How We Got Loud is an ongoing project dedicated to preserving the history, technology, people, and culture that shaped the live sound industry.

Created by Chris Leonard, the project explores the evolution of concert sound through firsthand stories, deep research, archival material, interviews, photographs, technical documentation, and industry collaboration.

This is not just a podcast.

It’s an attempt to build a living historical resource for an industry whose story is still largely undocumented and fragmented across generations, companies, regions, and personal archives.

Why This Exists

The modern live sound industry helped shape entertainment and culture as we know it, yet so much of its history risks being lost with time.

Many of the pioneers who built this industry are no longer with us. Others still are, carrying decades of firsthand knowledge, stories, innovations, failures, and experiences that were never properly documented.

There are countless incredible silos of information scattered throughout the industry. Some people specialize deeply in one company, one technology, one era, one regional scene, or one artist’s touring history. Old magazines, personal collections, photographs, flyers, technical documents, recordings, forum posts, warehouse shelves, and fading memories all contain pieces of the larger story.

But I’ve never found a true centralized effort trying to connect all of those pieces together into a broader historical picture of how live sound evolved into what it is today.

That’s what I’m trying to build.

Not a definitive authority.
Not a finished encyclopedia.
But an evolving historical resource dedicated to preserving the people, technology, stories, and culture that shaped live sound.

Because these stories deserve to be remembered.

A Journey Of Discovery

One thing that’s important to me is being honest about what this project is and what it isn’t.

I do not claim to know everything about the history of live sound. In fact, the amount I don’t know far outweighs what I do know, and honestly, that’s what fuels me.

This project is a journey of discovery.

Part of that process means that not every post, timeline, graphic, or piece of research will be perfectly complete or 100% accurate immediately. History is messy. Stories evolve. New information surfaces. People remember events differently. Sometimes one photo, flyer, recording, or conversation completely reshapes the understanding of a company, tour, system, or moment in time.

That collaboration is part of the process.

My goal is not to present myself as “the expert who knows it all,” but rather to seek out the truth, connect the dots, preserve the stories, and learn from the people who lived it firsthand.

I can’t help that I wasn’t physically there during many of the formative eras of concert sound. But I can dedicate myself to documenting as much of it as possible while many of the people who built this industry are still here to tell their stories.

Time is of the essence.

The People Behind The Industry

One of the biggest things I believe we are at risk of losing is oral history.

Not just the specs and gear lists, but the human side of this industry:
the stories, failures, breakthroughs, personalities, relationships, chaos, risks, creativity, and innovation that built live sound from the ground up.

This history is bigger than artists and performers.

It belongs to the engineers, technicians, system designers, speaker builders, monitor mixers, road crews, truck drivers, riggers, shop technicians, inventors, fabricators, and countless others whose work happened behind the scenes.

Many of them helped pioneer technologies and workflows that transformed live entertainment forever, yet their names and stories are barely documented.

How We Got Loud exists to help preserve those contributions before more of that history disappears.

Beyond The Podcast

How We Got Loud started as a podcast, but the vision has always been much larger.

The long-term goal is to continue building an interconnected archive of interviews, research, photographs, timelines, company histories, technical evolution, personal stories, archival documents, recordings, and historical resources related to live sound and the people behind it.

This includes:

• Oral history interviews

• Historical timelines

• Company histories

• Touring evolution

• Loudspeaker and console development

• Regional sound company research

• Archival photographs and flyers

• Technical documentation

• Industry relationship mapping

• Firsthand accounts from the people who were there

This is not just about nostalgia.

It’s about preserving the legacy of an industry that changed entertainment and culture forever.

About Chris Leonard

I’ve spent most of my life around live sound.

I grew up surrounded by road cases, loudspeakers, cables, stories from shows, and the people who dedicated their lives to making live events happen. My father worked in sound, and from an early age I became fascinated not just with the technology itself, but with the culture, creativity, innovation, and personalities behind it all.

That fascination eventually became a career.

Over the past 25+ years, I’ve worked throughout the professional audio and live events industry in roles ranging from engineer to operational leadership. I’ve toured, mixed shows, managed productions, and helped execute large-scale events across the country.

Along the way, I developed an even deeper appreciation for the generations of people who built this industry long before I entered it.

And that realization became the foundation for How We Got Loud.

Contribute To The Story

If you worked in live sound, toured, built systems, mixed shows, repaired gear, designed loudspeakers, owned a sound company, collected historical material, or simply have stories to share, I’d love to hear from you.

This project only works through collaboration and shared history.

Every conversation, photograph, memory, recording, flyer, schematic, and firsthand account helps preserve another piece of the story.

We are documenting history together.