By Vincent Harris
If you’re a regular concertgoer on the Upstate South Carolina music scene, and you’re particularly fond of our smaller venues, then you’ve probably seen Logan Galloway before. Or maybe you haven’t noticed him standing in the shadows, running the soundboard at places like The Spinning Jenny in Greer, the now-closed Mojo Coffee in downtown Greenville, or more recently, the Radio Room, one of the city’s most popular small venues.
It's Galloway’s job to make sure every artist who steps on his stage is satisfied with the sound coming from their instruments and microphones. It’s also his job to make sure the audience is as happy as the artists are, whether he’s amplifying a full-throttle punk band or setting the right tone for an acoustic folk artist. When Galloway was a teenager, he developed an interest in audio production, specifically in a recording studio of some kind. But he quickly realized that it was going to be difficult to get a foot in that particular door.
“I thought I could make it as a studio guy,” Galloway says, “which I think a lot of kids do when they get interested in audio. And I quickly found out that it's hard to cut it in that game. I could have kept trying, but there's a lot more work in the live music industry. So I gave it a try and I found out I really liked it. It's pretty fun, especially when you actually get to get your hands on the mixer, which you do at the smaller shows.” That’s an interesting point, and it’s one that speaks to how much Galloway loves his job. Sometimes, as the venue sound tech, you’re going to be solely responsible for what the artist sounds like. Sometimes, for bigger acts, you’re going to be doing more menial tasks, but either way, Galloway still enjoys what he does. All things being equal, though, he’s happiest with smaller acts at smaller venues. “If you're working at a big venue,” he says, “they're going to have their own crew and you're mostly just going to be running cables and moving boxes. You don't really get to do a lot of hands-on stuff.” During Galloway’s seven years or so at the Radio Room, he’s become accustomed to the different kinds of shows he’s responsible for.
“There are two different types of shows that I typically deal with,” he says. “One of them is much like it would be at any venue. Even at the bigger ones, you know, you’ve got a headliner. They're pulling in the crowd. And you want to treat them right. They load in and you take your time getting things set up to try and make them as happy as possible. So when they get their stuff set up on stage, you make sure they're all connected. They might have their own person running what we call the ‘front of house,’ or It might be me doing it. You get them all hooked up and happy and then you let them take their time with sound check.” “I also do the type of shows where we have four or five bands on a bill,” Galloway continues. “Everyone shows up at five o’clock, and you got to just make things happen quick. Get it close and work on it during the set. They’re very different, those two types of shows. You got to not let the stress get to you. With one, you just make it happen and with one, you take your time.” In terms of his own musical preferences, Galloway likes a good dose of heavy guitar rock, and cites performances by the Atlanta noise-rock duo ’68 and the West Virginia metalcore band Zao. But in terms of what kind of genres he enjoys running sound for the most, his choices might surprise you. “Even though they're not my favorite genre, when you have a poppy band in there, it's kind of fun to figure out how to make it work,” he says. “It’s not just ‘turn up the volume.’. There's a lot of processing involved with that type of music.” As Galloway has spent more time at the Radio Room, it has become one of the most respected venues in the area, bringing in artists who would normally play much bigger rooms. But it’s also been a hot spot for up-and-coming local acts like Ill Intentions and Luxx, two of Galloway’s favorite Upstate groups.
“We’ve got a new crop of kids involved,” he says, adding with a laugh that, “I'm a little jealous because I had some little, somewhat active bands when I was in college or getting out of high school. And there were not a whole lot of concertgoers around my age. Now there seem to be a lot of kids that like to go out to shows. You have these younger bands like Ill Intentions and Luxx and they're pulling pretty decent crowds and having a lot of fun. And kids are getting into music that probably hadn't gone to shows before that. It's really cool to see.”