For those unaware, this is the person responsible for blending the individual tracks and elements of a song, such as vocals, instruments and effects, to create a final stereo mix. It’s a highly technical, very “behind-the-scenes” sort of position, but a crucial one if you want your music to sound good.
Just ask Joyie Lai. The Kajang-born mix engineer, who resides in Los Angeles, has assisted on the scores of noted Netflix series such as “Blue Eye Samurai” (2021) and “The Brothers Sun” (2024), which stars Michelle Yeoh.
For a more recent example, Lai, 27, also worked as the assistant score mixer on the action-comedy “The Fall Guy”, which stars Ryan Reynolds, Emily Blunt and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
“Most people don’t really understand the amount of work needed to make a movie or its music. We need to notice the tiniest thing: that one hand clap among 60 tracks of other instruments that’s out of time, or that very timid noise captured during recording,” Lai told FMT Lifestyle.
“You’d think no one’s going to notice them, but it is those tiny details that make the whole movie feel professional and ensure the audience has a good experience.”
Lai started her sound career as a performer, playing guitar at events such as the Malaysian Jazz Piano Festival, the World Youth Jazz Festival, and the Singapore International Jazz Festival. As time went on, however, she started becoming more interested in the production side of music.
In 2021, she studied music production and engineering at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, on a scholarship. During her summer semester, Lai began looking for internship opportunities and decided to reach out to Malaysians in the entertainment industry there.
One of those people was Sarawakian Alvin Wee, a fellow mix engineer who had just won a Grammy for his work on the Disney film “Encanto”.
“I went, ‘Do you need an assistant, or is there anything I can do to help you?’ Anything to get myself in the industry for a bit. And he was kind enough to help. I was at his studio for about a month, and assisted him on a few Netflix series together,” Lai recalled.
“He taught me so many things. I consider him a mentor and a very good friend, and I’m very grateful for him.”
Further good luck later came in the form of renowned score mixer Al Clay, whose work includes blockbusters “No Time To Die” (2021), “Top Gun: Maverick” (2022), and “Argylle” (2024). Clay was assembling a team for his next project, namely “The Fall Guy”, and Wee recommended Lai for the job.
“It felt crazy sometimes. Here I was, fresh out of college and already involved in this,” Lai said. “But it was really fun, Al was great to work with.
“Though there was a lot of work involved, when you enjoy what you’re doing, you don’t feel the hours go by.”
Lai has also been working on “Blink Twice”, an upcoming black-comedy thriller set to be released in August. It stars Channing Tatum, Christian Slater and Geena Davis, with Zoe Kravitz directing.
There are several other projects in the works, although Lai can’t talk about them because they haven’t been officially announced yet!
“There will be days when you work from 10am to midnight, or when things feel very difficult,” she acknowledged. “But after you see people enjoying your film, saying they had a great time, you look back and realise, wow, all your hard work really paid off.”
Follow Joyie Lai on Instagram.