Paddi Krause

Photo Credit: Jörg Küster (Production Partner)

Monitor Engineer

Current Artists: TOTO / Alter Bridge

CHANGEOVER: Tell us a little about who you are and your history in the music industry.

Paddi Krause: Patrick is my real name, but everybody calls me Paddi. I've been in this industry for 13 years now. I started as an apprentice in a rental company and now I'm a sound engineer, mainly doing monitors. I tour about 10 months a year, depending on a band's schedule. Right now I'm sitting at home like everyone else in this industry. 

I started in Germany at a school. I don't know what you call it in English, but basically the school sends you to whatever company as a start so you can get an idea of what you want to do with your life. It’s like an internship but it's limited from two to four weeks, depending on what school you go to.

My uncle works at the Hamburg Opera House and I started really listening to music. I wanted to do something in the music industry, but I had no clue what options there were, what to do, how to do it, or how to get in there. My uncle said, “let me talk to my boss” so I could do an internship at the Hamburg Opera House. Obviously, the music didn't really speak to me. I like classical music but it's just not my cup of tea. However, I got to know all the people behind the scenes and finally got an idea of how things work, as well as how many people it takes to put on a show. I was pretty excited and knew I wanted to do this but in a different set up, like rock and roll.

There were two people working as lighting technicians that were heavily tattooed and listening to all the stoner rock bands. They were my go-to guys and I always hung out with them. They introduced me to a guy who owns a rental company and he has an apprentice about every two years so that's how it started. He gave me the chance to do this apprenticeship. The more shows I did, the more people I got to know. From there, I met a guy named Kai Schewe in Hamburg, which is where I live in Germany, and he basically got me my first tour. It was a small club run, nothing too special or exciting, but that's how I got to know people in this industry.

Kai’s best friend, Nils von Walcke-Schuldt, is the guy who monitored for In Flames before I took over for the band. He gave me a phone call when his wife was pregnant and asked if I wanted to take over the job for In Flames. That was basically the first bigger door that got kicked open for me because it was the first international worldwide touring band that I got to work for. I would say that those are the two main key people in my career.

Explain the difference between the different audio engineer positions that are on tour: front of house versus monitors.  

Basically, there's always one guy mixing the sound for the audience, which is the so-called front of house engineer. Then there's the monitor engineer that mixes the sound for the band onstage. The audience usually expects a well balanced mix, like on a record, because that's what people expect nowadays. However, the band doesn't really want to hear all those things. The singer usually needs his voice on top of everything else, and maybe he doesn't need the bass in his mix because that might get in the way of his vocal range. The drummer might need click tracks or some count-ins in his mix. All the mixes on stage are pretty different from each other. That's what I do because I think it's more challenging mixing the sound for the band and how they think it should sound and what they actually need.

I would say that the front of house mix is more musical sounding and the monitor mix is a little more functional, if that makes sense. So that's the biggest difference. It's just a different approach. Of course, we always aim for the best sounding version of the mixes, but the difference would be musical versus functional.

Photo Credit: Tobias Lemke

Let’s switch gears and talk about your experience working with TOTO. They are legendary. How did you get that opportunity and what are some of the most memorable experiences to date working with them?

It’s a pretty wild story. It was a Thursday night. I was at home and had a couple of weeks off since I had just gotten home from an In Flames tour. That night I had hung out with a couple of friends. We were having a lot of beers and just enjoying the time. Then I got a phone call close to midnight from this guy named Bernd Wittenberg, who owns the gear rental company Go Audio in Hamburg and thought, “this is weird” because none of my bands are touring so why would he be calling me at this time? I answered the phone and he basically said, “I don't have much time to explain to you why this is the case, but I need you to fly to Oslo, Norway, tomorrow and do the TOTO gig.”

I knew that he sent all the gear to the TOTO guys because the band started like a week before and a couple of weeks before that Bernd and I were just chatting about it. I had mentioned that the TOTO gig would be a dream of mine because those guys are pure musicianship. I think they're so great on the instruments and they’re a legendary band with lots of hits. I don't know exactly what happened but the guy who started the tour was let go by the band management. I think they did four or five shows and he had to fly home then I got the phone call.

TOTO is from the states and they were touring Europe so they didn't know many people over there, especially at almost midnight. They gave the rental company a phone call asking if they knew anyone and Bernd was like, “yup, I’ve got the guy. I'm not exactly sure if he can finish the tour but I know that he's on vacation, basically he's home. I know that you can get him for at least one or two weeks.” The next day, I flew to Oslo and I think we had seven weeks left on the tour. On the flight to Oslo, which is only two hours or so, I thought, “wow, I got this phone call. Don't fuck it up.”

I did not know what to expect. All the bands I work for are great musicians, have great songs and big careers, so to speak, so they are demanding that they have a certain approach. But TOTO was, for me, next level. I did not know if I could actually pull it off. I was nervous, obviously, and I flew in on a day off. It was a Friday night and everybody was waiting in the hotel bar, which was nice. I walked in and knew that at least the tour manager was waiting for me, but everyone was there, the whole crew and the band. I got a couple of drinks and got to know them before the first show, which was nice. That helped a lot. The next day the production manager was nice enough to dump the audio truck first so I got to sit in the corner of the arena and prepare for the show and just find a starting point.

