Bill Hare has been mixing contemporary a cappella for a long time. One might even say he invented the thing, back when the Stanford Harmonics wanted to do “something new.” 

He’s won countless awards, including the *only* Contemporary A Cappella Award ever bestowed for “Best Engineering” and a Grammy. I mean, yeah, winning a Grammy is impressive, but a ton of people have those. Hare has the only engineering CARA in history.

We digress. A recent photo of Hare has a surfaced showing just how far he continues to remain ahead of the rest of us.  The photo, shown below, depicts Bill in his personal studio in Milpitas, CA, vacuuming while wearing a headset.  It’s only once we really understand what’s going on in this photo that we learn the real level of Hare's abilities.

First, he’s vacuuming his studio. We don’t do that. Who has time for that? His expression of mild amusement indicates he knows he’s got all the time in the world to engage in mundane activities like cleaning. Perhaps the vacuum is there for an added challenge.

Second, the headset. Notice it has a microphone on the headset. Is Hare suddenly moonlighting as a call center operator? Does he have that much business that he needs to be ready to take calls while vacuuming? No, but the reality is even more unbelievable.

Hare is mixing. In the photo. Heck, he’s probably mixing right now, wherever he is, whatever he’s doing. He’s listening to a remote session, giving spoken feedback to whatever lucky engineer is on the other end of the line (see, the mic makes sense now!), and working his Hare magic.  

This in itself isn’t that weird — remote sessions happen all the time. But he’s not using his studio; he’s using the headset. OK, a little unconventional, but… HE IS ALSO VACUUMING. 

That’s right, Bill Hare, in this photo, is mixing his next Grammy-winning track, over a cheap headset, giving instructions, while vacuuming. I think it may be time to reinstate that “Best Engineering” CARA.

Which Category Would You Like To See At This Year's CARAs?

By Charlie Friday