Daniel Nickleski, left, and Eric Lindholm
A pair of young, daring entrepreneurs (Eric Lindholm, then 19, now 25; and Daniel Nickleski, then 17, now 23) found themselves vying for similar SR gigs. “Both of us had bands in which we ran and owned the P.A.,” Nickleski recalls. “At a young age, we both had a drive to work hard at doing what we love, but we quickly found out it is not easy to make it in the music industry. What did seem to come easy were sound gigs.” Lindholm and Nickleski joined forces, and for the past five years they have been operating as Sound Works Productions (Frankfort, Ill.), which provides audio and lighting services for a number of different gigs—anything from a corporate meeting to a wedding to a rock show. “We have become a go-to company for festival work in the past few years,” says Nickleski. “In the busy months of May to August, you can find us providing for around 25 events a week.”
In the past year alone, the company has been employed by Naughty By Nature, The Romantics, Everclear, The Temptations, Digital Underground and many others.
While customers have a wide selection of gear from which to choose, some of the company’s larger packages include Avid SC48, Yamaha M7CL and LS9, and Soundcraft MH3 consoles. In terms of P.A., there are 24 boxes of Electro-Voice X-Array powered by E-V P3000 amps and XTA DSP; 18 boxes of E-V QRX powered by Crest Audio Pro9200s and XTA DSP; eight RS18s; and, the company’s latest purchase, 16 NEXO GEO S12s. Commenting on the new NEXO boxes, Nickleski says, “Last summer, we decided that we needed to purchase a medium-format line array. We demoed a lot of systems, but the one that spoke to us the most was the NEXO rig. We also realized with NEXO we not only would get a great-sounding system, but we also would have incredible support from the staff. I have never had a rep as great as ours, Mike Eiseman. We hope to keep building the company at the same rate we have in the past five years. We have managed to make a name for ourselves in the regional market and have hopes of one day breaking into the national market.”
