Pictured Left to Right: Igor Len (Roland US), Grammy Award winner Iz Avila, Andy Almada, and Grammy Award winner Dave Hampton
Andres ‘Andy’ Almada now has his dream job thanks to the skills he began learning at GWC while earning a certificate in Digital Media/Audio Recording
Growing up, Andy Almada loved music but never played an instrument. “I never could afford one, or lessons,” Almada recalls of his days growing up at UCI in student housing.
Not knowing what he wanted to do professionally, Andy knew he wanted to go the junior college route before transferring to a UC. He had done some car audio installations with a friend, but still wasn’t sure about a career path.
“I started asking questions about music on computers and audio recording, and wanted to learn more audio engineering,” Almada recalls. “One person told me to go look at Golden West.”
GRAMMY AWARD-WINNING COLLEAGUES
Thus began Almada’s journey as a student at Golden West, an experience he credits with helping him land his dream job in which he works alongside Grammy Award-winning musical artists.Almada is an operations manager at 1500 Sound Academy, a hands-on school that launched in June 2019 in a state-of-the-art, 25,000-square-foot production facility in Inglewood.
Formed by the Grammy Award-winning music ensemble 1500 or Nothin’, the six-month academy is for aspiring music professionals who want to learn songwriting, producing, managing, and more from industry leaders.
The skills that landed Almada as a main figure at the 1500 Sound Academy were honed during his two years in the Digital Media program at GWC, and stints working in CTE (Career & Technical Education) at GWC as well as an adjunct professor of audio engineering and production.
Almada earned a Certificate of Achievement in Digital Media/Audio Recording from GWC in 2009. After that, he transferred to UC Irvine, wherein 2012 he earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology.
SUPPORTIVE PROFESSORS
Before Almada officially started working on his certificate at GWC, he got his feet wet in audio production thanks to the kindness of a professor at the time, Renah Wolzinger, who was teaching Digital Media courses in Audio Post Production. Wolzinger now is the chief technology officer at Powerminds Inc. Wolzinger would stay late after classes to let Almada check out the studio.
“I immediately knew that I had to be here,” he recalls. “I’ll do whatever I can to be here. Whatever I need to learn, I will do.” Wolzinger let Almada add the class, and the seeds of a successful career were planted. “I wanted to learn audio engineering as a skill for fun,” Almada says. “I never thought I actually could have a career in the music business.”
In addition to Wolzinger, Almada credits Jon Kubis, a professor in the Audio Program at Golden West College, as a key mentor. Almada states, “Renah and Jon have been major contributors to my success as a backbone of knowledge and guidance I can always call on to learn from.”
“They were so passionate and dedicated about what they did as teachers. They saw the passion I had to really want to learn to get to the next level. They took me under their wing which allowed me to ask questions and grow over time.”
RARE COMBINED SKILLS
Almada remained in close touch with Wolzinger and Kubis after GWC and continues to have professional relationships with them.
Now 32, Almada is an audio engineer as well as a producer. And he’s living beyond his dream at the 1500 Sound Academy, a job he says he couldn’t even envision, because of his rare combined skills as an audio engineer with experience teaching and helping to run an academic department.
“It’s been a fun journey that has led me to what I’m doing right now, which is working with some of my musical heroes that were behind the music I fell in love with that inspired me to dream of working in music,” Almada says. “I’m in a pretty amazing situation.”
