PROFILE
Meaghan McEachren
By Andrew King
A
s a fixture of Toronto’s profession-
al audio community, Meaghan
McEachren has compiled an
impressive resume in recent years
– one that includes stints working
with some of the biggest companies in the
business on some of the biggest shows and
events in markets across the country. Inter-
estingly, though, her journey in professional
audio didn’t start in the epicentre of Canada’s
entertainment community; far from it, in fact.
The northern Ontario township of Chap-
leau – about 200 km west of Timmins – is best
known as the home of the Chapleau Crown
Game Reserve, one of the largest in the world,
and the Canadian Pacific railyard that dissects
its downtown; however, in past years, it also
played host to a relatively popular arts and
culture festival that presented some of the
country’s best-known artists from various
disciplines for local residents and visitors from
a pretty wide radius.
“My dad was the technical director while
I was in high-school, so I was a volunteer
and followed him around doing odd jobs
and helping to set up the sound and light
production that came up from a Burlington
company called FM Systems,” McEachren
explains. “That was my first real exposure to
audio and lighting.”
Needless to say, she developed a keen
interest in live production and its related
technologies and, after finishing her second-
ary studies, enrolled in Sheridan College’s
Technical Production for the Performing Arts
Industry program.
Almost immediately after her graduation
in 2007, she landed a position in the shop at
Clair Canada (then Towers). A few years and a
slew of gigs later, she left the position and set
off to travel the world for a year-and-a-half.
Since returning, she’s been working as
an in-demand freelance tech for top produc-
tion suppliers like Clair, Solotech, Westbury
National, VER, and PRG. “I’ve started to branch
out and do some TV work lately as well as live
audio,” she adds.
At this point, between live and broad-
cast applications, her list of credits would be
enviable to even some of the country’s most
seasoned techs: the CTV music discovery se-
ries The Launch; live telecasts like the MMVAs,
JUNO Awards, and Grey Cup Halftime Show;
major music festivals including Boots and
Hearts, Wayhome, and VELD; and tours with
Arkells, Roxette, and WE Day. “Whenever they
need local production for events at Bud-
weiser Stage or one of the arenas in town, I’ll
take those sometimes, too,” she adds.
Most recently, she was out crossing the
country with Metric and July Talk as part of
the PRG team and is now getting ready for a
busy summer festival season.
Asked about her favourite aspect of a
career in pro audio, her answer is a common
one: “Getting to work with great people all
the time.” In fact, that’s also the thing that
makes one of the bigger challenges she faces
more bearable.
“Being a woman in this industry is difficult
– especially in audio,” she says bluntly, “but I
work with a great group of people that don’t
put up with others’ sexist nonsense.”
Outside of work, she likes to travel as
often as her schedule will accommodate –
“usually to Fiji, but I’ve been to other places
in the South Pacific, as well as North, Central,
and South America, parts of the Caribbean,
Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and Eng-
land,” she shares.
The travel helps her deal with bouts
Andrew King is the Editor-in-Chief of Professional Sound.
20 PROFESSIONAL SOUND
of depression, which might surprise some
people considering she has a reputation
among her peers for being generally happy
and upbeat. (It was actually comments from
colleagues about her skills as a tech and
pleasant demeanor on gigs that prompted
Professional Sound to reach out for this
Profile in the first place.) She also enjoys
various forms of crafting and baking in her
downtime. “And I also like to get out to the
gym – mainly for Aquafit,” she adds.
As far as what’s on her calendar for the
rest of 2019, she’s hoping to take a few
months at the end of the year to continue
her global expeditions, hitting some new
and some familiar destinations.
In the meantime, though, she’s looking
to “keep learning new things and correcting
misconceptions I have about other things”
with regards to her work, and will undoubt-
edly be plenty busy with summer festivals
and a myriad of other projects – all of which
will be additions to an already impressive pro
audio resume.