Q. Hi Nalia, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your extensive work history?
Nalia: I started at Eventide after college back in 2005. I started out as an Administrative Assistant and was later promoted to Office Manager. In 2011, I took a break to go back to school for graphic design. Shortly thereafter, I rejoined the company as the Director of Marketing Communications to oversee all our marketing initiatives. It was just two of us in the beginning, but now we have a whole team managing different aspects of marketing including social media, content development, and artist relations. It's been a truly rewarding experience being able to be part of this growth and I can't wait to see what the future has in store.
Q. What’s it like working almost 2 decades at Eventide? Any funny/memorable stories?
Nalia: Eventide is such an interesting place to work, there's never been a dull moment. We all wear many hats and it's a very collaborative environment. We also don't take ourselves too seriously. If we were more corporate, we wouldn't be allowed to do half the things we get to do in marketing. Such as The Breakfast Club-inspired video for one of our releases or putting one of our product testers in a space suit for a Blackhole plug-in commercial.
Q. I pretty much always ask everyone but are you a musician and do you make music?
Nalia: I’m not a gigging musician, but I play ukulele and practice piano for fun. I also have a collection of desktop synths that I run through Eventide pedals to make wild and crazy sounds.
Q. Can you tell us a bit about your podcast side hustle?
Nalia: Which one? Lol! On the Eventide side, I helped launch the Gear Club Podcast, which is celebrating its 6th anniversary this year. Gear Club is dedicated to music production, and we've hosted a bunch of notable producers, engineers, and industry professionals. On the personal side, I also launched a podcast for fun, but that's on hiatus due to the pandemic. It's basically a pop culture podcast where we chat about current events, the local dining scene, and other silly things while enjoying a cheap—but delicious!—bottle of wine.
Q. I’ve seen you interview so many audio professionals in our industry, what interview were you the most excited for?
Nalia: It's hard to pick one, but we did a live interview at SXSW back in 2017 with Vance Powell on their podcast stage which was pretty amazing. It was during the early days of Gear Club but we pulled it off and it was a great experience.
Q. Is there upcoming new news from Eventide?
Nalia: We have a new Eurorack module called Misha that was just released, and we have some new and exciting projects coming this fall. You’ll just have to wait and see…
Q. What is Eventide Communications?
Nalia: Eventide Communications is a separate division of Eventide that provides recording solutions for critical communications such as police departments, 911 call centers, airports, manufacturing plants, government facilities, and more.
Q. There was a lot of music business struggling during the height of COVID19, how did Eventide navigate through the pandemic?
Nalia: We all had to adjust the way we worked quickly. By March 11, 2022 most of us were working remotely with the exception of a handful of folks back at HQ who made sure we continued to build and ship products. When building physical hardware became affected by delays and shortages, we shifted our focus to plug-ins and that allowed us to make it through the pandemic. Another thing we did in the height of the shutdown was to engage with our customers in a new way. We started a live video series called "Quarantide" where we invited artists, industry friends, and educators to share their experiences during this time. Some of our best interviews happened over Zoom!
Q. How did you hear about XCHANGE?
Nalia: I believe it was 7 years ago or so during AES. We were looking to grow our plug-in dealer network and wanted a system that was more automated than what we had at the time.
Q. Has XCHANGE impacted your business?
Nalia: XCHANGE has allowed us to scale our plug-ins business worldwide and reach more customers than ever. The XCHANGE system allows anyone, anywhere, to purchase a product and have it almost instantly. It’s very impressive.
Q. What have been some of the challenges with XCHANGE? What features would you like to see?
Nalia: I would like to see multi-user support and more reporting tools such as a reporting dashboard with key metrics.
Q. What’s your outlook on the future of audio hardware/software business post pandemic?
Nalia: It’s a strange time to predict, but I feel that as long as music continues to be a creative outlet, musicians will always look to tools that inspire them whether physical or digital.
Q. Any last shout outs would you like to mention to our readers?
Nalia: Just thank you to all the artists who continue to inspire us all and a special shoutout to our innovative team of Eventide developers who continue to push the boundaries of audio technology.
