Date & place of birth:
January 6 1955; Hastings, England.

Profession:
Sound Designer & Engineer.

What was your first professional job?:
Collecting and delivering laundry around the Brockenhurst and Lymington area.

How did you get to be sound designer for the BRIT Awards and other top MJK events?
TV Producer Andy Ward asked to join him as part of a new team to tackle the BRIT Awards following my sound design and engineering for LCO on a large open-air televised concert in Geneva for which he was the BBC TV producer. Also, 'Red Square Invites', a mainly classical festival in Red Square for which Andy was TV producer. My first BRIT Awards was a year before MJK became involved. Following my work on the Brits with MJK they were kind enough to ask me to design or engineer other MJK projects. I'm not cheap so I guess I must be doing something right!

What is the most "compromising" aspect of working on events like the BRITs?
Having to design a PA system to give near perfect speech and music coverage around massive wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling sets, so that no camera shots are compromised.

Is digital control the Holy Grail of audio?
No, a piece of straight wire with gain is the Holy Grail of audio but digital control helps enormously with a multi-live band show like the BRITs.

Who has had the most influence on your career?
The people are many but among those in the front (with apologies for the many influences I have left out) are: Miles Davis for his years of musical influence from Kind Of Blue to Amandla; Derek Goodyear and Beverly Ingermells, my music teachers at college, for a lifelong interest and appreciation of all kinds of music; Dave Mills, technical director at LAMDA Theatre, for his knowledge, energy and enthusiasm about the technicalities of live theatre; Julian Beech, ex-Head of Sound at the National Theatre, for giving me a guiding light in modern sound design and engineering.

What's been your biggest professional achievement?
It's a toss up between the Buckingham Palace Jubilee Concerts in 2002 and still working in sound after all these years!

What was the last record/CD you bought?
The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out (to replace a worn out copy!).

The last live show you attended as a punter?:
The Eagles, World Tour 2001, Earl's Court.

Any hobbies away from the job?
Trying to master my laptop and raising three children.

What is there left for you to achieve?
Lots! To listen, learn and try to use the best tools at my disposal (my ears!) to produce good sound.

If you were to meet up with the teenage Derrick Zieba, what advice would you give him?
Talk less, listen more, and however keen and enthusiastic you are about your career, keep a balance with your home life - in the long run it's even more important.

e-mail: dzieba@cix.co.uk