Recording Connection graduate John Curtis Audio Engineer Success Story
Their Story

When John Curtis signed up to extern with Ric Web at South Studios, little did he know that within less than a year, he’d be running a recording studio of his own but that’s exactly what happened. Getting into a real studio and learning the craft was dream come true for John who, in his Recording Connection application, expressed his passion for audio with these words:

I have had an overwhelming passion for Audio Engineering ever since I was about 14 or 15 years old when I realized that I have a very keen sense for what music is supposed to sound like… My overwhelming desire to reach the “perfect sound” leads my friends and family to even call me OCD whenever I listen to music because it’s so hard for me to not tinker with whatever EQ settings I can get my hands on at the time. I believe very strongly that I know when something sounds right and I know when something sounds wrong. And with my accurate ears I believe that this attribute that I was given will put me a step ahead of most right out of the gate.

Once his foot was in the door, John’s passion was more than evident to mentor Ric Web as was his dependable character. John describes himself saying, “I pride myself on my extremely high level of loyalty, respect and honor with which I carry myself through every day of life.” So when a tenant of one of Ric’s studios moved out, Ric offered the studio to John just as he was completing his externship. John jumped at the opportunity which was, as it turned out, the goal he’d set for himself years ago. “I’d been telling myself since I was a kid. I’m going to have my own recording studio at 25 and right when I turned 25, that’s exactly what I was doing.”

Since then, John has recorded 5 Platinum artists in the past year and he’s currently in the process of redoing his White Bridge Studios from top to bottom. He’s brought on a couple Recording Connection grads as well, Brian Heath aka “Token” and David Lukens. Together they’re focused on a specific niche market in the Nashville music scene, what John calls “Nashville’s bread and butter.” John has Lukens and a number of session players on-call. Any songwriter can walk into the studio with a tune dancing around in their head and they can get it laid out with all the instrumentation they need do get their demo done in about an hour.

Being able to use his gift for knowing what “sounds right” and helping artists move forward with creating their songs is proving to be a rewarding career for John and his fellow Recording Connection grads. Have fun helping those Nashville songwriters lay down their tracks!