Before entrusting me with your project, or even caring at all with what I have to say on other topics, allow me to introduce a bit about myself, where I came from, how I started, and all that jazz.
Who Is Sean Crone?
I had a pretty funny experience the other day on campus. While talking with a few people about the film life in Rexburg the topic of “sound peeps” came up. One of my newly made friends asked,
“Hey, I heard about this audio guy, Sean Crone. Do you know anything about him?”
Hmmmm…..
To be fair to my new pals I probably should have used my last name during introductions. Kind of set them up on that one, whoops! Sorry friends!
But the question remains…
Who is Sean Crone, why should I care what he says about audio, and can I trust him with my project?
Hello! I’m Sean Crone. I like long walks on the beach, animals, cooking…alright that’s enough of that.
Basic introduction:
I was born and raised in Stafford, Virginia, USA. When I lived there (1996-2016) it was a great small-ish commuter community with a strong mix between suburb life and a farm town.
Growing up I was raised by my Grandmother and Great Aunt, Marjorie and Joyce, who became guardians over my sister and I after…well, some unfortunate issues with our birth mother. Let’s just leave it at that.
So I come from a pretty small background. A quaint little town in Virginia, growing up in a cottage-style home, not having much but having everything I needed. Spending those years with my Grandmother and Great Aunt are ones I’ll hold close forever.
And it was those two that really helped me get my start in audio. All this is because of them and I’m grateful for that. Every. Single. Day!
Music Background
Like I said above, I’m where I am today because of Marge and Joyce.
When I was in Middle School they both noticed that I had a strong love for music. Encouraging me to join band I decided to play the trombone.
Why?
’cause I thought the slide was freaking fun to move!
Starting out I rented an instrument from the school. But soon after, I think sometime in 7th grade, my elementary school music teacher let Marge know of a trombone for sale, one with a trigger. She and Joyce agreed to invest in me and buy it so I could have my own trombone.
That thing stayed with me all through Middle School and endured the marching band life in High School. While in High School I decided that I wanted to become a performer in Hollywood orchestras. I always loved movies and LOVED the music so I thought,
Why not marry the two?
Trombone, Baritone, Tuba, didn’t matter at that time. I learned to play them all for marching band, wind ensemble, jazz, and while student-teaching in the symphonic band during senior year.
But as I looked into the career more and more I learned that the default is almost always a band director. Which I knew I didn’t want.
No hate to any band directors out there!!
You’re all amazing and I’ve had some incredible directors who pushed me to become my best. But I knew it wasn’t for me.
Around that time I found through the magic of YouTube the trailer music group, Two Steps From Hell. I think it was around 2011-2012 when I learned of them and I was HOOKED, man. Like, borderline obsessed.
Immediately. Man, IMMEDIATELY I knew after hearing these guys,
THAT’s what I want to do!!
So I started composing. Had NO idea what I was doing…but from the hours upon hours of binging TSFH, and later other trailer music composers, I had a solid idea of what sounded decent.
I joined a site called Noteflight where I experimented with orchestration, basic mockups, and became part of a solid community of composers.
There I learned more about the trailer music style along with other genres. Thanks to composers like Brunuhville and Adrian Von Ziegler I also fell in love with Celtic influenced music. So I tried my hand at that, too!
My band director in senior year saw my passion for composing and gave me a literal once in a lifetime opportunity. He asked me to compose a short piece for the symphonic band, the one I was student-teaching in, to play in my final concert.
Honestly…the song itself was pretty horrible! But for my first time composing for an actual band, and for the younger players learning to deal with my insanity, it turned out pretty well. And I can’t thank them all enough for giving me the final boost I needed to pursue audio for media!
After I graduated in 2014 I took a year off. Marge and Joyce weren’t doing well in health during this time so I wanted to take care of them before moving on to college, although I had no idea what to do with my life. I was toying around with the idea of going to Full Sail University but pretty quickly life decided to throw a curve ball.
My grandmother passed away.
