Austin Linkous
Major: Music Production
Minor: Business
How would you describe your studies so far?
My studies so far in Music Production have been amazing. The program has recently started offering a class with Benny Faccone, a 15 time Grammy award winning engineer, so he is hands down my favorite teacher and class. He has a ton of experience and knowledge and makes the work that we do real world applicable which is a must have in the music production. Also, the music production department has been adding new classes every year and growing the skill sets that can be learned so I’ve gotten a much broader experience than I originally anticipated.
Would you recommend the major to prospective students deciding on an area of study?
I would recommend Music Production to anyone who has a passion working for music and want to be in the music industry as something other than just a musician. It really is much broader than just recording music and the skill sets are applicable in a ton of different industries like film, gaming, and television.
What opportunities have you received as a student to help you set your goals after graduation?
Right now there aren’t a ton of opportunities being presented for students who graduate in the music production department. There are students that have gotten internships working in studios because of connections from teachers and faculty. There haven’t been a ton of graduated music production majors yet so there just aren’t as many opportunities yet. But with some of the new teachers that we have gotten in the past 2 years, they have really helped me identify what it is that I want to do and been able to push me in that direction so that when I graduate I have a plan.
What did you take away from MUS 482 and organizing Cal LuPalooza?
As for Cal LuPalooza, this year the Mus 482 class is still the ones planning the event, but since I’m the music production department assistant, as well as the person who was in charge last year, I’m taking a leadership role again this year to help the event be even bigger than last year. It also helps as a liaison between the class and the music production department to make sure that everything goes smooth because there definitely were a lot of challenges last year. The experience overall was amazing, I learned a ton about how to plan events, marketing, organizing musicians and equipment and set-up, I got to take a leadership role and really grow into it and it was an experience that definitely made me grow. Sure there were a ton of challenges, but at the end of the day when the show happens, it was all worth it.