They usually do a so-called VIP soundcheck for 20 to 30 minutes. They have meet and greet people that are let into the arena who can watch two or three songs. We used that time as the soundcheck because I didn't know what they needed. Like I said before, the monitor mix is not so much “just make it sound great and everybody is fine.” The drummer needs to click track and the keyboardist needs more guitar and then the singer needs this and that. It's quite a challenge. For whatever reason, they really liked me and said, “OK, that sounds a little punk rock in the ears, but we have several different instrument inputs. There's eight people on stage and you only have twenty or thirty minutes. It sounds pretty good for what it is. It's a great starting point. Let's see what it sounds like during the show and tomorrow.”

My highlight with this band, so far, was the second day. That day they came on stage, did their soundcheck and Steve Lukather, who’s not just the lead guitarist but also the manager, gave me a hug and said, “you are the baddest motherfucker. I don't know how you pulled this one off, but this is the best sound I've ever had.” For me, as a young mixing engineer, I was like, “oh fuck, this is awesome!” I think this is my favorite moment so far with the band. Not only is it the biggest band I work for, but it's also because I never really grew up with them, but of course, know TOTO and all their songs and Steve Lukather is such an icon. I thought, “wow, this guy is telling me that whatever I do on the console is the best he's ever had in his career. This guy has been performing on stages for like forty five years now. This is awesome.” I think that’s been my highlight so far.

Photo Credit: Tobias Lemke

What have you been doing with your time now that COVID-19 has basically put a stop to the touring industry?

I have a little job that I do every now and then. Back in March I got back from a tour that was actually canceled because of COVID. We were all flying back from Russia and at that time, at least in Germany, no one really knew what the fuck was going on. We knew that there was this virus, and we knew a couple of the symptoms, but we didn't know how to fix it. We didn't know how to stop this. We didn't know what we were actually dealing with so they put us on lockdown. Now I have unexpected free time.

What I've heard from a couple of doctors is the time that it actually takes from the infection to the actual disease can be about 14 days. I thought, what if I just stay at home for 14 days and see what happens? I had been to so many different venues and airports and buses and been around so many people so that's what I did at first. I was so bored because I'm used to a pretty hectic life. The schedule is always full with shows or pre-production. I just called different people and asked how they were doing, not just money wise, but also mentally. It's not that I get bored easily, but if I can do anything that is productive, and makes sense, I'm like, OK, what the fuck am I doing?

Then I called my stepdad, who works in a completely different industry. He does industrial cleaning and construction site stuff. He said, “it's weird because everybody's got to stay home but our business is booming. There's so many people calling us in to do this and fix that or to build something.” Jokingly, I told him if he needed a hand that I was at home. So this is what I've been doing. I average three to four days a week, sometimes just for two hours, sometimes ten hours. It keeps me busy and I’m making some money. The rest of the time I spend with my friends. That's the positive side of things.

What do you feel is the future of the industry? 

I don't know. I have a couple of scenarios in my head but I have no clue which one is the likeliest. I don't even know if we will get to do all of this again next year. I live in Germany and the biggest festival we have is Rock am Ring, which is around ninety thousand capacity. There's also the Wacken metal festival, which is around eighty thousand capacity. In the states, you have festivals like Rock On The Range, Coachella, the big ones. I don't think this is going to happen next year unless we find a vaccine. Russia was claiming they had a vaccine. I was like, from Russia? No, thanks. Russia is not really well known for medication. It would be a totally different story if this came from Switzerland, or maybe the US, Germany or Scandinavia. Russia? No. I think a lot of people feel the same, unfortunately.

Hopefully we will find something by accident. What if someone, by accident, finds out that a painkiller has a side effect that fixes this stuff? I'm not good in chemistry, and I'm not a doctor, but this is a scenario that could possibly happen. It's a tough call. I try not to think about it too much because I'm one of those guys that if I overthink it depresses me, because I'm looking for an answer but already know I can’t find one.

Another thing that is also weird is that everybody talks about the audience. It's like, OK, we have to find a bigger venue so a band that usually plays in front of ten thousand people should play in a five thousand capacity venue now so we can keep the distance and blah, blah, blah. No one talks about the band and crew that has to travel in airplanes and tour buses. How am I going to keep one point five meters - which is what we have in Germany - how am I going to keep this distance on a tour bus with 14 people? On tour, if one guy gets sick it takes about a week for everybody else to get sick. How would we travel with the scope of things now? Should everyone get their own bus? Who's going to pay for that? I don’t know.  

Photo Credit: Tim Tournier

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

That's a good question. Obviously there's a lot of compliments, a lot of advice and a lot of tips and tricks but I think the coolest advice was from the In Flames guitarist, Björn Gelotte. He's the boss, so to speak, of the band. One night after a show we had a million beers and It was around five a.m. on the tour bus. We talked about music and the industry and how we got involved in it and how we got our first gig. At one point he said, “you should never do this for the money. You should do this for your heart, basically your passion. Once you have the feeling you're only doing this for the money, you should stop.” That was pretty cool because I think it's a job for a lot of people, it's just a job to make money. Not everyone gets to set up a drum set or set up the console and mix. There's a lot of people involved in a show, or tour, that have less exciting jobs.

For me, as a mixing engineer, we are somewhat like an artist because we're deciding on frequency levels and all of that. In a way it's art, like a painter. Do you ever know how much red you should use for your next painting or how much blue is enough? There's no answer to that but passion will tell you. That's basically what he told me: if you only do this for the money, you will never make it so you have to listen to your heart, and obviously my ears. I try to do the same with attitude. Always check your ego at the door. There's already a lot of big egos on stage, so the crew doesn't really need ego at all. That was probably the best advice I’ve received.

Blog page photo credit: Markus Wilmsmann (Mothergrid)