Two Years Off
After Marge passed away Joyce decided to move in with her son in Tennessee. It was then, in the middle of figuring life out, processing Marge’s passing, that I decided something big.
You may not believe in any higher power, which is totally fine (and you can skip ahead to the next section if you don’t care much about hearing about it), but I definitely do.
As a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I never really wanted to go on a mission. I felt it was more of a “cultural” thing that members just did and I didn’t vibe with the typical “Mormon Culture.”
But after Marge’s passing I had a strong feeling to give back as a way to deal with it. So I decided to serve a mission for two years.
For those who may not know, a mission is when members are called to serve people in a community for two years while also preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those who are interested.
Lo and behold I was called to Southern California, Irvine.
And so I served in CA from 2016-2018. Unfortunately, while out in CA Joyce passed away as well.
Now, back when I served missionaries were still only allowed two phone calls home a year. But my Mission President, the leader of missionary efforts in an area, gave special permission for me to call home to Joyce a month before she passed after hearing how her health declined. And while I wish I could have been there in person, I felt peaceful knowing I was able to say goodbye to her like I did with my Grandmother.
It was here, while serving others and figuring out what life is really all about, trying my best to spread the Gospel knowing the two woman who raised me were gone, that I had my first “aha” moment. I was inspired to head on over to BYU – Idaho after I was done serving in 2018 and that’s where things really took a crazy turn.
College: Turning Point
While at BYU – Idaho I initially started out as a music major. Wanting to continue down the composer path I felt that taking classes in composition could really help me learn where my weak points are.
But…that didn’t work well. Whether it was signing up for classes, taking classes, or looking ahead at careers that degree prepared me for, things just didn’t feel…right.
I felt out of place. Not because I didn’t love composing. I still LOVED composing. But it just didn’t feel quite right, y’know?
Well…enter my current job position!
After working for a call center for…24 hours, I landed a job interview at the BYU – Idaho Center production floor. I was given a chance and worked there for the next 3.5 years (sorry call center…).
Then, in August 2022, I was hired as a Full Time Employee for the university as one of the lead Live Audio Engineers.
While working here I’ve had some incredible opportunities. Working with General Authorities in the church, learning about film set audio recording, post-audio work, re-recording, Foley, Sound Design, music recording, mixing, mastering, etc. I’ve even had the chance to intern on the feature film, Lucy Shimmers and the Prince of Peace, and have a student short film I worked audio on, The Closet, win a local film festival for best sound!
And then it clicked. My second “aha” moment.
You know those passions and skills that just sort of sneak up on you? Something that you never even knew existed but just kind of…poof into your life?
That was how production audio was for me. It just sort of…happened. And it felt right.
So I changed my major to Film Production with a minor in Digital and Social Media Marketing.
And here I am today, a few months from graduating and lucky enough to be working full time doing what I love!
My Role In Your Story
Listen To Your Dreams
This was the last thing Marge ever told me. I talked to her on the phone the night before she passed after visiting her at the hospital. She had a feeling to call and talk to my sister and I, almost like she knew it was her final goodbye.
Listen to your dreams, Sean. You’re going to do wonderful things with your music. You can do it.
My dreams may have changed over the years but my determination to prove my Grandmother right has only grown stronger.
I still love composing. Music is where this all started, after all.
But I now love production audio, too! Everything about it! And it took a while but I realized that this is my true calling, to help creators be able to listen to THEIR dreams by supporting their own story doing what I do best: production audio for media.
We all have a story. Happy, sad, easy, or hard we all come from different backgrounds. And a lot of us have a story we want to tell.
So my job? My job is not to insert myself into your story, to “be the hero.” That’s your role.
My job is to remain transparent and help your story move onto the next step by helping you make your story known.
At the end of it all, my job is to simply help you listen to your own dreams! 🙂
So if you think we’d be a good fit for a job fill out a service form today to set up a time to talk about the story you want to share.
Talk soon,
~Sean Crone
