It’s easy to imagine a young Nathan Reisman in school, with a matronly librarian glaring at him and hissing “Shhhhh”! Because this guy loooooves sound. He loves it so much, he majored in Commercial Music at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. His major consisted of a concentration in both music performance (playing percussion) and the music recording industry.
One of his professors was good friends with the lead drummer in the band for the Blue Man Group, and that led to an opportunity for Nate to “shadow” him and learn during a performance in Chicago. (If you’ve seen a Blue Man Group show, you know that it’s a crazy cacophony of percussion.) Much to Nate’s surprise and delight, the drummer even brought him out of the shadow and put him onstage–in a glow-in-the-dark t-shirt, no less. As Nate recalls, “He asked, ‘Do you want to play with me?’ I was like, heck yeah! It was unreal! He just said ‘Feel the beat, and play whatever you want’. And we just jammed during the song. It was so cool!”
You might think that would have led Nate to focus on a career as a drummer. “But I didn’t want to end up as a struggling musician,” he says, “so I began to focus on the industry side”. After his junior year at Millkin, he landed an internship with Young Avenue Sound here in Memphis. And after graduation, the recording studio offered him a full-time job.
Nate spent a year at the studio before deciding it was time for a new challenge. “I wanted to try something different,” he says, “but still use my audio skills.” So he quit his job and “shadowed” an audio engineer on a movie set in Louisiana for 7 weeks, without pay. That led to a paying gig on another movie, and eventually to a full-time job in Memphis in video production.
Nate’s career almost took a 180-degree turn, when he had an opportunity to audition as a full-time drummer for…you guessed it—the Blue Man Group. He didn’t get the job, although he did make it to the top 5.
Today, Nate works as an audio engineer both on-set and in the editing room. During production, it’s his job to make sure all the sound is being captured as clearly and cleanly as possible. But during post-production, it’s often his job to “hear” sound that isn’t there yet—that is, to find places in a video where sounds can be added to enhance the overall effect on the viewers. (You can see a great example of his “sound design” in this animated video for the Bodine School.) Which does Nate like best? “Oh, that’s tough, that’s really though”, he sighs. “My favorite is when I get to do both the audio on set and then get to do the post on the same project.”
Nate has even come out from behind the camera and microphone to be the on-camera host of “Welcome to Memphis”. The video series aims to give hospitality workers an “insider’s view” of neighborhoods throughout the Memphis area. It turns out Nate has quite a flair for performing, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. “I learned so much from doing that series, and found a lot of cool new places to go and things to do.” Which is why you’ll often find Nate and his pet Labradoodle, Penny, exploring along Main Street downtown and the Overton Square area. So if you’re looking to find the hottest places with the coolest sounds in Memphis, Nate is the go-to guy.
