Hi! I’m Kip, a freelance sound engineer
I do lots of different freelancing things, including:
- mixing and mastering
- performance tracks for burlesque and drag artists
- sound design & classical composition (mostly choral music)
- session pianist
My favourite thing to do is mixing and mastering music of all genres.
In addition to freelancing, I also work casually for a local youth organisation where I help young people to express themselves using music and music technology.
My Backstory
I grew up in rural Canada and when I was a teenager I was an avid amateur soundie who recorded music on a $12 computer microphone on my family’s shared desktop computer in our kitchen. I sold CDs of music I’d written and recorded to my friends for $3 out of my locker at high school. I wanted to be a sound engineer, but I was discouraged from pursing it because I was a girl.
I was told that girls didn’t become sound engineers, that it was a sexist industry, that harrassment was normal, that it was too much of a blue collar job for a “smart promising young woman”.
So I shelved my dream to become a sound engineer and got a Bachelors of Arts, Major in Music from the University of Western Ontario and then a certificate in Arts and Entertainment Management from Capilano University. I then worked in ticketing for live events and festivals for many years. I played in bands, performed music/cabaret piano shows, and did choral composition and arrangement on the side.
When COVID happened I reevaluated my life and I decided to finally chase my dream of being an audio engineer. I studied sound engineering at RMIT in Melbourne, Australia and have been working as a freelance sound engineer ever since.
In Australia, the amount of women sound engineers is somewhere around 2-11% (depending on the study) and less than 2% of all sound engineers are non-binary. I’m a non-binary butch and proudly a part of that 2%.
I have been really lucky to work mostly with queer people. If you’ve ever been told that you’re too feminine, too queer, too strange to be a musician, I’m keen to work with you. Send me a message via my contact form and let’s work on some projects.