CAO Special: Joe McGuirk - "A lot of what creativity is about is being comfortable in your surroundings"

I played guitar growing up and started messing around with home recordings when I was 15. The Leaving Cert came around and as an 18-year-old I wasn’t totally thinking about the future. I went to the open day and thought it was cool. I had applied and been accepted to do guitar in BIMM, but something led me down the production road and I felt the Sound Training course would leave me with more options.

The bachelor’s degree in music production was from IADT, with most of the course being based in the Sound Training College in Temple Bar. I did my first year until Christmas and decided to defer until the following year. I had to go back and do the first year a second time which in my opinion saved me. Being familiar with the course allowed me to go back and take it in more, and I was older which also gave me a bit of an advantage. The degree itself is quite broad, there’s a lot of scope to focus on what you want to do.

There’s a lot of amazing people working there with a lot of professional experience. If you show interest in certain modules, they’re really keen to help you develop in those areas. They also get a lot of great guests in. One of the biggest names was Alex Borwick, head producer in Grouse Lodge and probably the busiest producer in Ireland now. I ended up doing a few assistant jobs for him at the end of final year.

You also learn a lot of soft skills from working in a studio environment. Treating clients patiently and correctly is something you can’t really be taught until you’re in those situations. It forces you to build confident communication skills and I couldn’t imagine doing what I do now without that.

Read the full education special in the Hot for 2024 issue of Hot Press, out now.