Industry’s Got Talent: AVI-SPL’s Felix Robinson’s Glory Days in 80s Rock

Felix Robinson, vice president, enterprise accounts, AVI-SPL, has found success as a musician and, in the electronics industry, as a systems integrator.

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Industry’s Got Talent: AVI-SPL’s Felix Robinson’s Glory Days in 80s Rock

It’s hard enough to lay claim to finding success and happiness in one field, never mind two separate ones. Felix Robinson, vice president, enterprise accounts at AVI-SPL, is one of the few that can legitimately make that claim.

Not only has Robinson found success in the fickle music industry, but he’s also found happiness as a commercial integrator.

“Through my music business career I’ve sold over 14 million records, and originally came to New York intending to continue building recording studios, as I had started to do when I retired from the music business in 1983,” notes Robinson. “But music was never really a job for me. There’s a saying that if you are doing something you love it’s not a job, and it’s the same in the A/V business. I am doing what I enjoy doing.”

Theorizing on why people with backgrounds similar to his gravitate to the electronics industry, Robinson says it’s an obvious avenue for musicians to pursue.

“It always seemed natural to me to work in the audio/visual business because when I started in this business, I met many people with similar backgrounds,” he states. “Many of us came from live sound and recording backgrounds with working knowledge of acoustics and system design.”

During Robinson’s musical career, he has played and recorded with several internationally known groups such as Angel, (six albums) on Casablanca and Polygram Records.

Robinson also was a founding member of White Lion, and played bass, keyboards, and vocals, while composing and arranging for the group’s first album.

His latest music project is Punky Meadows, which is a band that includes a former bandmate from Angel. Punky Meadows’ current release, “Fallen Angel,” is available on iTunes.

Following the 2017 InfoComm and the latest Drunk Unkles’ show, Robinson took a few moments to discuss his dual careers.

AV-over-IP is gaining tremendous steam in the industry. Are you jumping on the bandwagon?

How did you get started in music; did you have piano and/or guitar lessons?

Felix Robinson: Yes, I had both. And I was a music theory major in college. I played five instruments by the time I was in high school—professionally. By the time I had reached my junior year in high school I had started to make a living from my music. Also, I was teaching guitar and drums as a part-time job after school.

After high school graduation, I traveled to Las Vegas and worked in some of the major casinos as part of a Vegas show band. Then I returned to the Midwest and began a continuation of my career in local groups that were regionally successful.

By the time I was 20 I had recording experience in Memphis and L.A. with funky jazz-fusion, rock, and R&B groups.

During my peak years as a performer, I lived in Los Angeles, then made the transition from Los Angeles to New York City in the early 1980s and tried to develop a business for building recording studios. But as analog audio was rapidly converting (almost) entirely to digital, and digital software for engineering and mixing was becoming accessible to anyone that had a computer, in addition to processing equipment and microphones, the number of small- and home-recording studios really took off. Professional room design became less in demand.

Thankfully there are still some very talented people—some good friends—who are still providing that expertise building top quality recording studios, but it is not as widely required as it once was. So I transitioned to live sound and the integration business, going to work for ProMix/PRG here in New York City. At ProMix/PRG I became involved with Broadway theaters, large-scale live sound systems, and many significant large integration projects. I then transferred to SPL and AVI-SPL, building sound systems for Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium, The Apollo Theater, and communication technology systems for many other customers over the past 20 years.

Who were some of your influences during your formative musical years growing up?

Felix Robinson: Growing up and becoming a musician in St. Louis, which is truly a music melting pot, I had to be fluent in many styles. I learned to correctly perform R&B, country music, standards and, of course, some serious rock and roll, which gave me a good foundation for delivering during my “heavy rock” days. What I’m doing lately is a blend of just about everything.

Did you play in any high school or college bands?

Felix Robinson: I played trumpet and trombone in grade school and secondary school orchestras. I played guitar in my high school stage band. We played big-band arrangements—Maynard Ferguson, Count Basie, etc.

