Episode: Interview with Berkeley Tistle Audio Engineer | Recorded at Gig: The Art of Michigan Music – Jackson, MI

We stepped away from the stage and behind the sound board at GIG: The Art of Michigan Music in Jackson, Michigan, to sit down with Berkeley Tistle — a live sound engineer with nearly a decade of experience working across Michigan, from small local stages to the iconic Masonic Temple in Detroit.

Berkeley shares how it all started with a giant Yamaha mixing desk in his high school theater program, and how that moment of curiosity turned into a full-time career. We get into what it actually looks like to run sound for a live show — the prep, the problem-solving, the late nights, and the art of anticipating everything going wrong and nothing going wrong at the same time.

In this episode:

• How Berkeley got his start in high school theater and why the mixing desk caught his eye
• The difference between studio recording and live sound — and why live won him over
• What it's like to work out of venues like Detroit's Masonic Temple (and why you should bring a buddy if you wander)
• How he preps for a show with artists he's never worked with before
• What musicians can do to make a sound engineer's job easier (communication is everything)
• How years of working live shows changed his personal taste in music — including a New Year's run with Excision that converted him to heavy EDM
• How gigs are booked and what the business side of audio looks like

Artists mentioned:

Carbon Decoy, Paper Lanterns, Mazinga, Chris DuPont, Kylee Phillips, Kyle Joe, Spencer LaJoye, Excision

Venues mentioned:

Masonic Temple Detroit, The Russell (Detroit), Bliss Fest