Michael Braeur: maintaining a balanced ego?

Here’s one more snipet from Michael Braeur who I first wrote about a few days ago.  Anyone who has mixed FOH in a large church for any length of time knows how lonely it can become because few other positions in the church are so exposed to praise and criticism.  Interesting insite from Michael on this…I sense that there’s a lot of common ground in the need for thick skin and resting in the call of your work.

Your Coldplay mixes are very inspiring…so radio, yet so vintage-y at the same time. Have you ever had mixes that were rejected and remixed by someone else? How do you deal with that kind of thing? Any advice on maintaining a balanced ego?

Thank you, I’m proud of that record. Yes, rejection happens to us all. It’s part of life. It does not happen often, because if it did, I wouldn’t be working very much. I’m the guy that’s hired to do the remixing so if my mixes don’t fly, well…you know the ending.

I know in my heart that when a mix is completed and turned in to the record company, I did the very best job possible. No excuses are acceptable. I didn’t get lazy at any point in the process, I didn’t cut corners, I didn’t leave certain tasks or ideas unfinished. I took it all the way home. If they reject the mix and feel like someone else has a better take on the song, well, that’s their right because it’s their record. I’m going to sleep ok because I know I did my best. In fact, maybe I’ll learn something from it. Maybe my take on it was wrong. Maybe I made it a bit too slick and the original mix just had a raw power that, with all its faults, still felt better than mine. So next time, maybe I’ll pay closer attention to other elements of a song. I don’t like making the same mistake twice.

It doesn’t really matter if I listen to my mix against the one that was chosen and think wow, mine was way better. In fact, I wouldn’t waste my time. There are a lot of other reasons why a mix is rejected that has nothing to do with you. There is the real world of politics or name recognition that can help sell a product to a radio station.

Yah it hurts for a minute, that my mix isn’t always the best thing since sliced bread but I get over it. I have to, because I’m usually in the middle of mixing another one and I don’t want it to put a damper on the task at hand.  BTW, that mindset did not come naturally. I’ve been doing it for a long enough time that I’ve come to peace with it. Rejection happens; do what you can to learn from it. Turn it around.