“He’s a smart guy and an amazing mixer,” says FOH engineer/production manager Amanda Davis (who was in the first class of NextGens in 2018). “We worked a few festivals together, and about a year later he was the FOH engineer for the opener on Ella Mai’s debut tour where I was production manager and FOH engineer. What impresses me about Jeremy is his well-rounded knowledge about seemingly everything audio.”
In the short time since Jeremy Ogletree has been in the business, he’s worked with acts including Baby Keem, Ari Lennox, JoJo, Denzel Curry, Umi, Janelle Monáe, Lucky Daye, Amaarae, and Russ. And he is clearly just getting started.
From DJ to AV
Ogletree grew up in Laurel, MD, located between Washington DC and Baltimore. In high school he was playing saxophone in the band, and then like many teens, he got into DJing, going by the moniker DJ Soundwave. Unlike most teens, he made a serious go at it, teaching himself all the technical knowledge he could in addition to asking friends who knew a bit more than he. This led to him moving to working behind the sound board for others. “I was doing a lot of Googling, and put myself through ‘YouTube University,’ plus did a lot of on-the-job training,” he says. He started getting out in the world and did a little touring with the boy band pop group Mindless Behavior.
In 2010 he got a steady gig working in the hotel AV department at the always-busy Fairmont hotel in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington DC. There he sharpened his skills further, from audio to stagehand work, “learning as much as I could, and keeping things as open as possible.” But he had his eye on the road, including moving on down it to LA. He was flying back and forth with Mindless Behavior from DC to LA gigs, and once in January he got on the plane when it was 30 degrees, with the ground covered in brown snow, and landed in L.A. where it was 80 degrees. It helped him to decide to move out there.
Once settled in the Land of Warmer Weather, in addition to some DJ work, he got on full time with PSAV and did some part work at Bigger Hammer Production Services, before moving to the latter full time in 2015. He started his contractor relationship with the company that provides crew to live events including stagehands, AV technicians, rigging services, production manager, etc., for the greater Los Angeles area. It was a positive experience for Ogletree, as he worked everything from parties at private mansions to corporate events to full productions doing load-in, load-out, and rehearsals. He quickly adapted to that lifestyle of essentially being on call and standby all the time.
His initial plan was to pursue studio engineering work and looked into a recording school. But the six hours a day, five days a week schedule would keep him from paying his bill, so that wasn’t practical. It was all for the better anyway, as he was growing more interested in live sound. “I was hanging out more with those who do live audio, and it became more appealing.”
Mentors & Breaks
One mentor is Meegan Holmes, an engineer and system tech who has worked in live sound for over 25 years and is currently in global sales for Eighth Day Sound. “I originally met Meegan when she was working for Delicate Productions,” he says. “Delicate would use Bigger Hammer for stagehand labor. Eighth Day then opened up a shop in LA and she got hired. I told her about my desires to work in live sound, and she told me to keep pushing and would help me out.” A year later, she told him Eighth Day was hiring and set up an interview. “I interviewed locally with the LA office and virtually with the head in Cleveland.” The LA office gave him a thumbs up, but the Cleveland higher-ups hesitated. Even so, they did bring him in as a freelancer.
“Jeremy came to us at Eighth Day Sound at the beginning of his career,” Holmes says. “At that time, we were relying heavily on our freelancers to help prep shows and see them through to completion. Jeremy was a part of the team we had doing a lot of our festival work. He was always eager to learn and gain more experience. This drive has most certainly paved the way to his successful career.”
In 2018, he caught another break when they sent him out with Chris Brown’s Heartbreak on a Full Moon tour as an audio tech. “That was my first major tour, and I learned a lot,” he says. “The networking experience alone was great. I met a lot of people on that tour who have become my lifelong friends, and a lot of doors started to open for me.” For his part, he flaunted his high work ethic and desire to learn everything about audio he possibly could and soon started to take a turn in that FOH chair. Kevin Brown, who sat in the FOH chair for that Chris Brown (no relation). Kevin Brown was critical to educating Ogletree in what it takes to mix for a major arena tour.
Production Manager Curtis Battles was the one who called him to do the Chris Brown tour. “I hired Jeremy as an audio tech,” Battles says. “He had the right attitude and work ethic for this business. He is a go-getter and willing to jump in and help anyone in any department. I’m proud of his accomplishments in this industry – he has a bright future.”
After some festival work, Jeremy got a call from D.C.-based R&B artist Ari Lennox. She asked him to take control of the audio console for a three-week European tour. “Five years later, I’m still with her.” With her and many of the acts he’s worked with that followed like JoJo, Denzel Curry, and Umi, he was and is often “at the mercy of whatever console the house had,” he explains. “But because of that, I learned every console available, which was a good thing; but the bad thing because getting consistency was challenging. Then I just became flexible with all the consoles, so I figured out what was needed to happen on any given show pretty quickly.”
In 2023, Ogletree stepped up to work as FOH engineer for Janelle Monáe. Then in 2024, singer-songwriter Lucky Daye provided another opportunity to continue getting better. “I was FOH/production manager on his Algorithm Tour,” he says. “It was a great experience and my first time as a tour PM. On of the biggest things I learned from that experience was dealing with and managing many different personalities.”
‘The Artist’s Money’
Ogletree most recently returned mixing for rapper/singer/songwriter Russ in Sofia, Bulgaria, at a concert that took place in the National Palace of Culture, followed by one in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. “That was a good time – it was a 21-hour travel day, but I love that aspect of touring; seeing the world like that.”
While he has become an expert on all the consoles, when he has his choice, his preference is DiGiCo consoles, specifically the S12 or 338. “But I recently did a workshop with the Solid State Logic board, and I really enjoyed that; I’d like to take that out on my next tour if possible.” Otherwise, he likes to rely on what the board offers as opposed to getting into a lot of outboard gear. An exception to that rule is the Rupert Neve Designs Master Buss Processor. “I also enjoy Universal Audio plug-ins, especially the Apollo audio interface.”
Ogletree has gotten this far this fast by clearly understanding the priority: “It’s ultimately the artist’s money, so making sure the vocalist is clear and present, and heard by everyone in the room is the most important thing I think about when mixing,” he says. And while the vocalist might get the edge, that is true of all musicians on stage. “I don’t like going to shows where not all the musicians are heard. And when using tracks with live musicians, it’s important to keep the integrity of the music and keep the musicians in the spotlight.”
As he preps for whatever comes his way next, he reflects: “I can’t believe I’m doing this. Being able to see different places I wouldn’t normally go and being paid for something I actually enjoy doing is a great situation to be in.” He adds he hopes he keeps evolving as an engineer, doing bigger shows and having more responsibilities. “I’m looking forward to growing my career.”
“While on tour, I observed how he thinks through building and correcting his mix,” Davis adds. “I thought that was very interesting and it inspired me to be more thoughtful and pay attention more to what I was doing. I hit Jeremy up if I have technical questions or need help figuring something out on a console and he’s always forthcoming with helpful info without judgment. He’s out here mixing FOH for some top artists and killing it!”
