How We Got Loud
Documenting the History of Live Sound
How We Got Loud is an ongoing project dedicated to preserving the people, companies, technology, stories, and culture that shaped the live sound industry.
What started as a podcast has grown into something bigger: a living archive for an industry whose history is still scattered across old magazines, personal collections, warehouses, tour stories, photographs, flyers, technical documents, and the memories of the people who were there.
This is not meant to be a finished encyclopedia.
It is a growing historical resource built through research, interviews, collaboration, and the shared knowledge of the live sound community.
Why This Exists
The live sound industry helped shape modern entertainment, but much of its history has never been properly documented.
A lot of the people who built this industry worked behind the scenes. They designed systems, built speakers, mixed shows, loaded trucks, repaired gear, invented workflows, solved impossible problems, and helped create the foundation for how live events are done today.
Many of those stories are still out there, but they are spread across generations, regions, companies, and personal archives. Some of the pioneers are no longer with us. Others still are, carrying firsthand knowledge that deserves to be preserved.
That is what How We Got Loud is trying to do.
Connect the dots.
Preserve the stories.
Document the people, companies, technology, and moments that built the world of live sound.
Explore The Project
Live Sound Companies Archive
A growing database of sound companies from the early days of live sound through the modern production era.
This archive is a starting framework, not a finished record. It will continue to grow as more information, corrections, photos, and firsthand accounts are gathered.
Explore the Live Sound Companies Archive
Podcast Episodes
The original How We Got Loud podcast features conversations with engineers, designers, manufacturers, production people, and industry pioneers who helped shape live sound.
These interviews capture the stories behind the gear, the tours, the companies, and the people who built the industry from the ground up.
Listen to the Episodes
Articles and Oral Histories
Some stories deserve more room than a podcast description or social media post.
This section features deeper written pieces, interview excerpts, historical notes, and firsthand accounts from people who were part of the industry’s evolution.
Read the Stories
Live Sound History Resource Hub
There are already great people and projects doing important work to preserve pieces of live sound history.
The Resource Hub points to archives, books, articles, old industry magazines, websites, and other resources that help tell the larger story.
This includes special attention to projects like the Showco Archives and other collections that are helping preserve history before it disappears.
Visit the Resource Hub ( COMING SOON )
A Journey Of Discovery
I want to be honest about what this project is.
I do not claim to know everything about the history of live sound. The amount I do not know is exactly what keeps me digging.
History is messy. Dates change. Stories evolve. People remember things differently. One photo, one flyer, one old tour program, or one conversation can completely change the understanding of a company, a system, a tour, or a moment in time.
That is part of the process.
The goal is not to pretend this is perfect. The goal is to keep building, keep correcting, keep connecting information, and keep listening to the people who lived it.
About Chris Leonard
Chris Leonard has spent most of his life around live sound. Following in the footsteps of his father, Chris grew up in the world of shows, gear, load-ins, and long nights behind the console before building his own career in professional live audio.
Over the past two decades, Chris has worked across touring, corporate events, large-scale public events, and production operations. As a monitor engineer with Maryland Sound International, he toured with artists including Tears for Fears, Don Henley, Disturbed, Josh Groban, Anthony Hamilton, and others.
Chris is currently Vice President of Operations at IMS Technology Services, a full-scale production company providing audio, video, lighting, and event technology for conferences, conventions, special events, and large-scale productions nationwide. Since joining IMS in 2010, he has helped lead the growth and evolution of the company’s Event Staging operations, overseeing teams, systems, logistics, technical execution, and operational strategy.
Highlights of Chris’s work include designing and mixing audio for the both Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl victory parades, one of the largest outdoor events in Philadelphia history, with an estimated audience of more than 800,000 people. He has also worked on four Presidential Inaugurations, supporting audio systems for some of the most visible live events in the country.
Chris was also a co-host of the Signal To Noise Podcast, presented by ProSoundWeb, where he helped build a respected platform for conversations with people from across the live sound industry, including front-of-house and monitor engineers, tour managers, Broadway sound designers, broadcast mixers, system techs, manufacturers, and other industry leaders.
His current project, How We Got Loud, is dedicated to documenting the history of live sound through the stories of the people, companies, technology, and culture that shaped the industry. What began as a podcast has grown into a broader research and archive project focused on preserving the history of live sound before those stories are lost.
I’m about 10 years old in this picture with my Dad Chip Leonard. My Dad and I gigged together almost every weekend. I still own the Roland Space Echo under the white fan!
My Dad Chip Leonard around 1979-80 mixing a cover band called Granite.