Feeling nervous and doing it anyway

Sound engineer and producer Bonnie Knight on forging their own path, conjuring opportunities and pitching yourself as a friendly all-rounder.

Before Bonnie Knight became an award-winning producer behind Amyl and the Sniffers and Angie McMahon records, they were often found behind the desk as a Front of House and Monitors engineer for some of your favourite live acts.

Bonnie Knight was just finding their feet as a music-industry student when their housemate asked them to engineer a live show his friends were putting on. “It was trial by fire,” says Bonnie, who was only six months into a sound-production course at the time. “I saw very quickly that you can learn theory at uni, but it's doing technical practice that really gives you the skills.”

It didn’t take long for word to spread about Bonnie’s abilities, and soon enough they were getting gigs that required them to pull from different skill sets, working as both a tour manager and sound engineer. Emerging artists are often keen to bring someone on the road who’s a package deal like this, and Bonnie recommends pitching yourself as someone with a broad skill set.

Being a reliable driver who can also handle the rider? Priceless.

They’re also a proponent of being your own hype person, and reaching out to bands you like when they announce a small run of shows, or even just a local gig. “I can get a lot of anxiety about reaching out to people, but I think we should just tell people when we’re interested and have something to offer.”

Bonnie credits heaps of their early breaks to asking questions and creating pathways for themselves that might not have existed otherwise. “I went out of my way to make opportunities for myself. Years ago I asked someone I knew who was mixing at Sugar Mountain Festival if I could come along. I’d never mixed a festival.”

You don't know you can engineer a big venue or festival set unless you get the chance to try.

As their career grew and these kinds of jobs became more commonplace, Bonnie looked around and realised their peers weren’t getting the same shot. “I started noticing with younger techs, particularly non-male techs, there was this kind of glass ceiling; they were getting stuck working in 200-capacity venues.”

Asking how they might bridge this gap in access and opportunity, Bonnie began leaving the door open for these younger techs to shadow them — just as they’d asked to do at Sugar Mountain. “I said, ‘If anyone wants to come to a big festival set and work alongside me, you can.’”

“For a while, I was trying to get people to come experience bigger shows, to feel okay about them. You realise, at the end of the day, bigger shows are usually easier. People are more professional, the equipment's better.” It’s not so scary after all.

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As much as experience and training help, Bonnie says inherent personality traits are key to thriving in live music.

“I’ve always had a pretty chilled temperament which has helped me through, because there’s always stuff that goes wrong. Being nice to people when you’re all under pressure counts for a lot.”

It wasn’t always this way, but over their years in the industry, Bonnie has observed a welcome shift away from legacy operators who weren’t so welcoming to newcomers getting their feet wet. “When I started out, there were a lot of grumpy people in live sound. I don’t know how they ended up there because, at the end of the day, it’s a ‘people job’. I think a lot of artists now are less inclined to want to be around people with that attitude, so it’s made for a more positive workforce.”

“I went out of my way to make opportunities for myself. Years ago I asked someone I knew who was mixing at Sugar Mountain Festival if I could come along. I’d never mixed a festival.”

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