How did you initially end up working in the event industry and at Creative Technology?
My life has always revolved around music and concerts. I used to play in a band and our sound tech was not that good, so he asked me once “Why don’t you do it yourself?” So I did and was actually good in it, and after a while I decided to study that path and became a sound engineer. I moved to Tampere in 2013 and studied music production, decided to do my thesis about PA optimization and design.
When I was studying, I decided to get deeper into the sound reinforcement business. I met a couple of great Sound Technicians at The Voice of Finland production. One thing led to another, and I ended up getting a couple of gigs where I could show I knew one or two things about the business. After that I started to freelance for example for CT (Bright at the time) and here we are!
What does your job at CT include?
At the moment due to family reasons I decided to stop doing gigs and find a job still within the same field but with office hours. Long story short, I became the Warehouse Manager at our CT Tampere Office. In Tampere, we have a really great team of technicians that know their field inside and out, and that gives me the chance to concentrate in my own side of the job.
Nowadays I’m taking care of the equipment and subrentals, transportation and other logistics needed to keep the gigs rolling. I also do occasional gigs when given the opportunity.
What has been the most memorable event production you have worked with at CT?
From my point of view, every gig is treated with the same amount of respect. I will quote Bob McCarthy who wrote the book I based my thesis on “The goal is straightforward: Same everywhere. Same level, frequency response, clarity and sonic image location. The applicable principles are the same for single speakers and complex arrays, for a full black-box theatre or a theater full of black boxes.”
Then again, last stadium gigs for JVG and Kaija Koo meant a lot as they were the biggest gigs for me after Covid.
What’s the best part of your job?
As a Sound Technician for live events the best part is listening to the end result of your job and watching the audience enjoy the experience. That’s priceless. And as a Warehouse Manager, knowing that I can count on my coworkers and being able to concentrate on my own work.
How has the event technology industry changed during the years you have worked with events? And how do you see the future of events?
The industry has changed a lot. When I started as a Sound Technician it was enough to know how to plug cables to a mic. Now, if you want to work professionally as a Sound/AV Technician, you need to know some IT and understand a bit of rigging, networks, Dante protocols, servers, wireless and many other things.
I think everything is evolving way too fast and I’m just enjoying the ride as I’m trying to learn new stuff on a daily basis. Soon enough nobody will be able to work without knowing networks and IT.
What would be your absolute dream production to work with?
At the moment, Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” looks like the biggest production ever, and it would be really interesting to see how everything is done there. I think any technician in the world would benefit from working with a production of that size.
How do you spend your time outside of work?
I spend my time with my family. I have four kids; two football players age of eight and ten, and in April last year we got twins. So my hands are quite full but I also still coach my kid’s football teams, as football was a big part of my life and I used to play professional futsal. On top of that, I have a studio where I try to make some music and record something. I’m also learning about content creation and video editing.
