SAE Liverpool’s partnership with Sound City has led to many opportunities for our students and alumni, including former Audio Production student Lucas Pannunzio who is currently working for the event on logistics.
Originally hailing from Melbourne in Australia, Lucas now calls Liverpool home and has been pursuing his love of dance music in the city alongside his work for the festival.
Ahead of the event, we caught up with Lucas to learn more about his role and how his time at SAE helped him secure it.
If you’re attending Sound City this year, then check out the SAE panel and stage we’re hosting through our partnership too.
What led you to study at SAE?
I was studying for a diploma at SAE in Melbourne and wanted to live overseas so I did some research, saw there was a college in London and Liverpool and just chose Liverpool.
Have you always wanted to work in the music industry?
I DJ and make music, that’s my goal to make it in this line of work. I’ve always wanted to do something music-related, I was working in a bar before and it wasn’t for me.
What was the music scene like in Melbourne?
The UK is full of labels and opportunities to progress and the band and gig culture is much bigger here too. If you want to aspire to make it in music, you have to be in Europe, particularly the UK, there is such a big scene for it. That’s the big difference, the amount of labels and avenues you can pursue over here. Now Melbourne is coming up to speed quickly in terms of line ups and artists.
I moved straight to Liverpool when I moved to the UK and I’m so grateful that I came here. The people and the atmosphere are amazing, everyone is so giving and nice.
How did you orientate yourself in the music scene when you arrived?
When I came to Liverpool, I made some close friends through the school, I’d go out to gigs and meet people, I’d see the same people at gigs, become friends, there’s a big community here – if you go to gigs, you see the same faces. There’s always musical stuff happening.
How did you end up working for Sound City? What is your role?
SAE has a partnership with Sound City so they sponsor the event. There are different placements and I wanted to work in logistics. I want to get to grips with how events can be made into a reality so I applied for the role of Logistics Planner under their Festival Manager Jamie. They were really happy with me over the eight weeks so they offered me a bigger job.
That was in 2023. I started in January 2024 and I have been full-time since then.
What do you day-to-day?
I’m in charge of advance info, speaking with tour managers and coordinating all details around set times, venue tech specifications, details for the day too.
From there, then it’s dealing with questions from the artists, speaking with venue staff and in-house engineers.
Jamie is looking after the big acts, so venues like Grand Central. I’m looking after about 80 artists and there’s plenty of admin involved, we have very thorough processes around the organisation of the event.
Have you any advice for making your way in the industry?
You need to be good with people, it’s about relationship building, and being able to communicate and get on well with them. For some of the smaller bands, this is a massive event for them and being friendly goes a long way.
It can be hard but I’m forever grateful to SAE, you couldn’t just rock up to Sound City and ask for an opportunity. SAE helped me land this. You obviously have to take it once you get your foot in the door, you have to do a good job but you don’t always get the chance to do a placement. It’s down to SAE – but once you show you’re keen and up for it, then it should hopefully work out.
Study at SAE liverpool
Whether you want to work in Film Production, Audio Production or more, there are many different opportunities to elevate your career in the creative industries at SAE Liverpool.
Our degrees will provide you with the skills, experience and knowledge to succeed at the highest level.