I also had a rock and blues band in high school, and couldn’t get enough of the Beatles and the entire British Invasion.

How did you get involved in the recording business? Did it have any relation to your songwriting aspirations?

Felix Robinson: Absolutely. I invested the money I made as a performer into the studio and produced rock music for my own purpose, as well as music background for TV and radio ads. We had to build that studio from the ground up—and we did it twice—so the first tool I used was a sledgehammer and ended up with a soldering iron in the back of a Trident console. The technical requirements of a high-level, quality recording studios of that era were more complex than most systems in the A/V or even broadcast market at that time. It was surprising how much I learned and used later while working with some of the best audio engineers in the business.

You list guitar, keyboards, and bass as the instruments you play. Do you have a favorite, and if so why?

Felix Robinson: Variety is good for me. With the Unkles, I play guitar and keys, and I rarely play bass with that gang. I’m not very competent on keys, but for what we do I don’t have to be, and it gives me an excuse to learn and develop what skills I have. My professional musical endeavors are usually as a bass player.

What are some of your most prized pieces of gear?

Felix Robinson: I am an accumulator, not a collector, but I do have some old and interesting stuff. Most of my equipment is vintage or custom made, or custom modified, and I still have some of my “monster-sized” concert level equipment somewhere in storage.

My electric guitars are all modified just for me. They started as inexpensive brand name axes, but I invested to make them perfect for me. I have a vintage Guild F-50 acoustic, which is very nice, from the early 1970s, and a unique one-off 1962 Fender Bassman amp.

In addition, I also have a small collection of bass guitars that span the decades.

Are you able to draw inspiration from any of today’s artists as musicians and/or songwriters?

Felix Robinson: I am actively interested in all forms of music. I can’t be specific to any one composer, but I enjoy listening to classic and modern jazz as an inspirational source, as well as classic country, lots of old R&B, as well as more esoteric and unclassified modern music. I do love playing seriously heavy rock live and intend to do that as often as possible.

What’s your favorite part of playing the Drunk Unkles gigs?

Felix Robinson: There is risk involved with getting that group on stage because there are too few rehearsals. It’s difficult getting everyone together because we all have other commitments. In addition, the repertoire covers so many styles, so when we perform, we have to consider it almost a spontaneous reality due to the limited preparation. So we just have to go for it and see what happens. Chaos can be fun, but not something you want to arrange as your regular plan, so that’s going to need to change.

Have you ever had one of those moments during your career where something went terribly wrong, like your microphone getting unplugged?

Many on stage mishaps, and the most hilarious happened after the show.

Most of my mishaps happened after the gigs in the hotels I have destroyed. I always tried to be disciplined on stage, but that’s not to say I haven’t wound myself up with guitar cords or got into brawls with the security people while performing … that story is too long to share here.

I did once throw my entire hotel room furniture ensemble, including everything in the room, out the window at a Holiday Inn and watched it land on the roof of the lobby bar eight floors below. It was snowing, and I couldn’t tell what was down there, and I then went down and walked into the bar to get a drink and saw all of my snow-covered furniture sitting on the dance floor with a hole in the ceiling. Everyone in the place totally and silently staring at the new winter display while disco music played. I ordered a beverage and asked, “what happened here?” That one cost me a few bucks.

Our sound man at the time had taught Keith Moon and many others how to destroy hotel rooms, so I had learned from a pro.

I even used to carry a chainsaw on the road with me in a custom road case … I provided custom woodcarvings in the hotel rooms with the furniture.

Are there any musical goals that you have not conquered yet that you still have in your sights?

Felix Robinson: Absolutely. I am composing music that I intend to produce as an approximation of what I heard while under sedation during some recent surgery. I am going to try and reproduce what was happening in my mind at the time. There are lots of weird noises in an operating room that could be incorporated into some kind of composition. It might sound something like John Cage or Philip Glass but that’s cool so let’s see what I come up with.

Also, I am going to play more music and sing and enjoy it all as much as possible. Life is too short to not have as much fun as you can while we’re still here.

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