Bringing a World of Knowledge to Grand Haven: Bill Chrysler
If the sheer number of concerts that Bill has mixed doesn’t give you confidence in how deep his passion
for sound and experimentation runs, then the fact that he opened a recording studio after about
four decades of touring should solidify your certainty.
“Music is not just a passion, it is my calling.” Bill described.
Opening a studio after being on the road touring was a natural way for him to continue being involved in the music industry. Third Coast Recording Company keeps Bill surrounded by amazing musicians, without the travel.
He aims to make the recording process as painless as possible and recommends that bands come
prepared on the day that they record. Even though he has aimed to make the recording studio as
comfortable and homey as possible, it is not a place to practice. Bill and the rest of the Third Coast Crew
spend most of their leisure time at the studio making music, experimenting with microphone and instrumental techniques before clients come in.
When it comes to touring, Bill has four decades of doing live sound enforcement/ mixing under his belt.
“This gives me a creative input, when you get to mix the sound and create what gets heard,” Bill said. He
doesn’t enjoy being in front of an audience, but instead mixing behind the scenes.
In his earlier years in the industry, Bill was grandfathered into a lot of well-established companies and
through that, has become a “go to” person for live sound. He has worked with roughly 100 touring
groups or artists and has mixed over 10,000 larger scale events.
When it comes to sound engineering tours, he prefers shows at a standard 10-15 thousand seat arena so
that he can get into a rhythm with which gear to use and the placement of it all.
The tour that Bill recently returned from, the Asia and Australia leg of Maroon 5’s “Red Pill Blues” tour,
held their concerts at stadiums that housed 40-50 thousand people. He had been on the road with
Maroon 5 exclusively for the past three or four years.
Bill recently got back with touring with Maroon 5 for three weeks in Asia and Australia. He has been touring almost exclusively with them for the past 3-4 years.
One of Bill’s all-time favorite artists to tour with is John Mayer, who he had been touring with for about
12 years. Even though he likes to do stadium shows which are predictable, John Mayer’s shows are
consistently an enjoyable challenge.
“Every time he plays a song, he plays it different. He will call out for other people in the band to do a
lead. As the sound guy, it is very interesting to mix these songs differently every day.”
After years of taking on massive tours, Bill is excited to be in a new chapter of making music at Third Coast. “I like doing what I do and I get to experiment a lot. In a recording studio, we can always stop and go
back. We take advantage of that when clients come in that we’ve already experimented with. We do
this as part of our leisure time and make music for fun.”
When he’s not in the studio making music, he enjoys long walks on the beach with Binnie and their puppy Ruby Tuesday.
Ruby Tuesday, Bill and Binnie’s beautiful fur baby.