The Magic of Working in the Music Industry

This article is written by Molly Rahal. She has a sweet story about working at a music production company and her writing makes me smile. I hope it makes you smile, too. 

When I was seventeen years old, I started working part time for a music and arts company called Renegade Productions Inc.

Siobhan, a close childhood friend of mine, had been working there for about half of a year.

“You need to work here,” she told me.

Getting paid to work with my best friend alongside good music and famous bands we had listened to on our iPods years before didn’t seem like a bad idea. So I went for the job.

Renegade has both an office location and studio spaces complete with a theatre, a recording studio, and a dance studio; we would start our day at the office catching up on public relations and doing administrative work, and by one o’clock we would be at the studios for our daily appointments or recording.

But it was so much more than that. I didn’t just love it because of the way there was always guitar, bass, or drums echoing in any given section of the building. It wasn’t just the community of local artists and the creativity that dripped from their paintbrushes every day. It was even more than the pattering of choreographed feet, more than the sounds of actors and actresses passionately rehearsing their lines to the pokerfaced red velvet theatre chairs.

No, the best part of it was the way it felt to be surrounded by creative people. Not only were they creative, but they cared about the art that they make.

People who play music, people who draw, people who take photographs, people who write stories; no matter what kind of art it is, no matter what skill level you are, you always gain a deeper understanding for the world when you immerse yourself in the beauty of it.

Last year, my boss Jim suggested that our company put on its very first musical.

He would produce it himself. It seemed like a daunting task, but it made perfect sense for us; we had a theatre to do it in, a director in mind, and the drive to make it a hit.

It seemed to me that it was already pre-determined which musical we would be doing: a rock musical taking place in the late 1960s. Our staff was thinking big – our old building had a demolition clause, so it was really all or nothing. We would have a live band perched on scaffolding, bright lights, a large cast, and a dramatic wardrobe with multiple outfit changes for the characters.

We had never done this before, but what could go wrong?

We all had a part in planning and executing the mission at hand; it wasn’t all smooth sailing, connecting all of the pieces.

And, the magic of the cast was hard to ignore.

Just being in the room with them, you could feel the buzz of their energy. The main characters worked as if they had known each other for years. Their voices and movements made your jaw drop. And by the time the production rolled around, we were, surprisingly, ready to go.

The satisfaction is the same feeling as when you finally master the piano piece you’ve been working on for months. When you play that last note, and you can’t help but smile. In that moment, everything was worth it. You feel like you can do anything, and it’s true – you can!

The theatre sold out and we brought in extra chairs that we stuffed along the edges of the theatre. After every show, people left in tears, saying it was the most beautiful production they had seen in awhile.

I realized that one reason the show was such a hit is because the main theme of the musical, love. It is about unity, and it is about peace. It is about loving what you love, being who you are, and experiencing life with passion and music and colours.

Not only was it portrayed beautifully, but it’s a voice for the art and music community. Artists have a special way of caring about other people and the world around them. Artists not only see beauty, but they feel it.

My job at the production company showed me the beauty in the way we all come together for something that we believe makes the world a better place. In the way we can all feel things collectively. In something that gives not only us joy, but also the people around us.

It has left me believing that if everyone in this world had the passion that artists and the community of Artiden does, the world would be a much more colourful place. Doing our part to colour our own little corners of the world, makes all the difference.

As artists, we have a responsibility to continue making magic and to continue making the world a better place in the way that we can. Now, and forever.

Photo by Noel_Bauza on Pixabay