Retail Notebook: Top sound guys go for smaller scene

It is, after all, a service industry, and to most people, sound engineers are only as valuable as the music they help transmit. So the owners of Carlson Audio Systems, Mark Carlson and Jonathan Stoverud-Myers, are proud to say, "It's all about the band."

To them, the likes of Eddie Vedder and Michael Stipe, whose concerts they equip and crew, are "just folks."

Since the company began in 1986 in Carlson's Everett garage, Carlson Audio Systems has brought music to venues across Seattle and beyond, equipping the annual Bumbershoot festival, The Paramount Theatre, The Gorge and the Chateau Ste Michelle summer concerts, to name a few.

But at their new retail and consignment store, attached to their 22,000-square-foot warehouse in Seattle's Sodo District, forget about the artists. It's about the deal.

The new store features a constantly changing array of professional sound equipment -- mixing consoles, speaker boxes, power amps and equalizers -- often for more than half off retail price. Much of the equipment is demo gear, some is used and the rest belonged to Carlson's ill-fated online store, which died with the dot-com bust.

The company's plan for its new store is to attract smaller customers, such as churches, schools and party planners, to the accompanying rental showroom. Though local industry experts say Carlson dominates the sound service industry in Seattle's top venues, the company is turning back to the smaller niche markets such as these, which helped Carlson get its start.

The business got off the ground when Carlson decided with Stoverud-Myers, then still a college student studying biology and business in Spokane, that events of 3,000 seats or fewer were being ignored by the large companies.

Festivals, where the sound equipment tends to be cobbled together with mismatched equipment, were even more prone to problems. Stoverud-Myers explained that many grass-roots bands, and the clubs they play, accidentally stumble into their sound quality.

"I played guitar in a garage band, and inevitably, someone in the group would have more chops in working with sound," Stoverud- Myers said. "If that guy also had a van, then they just became the sound guy and had to shoulder the burden."

Carlson's began by being that guy with the van -- both owners played in garage bands. But the company got big by growing with its clients -- one of Carlson's first gigs was the Fremont Street Fair in 1990, and 15 years later, when the "earthy" fair has transformed itself into a major tourist attraction, its organizers still work with Carlson's crew.

The silver-haired Carlson said that's because his company focuses on the basics -- being on time and respectful -- in a business where "most people had failed to realize that they're in a service industry."

Their last attempt at a retail store focused on professional audio in a downtown Seattle space, but it folded during the Seattle recession along with their cumbersome online store.

This time, their store is an extension of the company's working space. The sunny space stands in stark contrast to the utilitarian grays and metal structures that lend a backstage feel to the warehouse. But the quality of the equipment available there, they say, is the same -- every piece for sale (Symetrix 531 1/3 octave, Celestion Cxi 821 with sub, Soundcraft model K3 48 channel with case, for starters) has been vetted by their technicians.

They are trying to use it to educate people about sound, planning a series of classes in the fall.

"I didn't want to be 40 years old and kicking myself for not trying," said Stoverud-Myers of using his college graduation gift of $25,000 (nice parents) as seed money for the company whose client list Carlson had built.

Since graduating from college, Stoverud-Myers has still never written a r�sum�. He and Carlson get calls from the kinds of music artists that teenage girls (and adult men and women) scream over, and they are on track to pull in $1.4 million this year.

Not bad for a couple of sound guys from garage bands.

IF YOU GO

Carlson Audio Systems is open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., at 110 S. Stacy St., off First Avenue South, Seattle. 206-340-8811

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