One of this year’s ubiquitous expressions has been bounced around the zeitgeist a lot, but it has real meaning in regard to Delicate Sound’s recent history: “Go Big or Go Home.” The opening of a second office is always a Most Serious decision for a small business operator, but owner Smoother Smyth did it when his business was so down its very existence was in question.
“If we’re speaking the truth, I’ll tell ya,” says a refreshingly blunt Smyth from his Southern California office. He then sets the scene: it’s the end of 2008 and the recession kicked in, a partner had to be bought out, and other personal and professional setbacks piled up. “Things were really upside down. Corporate work went away, the car manufacturers stopped putting on big events, meetings got cancelled … it hit us hard.”
But there was no quitting. “We huddled together and said we have to figure out a way out of this mess.” No doubt the “way” would surely not include opening another office ….
Enter one George Edwards, a longtime audio pro in the San Francisco area. Word had gotten out that he was itching for a change. “I knew he was Mr. San Francisco, that he knew the market well and that kind of got me thinking,” Smyth says. The Delicate team proposed a marriage of convenience of sorts: matching Edwards’ talent and reputation with their great and currently underused gear and company support.
Happy Coincidence was the minister to this union, as associate Louis Adamo of Hi-Tech Audio mentioned to Smyth that he and his wife Karen, a party event planner for Blue Water Party Rentals, were sharing space in a 2,200 square-foot building and had plenty of room for the gear.
“You expect that when somebody opens a satellite office, it’s because they are going through a financially successful period!” Smyth says, still surprised by it all. “We were in the depth of a recession, yet we made a really bold move, moving about a third of our considerable audio inventory up there.”
Turned out to be a decent proposal. In the first year, the SF office broke even, and in year two, they doubled the income. As a company, “we’ve just had our best year to date,” Smyth declares.
“Smoother is the kind of guy who will take the time to listen to what your thought process is on what it takes to be profitable, consult on where the direction the brand should go, and leave you alone,” Edwards says. “The allure was that I had a brain trust at my disposal to which I reported quarterly, and as long as I’m profitable, I’m basically left alone. I feel like I work for myself, though I’m definitely part of a team.”
Different Aspirations
Edwards today is the SF office account executive and oversees day-to-day operations. “Delicate Productions is the gold standard of event production, and I’m thrilled to be joining such a highly respected and innovative company,” Edwards said when the agreement was first announced in 2009.
Edwards was a self-described “California brat,” who “cut my teeth as a band guy with all the local regional bands.” He quickly moved up, touring with such acts as Eddie Money, The Tubes and Great White, among others. He would next move to Lodi, CA, 80 miles inland from San Francisco. There he and Leo Burke founded R & R Sound, and he worked that for six years. Next, he toured with Champions on Ice and other big ice shows of the day.
In 1995, Edwards began a 14-year career at Sound On Stage, the last 11 as general manager. Then “it just came time for a change,” he states, matter-of-factly. “I got married and had kids, and got different aspirations. I wanted a 9-to-5 life, but still wanted to do what I wanted to do.” He gave three months notice in August of 2009, as he wanted to finish up a number of big commitments with them (including Oracle). The phone started ringing, and he listened to a number of offers.
One was from Smyth.
“I had worked with Smoother and [account executive] Jason [Alt] on various tours in the 1980s, including INXS and Jane’s Addiction, and had a great relationship with them,” Edwards said. “We sat down and carved out a deal, and we opened doors up here on Nov. 3, 2009 in a 7,000 square-foot-space.”
They have since moved into a 22,000 square-foot-space that they continue to share, and the gear on hand is substantial. The inventory includes mixing consoles from DiGiCo, Avid, Yamaha and Midas — both analog and digital, “but primarily digital. Even on our smaller corporate events we use all Yamaha digital.” There’s also a plethora of mics, including AKG, Audio-Technica, beyerdynamic, Electro-Voice, Neumann, Sennheiser and Shure. Speakers include gear from JBL and Electro-Voice, among others.
The office is kept busy: “We just finished the biggest show of the division’s history, the 10th Annual Safeway Foundation Gala,” Edwards says. It’s one of the Bay Area’s premier charitable fundraising events, with some 2,500 attending, including a long roster of VIPs. The fundraiser requires nine months of planning, and this year it raised $7.7 million for multiple causes and local charities. Lionel Richie was the musical guest.
“We built a 163-foot-long thrust for the CEO to walk down, where he was dead center with three video screens above him. The video was huge, and it all the gear required eight semis. It took us nine days to put up all the audio, lighting, and video, and required 90 points of rigging. It was a 100-man crew — just insane.”
Another big event is the Red Bull King of the Rock on Alcatraz, a massive TV event that Delicate SF has handled for a second year in a row. First, they had to work from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., prepping and setting up, and then, by 6:01 a.m., there had to be nary a sign of any big shoot for the tourists coming to visit. “We were out there for a week with over 50 sea containers of gear, and visibility was terrible — you could only see six or seven feet in front of you,” Edwards laughs. “It was brutal, but we pulled it off. [Audio engineers] Brad Madix and Greg Price were great, and they’ve been instrumental in a lot of our growth.” He says the pair brought them into a partnership with Pro Tools that at first led to two machines, but today, the organization boasts 10. “Nine are out on tour right now, and we’ve been sub-renting …” he pauses, then continues: … “to our so-called competition, though we just look at it as our network. We embrace the ‘competition,’ as we see our business based on relationships, not the lowest price.”
A Fresh Approach
Delicate SF also does a lot of special event work with the owners of Napa Valley wineries, including vineyards owned by Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola. These are typically tricky, and not just because of the inherent prestigious nature of the events. The neighboring vineyards can be persnickety about the volume level. As Edwards explains it, the law says the volume level can’t be above 61 dB and “we have three zones running all at 46, 47 dB, but the ambient noise is 37,” so that can be the rub (or even an occasional vineyard v. vineyard lawsuit … but that’s another story). He adds that Coppola, and so many others he deals with, are “delightful” to work with, and no doubt the feeling is mutual, as he has had an exclusive on much of the work. “It’s been beneficial — last year alone, we did over 40 high-end weddings, some involving weeks of planning and load-in.”
Delicate also remains deeply involved in touring — they were out with Foo Fighters and Selena Gomez, and also the likes of Bruno Mars and Stone Temple Pilots.
“Things have worked out very well,” Smyth says of the union. “George has taken a fresh approach to things, and we’re all firing on all cylinders. He’s doing a great job.”
So … does this mean he’ll open another office at some point? He laughs. “Well, we can use the San Francisco example as a template, but next time around, I’m thinking it’ll be a more straightforward situation!”
Reflecting back on his jump to Delicate and being part of their next chapter, Edwards asks, rhetorically, “Once you reach the top [of one organization], is that enough for you? Or do you have bigger aspirations? I had bigger aspirations, and today I’m part of a company that is very successful — debt-free, and has an amazing team. I’m a blessed man.”
