Today we’d like to introduce you to Owen Kelly.
Owen, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Sure, well, I’m originally from Long Island, NY, but now I reside in Wilmington NC and split my time between Wilmington and Surfside Beach, SC. I’m in the music industry mainly working in the studio world of recording and mixing. I started producing music in my freshman year of college. I started working with a high school friend and artist named Castro and from their spiraled into the world of Audio.
I transferred schools and went to the Institute of Audio Research in Manhattan NY and after completing the program began an internship at the famous Engine Room Audio. At Engine Room, I was fortunate enough to learn and soak up as much information from Audio Engineers who have worked with some of the best artists in the world. After my internship, I began my freelance journey and briefly worked as a staff engineer at Blend works studio.
Today, I continue my business, trying to work with as many artists and as many different genres as I can. My goal is to continue helping artists bring their music to life and elevate it to where they can compete with the top artist in the industry.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has definitely not been a smooth road. Some of the first things you hear while interning are that you’re not going to really begin to make money as an engineer until 2-3 years in and that is definitely true. It’s a very competitive world and most of your journey, in the beginning, will be spent pulling all-nighters, sleeping at the studio, and basically living in the art.
As tough as that was and definitely taking a toll on you, I still enjoyed the process and being around like-minded people. It’s tough building a clientele and gaining the trust of artists with their music but you keep pushing through, keep working and building your skill set and slowly the clients start reaching out to you.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Well, I’m an Audio Engineer. There are many different kinds of audio engineers but at the end of the day, we’re all doing the same thing. Enhancing sonics of a project for the artist for the listener. I mainly work in the music industry. Working with singers, songwriters rappers, etc, I record artists in recording studios and help them make sure they are getting the best quality recording that there is. I’m also a mixing engineer. Mixing would be the next step after an artist records a song.
I kind of look at it like a puzzle in that you’re taking all the different pieces like vocals, drums, guitars, pianos, etc., and putting them together. Balancing the volume of each instrument, adding and taking away certain frequencies to improve the clarity and overall sound of the song. Make sure everything blends together to create a cohesive project. I’m most proud of the last album I mixed and mastered called “Boy of The Summer” by Castro. A lot went into the creation of that project and I think we’re all proud of how it turned out.
What I think would set me apart from others is my dedication to my craft. This isn’t just a job for me or at least it doesn’t feel like one. I really love what I do and care about each project I take on. I also think my experience so far being able to learn under Grammy award-winning engineers, seeing how they approach a song and being able to pick their brains has definitely given me an upper hand.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
I am open to any project, any artist. I don’t think I have any limitations when it comes to working within different genres the end goal is always to help the artist bring their vision to life and any way that I can help is always a win.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://engineears.com/owenkelly
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/o_when_/
