Meet Jeffrey Dobbins | Sound Mixer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jeffrey Dobbins and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jeffrey, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
It was something my grandmother told me. She was a bookkeeper, back in an era when there weren’t a lot of women owned businesses. Her number one piece of life advice was to work for yourself, that way you always have the freedom to make your own decisions for your life.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am a sound mixer for film and television, primarily doing on set, production sound. I have had a long journey in sound. I went to school for architecture in Austin, Texas (my father was an architect.) While living in Austin I fell in love with music, but I was more of a math and science kid growing up, I’d never played an instrument in my life. I started thinking about sound engineering as my way into working with music. I was lucky enough to have some family in New Mexico that worked with a live entertainment company, doing everything from performance art theater to live entertainment for corporate events. I moved out to New Mexico having no idea that I was actually moving into an artist community of about 30 people. Everyone lived communally on one giant property, sharing family meals and running all the businesses together as co-ops. We had a vegetable garden on one side of the property and a warehouse full of music gear on the other. There I gained a second family, and travelled all over the world doing shows, from Billings, Montana to Panama and Tanzania. I lived there for 7 years, and for the last 2 years we had a touring theater show. Fourteen of us lived on a tour bus together, sleeping in bunk beds and performing in just about every small town across America. That’s where I met Dani. She was a singer and painter in the show, but her dream was to be a film actress. Before too long we realized we were falling in love. In 2017 we took the plunge and moved out to LA together, and the rest, as they say, is history. I decided to switch over from music to doing sound for film so we could work together, and we were married in March 2022.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
One thing I’ve learned from traveling so much, is that the “touristy” things are the things that people who live in a big city do the least. There are a million fun, crazy things to do in a place like LA every day of the year. And much cooler people than me could give you the “insider’s” tour of LA. But honestly, nothing beats drinking a mango cart at Dodger Stadium and yelling and screaming at a game where you have no idea what’s going on. Bonus points if it’s a summer game and they’re doing fireworks after. Or driving up the coast to Malibu, spending all day at the beach and getting some fish and chips at Neptune’s Net. Those days always end up being my fondest memories.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
It is a bit of a cliche but I have to shout out my parents. I’ve had a very alternative life path and reinvented myself many times over the years. They have always loved and supported me every step of the way. It’s a lot easier to make tough decisions when you know you have that unconditional support.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeff_dobbins?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr