Henry Gifford lives and breathes music.
Montclair High School senior Henry Gifford chose to do his senior option at a recording studio in Brooklyn, N.Y. Gifford has always had a passion for music so interning in the field of music production seemed reasonable.
“I interned at Studio G. It’s a recording studio in Brooklyn. It’s run by Joel Hamilton, whose recorded artists include Matisyahu, Mike Watt and Elvis Costello, along with Tony Maimone, who played in the band Pere Ubu,” explained Gifford.
Henry Gifford worked at the studio for 10 hours a day, twice a week. Gifford additionally commuted into Brooklyn.
“I had a commute that took about an hour and a half, on the train and two subways,” said Gifford. “I wasn’t looking forward to it, but it actually was pretty nice. The subways were pretty empty so I got to sit and get some reading done.”
While working at the studio Henry Gifford was required to help out in various ways. His basic day-to-day tasks were standard: vacuuming around the whole studio, washing and drying the dishes and other general clean-up tasks. There was also a lot of moving of amplifiers, drums and setting up amps and microphones for recording. A lot of his day was spent observing what was going on.
“I got a real insight into how a band records and how to get the right sound from them,” Gifford added.
Henry Gifford got the internship through multiple contacts. His dad works in animation, and he did an internship last summer with the studio that records the voice-over work for his father, Hyperbolic Audio. One of the people at Hyperbolic knew Hamilton at Studio G.
“The most interesting thing I’ve experienced was watching the engineer work with a guitarist to get the perfect sound out of his guitar,” shared Gifford. “They went through so many different things, testing out different amplifiers with different pedals, running through all kinds of effects. It was then really cool to heart the finished product and how great the guitar fit in with the rest of the mix.”
While Henry Gifford enjoyed his time at Studio G, he’s not very sure if he plans on pursuing a career in the field of music production.
“I love music and I like recording studios a lot, but it’s a really risky business. I don’t know if I’m passionate enough to do it for a living,” explained Gifford.
Come fall, Henry Gifford will be attending the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pa. There Gifford plans on either studying math, physics or English.
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