Mike Shepherd - Alumni Spotlight

As head engineer at Lakewind Sound in Cape Breton NS, Michael “Sheppy” Shepherd ’98 is one of the busiest audio engineers on the East Coast. Lakewind was built by two mainstays in the Cape Breton music scene, 2009 ECMA Industry Professional of the Year producer Fred Lavery and Songwriter/Musician Gordie Sampson. Sampson achieved worldwide fame as the winner of the Grammy Award for Country Song of the Year for Carrie Underwood’s hit “Jesus, Take the Wheel” which he co wrote. Mike joined Lakewind shortly after graduating from OIART’s audio and music production program; “I started doing assistant work and demos at Lakewind at first. About 6 months after graduating, I came back to assist in ADR for the CBC television series “Pit Pony”. Shortly after that I moved into a position doing all of the ADR recording and some album projects. By spring 1999 I was kind of settled in to the position of head engineer…extremely lucky I think!”



At Lakewind, Mike has worked with artists such as Damhnait Doyle, The Rankins, Chrissy Crowley, Men of the Deeps, Tim Chaisson and a veritable “who’s who” of Maritime artists and industry legends. Recently Mike assisted on a pair of projects at Lakewind with legendary “Pink Floyd The Wall” producer Bob Ezrin – for Johnny Reid and Natalie MacMaster. Mike has won the ECMA (East Coast Music Awards) Engineer/Technician of the Year four times and is nominated again this year for the fifteenth time. With Sheppy at the board, Lakewind has won eight ECMA Studio of the Year Awards. Mike is also a three time winner of the Music Nova Scotia Engineer of the Year Award. “No Stanley Cups,” adds the lifelong Montreal Canadiens fan.

Mike says, “OIART readied me because of the course depth and it helped me to get working at this level. I felt extremely prepared for any questions or situations that approached me…even in the presence of ‘The Masters’ like George Massenburg and Bob Ezrin.”