Andrew Stone is the Production Director and Senior Audio Engineer at Church on the Move in Tulsa, Okla. He's also a founding partner for MxU training and coaching.
CPM: What was your first production job, first experience, first exposure?
Andrew: Quite literally, I had never planned to be involved in the production world, and most certainly not focused in the audio and leadership realm as much as I am now. And being a church guy? NEVER entered my mind.
I was raised with a Mom who forced me to play the piano. Legitimately hated it but it was better than the alternative of learning to play the acoustic guitar or something equally as terrible. You know, like the violin. Horror. Graduated to drums after discovering a snare drum tucked away in the attic one day. Parents, be careful of what you dump in the attic when you have a mischievous kid wandering around the house. Just saying. Needless to say I was hooked and drums became my life. Rock bands, drum corp, gigs, marching band, dreams of eventual drum grandeur and drum world domination. These thoughts were what consumed me well into my twenties.
However, so I can equally blame both parents for what I’ve become (Mom for the forced musical thing and Dad for unsuccessfully hiding said drums). My Dad DID happen to have a significant background in theatrical arts from way back. This basically meant he was one of those middle-aged rockstar church volunteers we all dream of. Could mix, solder, design, hang and operate conventional lights like no one’s business, he could even act and make sense of some of those truly awful church-level holiday scripts. This was all completely normal to me as almost every time I’d get to go “hang out with Dad,” it meant hanging out at church trying to not be underfoot while these kinds of things were going on. Odd how I NEVER thought focusing on the church world might be of interest to me later in life. Totally missed that one.
It wasn’t until after I had graduated from Oral Roberts University that I officially took my first real foray into the production world. Allow me to articulate how daft I was. ORU placed a high priority on music, and being destined for lifelong drum glory, I played right into it by drumming for everything. TV shows, recordings, chapels, traveling all over the world with their teams doing ministry concerts, school recruiting, you name it, I drummed on it. Basically whatever would keep me locked in as a drummer AND got me out of those evil classes associated with my art degree track. For most of that time though, even as a drummer and a muso, my real friends and associates were the production people. Felt like I kind of identified with what they were doing I guess. And without even knowing it they became my tribe.
And here’s where the first confirmation of the daftness comes in… Through all those school years, guess what my on-campus job was? Audio Engineer on the campus audio team. I understood it, mixed very musically (because it was the only way I knew and was a terrible technician…still am actually), and could understand the plight of the poor musicians up there just trying to hear something intelligible out of a floor wedge. But to me, it was just the little job I did to make enough money to buy drumheads and sticks. You may have surmised that I was an idiot, AND you would be correct.
A few months after graduation, I was now working as an Audio Engineer at the Mabee Center. A real job at the only real arena in Tulsa at that time. What’s not to love? Work and mix big events and watch all the big concert shows that came through all while working on my background plan of drum stardom.
But with this next series of lies, it all turned. A very well-known CCM artist had rented the arena for a few weeks to do tour rehearsals. I didn’t pay much attention to what they were doing as I basically loathed that kind of music and took the opportunity to lay low with no scheduled events taking place.
One day I happened to be walking in the hallway and overheard (read eavesdropped) a phone call where the tour manager was talking on the phone explaining how he had let someone go and was lamenting (and scoffing a bit if memory serves) where he would find an “audio guy” around Tulsa. Of course I immediately had an out-of-body experience and decided to become the biggest liar on earth.
While I was in this daze of what I had just heard, this guy now realizes I’m listening to his conversation and is quite intent on why I’m standing there in the doorway eavesdropping. And then I heard myself say, “Are you looking for an audio guy?” His only reply was something along the lines of yeah, them needing an in-ear-monitor guy and then asking if I knew how to deal with all of the related technology. As I began lying to him to assure him I was the best in-ear-monitor guy in North America, my inner brain is swearing at myself wondering how in the crap I’m going to get out of this, as I literally had no idea what an in-ear monitor was. Or what it really even meant.
Ultimately, I successfully perpetuated my lies throughout the day and managed to get through a rehearsal with them that night, mixing these crazy in-ear-monitor things the only way I knew how: musically. And they loved it. Turns out the musical approach was EXACTLY what they were needing with this type of brand new technology.
That day of lies changed my life and started me on a trajectory I had never planned for. All that musical and drumming background served me well as it gave me a background in music I wouldn’t have had otherwise. Almost every single day, that musical approach has been the thing that’s kept me grounded to the actual craft and art of what I get to be a part of.
God is crazy cool allowing this narrative to unfold the way it has. Crazy cool.
CPM: How did you get started and how has your role progressed at COTM?
Andrew: I left Tulsa for a life of touring as my drumming aspirations quietly (and almost unnoticed by me) took an eventual backseat.
I went from playing drums live and in the studio to recording and mixing live and in the studio. Went from playing music on stage to mixing and producing music from FOH. I was literally working in the same “business” but from a completely different side of the glass. And it felt totally normal.
