Today we’d like to introduce you to Catharine Wood
Hi Catharine, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
In interviews, I often just fast forward into my professional career in LA…starting in 2003…but I think it might be useful to look a little further back this time. I was born in Hong Kong in 1973 and grew up mainly in Hong Kong, Connecticut, Colorado and California. We moved a lot as a family – my dad was in the international apparel business…setting up new territories for brands like Levi’s and OshKosh B’Gosh. I believe I’ve moved something like 28 times in my life. So when I got to Los Angeles – I knew I wanted to stay for awhile; invest in my career and the ecosystem that makes up my close friends, home, lifestyle and business.
When I arrived in LA in August of 2003, I didn’t have a job and did not know how to make a living in music…yet. In 2004, I discovered the Los Angeles Recording School after working a regular 9-5 job for a year and a half…and saw furthering my education (I already held a BA in Art from Colorado College, with a 5 year career in graphic design already behind me) as my way into the audio industry – and it was. I graduated #1 in my class (and was the only female in my class). I was approached by a Santa Monica studio owner to come work in commercials – at Play Studios – a top, global commercials audio post production mix house.
During my time there, I was honored to engineer on the first Apple iPhone commercial (entitled “Hello”) – which introduced the first touch screen phone to the world. It aired during the 2007 Oscars to 40 million people. Adweek ran a monthly “Best Spots” piece at the time, in which Play Studios had at least a 25%+ share of the top rated commercials globally during my years there (2005-2007). The Apple “Get a Mac” campaign (Justin Long, John Hodgman), Priceline Negotiator (William Shatner), Geico Caveman spots and many, many more made going to work fun. And after work, I’d visit the gym and often see commercials on TV, while on the elliptical machine, that I’d worked on that day…airing that evening.
When I left Play to return to music, I began mixing and mastering on projects and was a Composer Assistant to Grammy® Award winning, Mateo Messina (Juno, Up In The Air, Superstore). I also began working with singer-songwriters through the West Coast Songwriters – volunteering as their Hollywood Manager and Director of Southern California for a few years.
For many years I lived in apartments – and really never had a proper, professional (commercial grade) studio until I purchased my first home in 2009. I renovated the back half of the house into a control room, isolation room and machine room with en suite bathroom and kitchen. Closed off from the rest of the house, I was able to host larger groups; bands as well as directors and score recording crews. This opened the door to recording source music for HBO’s Emmy-nominated, Perry Mason as well as score recording for the multi-award winning film, The Planters – among others. I’ve also had opportunity as a composer, myself, to co-write and produce an ESPN theme song…along with many other original TV sync music placements on NBC, ABC, VH1, MTV, etc.
In 2022, while in Colorado for the holidays visiting family, I broke my back and ended up unable to work from Jan-March of 2023. This caused a domino effect where I ended up selling my Los Angeles property (and studio) in order to begin designing and building a new property on a large acreage I own in Southern Colorado. While I heal my back, I’ve been the architect and engineer to my new property – on which there will be a new studio…many times larger than my LA studio and upgraded with Atmos and Stereo capabilities. The new Planetwood Studios will be dedicated to my own sync work as a composer/producer, production work with my publishing company’s music collaborators as well as select Atmos and Stereo engineering and producing projects. The new studio space is on track for completion at the end of 2024.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
There is no such thing as a straight line in this business. A to B is often a winding road – and the entertainment industry, and specifically the audio industry, can be a hard road for many. Sometimes the hours are not good – or you’re required to be “on call” for a producer or production at all hours of the day (and night). This is a lifestyle profession.
I was on Christmas vacation in 2005, up the coast, when I was unexpectedly called back to work to record Kiefer Sutherland for an internal Apple ad. “Introducing the new, Pentium Mac”…the Sutherland voiceover was used for the introduction of the first Intel Mac – by Steve Jobs at Macworld Expo in January 2006. Worth traveling 5 hours each way, during a major holiday, to and from work in two days? Yes.
Being a female in an entirely male dominated industry also has its share of challenges…but I am a firm believer in allyship – and men helping to elevate their female co-workers in the eyes of our peers and the industry. It may take decades more…but one day we will reach parity.
I am a personality who likes to say Yes to a lot of different projects – and, for that reason, I have built up a deep knowledge-base in several different areas. This has come in handy when it comes to income-earning…as I’ve managed to stay afloat even during the difficult times.
