[adult swim]
Working with the Adult Swim digital and streams team really allowed me to utilize, share, and expand my skill set. For the 5 years I spent there, my days could range from running live broadcast audio on a talk show, to adding sound design to an animated short, to recording a song for immediate broadcast, to live mixing a famous band, to going on location for tapings of pre-produced content— all frequently in the same day.
This constant task-shifting kept me sharp, interested, and well-rounded. And the fast-paced creative environment fostered a close-knit team that was trusting and dependable.
Adult Swim Streams
Live Broadcast Audio Engineer
Adult Swim Streams was interactive programming that streamed live to the Adult Swim website daily from 2014-2020, broadcast out of our studios at Williams Street. I was in charge of sound for well over 1,000 episodes of various series for the Streams. A few of note were Williams St. Swap Shop (two friendly hosts facilitate swaps of viewers’ gently used items), As Seen On Adult Swim ([as]’s drunken version of QVC), Bottom Text (abducted memers are forced to review and create memes), and Karaoke Dokie (guests sing karaoke while trying to beat the host at video games).
My job would usually extend past running just the mixing board for these shows. Additionally I’d set up equipment, trigger sound fx and music, deploy graphics, and cue lighting. Every day brought new, ridiculous ideas and, in turn, challenges of how to pull them off.
Thomas Middleditch tries to convince himself not to leave on an episode of Williams St. Swap Shop.
Musical Guests
Live Mix Engineer
Hundreds of musical guests came through and performed live in our studios. I’d set up mics and backline, sound-check, run the mixing desk, and do my best to make the performances sound great.
Dinosaur Jr. on Fishcenter Live
Lee Fields on Fishcenter Live
Tobacco on Williams St. Swap Shop
100 Gecs on Fishcenter Live
Stage Design, Lighting, and Visual FX Director
I collaborated on stage designs, ran lighting and visual fx, and often technical directed performances on musical showcase show Bloodfeast Presents. These episodes provide some of the best examples of how we could completely transform our studios as we tried to give each performance its own unique visual look.
Live Events
Broadcast and Production Audio Engineer
Often the team ventured out of our studios and broadcast live from events all over the country. I helped set up remote studios, ran audio for a lot of the broadcasts, and captured sound in the field.
Some of the more memorable events I worked were:
San Diego Comic Con (San Diego, 2017-2019)
Adult Swim Festival (LA, 2018)
Robot Chicken: Night of 1000 Bawks (LA, 2019)
Sweetwater 420 Festival (Atlanta, 2019)
Squidbillies Dry Boat Race at Dixieland Speedway (Atlanta, 2019)
Adult Swim Upfront Party (NYC, 2017)
A portion of the Streams epic broadcast from San Diego Comic Con 2019
Virtual Shows and Panels
Remote Broadcast Audio and Graphics Engineer
Like most everyone in 2020 we were forced to adapt our methods of working. No longer able to use our office studios, we modified our show setups so they could be broadcast out of our collective homes. I helped establish these new tech setups and controlled remote computers and mixers using remote desktop software.
As live events became digitized, Adult Swim began to participate in and host virtual event panels which I would run audio and graphics for.
Rick and Morty’s live virtual panel streamed during Adult Swim Con 2020
The YOLO: Crystal Fantasy Panel for San Diego Comic Con @ Home 2020
Digital Content
Sound Designer, Mixer, Composer, Recording Engineer
During the time I was not actively working in our streaming studios I helped produce content for the Streams, the On-Air department, and Adult Swim’s various social media outlets.
I routinely worked with the digital animation team sound designing and composing for promos and shorts. Many of these animations were experimental in nature and provided room to be quite creative in my use of sound design.
The animation team did a series of videos using the ‘exquisite corpse’ method, resulting in long chains of animation. My sound design helps to make it all seamless.
We flew to Houston to tape some skits with Post Malone for an April Fool’s Day stunt. I ran mics and recorded audio on the set.
Some of the streaming shows would regularly be cut down for TV broadcast at the coveted spot of 4am ET.
A commercial for the Adult Swim Cat Condo
Thundercat for the Sorry For Asking interview series
Killer Mike for the Commencement Speaker Series
A song I helped compose, recorded and mixed for the Adult Swim Smalls series. Written by Dave Hughes, sung by Chris Arrison, and animated by Daniela Sherer
Music
I spent a lot of time in the VO booth recording vocals and music for songs and themes used on the Streams.
In particular I recorded and mixed perhaps hundreds of fish-themed parodies, jingles, and originals with singer and copywriter Chris Arrison for the aquatic gameshow Fishcenter Live. Chris has released several volumes of these ‘Fish Cuts’ on his bandcamp page.
