MIKE WOODHOUSE
TPi Awards’ FOH Engineer of the Year
BACK CHAT
Is there a moment that you would consider as your
‘big break’ into the industry?
Yes. I was out with Catfish and the Bottlemen and we had
just touched down in Australia. I was in my hotel room andWhat first sparked your interest in live events?
Ever since I was a child, I was always interested in music.
My parents saw that and encouraged me to take it through
school. At 15 I attended my first ever live gig, Motorhead’s
30th anniversary show at Brixton Academy, back in 2005.
That show changed everything for me; from Lemmy and
the band’s stage performance commanding the crowd,
to the sound and light show their production team put on,
had me in awe of what a live show was. That was when I
decided that this was an industry I needed to be a part of.
That show also gave me a decent crash course in what a
mosh pit was...
Fast-forward to university, and I studied sound
technology at Oxford Brookes. This gave me a much better
idea of what is involved in the whole mixing process – the
way we listen and perceive sound in general – and from
there I started to craft my trade as a sound engineer.Was audio always your main passion?
I started out as a bassist in various bands from school and
continued early into my career. As previously mentioned, I
studied sound and started to try to incorporate being both
an engineer and musician as one. I bought myself a splitter
from Network Rail and used to tour it with the bands I was
in. With one of the acts we used to tour a small PA system
and sound desk, which I used to set up and assist with the
FOH as well. It was only once I started getting more FOH/
driver jobs than session playing that I hung up the bass
and focus on mixing.What have been your career highlights so far?
There have been quite a few moments where I’ve looked
back and gone ‘Wow that was really quite something’,
although one that really stands out from the others took
place during summer 2018. I was on the road with Frank
Carter & The Rattlesnakes, who had a couple of shows
supporting Foo Fighters, and I got to mix in London’s
Olympic stadium. Halfway through the show I walked out
of the FOH area and into the Golden Circle to just take it
all in. I was working in 100-capacity clubs just five years
before, so to go from there to an 80,000 stadium show felt
pretty special. I even brought my parents to that one – the
old man loved it!What are some of the biggest changes you have
seen from the world of pro audio, since you first
entered the industry?
The main change I have seen is all the old analogue
consoles and outboard I learned how to mix on in the
small clubs have since been replaced with compact digital
consoles armed to the teeth with plugins emulating all
the old outboard that we knew and loved. I’m certainly
not opposed to it – we are fully in the digital age now and
anyone would be foolish to oppose it as times change,
technology gets better and better, and right now it’s
amazing. I do feel like an IT consultant at times though...
I have also noticed the increased need for in-ear
monitors over the old-school wedges; they have got so
good now. Take the Shure PSM1000, for example. The
clarity you get from them is fantastic. People are also
thinking about stage SPL levels a lot more and how it
affects us long term. I personally love it as it clears up my
FOH mix for the louder bands I work with, but it is nice to
see more musicians taking care of their ears.This year you walked away with FOH Engineer of the
Year at the TPi Awards. What did it mean to you to win
this accolade?
Just having my name on the shortlist was a feat in itself
to be honest. I never thought I’d actually take the award
home! Everyone else on that list is truly exceptional at
mixing. Take Phil Gornell, for example; a good friend and
stellar work on Bring Me The Horizon’s live shows; or Dave
Shepard – he mixes CHIC. To even be viewed in the same
category is hugely overwhelming.had that realisation, ‘I’m on the other side of the world!’ I
couldn’t contain myself. It was a fantastic realisation about
what I’d started and where I’d got to. When I started in
this industry, touring to exotic places for work was a level
I never envisioned getting to, so hitting that milestone
made me realise I was actually doing something right.