1. Music, Life ... and Magic - by Ben Tanler, for your interest and entertainment.
Seattle in 1964. A year can be a long time, especially when you're only five years old and a year seems to
last forever. Sitting with my family watching the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show, I was impressed! I didn't
quite understand what all that screaming was about; it did seem a bit over-dramatic in my young opinion. But
whatever, I liked these Beatles. That began my dream of having my own electric guitar! Time went by. Then,
I'll never forget the day my best friend Dave called me up and told me excitedly that his parents got him a
real electric guitar! I immediately ran full-speed over to his house to check it out. Wow!!! A real electric
guita... Wait a minute!!! It was made out of plastic! This wasn't a REAL electric guitar! It was just a toy! But
alas, my friend was just a kid, only in kindergarten and not yet in 1st grade like me. He was young and didn't
know any better. Very clever these grown-ups, thought they could fool us! Again, time went by. Then in 2nd
grade I watched a string quartet in school. I was absolutely mesmerized! That's it! I can't wait any longer!
I've got to learn to play the ... violin! Well, I guess my mom was finally convinced enough I was serious
about this music thing, and not just about being some young rock-n-roller boy. She said, "The violin, are you
sure???" Yes! The magic violin that sings like angels! So she took me to observe a group violin lesson -
AAARRRGGGGHHHH!!! It sounded HORRIBLE!!! Back to the guitar! So for my eighth birthday I got my
first guitar. But alas again! A classical nylon-stringed guitar and classical lessons. Hmm. At least my young
guitar teacher Julia didn't mind teaching me a few Beatles songs too. Finally when I was 12, I worked for my
dad all summer long to save up for a Real electric guitar. I found an AMAZING 1961 SG/Les Paul. I'd
finally, at last, reached Nirvana (so to speak)!
The years went by, and as a pretty shy kid and having no family and few friends that played instruments, I
practiced a lot by myself, took lessons, learned songs, wrote songs, played occasionally with other kids, and
found cheap old tape machines to record myself. Then it was on to college. My new roommate was a
drummer and we put together many GREAT open jam sessions that rang out across the University of
Colorado campus. My studies in physics suffered, I suppose, so in my 2nd year I changed my major to music
and recording engineering at the Denver CU campus. This began some Great times in Denver, playing in
original bands, recording songs, helping other musicians record their songs, learning lots. The very next year
I got a prestigious internship at the best commercial recording studio in the region, where I was soon
recruited into a full-time recording engineering position, recording hundreds of commercials. I had always
hoped I'd hear my stuff on the radio, and now I did every day! Commercials... oh well, that's a start, right?
Fast forward six years later, and at 26, the band I was playing with decided we were going to L.A. to make it
big. Yes, that was a GREAT summer, gigs at famous L.A. venues, recording at big cool studios, several big
record label offers... and there was our novice L.A. "manager/producer" who talked us into turning down the
offers to hold out for more (?). Then our keyboardist snuck out of our little Burbank apartment in the middle
of the night to go back to Denver for school. Hmmm... We played a few more gigs in L.A. anyway, where by
then I'd actually found a few great studio engineering positions I could choose from, but the other guys
wanted to go back to Denver, so alas, I went too, where the band promptly fissled out in a few months. Our
new manager-funded EP that we had recorded in L.A. turned out pretty good though, although it did take
him 9 months to get it pressed and sent to us. Hmmm again... Good lessons right? So then on to playing with
new original bands in Denver and to a new Head Engineer job at a good local commercial studio. It took six
more years for me to really get burned out on commercials, so I transitioned into becoming a freelance music
studio Engineer/Producer. There were GREAT musicians of all kinds in that scene and I was happy to help
them make great recordings at several local studios. I eventually partnered with some friends in a new studio,
and then I built my own. What great times those were! And a great Denver music scene it was! Meanwhile,
my friends in Seattle were experiencing a huge explosion in the Seattle music scene with the new popularity
and prominence of grunge rock. Wow!!! Who woulda thought? Worldwide popularity! Well, it took some
time, a few twists and a Junior High School sweetheart to get me back up to Seattle. By that time, the grunge
scene had already tragically faded, seemingly as quickly as it had started, and when I arrived I soon
discovered there were a whole lot of popular engineer/producers here from all over the world that didn't

2. really have a lot to do anymore. So here I was, no longer a semi-big music fish in Denver and now I was a
little fish among big hungry ones in Seattle. Ok, what to do to pay the bills ?... How about video? Live
concerts? Even corporate A/V? So since then, besides occasional music projects, I've worked and learned a
lot by working at big concerts and corporate media events, all while developing a new interest in the creation
of music-oriented concepts for TV. Over the past few decades, we've witnessed the rise and fall and
changing trends in music TV. First the old music sitcoms like The Monkees and The Partridge Family and
the old live concert shows. Then came MTV and VH-1 bursting on the scene and changing everything. It
was a big time, but eventually a lull descended on music programming for TV with the music sitcoms long
gone, the concert shows having fallen out of favor with sponsors, and MTV over-commercializing itself to
its near demise. Years went by, then lo and behold, a resurgence! American Idol, Glee, The X-Factor, The
Voice - music TV shows that grabbed the top spots in popularity! While most of these shows have faded a
bit now, cable TV is seeing two new specific efforts to bring back the music TV days of old. But the
entertainment media landscape is taking a big turn right now. The industry and its technology have been
evolving very quickly lately with new internet broadcasting developments, the social media craze, and now
even smart phone entertainment prospects. So where is it all going? There might just be a few clues out there
that we can pick up on ... wink, wink.
Well, I recently worked at a big concert by the band One Direction and it brought back memories of that
night so long ago. At this concert, we were all running to grab earplugs because it was SO LOUD! The funny
thing was, though, it wasn't the music that was so loud, it was the screaming girls!!! I guess I still don't
entirely get that screaming girls thing, but it is undeniable. The Power of Music, that magic music and
emotion connection, from musicians and their music connecting to their audiences. This magic remains as
strong as ever with its future wide open. We invite you to join us.
With your help, we'll take music and TV into the future and boldly go where no music has gone before!