Brandi Carlile and James guitar tech Jason Crisp shares how artists go into festivals ‘blind’

A guitar technician who has worked with Brandi Carlile and James says most musicians are running their festival shows without a soundcheck. Jason Crisp spoke with Ewan Gleadow on how artists prepare for their festival slots and confirmed that few artists are given any time at all to prepare for their performance.

“You’re at a festival, nine times out of 10, you don’t get a sound check,” Crisp said. “So you’ll be going in blind. We’ll do what we call a line check just before the band comes on, just to make sure everything’s working. So when you’re doing festivals, you need to have trust in the people that are setting your gear up and handing you an instrument that you know is gonna sound how you want it to sound, play how you want it to play.”

Crisp went on to say that headliners may get a half hour to check their instruments but even that is a limited window. He added: “If you’re on a festival day, it’s always quite stressful because until they play that first chord, you’re in pieces and ready to go just in case. Then if you’re headlining a festival, you get a nice sound check. You get half an hour to just make sure everything’s working. They can dial in a bit, front of house can dial in, which is the important bit, what the crowd are hearing.”

Touring marks a very different occasion for artists, with Crisp recalling his days on the recent James tour as an example of how time is the difference maker when preparing for a show. He explained: “But then touring, you could have two weeks of pre-production, so you really get to dial everything in. By the end of the tour, it’ll be sounding the best they’ve ever sounded. You have to work differently. With a tour you get loads of time and you’re doing the same thing every day. So you get quicker at setting up.

“Knowing exactly how to set things up as well. So you have more time to take care of everything, all the instruments, and do the work that got me into this, you know. But on a festival you’re just flat out, you’re in, you’re setting up, you’re rolling out onto stage. They play the show, you’re packing down as quick as you can, getting back in the truck and going to the next place, you know.”

Trust goes a long way when it comes to the artists, too. With Brandi Carlile, the singer-songwriter who has worked with Elton John and Joni Mitchell, being ready for a spur-of-the-moment change makes all the difference, Crisp says. While it’s easier to work with Carlile because “she can convey exactly what she wants,” James has a lot of fun throwing together a setlist on the spur of the moment.

“It makes my job a lot easier because I don’t have to try and coax it out of them,” Crisp said. “You know, some of the members of James, they kind of know what they want, but they want to try new stuff all the time. So I’m trying to work out what they want to try. Brandy knows. So, you know, I have a little input, and I’ll be like, maybe that guitar doesn’t sound so good on that song; try this one. Just from being on the outside a little bit, you get to hear.”

That desire for a specific sound rings true with Carlile’s shows, with a multitude of guitars on hand at all times to present a different sound from an intense audience. Crisp explained: “With Brandi, Gibson guitars are a huge part of her sound, and I have always been a huge fan of their instruments.

“The Les Paul she uses has exactly the tone that she is after and is incredibly reliable wherever we are in the world, which helps with looking after her immensely. When Brandi asked me to play a song with her at Red Rocks, I knew I had to be using a Gibson SG for the tone I was after. They love her so much. They’re so into her that, you know, they notice every little detail.

“With Brandi, once she’s written a set, that’s it. You can prepare properly and work out your movements. There are a few different places where she goes on stage and stuff. So I’ll have to go to different places, put guitars in various stands, depending on what she’s doing. So I have to write loads of notes about where I’m going to run, what guitar I’m going to tune at what point.