Meet Chris Thomas | Technical Director, Photographer, Music Producer, Cinematographer, Firefighter

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

Hi Chris, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I wanted someone to finance my creative endeavors, I suppose. My first business was a recording studio when I was 15 or 16 years old. I wanted some new mics, was recording my own music, and found another band to pay me to record their music. I used that money to buy new mics, and basically have been using clients to finance my hobbies ever since.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’ve always used a Robinhood approach to projects…where something artistic is financed with a profit generating project. In the beginning of my career, I would do live audio projects for churches and universities and then go rent 5 days of recording studio time and bring in a bunch of bands and just go nuts for a week recording them. Or I’d do a bunch of headshot photography and then use the gear I’d rented to shoot action shots for our record label.

When I started my own studio, I’d do corporate audio, photography, and video production and just flip that money into subsidizing music videos, records for our label, and short films. Paying the crew was always important to me, and very early on I was paying my team a real wage and I’m really proud of how my team values people’s time. I think that set us apart early we subsidized “the fun stuff” in a few ways, but a lot of it was just a loss from the corporate side.

Nowadays, I love doing large corporate productions, not so much because of the content, but more so because of the engineering and logistics challenges. There are lot of different departments that need to work together, and I like being the tip of that spear. It’s very much like producing and arranging music to me, just an orchestration of different talents. I also like the pressure of directing live events, which is very similar to performing. Live event technicians are basically performers, just operating buttons and switches instead of playing instruments or acting. In fact, you’ll find that a lot of people on a tech crew are musicians, and enjoy the experience of not only pressing the right button, but pressing it at the right time.

I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned, which I knew from playing sports, is that the team makes or breaks the experience. You have to have a good team, and you have to take care of each other.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
That all depends on the city ( I basically split time between DC, NYC, and Boston). If there was a Creative Mornings meetup, we’d hit that up for sure. That’s such a cool way to meet people with a bunch of different interests. If it’s a friend of mine visiting, then they probably play ice hockey, so we’d go play an adult league game or pickup hockey game. I love seeing new rinks. Then we’d have to hit up a BBQ spot somewhere, in DC it would be 2Fifty in Union Market, in Boston it would probably be Blue Ribbon in Newton…hard to say in NYC, we may go for sushi instead.

There are some whacky museums that would be fun as well; the Spy Museum in DC is cool, there’s an illusion museum in NYC that’s totally wild, and Boston has the ICA which is always a trip. Then, of course, we’d hit up an NHL game, or college hockey game in Boston. There’s a good chance we’d jam with someone too. Hard to say…I don’t think I’ve ever hosted someone for a week 😉

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’ve had a lot of very supportive people in my life, especially my wife. I’ve scrapped the bottom of the barrel more than once to make a business work, and she’s always been there to pump me up.

Website: charlestownav.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-thomas-48a31a32/