Kevin “Tater” McCarthy

Photo Credit: Eitan Miskevitch

Monitor Mixer

Iron Maiden

CHANGEOVER: To begin, tell us who you are, what you do and how you got into the music industry.

“Tater” McCarthy: I’m from Detroit, Michigan and I’m a monitor engineer but prefer monitor mixer as I don’t have a degree and am not college educated. How I got started? I was a very terrible bass player in junior high and then in high school. We had to have a PA to play gigs so we started buying PA’s and that’s how I really started getting into it and getting involved. I was better at the sound than I was at the bass. That wasn’t hard.

My next step was that I went to work for a company called Showco which was a very big, probably the largest as far as accounts, sound provider. They were out of Dallas, Texas and supplied audio gear for tours. I worked there from 1987 to 1997. Back then, up until about ‘95, ‘96, there wasn’t the independent engineer like there is today. Bands would use a sound company and their engineers worked for that company. That’s how it worked.

Most companies built their own state of the art cabinet systems specifically for concert production. Then when “off the shelf” speaker systems started getting prevalent, and by that I mean anyone could buy and put it in, that’s where the need for the independent engineer came in since most bands weren’t carrying PA systems as much and just used the house system.

I had some clients I was mixing and they were hiring me away. If you get hired away enough, and the company’s taking a big cut of your money, you want the full cut. Then I raised my hand and said I was independent, I’m outta here. I want the full cut, not partial.

Talk about your earlier experiences in the touring scene and who you work with now.

When I got a job at Showco they had all the biggest accounts. As soon as you went down there, you were on the road immediately with somebody. A few of the bands I worked with were Judas Priest and Stone Temple Pilots. Then things evolved from there.

Now I work with Iron Maiden - well, that was my last employer. I got that job through Ian Day who was the tour manager on Judas Priest. He went and took a full time position with Iron Maiden and then brought me in.

Photo Credit: Tim Solar

How has COVID-19 affected your job?

It’s totally shut down. It not only shut me down, but my company, Tater Audio, that rents gear out to bands, as well as other clients, is also shut down. I have no income coming in from rental gear right now, or my labor income, so it’s completely shut me down. Iron Maiden postponed their entire 2020 tour until 2021, like a lot of bands.

What have you been doing during this downtime?

Not making any money I can tell you that. This past August was my 33rd year touring. When I worked for Showco, you were doing 340 or so days a year. I was basically gone almost all year during those ten years. Then as I became independent, I was basically doing the same thing. I found out that I left a lot of loose ends over thirty years in my personal life - stuff I would just throw money at to make it go away because I wasn’t here. Right now, I’m using this year to fine tune everything in my personal and business life, meaning going through all the bills and making sure I’m getting all the best deals now. People who aren’t working with me through COVID, I’ve fired them all. I’m only dealing with people now who are working with me through COVID. I don’t mean not letting me make payments, I’m talking about talking to me, knowing my situation, giving me advice on what I should do. It’s weird because companies I didn’t think I could count on have come through and companies I thought I could count on didn’t so I fired all those people immediately. This could be the electric company at my house or the speaker manufacturer at my business. It’s taken me this long to do anything. Just this week I feel really good about all the deals I’ve cut in my personal and business life. I’ve just done all the stuff I’ve been meaning to do for years. In addition, I still have to keep up with the gear at the shop because it all needs updates. I'm still going down there every day making sure all of that’s happening. I’m staying pretty busy but I’m just not making any money.

Let’s talk about your podcast called “Wrong End of the Snake.” Explain what that’s about and how it turned from an idea into reality.

That's a great question. I called my partner Ken Van Druten, who we call Pooch, who’s a Front of House mixer. We worked together with Linkin Park for 11 years. We’ve also worked together with around 10 other bands throughout the years. We found that a lot of people were doing podcasts about all of this technical stuff, like what microphone goes best with a snare or how to tune a snare. We felt there was a whole story that needed to be told beyond the technical side of being on the road.

We have guests on that we normally have relationships with and that we have personal and business experiences with on the road. We like to talk about stuff that’s not just the business side but that’s outside of the industry as well. For example, we had Steve Wood as a guest. He started out at a record company and eventually became a tour manager for bands like Godsmack, The Hollywood Vampires and all these other big bands. We’ve had people on who started low and furthered their career. They explain how they’ve done that, and what it’s taken for them to do that. We’re really getting some good guests. I think we’re on episode 23 or so. It comes out every Tuesday at 2 Eastern Time and we’re on YouTube and Instagram.

We’re really scared about younger crew people not coming back. As long as we're out of work, all those people are going to find jobs that they may not like that they end up liking. If they work like they do on the road, they may get a pay raise and even a promotion. Then when we do get back to work, those people might say, ‘too bad, I’m staying home.’ We really don’t want to lose those people. People that we do get back, we are trying to give them advice. We’ve had financial people on to try and set themselves up for success in this business.

Photographer unknown

Let’s take a step back and get down to the real questions. What was it like working for Judas Priest and Linkin Park?

My first tour with Judas Priest was in 1991 and then started back with them in 2000, but don’t forget they had a break there because they didn’t have Rob Halford. Then they came back with Tim “Ripper” Owens. That first tour back, Tim was the singer, then Rob came back in ‘03 or ‘04. Judas Priest was great people. Not only the band was great, but the organization was with the people they hired and the way they treated everyone. They were a fantastic organization. I’m very blessed to have worked for them. It was a band I kind of had to leave because of my full time employment with Linkin Park. I wish I had done a little more with them.

As for Linkin Park, I loved it. By the time I started with them, I had been in the business for 20 years. I believe Chester [Bennington] was exactly 10 years younger than me. Once again, they’re a family organization, and I don’t say that lightly. I don’t say that on every tour. That was a family organization. They looked out for the crew and were just fantastic. Just wonderful human beings. It was obviously the highlight of my career. It was a dream job. It was a full time paying job, year round, and one we all strive to have. I’m lucky to have had that in my career because it’s hard to find those jobs. They kept us busy, busy, busy. I miss the camaraderie of the crew.

What story sticks out the most since working with Iron Maiden?

I was asked to do Iron Maiden for about the last 10 years. They tried to hire me and I put a friend in to do the job and they loved him. They thought he was fantastic and just a great engineer. Unfortunately, he passed away. He died and then Chester died. So, unfortunately, two people died for me to get in that position and it's kind of a downer. It was kind of a weird vibe when I went I got on the crew, at least for me. I don't think anybody else felt it was weird. I just felt it was weird. They treated me with just so much respect. When I went to rehearsal, those guys were just so nice, so professional. They have a great schedule. They don’t do six [days] in a row or anything like that. It’s usually one on and one off, two on and two off. For a person of my age, that’s a really great schedule to keep for longevity on the road. I can’t do over three hundred days on the road any more. We played some huge shows with sold out arenas across North America. We went to Mexico for four nights in arenas down there and then on to South America where we played huge stadiums. When they’re on, and the crowd is insane, it’s just amazing.

Photo Credit: Mark Fiore

What do you feel is the future of the industry?

I’m looking at other people and what they are doing. Other companies are investing and buying stuff. I’m thinking that they are a lot smarter than me so I’m going to follow their lead. I’m going to follow what they are doing and their actions. I have a feeling it’s going to come back really strong, at least for a few years. There’s going to be a lot of work. There’s going to be too much work. We can’t lose the younger generation because of that. I also think when the much smarter people figure out how to do concerts without audiences that there’s going to be a mix of both in the future. There hasn’t been a magic formula yet to get us back to work.

What do you feel is the best advice you've ever received? 

I take a lot of advice from a lot of people. There’s so many facets to everything but the basic thing is don't be a dick and give everybody a shot. It’s a business. Do your job but have a good time doing it. Treat everybody fair and just be nice. You never know who’s going to help you. The person that may have been a stagehand could now be your boss on tour. Don't judge anybody because you just don’t know.