Jose Rosa

Credit: Elliott Ingram

Audio Engineer

CHANGEOVER: Talk about who you are, what you do and how you got into the music industry. 

Jose Rosa: I got into the music industry after college. I went to Expression College up in Emeryville, California, which is close to Berkeley in the Bay Area and originally I was going to go for performance. I've been in music ever since elementary school between choir, learning how to play the guitar, jazz band and symphonic orchestra. I was going to go for a performance degree but had stage fright that I couldn't really get out of, but I still wanted to pursue it. When I went to shadow Berklee College of Music, I got introduced to the engineering side of things. I'm pretty much a science geek so if it wasn't music, I was into science and marine biology or anything physics related. It brought both worlds together because engineering deals with physics of sound and there's all these equations. It was such a cool integration of two things that I really love and I didn't have to perform in front of people. I loved it all and just studied it. Originally I was going to be going to the recording studio but that's when Pro Tools started becoming a big thing and people started moving away from recording studios and instead recorded from their house. I didn't really see moving into a recording studio as the best option.

I answered a Craigslist ad that Live Nation was hiring stagehands and that's where I started getting more involved in shows and production. I went from Live Nation stagehand work to getting a job at UC Berkeley at Zellerbach Hall being an A2 [audio technician] for plays. From there, I got hired to be a sound person at this very small venue called Hotel Utah, where I really honed in on frequency, because of how tricky the room was, but I absolutely loved it.

Credit: Alyssia DoCanto

When I left high school, my main goal was to work at Pixar Animation Studios. I just wanted to work on a feature film and see my name come up in the credits. I saw that they were looking for editorial's. I applied but got denied pretty rapidly. I found out later that for a lot of those positions they do internal hiring. I got a call back a few months after I graduated, to see if I was interested in being the post-production assistant as a temp. I was up against five other candidates and got a call back the following day saying that I started the following Monday. That’s what started my whole career. That was my dream job. I worked on films for about four years through Toy Story 3, Cars 2, Brave, Monsters University, just working with the post-production team. Then I hit a crossroad where everything felt like it was being super repetitive. I didn't know if that was something I wanted to continue doing for several years as I was in my early 20’s when I worked there.

I was given an introduction to the band Escape The Fate, which led to my first real front of house gig on a month long European tour. I had to decide if I wanted to take a full on vacation from Pixar and just go and try that out, or if I was going to leave Pixar to pursue this whole different career. With Escape The Fate, I got offered double what I was making at Pixar, and it was all over Europe, which is a place I always dreamt of seeing. I ended up giving my two week notice with Pixar and I've been touring and doing front of house for about eight years now.

I went from being in the metalcore world from Escape The Fate to Asking Alexandria, Motionless in White, Black Veil Brides, Slipknot, and Korn to reaching a point where I felt like I wasn't really improving much and had learned enough from that world. I wanted to make the switch to pop and left Motionless in White after being with them for about three years. I love their crew and I love everybody there but my vision for myself was to mix arenas and stadiums and get to that level. From there I started working with SafetySuit. That led to pop punk where I was mixing this band called Set It Off that did tours with Simple Plan and Plain White T's.

Credit: Elliott Ingram

Eventually, I was exposed to bands like Blackbear and Fall Out Boy and a level that I really wanted to be at. I got offered to do front of house sound in Europe. I took the gig and was always trying to do the best that I could and trying to make the best sounding show. I worked really closely with music directors to bring their vision to life at the show. That led to me being with Blackbear for about two years. We did Coachella, Red Rocks and I filled in to do Kehlani.

This year I'm supposed to be on that Kehlani and Justin Bieber tour. It was going to be my first stadium tour. This is the one I've worked so hard for going from Warped Tour days to that kind of level stuff. Then COVID hit. We were supposed to start rehearsals in March. Then we were going to go all the way until September. Tour was supposed to start in June. We kept getting pushed back because we weren't sure if we were going to be out or if we were going to have to cancel. A lot of vendors I know were waiting as we were one of the last tours to still be on hold. Obviously things didn't get better and we had to cancel. It's been a very stagnant year until these past months where Kehlani did a drive-in show, which was the first time I got to mix again.

Let's back up a little bit and talk about what you feel are some similarities between working in the film industry versus working in the music industry. 

The attention to detail is still there. I think the work flow is more precise. In the film world it has to be right, and if it's not right, you keep working until it is right, until it's approved. It can be disheartening because you think you turn in something really good and then you'll get the notes back and have to go back and fix some things and submit it again. For the live music world, I really enjoy that at the end of the night, your job is done. The show happened. There may have been some errors you corrected for the next show. If there wasn’t, then you just keep moving on and the day is done.

In the film world, it can be a whole year of just working on the same thing over and over. The similarities are that you have your team, your crew, you have the people you depend on, the people that are there to support you. You work alongside them to try to be this well running machine as a crew. Your crew in the film world is part of a production team that makes the whole big picture. With that team, you work alongside them to make sure everything is happening and you turn in your deadlines so they can turn in their deadlines. Those are most of the similarities between both worlds. 

How has COVID-19 affected your job in the industry? 

It was a huge halt. I was definitely sitting around for a little bit because I didn't think it was going to go for so long. I thought it was going to be a few months. I was out on tour until the end of February before everything started getting shut down. When I first heard things about it, I didn’t think it would affect us but then when it started affecting Europe, and then us, I knew it was serious. We as an industry did the right thing, shut down, canceled tours and stuff like that.

Credit: Val Rosa

I feel like the help that was around for us wasn’t. I feel like our industry has been completely forgotten and it has become our responsibility to take care of ourselves, which is kind of wrong. When people need us the most, we show up. When we're asked to show up, we still do and when we needed people to realize that we as an industry are hurting, we weren't even considered. I think a lot of people don't see us as having a normal job. We just have a passion for something else that doesn't rely on being stagnant and doing the same thing from 9 to 5. We choose to be more free in the world.

I know a lot of people have moved on from the live music industry because they were forced to find jobs. When you take a long period of time off like this, you start moving away from that lifestyle and start adapting to a new lifestyle that's more comfortable than touring. I feel like I'm not done yet in the touring world. I feel like I was so close to being in the top 40 world, and I still want to pursue that.

What do you feel is the future of the industry? 

It's a tough one because we all want it to come back. I feel like we as an industry are viewed like we're corporate, but we're not. People think the live music industry is Live Nation. They feel like all of us are OK because Live Nation is a big company like Ticketmaster. In reality, we aren’t. We're watching independent venues close. It’s very frustrating. We are very aware in the industry that the people they are going to put on tour first are the ones that can sell. Anybody in the top 40 is probably going to come back first. I honestly don't know. It's tough. I wish I knew. I wish I could tell people exactly what's happening and what's the next step.

What is some of the best advice you've ever received?

When I made the decision to leave Pixar, someone said to me “take the risk. If you feel within your heart that you can do it, take the risk.” I don't think I would have the career that I have if I hadn’t taken the risk. Being in this business has always been a risk. We are the ones that are capable of just going for it and not playing it safe. It's so easy to be afraid and scared of the uncertainty of what's to come or not seeing what the future holds. Just take it day by day and take the risk and give it your best. Give your best work all the time, like it's your last. I mix every show like it's my last show. I leave it on the table like it's the last show, full of emotions and full of energy. Hope for the best and keep riding that wave. That's really the best advice I've ever received.