Childrens’ books with stories about different career choices — whether as doctors, teachers, farmers, firefighters, explorers or hundreds of other professions — are nothing new. However, one employment direction that has never been so spotlighted is as a live sound engineer, and The Beat in My Head is designed to do just that.
Written by Ariel and Brandon Blackwell, and delightfully illustrated by Sam Onche, the book is autobiographical story of a boy named Brandon who is continually hearing beats in his head, being made by ordinary objects in his life — ranging from classroom chalkboards and pencils, to birds, to kicks and hits in sports. Concerned about his “beats,” Brandon is sent to a therapist, where he hears yet more sounds, and later, his mother takes him to a concert, where he is fascinated by the FOH engineer controlling the show. Soon after, he meets the audio engineer at his church, who also hears beats in everyday things, and he begins teaching Brandon how to use the audio gear and from there on to a successful career in audio.
The real Brandon developed his passion for audio, after seeing a Sade concert at age 12. He honed his skills in church mixing and moved on to Full Sail University, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Show Production and Touring. He dove into the industry headfirst, doing monitors for Chaka Khan, Jennifer Hudson, The Isley Brothers, Angie Stone, Ne-Yo, TLC, Alicia Keyes — among others — and has mixed FOH for Kendrick Lamar and Lizzo.
The book makes a powerful statement in introducing children to the live sound industry, helping provide validation that young people can aspire to a career in live production, while helping spark the interests of the next generations of live production professionals. Bravo!
The Beat in My Head ($17.99 / hardcover) is available at www.thebeatinmyhead.com. —George Petersen
