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Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.)

InHouse Media

Singer Natasha Bedingfield

Country band Lonestar

Of presidents and rock bands

One student bridges the gap

Andrew Loftus stands behind an audio mixing board. Submitted photo
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McLean Bennett
bennetms@uwec.edu

It's the stuff a political scientist's dreams are made of. Or a political pundit's dreams, perhaps.

Really, though, it's something that just about anybody with any inkling of political interest would get excited about.

And Minnesota native Andrew Loftus can say he's done it -- he's worked at a presidential candidate's speech.

It happened during the 2004 presidential election, when Democratic hopeful John Kerry stopped at a Minnesota technical college to speak with residents and the media. Loftus, a sound technician at local company Urban Communications, was called in to supply audio at the speech.

"They had people spread out in four different rooms in the building and I had to provide the same audio to all of those people," Loftus said. "So it was very much one of those shows where I twist a knob right in front of me and something changes in a room 600 feet away."

In his nearly six years at the company, Loftus has endured struggles with friends and family as well as sacrificed countless nights' worth of sleep over a job he has come to have a passion for. But with those struggles have come memorable experiences with unique people, ranging from presidential candidates to garage bands; from pop singers to corporate managers and company leaders.

And he's just getting started.

Born for this job

"He never wanted to be the Jimi Hendrix," Andrew Loftus' father, Mike Loftus, said, adding his son "was always more interested in being the guy running the show."

But that's not to say Andrew couldn't have been the Jimi Hendrix had he wanted to. The mostly self-taught musician became proficient with an assortment of instruments, including piano, drums, guitar (which he played with his left hand despite being right-hand dominant) and bass. But as fate had it, the behind-the-scenes work attracted Loftus more than anything else.

The college junior's foray into the sound-engineering industry began late in elementary school, when his father, himself an audio worker of sorts, introduced his son to an object that ignited a passion.

"My dad taught me how to use a very small, basic mixer," Andrew Loftus said, adding his father taught him some of the "extreme basics" of audio technology while he was still in grade school.

Then, near the end of high school, the father that started it all helped his son take the next big step in his already-blossoming career.

Mike Loftus, whose Minneapolis-based company, InHouse Media, helps coordinate the sound and lighting for large corporate meetings, often delegates the work of setting up and operating audio equipment to the nearby-based Urban Communications. Mike suggested to his son that he apply for a job there, and less than a week after Andrew Loftus graduated from high school, he was a working man.

Trials and tribulations

But life behind the speakers has not always been so peachy or so keen. In fact, Loftus and his father both acknowledge that his job has caused some problems in the past.

Andrew Loftus' girlfriend, Jamie Olson, had a difficult time adjusting to his work schedule.

"In the summers it's usually bad ... because he's working a lot of the weekends," Olson said. "We usually end up seeing each other every other weekend maybe."

She said she tries to be supportive and patient, adding she realizes Loftus loves his job. Mutual understanding between the two came slowly, though both agree now that the their relationship has stabilized.

Lynn Loftus, Andrew's mother, had a similarly difficult time adjusting to her son's lifestyle. Lynn Loftus was raised by a father who had strictly set work hours and was often home by 5 p.m., Mike Loftus said, making it hard to adjust to the wildly various hours Mike and Andrew might have.

"It's taken a while I think for my mom to realize that, oh her little boy isn't going to be home tonight because I'm out working a show and I might be home at midnight -- I might be home at six in the morning," Andrew Loftus said.

But for all the troubles he's had with friends and family, Loftus has stayed the course and, in the process, convinced those he loves to stay right there with him -- girlfriend and all.

A future so bright, he better wear shades

To an outside observer, Loftus' career seems to be bursting at the seams. He has worked with a presidential candidate as well as provided sound for small performances by pop singer Natasha Bedingfield and country band Lonestar, to name just a few. And while he said these experiences don't necessarily typify a normal day for him, he said his future with Urban Communications looks bright, offering the promise of more good days to come.

"Once I graduate, I think I'll be able to step up and have a little bit more control," he said. "Once I graduate and I'm there full time, that amount of power will be open to me because where I'm working at already -- at least that's what they've told me -- is that I'm going to walk in and I'm just going to be the top audio guy."

And so while life behind the speakers may not be all glitz and glam, it's a life Loftus seems ready and prepared to continue with for some time.

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