Los Angeles, CA (June 6, 2025)—Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” was omnipresent in 2024 and the singer-songwriter is aiming to be just as unmissable this year as his second album, American Heart, streets later this month on June 20. Supporting the new collection with a busy live schedule, Boone is currently playing the summer festival circuit, followed by arena shows across the U.S. and Europe, including Madison Square Garden. Along the way, he’ll have the help of Clair Global and the audio team of FOH engineer Joey Diehl, who’s worked with Boone since early 2024, and monitor man Carter Luckett, who’s mixed him since last August.
Coachella was a highlight of this year’s tour dates so far, not least because Queen guitarist Brian May joined Boone for his rendition of “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Luckett had to stay alert as the high level of movement on stage by Boone didn’t favor the use of wedges, put out exclusively for May. With both artists operating in the same space, Luckett expertly merged the two environments together. “Obviously, we didn’t want any squeals or squawks, so I would ride his mic in and out based on where he was on stage to keep his vocal from feeding back,” he says, “but it worked out.”
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Both engineers are overseeing mixes on DiGiCo Quantum338 consoles. While Diehl uses some outboard gear, he’s also making use of DiGiCo’s onboard Mustard and Spice Rack processing when there’s not enough real estate for racks at FOH. “Give me 30 minutes and a pair of headphones and I’ll be set because I love everything on the DiGiCo. Even with outboard, I still use the EQ on the desk. The way that you can send things and build out files is very close to what I would do at home in a studio, so it’s given me the ability to have that studio process on the road.”
Getting detail-oriented with snapshots is paying off, however, he says: “Our MD is amazingly critical and famously very detailed oriented. Lately, we’ve been landing the actual record in playback; I’ll go back and forth between my mix and the record. By the end of the song, I can press play and say, ‘OK, this sounds like the record.’ And it’s all saved to the snapshots,” and driven by the show’s timecode.
Over at stageside, Luckett makes use of a few outboard analog units teamed with a hardware reverb “just to polish Benson’s vocal and give it a little saturation to set it apart. It’s an extra sauce to add to Benson’s mix to make him feel comfortable in his own space. He’s the star of the show, so we’ve got a solid band mix, then his vocal just floats right on top of it. That chain, paired up with what’s inside the DiGiCo for the rest of the band, really complement each other.”
