Throughout his career, Kyle Hamilton has served as front of house engineer for some of the biggest names in music, past and present.
Along the way, he’s seen the world and also earned substantial recognition as a recording engineer, notably for mixing, among others, Grammy-winning records by Gladys Knight and Pharrell Williams.
Although Hamilton prefers the immediacy of live shows, he began his education in audio with recording. “I was always into music and I was always a technical kind of person,” states the 41-year-old, Murrieta, CA-based engineer. “My mom was a hair stylist who styled for the stars, per se, in their homes and studios.”
Often, he tagged along. “The consoles captivated me,” he says. “I was always like, ‘what do all those buttons do? What’s this? What’s that?’ One of my mom’s clients was Lionel Richie and he had this massive home studio and I’d be there seeing how records were made. It was magical.”
The Right Balance
From that impetus, Hamilton’s gone on to become a much sought-after live mix engineer, working with artists including Rihanna, The Isley Brothers and Mary J. Blige, and developing an approach to live sound he feels is integral to his success. “I think what sets me apart is that I want to bring you the record with a live feel. I stay true to the music.”
From artist to artist, even from song to song, his method of doing so varies. “You control the atmosphere and mood of the show,” he notes. “Every song doesn’t beat you up. Every song isn’t keyboard heavy. I have to know these records and mix applicably to the record.”
He emphasizes finding the “sweet spot” for any backing tracks and treating them as another musician on stage, not too loud or soft. “We run sequencing because there’s so much information on these record and if you had (all those instruments) on stage you’d have a 30-piece band. We strip it down, but make it a part of the show. If those nuances are missing, it’s like making a cake without eggs; you can’t see the eggs, but they add consistency. You can’t leave out ingredients and look for the same results.”
Hamilton also stresses his interaction with artists – balancing their vision, their musical director’s needs, and even management requests, albeit diplomatically. “Management can be standing right next to you saying, ‘I want more of this.’ Then you think, well, the artist told me in rehearsals that they want it like that,” he says, laughing. “So it’s a tightrope act.” The surroundings and audience’s mood plays into that, Hamilton adds. “You could have a dead audience one night, then do the same, exact thing the next night and the audience is rocking out.” His favorite audiences are focused but still partying: “Not scrutinizing the music as opposed to enjoying it or watching the whole show through their phone.”
Being Prepared
While his level of finesse on the console and ability to read the artists’ and audience’s moods have helped get him gigs, Hamilton’s preparedness for any challenge and his tenacity – qualities instilled in him as a child – have also factored into his success. Born in Los Angeles and raised in Pasadena by his mother in a single parent family, he and his brother were always encouraged to excel. “She always told us, ‘You have to work hard, harder and hardest for what you want.’ Life is what you make it – easy or difficult. It’s about how much work you put in.”
His ethic? “Always stay ready so you don’t have to get ready.” Growing up, Hamilton took every opportunity presented and felt there was nothing he couldn’t accomplish. If he didn’t know the answer to a question someone posed, or how to do something, he’d find out. “I would never say, ‘I can’t do it.’ That’s just another person telling you what you can’t do.”
Although he loved music, played drums for “a hot second in grade school” and DJ’d during high school, “My real instrument is my ears,” he says. His early education in audio was a matter of being in the right place at the right time, shadowing family friends and his mother’s clients and watching them work. “Seeing the records put together, I was like, well, I can’t play on them, but there’s another avenue in the industry behind the scenes.” His fascination with audio gear, he adds, was an extension of his love of gadgets of all kinds and radio-controlled cars.
After graduating high school, Hamilton attended LA’s Trebas Institute briefly in 1993, but found the program overly broad and ultimately switched to the LA Recording Workshop, where he finished the two-year program in nine months. “It was everything I wanted, literally, non-stop engineering. I went six days a week, 14 hours a day. The days were long was because in a studio those are typical days and they treated it as such.”
Career Journey
Recording was what most interested him at that time, but after graduating Hamilton took a roadie gig with Lalah Hathaway and Gerald Albright, watched, learned and soaked up every bit of information he could from whoever was mixing from the ground up.
Shortly thereafter, when a family friend who produced plays offered him a FOH mixing gig at one of his shows, Hamilton took it immediately.
“He called the sound company, Sutter Audio of Tallahassee, FL, and didn’t ask but rather told them point blank that I would be mixing. With plays, you’re in the venue for two or three weeks so it was a great stepping stone because prior to that I had only been in the studio.”