I was self-employed when my brother was diagnosed with lung cancer, early in my audio career, and I temporarily took a couple 9-5 jobs – so that I could travel to see him as much as I could. It was too challenging emotionally to work for myself and go out and get the projects needed to earn a living at that time. There’s no shame in getting a “regular job” as a creative person – preferably one that doesn’t require using your brain or too much energy – so that you can work on music and other creative endeavors on weekends and after work. When I was coming up, I had to do that a couple of times – and it made it so that I could have a nice apartment and go out to dinner without having to worry about how I was going to keep the lights on. I also still use many of the skillsets learned from those jobs outside of the music business.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
According to Muso.ai, I have 356 (Spotify) credits…which are mostly for my mastering engineer work. The website tallies credits for artists, musicians, producers and engineers around the world – and claims I am in the Top 25% of Engineers and the Top 25% for Mastering Engineers. I also have over a hundred original sync (music for TV) and film score recording credits…and probably around 1000 commercial credits…which weren’t really kept track of at the time – so my credits are quite all over the map – in different areas of expertise…and I do not believe Muso.ai includes score credits in their tally.
My deepest passion, however, is music production. Making music. I love engineering – and have excelled at it professionally – but my favorite thing to do with my time is make music…So I will be doing a lot more of that moving forward at the new studio. I play several instruments; drums, bass, guitar, piano, sing, etc.
During Covid, the government deemed my studio “non-essential” for a couple of years and I nearly lost my business. 95% of my business pre-pandemic was in-studio recording. During the pandemic, in-studio work was not allowed, and I had to shift to a more remote setup technologically…which meant I could continue to work locally and globally – but it was a real challenge for me – as was true for so many others at the time as well.
However, because I am able to work remotely now – fluently and fluidly – I have been able to continue my LA and global work from Colorado and also participate at events put on by the Recording Academy (Grammys®) as a remote contributor. From 2022-2024, I was an elected Governor on the LA Chapter Recording Academy Board – and also served four years on the Producers and Engineers Wing LA Chapter Committee. In the summer of 2023, I was honored to serve as a Mix Engineer mentor during the Women In The Mix powered, Follow The Song Craft Session at The Village Studios. Now that I am allowed to travel with my back healing, I am splitting my time between Colorado and Los Angeles – and recently was also proud to serve as a mentor at the July 2024 Grammy® Museum’s Grammy Camp – held at the Village Studios in Los Angeles.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
My younger brother was always my biggest fan. We were best friends growing up, but he sadly passed away from Lung Cancer in 2008. We were both living in San Francisco, just after college, when I began to write music – and he was a steady support from “day 1”. Though he excelled at piano – and took piano lessons from a young age, my dyslexia prevented me from taking guitar lessons past two weeks when I was twelve. The “dancing dots” could never stay still long enough for me to have any idea what was going on. I later learned by ear (as it turns out – this was also how my grandmother played). And picking up new instruments, by ear, has always been a happy process.
My mother was a music major in college and had always written music when I was growing up — I spent many hours lying under the grand piano as she played. It took awhile to get my parents on board – with music as a profession – but they’ve been a great support for many years now.
Professionally, I have to shout-out Karrie Keyes of SoundGirls.org — as she and her organization have shed a light on me as one of the “First of the 5%”. 5% is what percent of the professional audio industry engineer positions are held by women…it is still very rare for women to earn a living in audio. I would also like to shout-out my music partner, Australian music producer and sonic alchemist, Gem Auset. We have worked together for six years and have complementary skillsets that make any project we work on together a lot of fun. She is an exceptional talent and I feel lucky to have crossed paths.
The Los Angeles Chapter of the Recording Academy has also been a champion for me – electing me to their Board of Governors in 2022 for a two year term. And The California Copyright Conference as well – for my election to their Board of Directors from 2016-2020. I’ve served on Committees for SONA (Songwriters of North America) since 2019 and have been on the Los Angeles Recording School (Full Sail University) Professional Advisory Committee since 2012.
These organizations which give me an opportunity to give back to my audio community – I am indebted to…it is one of my great joys to serve these organizations that seek my leadership and shine a light on my achievements and abilities.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.planetwoodstudios.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/planetwood5163/
- Twitter: https://www.x.com/planetwood5163/
- Other: https://credits.muso.ai/profile/eabd5f91-074d-a172-f8ae-b4598b314f92
