We don’t know about you, but we’ve only just gotten over last week’s Thanksgiving food coma! Even though Thanksgiving is over, we wanted to keep the spirit of gratitude going. Meet the people on our team who help keep the show on the road.
Get to know Amon, Kris, Ashwin, and Mike B., and why they read every piece of feedback! Plus, how Amon and Mike have an ongoing Battle of the Bagels…
Hey guys. How long have you been part of the BL community team?
Kris: 1.5 years. Time flies.
Ash: 2.5 years!
Amon: For as long as I can remember, we’ve been part of the ancient BandLab civilisation… just kidding guys. It’ll be my second anniversary here in April!
Mike: I joined when BandLab brought Cakewalk into the family, so Feb 2018.
What instruments or music do you play/listen to?
Amon: Most of the tracks I’ve released on BandLab are guitar-based but I can rock out on the bass, keys, cello, drums and synths as well! I love everything from Tori Kelly to The Glitch Mob to Olafur Arnalds.
Kris: I play bass and piano. My BandLab playlists are a cocktail of rock, metal, jazz, RnB, funk and pop! It reflects how diverse the BandLab community is.
Ash: ROCK MUSIC FOR LIFE. I play guitar, bass and vocals and recently expanded into 60’s jazz, blues and folk.
Mike: A mix! Drums, guitar, bass, voice, and (hopefully) enough keyboard to record. Grew up on classic rock and pop punk, but really digging soundtracks as of late.
What are some of your BandLab highlights from 2019?
Amon: Tracklanta and AES [the annual Audio Engineering Society Conference]! Seeing our Tracklanta winners pour their hearts out into their music to achieve their dreams.
Kris: When we low-key hit 10 MILLION USERS! Can’t believe how huge our community is now.
Ash: NAMM 2019! Was great to meet some BandLab folks in real life. It was my first time in the States and I absolutely loved exploring cities around the West Coast.
Mike: Me too. I love doing events and tradeshows. If you see me on the show floor, definitely say hi.
What does a typical day look like at BandLab?
Kris: I’m always the first one in the office (early bird), so my day starts with making sure that there are no fires to put out! Besides replying to our support tickets and social media responses, we’re always listening to BandLab music, watching BL Live Streams and more. Never a boring day.
Amon: We get to work with musicians and music all the time. It’s pretty awesome. Like this team collab that we did over lunchtime once:
A big part of my work also involves communicating all the awesome ideas users have for BandLab to our devs, and planning for upcoming features & content.
Ash and Mike B: Helping people make music! Our community includes so many different types of musicians, so our work is very varied.
What is the hardest part of your job?
Amon: Getting Mike to buy me Bagels!
Okay but for real, the idea of balance. It can be challenging to keep on top of things given how many people there are in the BandLab community. But it’s rewarding helping people take a step towards their music dreams.
Mike: Getting Amon to buy me a Mono strap. (Editor’s note: it happened!) On a more serious note, I wish we got to see our users more. I’m a hands-on person, and always feel it’s easier to help people by showing them.
Kris: My glass is always half full. So for me, difficult situations are just a way to improve, find good solutions and learn from the mistakes.
Ash: It could seem quite daunting when it comes to being the voice for millions of BandLab users and our developers. Sometimes it’s a tug of war to balance their wants, but we try our best!
What do you wish our community knew more about, when it comes to your job?
All: We’re real people! And that the feedback you give us really matters. It might take us some time to implement it, but we read everything.
We’re a small, tight knit team of four working with a truly global community. So we’re like a band, attempting to dedicate a song to each member of the audience in an arena.
Nonetheless, it’s a happy problem working with users from all around the world. It blows our minds and is super inspiring!
What’s the one (or more) things you’d encourage our community to keep doing?
All: Search within yourself, find that thing you call your truth and preach it in your music!
Writing great songs can be tough, but know that many creators share the same struggle in the process.
Keep making friends ‘in the Lab’, give constructive feedback, and share your expertise.
Encourage each other! BandLab is a community of growing musicians. It can mean the world to another artist.
What are you excited about for BandLab in 2020?
Amon: You know that feeling before Christmas morning where you are eagerly anticipating your presents? That’s exactly how I feel about 2020! We’ve got a whole bunch of improvements and new features coming up… watch this space.
Ash: I think we’ll have some new and unique features that will set the standard for the future of mobile recording.
Mike: I’m generally excited to see the evolution of BandLab as a platform. We’re making huge strides, and have the ever-growing community to thank for it.
Kris: I’m excited for all the laughs, challenges and small victories ahead with all our users. BandLab is only getting better thanks to our community.
