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An edited version of this profile appeared previously in Capital at Play Magazine.<\/p><\/div>\n
Ragland was born and raised in Winston-Salem, where he quickly developed an interest in all things musical. \u201cI fell in love with music\u2014and the performance aspects of it\u2014at an early age,\u201d he recalls. He took guitar lessons, and became more serious about playing music while in high school. \u201cWhen I went to the University of Virginia in the early \u201890s, I started playing gigs for the first time,\u201d he says. Ragland mostly played cover songs on acoustic guitar, performing at coffee houses and bars. \u201cBut I was getting paid,\u201d he says with a laugh. \u201cI was drinking for free, though I wasn\u2019t even 21 yet. And I thought, \u2018Yeah, I could get used to this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Virginia is for Players<\/b>
\nThe music scene in Charlottesville was thriving, and Ragland became part of it. \u201cI was very active playing in different bands and solo projects,\u201d he says. Hometown heroes the Dave Matthews Band was starting to come together, and most of the local musicians knew each other. \u201cI knew Dave when he was still a bartender downtown,\u201d Ragland recalls.<\/p>\n
By his senior year, Ragland was getting gigs both on and off campus, and out of town. \u201cWe were working with two agencies that were booking us for private parties and clubs from Auburn, Alabama all the way up to Princeton, New Jersey,\u201d he says. \u201cWe did a lot of fraternity parties, and the money was great for a college kid. We played a combination of covers and originals; it was party music.\u201d<\/p>\n
Things took a turn after Ragland graduated in 1993. He had studied pre-med as an undergraduate, eventually majoring in environmental science. He enjoyed the field research that was part of his studies. \u201cI spent a lot of time in Shenandoah National Park, studying chemical hydrology and the effects of acid rain on the native trout population,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
But by the time he was set to take the MCAT (Medical College Admission Test), he realized he didn\u2019t want to continue in that direction. \u201cI just did not have the focus, the discipline and the passion for that any more,\u201d he says. \u201cI was all-consumed with music.\u201d So he decided not to go to medical school.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn retrospect, it was a great decision,\u201d he says, reflecting on what a career in medicine might have meant. \u201cI think I would be a much less happy person than I am now. I\u2019d probably have more financial security, but that\u2019s the trade-off, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ragland remained in Charlottesville for the next four years. \u201cI decided that I wasn\u2019t ready to enter the workforce.\u201d So using the college town as his base of operations, he continued to play music and tour. \u201cAnd that\u2019s when I started to get interested in the production side of things,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s where art and science come together.\u201d His interest in physics led him to become intrigued with the scientific aspects of audio recording technology. \u201cSo I would just pick up a piece of outboard [recording] gear here and there,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Digital recording technology was in its infancy, but that\u2019s the direction Ragland pursued as he learned his craft. \u201cAt the time, we used ADAT machines that took VHS tapes,\u201d he says with a chuckle. \u201cNot a very sexy medium. But then the Hi-8 format came out, and I got a lightweight multitrack machine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ragland\u2019s interest in (and appreciation for) traditional tape-based analog recording technology wouldn\u2019t come until much later. \u201cI\u2019ve come sort of full circle, I guess,\u201d he says. \u201cI recently bought a quarter-inch, two-track machine, and that\u2019s what I print all of my mixes on now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Conservation to Conservatory<\/b>
\nDuring that period as he developed his audio engineering and production skills, Ragland was mostly recording his own music. \u201cI didn\u2019t get into producing other people until later,\u201d he says. And at the same time, he began to get restless, thinking it might be time to enter the \u201cstraight\u201d workforce. \u201cI started to get hungry for the real world,\u201d he says. \u201cI was thinking, \u2018What does a real job look like?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
He found balance. Ragland lived three days a week in Charlottesville, working on music, and lived with his girlfriend in Washington, D.C. the other four days. There he worked for an environmental policy think tank, Resources for the Future. \u201cIt\u2019s not an advocacy organization,\u201d he emphasizes. \u201cThey just look at the numbers and call it like it is.\u201d His work involved cost-benefit analysis of regulatory scenarios for power plant sulfur emission.<\/p>\n
Ragland characterizes the think tank\u2019s activities as \u201csuper-important work done by really cool, down-to-earth economists. And a lot of the work that I was doing required keen attention to detail,\u201d he says. \u201cThat really honed that sort of muscle in my brain. So now, for every project I apply a sort of economic modeling perspective.\u201d He finds that the discipline of looking holistically at problems and issues serves him well in his music business endeavors, and in life in general.<\/p>\n
The economists were very supportive of Ragland\u2019s music career. \u201cSo when I came back to Virginia, I still rented my little cottage on the outskirts of Charlottesville on this beautiful horse farm,\u201d he says. \u201cThe guest bedroom was my recording studio.\u201d As much as he enjoyed the work\u2014not to mention the steady paycheck\u2014at Resources for the Future, music still exerted a strong pull. \u201cIt was something that I couldn\u2019t shake; I needed to engage more deeply in my relationship with it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
He began to think about graduate studies in music, and then he learned about a program at the New England Conservatory in Boston. It was a course of study under Rand Blake, based on what Ragland calls Blake\u2019s \u201cvery eccentric methodology of intensive ear training.\u201d He applied to the two-year program and was accepted. And repeating his pattern of sticking around longer than expected, Garland ended up working and studying in Boston for eight years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was transformative,\u201d Ragland says. While there, he was able to plunge deeply into the production side of music. \u201cWorking with my classmates and members of the department, I had an incredible opportunity to do a lot of recording work, and to hone my skills.\u201d He set up a recording studio in a space inside a large warehouse used by bands for rehearsal. \u201cI\u2019d just bring all my friends over there\u2014a lot of rock bands and whatnot\u2014and I really cut my teeth as a producer.\u201d<\/p>\n