Eva Reistad is a Grammy award-winning audio engineer. She’s worked with several well-known artists, including Hans Zimmer, Miley Cyrus, and Charli XCX. As an audiophile and sound scientist, she has also worked on many film scores such as those for Dune, Mulan, and Wonder Woman. Her journey into the world of music and sound engineering is a testament to the power of passion and perseverance.
Growing up, it was difficult for Eva to picture herself going into music. During an interview with L-Acoustics, she said that while she had always loved music, she “didn’t really know that working a job in music was even a possibility for someone from a small town.” Originally from Northern Minnesota, she had assumed that she would one day have to follow her peers to University and end up in a business-oriented career.
However, that all changed in her junior year of high school when she went to a band camp with an audio program. She came home with a renewed interest in music and a newfound love for recording, which led her dad—who knew an audio engineer in Minneapolis—to take her to tour an audio engineering studio. From there, “it was game over,” Reistad told L-Acoustics. She was hooked.
In 2011, Eva was interning for one of her teachers’ bands in Minneapolis. There, she met the owner of the Nightbird Recording Studios, Oliver Liever. Through this connection to Liever, she was able to receive an internship at the Nightbird Studios under the Sunset Marquis in LA. “The rest is sort of history!” she says.
The following year, she began working at the Evergreen Stage with Annette Cisneros whenever they needed an extra audio engineer. The stage, formerly owned by Nova Scotia’s DiaDan Holdings Ltd., has hosted a huge number of household names, including Frank Sinatra, Beyoncé, Whitney Houston, Billy Joel, Paul McCartney, Christina Aguilera, Michael Jackson, and more. Eva Reistad continued to work there for several years, becoming more experienced and building her reputation. In 2016, DiaDan Holdings sold the Evergreen Stage, but Eva continued to grow her audio engineering expertise through other venues and has worked with more big names such as Avril Lavigne, Coldplay, Pharrell, and Britney Spears.
Today, Eva Reistad’s resume is quite impressive: she has recently worked as a score mix assistant on the 190 million dollar movie Dune: Part Two, and as a score mixer for the third season of the hit show His Dark Materials. She even has some of her very own vocals in the Aquaman movie.
Of course, this success has not been without its challenges. Reistad has talked openly about these low points, from burnout to struggles with confidence. She says that she’s learned to recognize the signs of stress in her work, noting that when she’s overworking herself her motivation and love for her work takes a hit. To combat this, she makes herself take an afternoon off every once in a while.
“It’s extremely challenging for me to (take time off) and do nothing,” she told L-Acoustics, “but the older I get, the more I realize that balance and life experiences OUTSIDE of the studio can be so beneficial.” Eva shared that she has taken up running to take care of her mental and physical health, and says that she has found it very helpful.
Even with these challenges, it’s clear that she loves her job, and wouldn’t trade it for the world. From finding her passion to achieving her dreams, her story is one of hard work and overcoming challenges to get where you want to be.