Here’s how this all makes sense to those ORU years. One of the biggest musical influences on my life then was a guy I played with on almost every gig. During those years of rooming with him all over the world while traveling, and from hanging at his off-campus apartment all the time eating Puerto Rican food, he really became like a brother to me. It was an incredible time in my life.
This same guy had stayed in Tulsa all these years serving at Church on the Move and eventually ended up in senior leadership. He called me after almost 15 years and said he saw my name on a project I’d mixed and decided to track me down as they needed some production and audio advice at the time. Would I be interested to reconnect and give some advice? And with that “trick” of getting me to come back over to Tulsa to “consult” with them, my time at COTM began.
God had to work on my heart and head significantly to help me handle the thought of working at a church. So much pride and identity was wrapped up with “Andrew the touring guy.” But this was literally the first time in my life I had to get my head around making a major change that was going to allow me to truly start focusing on doing God’s work vs. working to bolster someone else’s career dreams. It was a complete 180 from anything I’d ever done. Fourteen years later, I’m still here. I guess I haven’t scared them or said anything bad enough to be run off. Yet.
I currently serve as the production director and senior audio engineer at COTM, continually trying to find ways to make big production elements exist in a world where authenticity, grace and art are all trying to coexist in the same realm. Hands down, the most challenging job I’ve ever had to navigate. Learning to pastor more than “do.” Having to shepherd more than mix. Finding ways to lead and inspire a large multi-site production team, but still finding ways to be absent enough so these other young leaders can discover their own greatness. Tough work.
But knowing you’re exactly where God wants you to be, not to mention learning to rely on the truths and grace of God to make qualified decisions compared to the shoot-from-the-hip style I had become so used to, has brought a fulfillment like none other.
I was so clueless back then with my dreams of drum domination!
CPM: Tell us more about MxU.
Over this crazy career, I’ve been fortunate to meet and work with some fantastic people. In that vein, I am so privileged that God set a path for me to be associated with Lee Fields and Jeff Sandstrom. Aside from each of these guys being experts in their field, we all shared the same righteous anger in how much bad information actually gets to the church in regards to audio, gear, teams, well, basically almost everything technical I guess. So much so that even the little bits of wisdom here and there tend to get overshadowed by the over-abundance of misguided information.
Left to right: Jeff Sandstrom (Sonnet House, Passion Conferences and North Point Community Church), Andrew Stone (Church on the Move and touring veteran), and Lee Fields (Lincoln Brewster and Bayside Church).
Couple that with the three of us literally questioning where we were to go in order to get better. Who inspires us to improve our audio mixes? Where do we go to get challenged? What tricks or processes really speak to us on a level that would help us improve our craft?
We decided we could solve some of these mix queries by putting some consoles and playback gear in a warehouse somewhere and just playing mixes for each other to get some honest feedback. All in the hope of upping our game and leaving inspired. Not to mention getting some good hang time with close friends is never a bad thing.
Somewhere in there, we discovered we all had team members and friends who might want to listen in on this conversation as well. So we did it. And that’s where we began to realize that we could use our combined voices, experiences, and different musical and production backgrounds to help bolster how right and true information can actually get to the people in the trenches. Adding our voice and expertise to those already doing it the right way is what we feel truly embodies what church is. Or at least what it SHOULD be.
So here we are starting our fourth year with our little MxU project. We offer live events throughout the year where we do exactly what I described above - the three of us in a room playing our mixes and discussing them, still trying to improve our game. These events have been the single best way I’ve gotten better as an engineer over the past few years. Odd I had to start a company to do it, but whatever. I’m glad our crazy little idea for ourselves worked!
Those live mixing discussion “meet-ups” if you will, have now spawned coaching groups for tech people all over the world, leadership blogs from us and some of the most notable peers we have in the church market, a podcast that has truly given voice to much of what I’ve described above, and now a line of audio specific training videos, aptly named MxU Now, that move our live discussion format to a more granular level as we foray into all things audio, from beginner to expert.
We love where this MxU thing has gone, first off, because we all have day-jobs built around serving the church. But secondly, that MxU has been a natural voice giving some answers to things WE weren’t seeing answered. From that aspect, God’s had his hand on this becoming a recognizable brand.
I know this “5 Minutes with Andrew Stone” has woven quite a tale. But it’s worth noting that no matter where we all are in life, no matter where your dreams are, no matter what is currently the master of your domain. God may be using any or all of that for a completely different reason.
From me as a little guy pawing around in the attic to now being a church guy who can use his voice to talk truth and inspire others…come on…tell me God doesn’t have an impeccably cool sense of humor. My only desire now is to stay aware of the “still, small voice” as I listen for where He’ll lead me next.
You can find Andrew on Twitter (@stone_rocks), Instagram (stone.rocks), read his blogs on COTM’s Seeds website (www.seeds.churchonthemove.com), and check out his latest endeavors with MxU at www.mxu.rocks.
