearing during both the sound checks, and the concert. In his mix, the vocals and keyboard were slightly turned up above the other instruments, allowing his parts to be heard better.

When the sound checks were done, I was able to talk to the man in charge of the merchandise booth, who told me a lot of interesting facts about the merchandising business, including the huge revenue streams it can bring for a popular act. Merchandising (selling T-shirts, accesories, and other such items) during shows can increase the revenue of a show by far beyond what ticket price alone could do (OneDirection can do around a million dollars alone in merchandising), and the business relies on what's known as an "impulse buy." A well positioned merchandise stand can attract large quantities of customers that particularly enjoy the act, and want something to remember it by. Flashiness and visual appeal are everything for merchandisers, because they have only seconds to grab potential customers as they walk out of the show.

Shortly after that, I learned a very important thing about this business. It is an extremely on/off kind of work. In the morning, the crew was very busy getting everything into the venue and setting the stage, equipment, and instruments up, but between setting up and sound checks, there was a peaceful lull in activity (meaning I had time to talk to almost everyone). Sound checks were done in the afternoon, but after they were finished, there was another lull that provided the perfect opportunity for me to learn more!

I was able to speak with Lawrence Gowan, the keyboardist and vocalist of the band, and he had a lot to share about songwriting and music in general. He showed me the keyboard he uses on stage, and a few of the different settings that he has on it for various song selections. We talked a bit about writing music, and I found that we had very similar ideas as far as what makes a good song, and how classical training fits into the process of creating contemporary music. He said that classical training for a musician is one more tool to have in your wheelhouse, and that he knows many excellent songs that came from both classically trained musicians, and musicians that have never had a lesson in their lives.

As the day went on, I was able to say hello to the other band members, and I learned several very important things:

-Security is relatively light in the morning and most of the afternoon, but tightens up a lot once showtime draws near.

-There are only a certain amount of VIP passes that can be given out per show, so it's important for the managers to keep track of who will be coming (relatives and friends of band members have priority)

-Runners are in charge of getting necessary supplies for both the band and the crew while on tour

As the beginning of the show grew closer, the band held a meet-and-greet event backstage for guests and VIPs (I was considered a VIP while I was there), and I got to see what that was like both for the band, and for the fans. The band seemed to enjoy the event, and the VIPs in the room even more so.

Chuck Panozzo, the band's bassist, talked with me for quite a while before the meet-and-greet, and shared with me some of what the band was like in its early days, as well as how it's become the band it is today. He talked about how the band had much less regard for safety early on, and mentioned a few crazy antics of Styx in its early days. He said the original band members were extremely close, but were just as prone to fighting as you might expect. Mr. Panozzo also believed that as the band matured, so did its members. I was able to see for myself just how comedic and fun Mr. Panozzo is, and I definitely saw evidence of what he was saying. It was clear to me that all the current band members were seasoned in their craft, and had been doing this for many years.

The doors to the show opened one hour before the actual show started, and the band made its last sound check shortly beforehand. During the show, I was able to travel between two excellent seats. One in the very back next to the rear sound and lighting boards, so I was able to watch what the audio and lighting engineers did during the show, and one right beside the stage with the band's keyboard tech, who had some very cool roles during the show. As I mentioned earlier, I was able to hear the keyboardist's audio mix during the show as well as the full room's sound, so I could hear the sharp contrast between the two. The mix was far better for the band members, particularly Mr. Gowan, because it allowed him to hear his parts just a bit above the other instruments, but the raw sound of the full room much better encompassed the harmony between all the sounds created on stage.

I watched a lot of the show from where the keyboard tech operates, so I was able to see some of his roles as the show went on. He was in charge of some of Mr. Gowan's vocal effects, allowing the group to create some different sounds with vocals on stage, activated the gas effects on stage, and he also placed and took down a stool on stage when Mr. Gowan wanted to sit down at his keyboard. Perhaps his most fun role however, was the operator of the confetti cannon. He gave me a little smile as he set it off, signalling the grand finale of the show.

The crew needs to be even quicker at taking the equipment all down and rolling it out than they were putting it up for the show, and so the equipment starts to be dissassembled almost immediately after the show ends, I didn't stay much longer than that, but I had a ton of fun and learned so much in that one day than I ever could have imagined. There's so much more information than I can fit into a couple blog posts on the subject, but the knowledge I gained from the band and crew is knowledge that I'll carry with me forever.

I want to conclude this post with a big thank you to everyone in the crew/band of Styx. What you do is amazing, and I'm so happy to have met and learned from you all!

Thank you for the opportunity,

Noah W.