People & Culture Series: Josh Eberhart

We’re shining the spotlight on the team that makes up Monstercat!

Because the people that work here are so cool, we simply have to share some of their stories. So we’re launching an interview series that highlights the employees of Monstercat!

With employees in Vancouver, Los Angeles, and Singapore, the Monstercat team is a global force. The same could be said about all of the artists that release with Monstercat. But when it comes to Monstercat’s mixes, radio shows, and virtual showcases, there’s one person behind them all, tweaking even the finest details to perfection... that’s Josh Eberhart, Audio Engineer at Monstercat.

We sat down with Josh and got to dive deeper into his role at Monstercat. Read all about the employee we call Rocketman below!

What do you do at Monstercat?
“I’m an Audio Engineer in the Live Programming department. My day-to-day changes, but what I do in a week has its structure. Each week, I mix our newest episode of Call of the Wild radio show. All the music featured in there is all curated by me. And then I'll pass that off to Dan [Scarcelli, Head of Live Programming]. He'll record his voiceover, then we'll package it and send that off to our partners like Spotify, Apple Music, and radio shows around the world. I also work with the Monstercat Silk Showcase artists who mix their radio show each week; I'll take that package and deliver that to the radio stations as well. I also am the host of Mixdown which is our brand new monthly podcast, where I’m sitting down with Monstercat artists and learning more about them. There’s a very personal touch to the podcast that balances the artist’s music and their interview.

Another big part of my role is audio editing. For every new song release, we have a 15-second teaser or showcase of the drop. And so I'll find the best segments that will get people to go listen to the full song. And finally, I make sure that our 24/7 live stream (on Twitch and YouTube) is running is up to date with all of our new music, and stay active with the chat.”

Mixdown is now available to stream here. Know what went down behind the scenes and learn more about the inspiration behind the recording of Mixdown Podcast.

What’s the process like as far as adding your own style to mixes?
“In DJing or mixing, everybody goes in with a different style. And me personally, I like mixing with a lot of vocals over different songs. So I’ll grab the acapella and instrumental of another song, layer them on top of each other, and make something new.”

What inspired you to get into this line of work?
“Oh, that's a fun story. So I've been following the label almost since the beginning with the release of 003 - Momentum. And in 2016, I entered The Mix Contest, a DJ competition that we host each year, and ended up winning. From there, I stayed in contact with Dan for a few years. In 2019, I took a contract position after JUST graduating college with an aerospace engineering degree. So, a very different line of work. It was quite the shift. I contracted here for two years, and back in February I was offered a full-time position and was more than happy to accept it. And here I am!”

What do you do for fun?
“In my free time I’ll work on producing and mixing for my own music project “Rocketman,” playing video games like Rocket League and Splitgate, riding my Onewheel around the city, and watching Star Wars.”

Do you ever work with other teams at Monstercat? If so, in what capacity?
Since my position is audio-focused, I work with a lot of different departments within the company. Our in-house designers hit me up when they need audio for content is often used by the Music team. I also work closely with the marketing teams to create custom mixes and audio beds. There’s all different kinds of crossroads. And that's where it gets tricky. I mean, with audio being such a subjective creative field, everybody has their own opinion on it. So [my position] is taking in all the information and feedback that people give, and kind of make the final decision of what direction I want to take it.”

What are some interesting challenges that you get to work on in your role?
So I think weekly, the biggest challenge is just finding a way to get our Call of the Wild mix to sound cohesive, while still including all of the songs that we want to spotlight, and putting enough songs in there that the community enjoys. And it's always a juggling act of how to get in the new songs but also the oldies that everybody loves. So that's probably the biggest challenge.”

What do you love the most about working at Monstercat?
“So as much as I love my actual job here, I think it is the culture at Monstercat that I like the most. Just the camaraderie between everybody. Everybody is just so driven and passionate within their role and is incredibly good at what they do. I don't know how the hiring team does it, how they find a specific person that fits in with the company so well, but who also just excels at their job. I mean, it sounds cliche, but it's like a family. That's very much how it feels. For me. I've worked at a few different companies throughout my short time in the workforce. And I've never felt just so welcomed into a spot than at Monstercat. So that was a really nice change of pace.”

Favourite Monstercat release?
“Favourite Monstercat release has to be Puppet & The Eden Project - The Fire. This song has had such a special place in my heart ever since I first heard it almost 7 years ago, and it was such an honor to open the 300th episode of Call of the Wild with this masterpiece.”

In your opinion, what’s going to be the next genre to take off?
“I think Color Bass / Melodic Riddim (whatever you want to call it) is going to be THE genre of 2022. Artists like Chime, Ace Aura, and Skybreak to name a few are really leading the charge with this new and exciting sound, and I can’t wait to see how it continues to evolve!”

Which company values resonate with you the most?
“As I was going back through them, I thought for sure I would pick tenacity. But I think curiosity definitely sticks out to me the most. I've always been a very curious person at heart, trying to find answers for why do we do something this way? Or can we do something differently? And how does that impact us? I think curiosity is definitely the biggest one for me.”

You can find Rocketman on Twitch and Discord below. You can also find Rocketman hosting our latest Podcast series, Mixdown exclusively on Spotify.
Mixdown: monster.cat/mixdown
Twitch: @RocketmanWubs
Discord: Josh | Rocketman#8646