Meet Larry Elyea | Audio Engineer and Cinematographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Larry Elyea and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Larry, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Well for being a Recording Engineer, I was in college, and studying to be an environmental engineer. But i also played in bands. My band had an opportunity to get a song on a national, important, compilation cd. It guaranteed major industry access for the band. So i called the best studio in Phoenix at the time. Asked how much to record 1 song, the best you can. He said $500. I said sold. We did it and it was VERY disappointing. So i decided to record our band myself the next time. I tried, and people really seemed to like it. Other bands started asking me to record them too. It snowballed, and i had to get a commercial location 4 months later. I got so busy i ended up dropping out of college my senior year, and never looked back. I knew i had found my calling, and loved doing it.

Then i got into Cinematography when i mixed the audio for a feature film in 2015. I got close with the director, and had always been interested in it, but i thought the entry was way too expensive. When i made a music video in the early 2000s, it cost $450k, and the cameras/lenses/film was hundreds of thousands of dollars. The director told me he shot his entire film with gear that cost under $10,000, and it looked amazing, i was hooked. Started working projects with him, and now i have won 5 Telly awards for commercials i have shot and directed myself.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
So I have owned, Mind’s Eye Digital Recording Studio for 29 years. I still absolutely love going into the studio to work. Everyday is different. Different talent, different music, different goals, different problem solving. Over the years I still get better, i still learn, i still keep up on new tech, new techniques. I learned a long time ago, if you think you have reached the top of your field, you quit striving to be the best, quit learning, your dead. I still give every client everything i have, because if you dont they will stop coming. Like i said earlier, ive been nominated for a Grammy won 5 Tellys, Best studio, Best Engineer, etc…but what gets you there even above talent, is perseverance. I mean just to stay in business for 3 decades is VERY hard. In fact in 2015 when i started doing film and commercials, i didn’t know if i was going to continue recording music. Things were very slow at the studio, and it seems a lot of people were recording at home, and the young kids were not forming bands like they were in the 90s and 2000s. I could teach audio, at a college or tech school, but i refused. I told myself, your gonna find business and not stop. So i did. Then, things picked back up and have been going great ever since. I LOVE making records and I LOVE the people i get to work with, and i never want to stop. It could be Italian opera, Hip-hop, punk rock or Death metal, doesn’t matter, there are challenges and fun things in every type of music. Id like the world to know that i am very invested in my craft, and will always give 100% of myself to get a project done successfully. I think every entrepreneur that provides a service should think that way. Now i with making commercials and film, i have another creative outlet, that has other benefits. It gets me out of the studio into the world. I’ve been to Brazil working on a film about a UFC fighter, I’ve been to Hawaii to shoot a music video. I’ve been literally everywhere in the state of Arizona making commercials. The two artforms go hand in hand and I feel like i am absolutely blessed to have found both of them.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Well if i had an out of town guest we would definitely enjoy the nature of this state. Lakes, boating, quads, camping would all be involved, Bartlett Lake is my favorite. Nightlife we would catch some bands or comedians at Ak Chin Pavilion, Van Buren, or Marquee Theatre. More than likely we would eat some Japanese cuisine, Kasai. Then eat at J.T Prime the following night. Then i would have treat them to some great Mexican food. There’s a killer food truck with the best street tacos i have every had by the studio in Glendale, then we goto sit down later that night at Cocina Madrigal for the real deal. At some point we would hopefully catch a Suns game, and enjoy Downtown, probably eat at The Arrogant Butcher.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Well, the shout out for recording goes to my mother, Barbara Elyea. She gave me a loan to start my studio in 1993. She believed in me when i didn’t even know what i was doing. Without that loan i am never nominated for a Grammy, i never win Studio Engineer of the Year from the L.A. Music Awards, and i never get selected best studio in Phoenix by the New Times.

For film, i have to credit Matty Steinkamp from Mango Skies Films. He was the Director on the film, “PLAY” that i mixed in 2015. He helped me a lot in the beginning. Taught me a lot about dealing with people in a kind productive way. I got to be Director of Photography on an Amazon commercial he directed, and many other gigs that he brought me in on, including being 2nd camera on a film about Calais Campbell.

Website: www.mindseyedigitalproductions.com www.mindseyedigital.net

Instagram: @larryelyea

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/larry-elyea-588aa657