Nashville, TN (February 22, 2024)—Every time Dylan Scott walks on stage, he makes sure fans get more than they paid for. That might mean belting time-tested country hits like “My Girl” or more recent smashes like 2022’s RIAA Platinum-certified “Can’t Have Mine (Find You a Girl)”—but it also means he goes the extra mile to put on a great show. Matching that level of determination is Scott’s production team, ready to help him overdeliver every night.
“When I took over as production manager, Dylan basically said, ‘I want the biggest, baddest production I can fit in one trailer,’” said Jason Bjerg, who also mixes monitors for the artist.
“With the places we’re playing, we could be in a semi and two buses and all that, but I fit it all in one trailer and can still keep the level of production as high as possible. I’ve always been good at packing trailers and trucks—I guess it’s one of those God-given gifts that I get to have.”
How good is he? The trailer is eight feet-and-a-half-inch wide, so the production’s four carts are each two feet wide, fitting snugly across. “When you’re packing the trailer, it only goes in and out one way; you never miss anything because everything has its own place,” Bjerg said with a chuckle. There’s a lot of “everything” to fit in there, too—lighting, a video wall, audio control gear, and a full complement of band equipment, including a drum kit that’s literally ready to roll: It’s permanently built and wired-up atop an 8×6-foot drum riser with sub boxes mounted underneath, all ready to be pushed onstage and miked up.
While Scott owns his lighting, set carts and video equipment, all the audio gear is provided by Clair Global—a package that includes DiGiCo SD9 consoles at both the front-of-house and monitor world positions, sharing an SD-Rack on an Optocore fiber loop. Clair also provided a passel of Shure, Telefunken and Beyerdynamic microphones, as well as Shure wireless mic systems and PSM 1000 packs for the musicians’ JH Audio JH16v2 ear monitors.
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FOH engineer Brayden Dana looks after 35 channels coming from the five musicians onstage, using the desk’s effects and a Waves server. The house mix is light on plug-ins—highlights including a few SSL compressors on drums, an F6 Floating-Band Dynamic EQ on Scott’s voice to tame some frequencies, and some judiciously applied Vitamin Sonic Enhancer on the guitars of Scott and Logan Robinson.
“They’re both stereo guitars, so creating some spread on them to be even bigger helps for some moments,” Dana explained. “For me, Waves is just meant for a sparkle on top of the mix. I use it a little heavily on Dylan just to tame the energy that his voice brings day in and day out, but other than that, it’s just reverb, delay and then some light things on the guitar or piano. I love the resources that Waves gives you, but I try to stay true to what the console is doing, too. Every month, I A/B-test the mix—Waves versus No Waves—because Waves is reliable if you treat it well, but I want to make sure that if I don’t have it, we still have a kick ass-sounding show.”
Up at stageside, Bjerg sticks with onboard effects, using mostly reverbs. “I’m not a fancy guy—I just keep it down and dirty and clean,” he said. “I try not to process the life out of things; if it sounds good coming in, it’s probably good. If it’s not sounding good, you need to change the mic or mic placement.”
While he gives everyone IEM mixes focused on their own instruments, Bjerg looks after more than just monitors; he also runs video, overseeing Resolume software and a media server, while also tackling some set changes within the show, and running cold sparks as well if the venue permits it. That’s a lot to keep track of, but it keeps him on his toes: “I’ve done it so many times that it’s just second nature. I guess I’m always trying to think ahead and see what people need—if I see Dylan looking around or coughing, I make sure the water bottle is close by so he can grab it. If somebody throws something up on stage to sign, I’m ready with the Sharpie. I try to be prepared for any situation that may occur.”
That level of dedication doesn’t come without a story behind it, and there is one. After years as a musician, Bjerg wound up doing live audio for Disney and broadcast work for Fox before eventually working at a production company in Orlando. “But my heart was always in live production,” he said. “I really wanted to do that, but honestly, I thought the train had already left the station and that I wasn’t going to get to tour.” A visiting engineer filling in on a gig mentioned the Dylan Scott team was searching for a monitor engineer, and suddenly Bjerg was finally on the road; 18 months later, he became the production manager. “It’s been fantastic, a dream come true,” he said with a grin. “I am living out exactly what I’ve always wanted to do!”
