BY KEITH LIPPOLDT
klippoldt@gbtribune.com
Great Bend native Bill Donnelly was born into an art family – his dad Cliff, a singer, his mother Dorothy, a dancer and dance instructor, and his sister Laura, a ballet dancer. These influences steered him into music, first as a drummer in a rock band and marching in the Argonne Rebels, and later into a career as an award-winning sound engineer.
After graduation from GBHS in 1978, Donnelly attended Fort Hays State University on a music scholarship. With courses designed to become a music teacher instead of working on skills, Donnelly transferred to Barton County Community College and received a degree in Occupational Therapy where he was trained to treat birth to 3-year old developmentally delayed kids, a career that lasted 15 years.
“I was surprisingly disappointed they (FHSU Music) were not up to the times when I got there,” he said. “We didn’t have recording rooms. They were training band teachers and clarinet players. Nothing wrong with that. I was frowned upon because I was a rock drummer. I needed to do something to pay the bills, so I transferred to Barton County.”
Armed with a degree, drums and desire, Donnelly loaded up his truck and moved to Staten Island, New York, where he treated the children during the day and drummed at night.
Getting in the game
“I found my work very rewarding and, so, at the beginning I was doing that and playing in bands,” he said. “Then I got really tired of double parking on Bleecker Street in Manhattan to play in The Village at The Bitter End Club, and carrying my drums in over the audiences to play one set for no money. So, I asked myself, what can I do in music that actually makes a living?
“Then I heard a God-awful commercial jingle on the radio. And I went, ‘Well I can do better than that.’ I began acquiring recording gear in my house to write and record commercial jingles. And I had many on the air in Great Bend.”
Believing that better equipment would produce better commercials, Donnelly began upgrading his sound equipment. But, to be able to sell recording time he needed commercial space to build a studio. In the meantime, he and his sister had purchased a building with four apartments. With the help of a how-to book and friends, one of the apartments transitioned to Laughing Dog Studios.
Now with a plan and a studio in place, Laughing Dog was ready to take off. And take off it did.
“I started Laughing Dog Studios in 1986, and it just kept growing,” he said. “I needed more gear all the time. It just grew and grew and grew. In 1994 I updated and bought a very expensive console. I’d be driving from kid-to-kid, treating them and putting out fires at the studio. I finally decided I was crazy, so I stopped treating kids and just ran the studio and recorded a lot of bands.”
Even though they had their own studio, his first big client was hip hop band Wu-Tang Clan, including Method Man, Raekwon and Ghostface Killah. Other early clients were Earl Slick, David Bowie’s guitar player and bassist, and keyboard player Kasim Sulton who played with Todd Rundgren and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. In 2005, he recorded four songs with lead singer Steve Augeri on Journey’s “Generations” album, for which Donnelly won a Gold Record.
Donnelly Sound is born
Because of its ongoing success, an opportunity arose to sell Laughing Dog Studios. This allowed Donnelly to move on with his new business, Donnelly Sound, also on Staten Island.
“First, we started as a rock room, then we started doing more hip hop, which I wasn’t that interested in personally,” he said. “I assigned my younger guys to do that. I had a friend who worked for a company called Central Park Media and they began importing anime cartoons, animations from Japan, and they would hire actors and dub them into English.
“He said he wanted to record it at my studio. I told him I haven’t done it before, but I’m sure I can. We got video equipment and recorded about 10 animes. One of the most famous anime cartoons is “Grave of the Fireflies,” a top 10 anime on the New York Times anime list. It’s a brilliant movie and we did the English version.”
This friend would move to a different agency, but he didn’t forget about Donnelly Sound.
“He’s been great for my career,” Donnelly said. “Everywhere he goes, he drags me along. He said ‘Bill, I need you to mix Band of Brothers,’ which was an HBO show. They were going to release it on a network, so we had to remove all the curses. It was he who got me into location audio, because part of my job is post mixing audio, the final thing. Another part of my job is I go on location, mic the actors and record the voices and sound.
“There are two functions of my job. Sometimes I’m in my studio. Sometimes I’m at places like the Pyramids in Egypt. That was the greatest experience. It was an 11-part TV series called ‘The 8.’ My credits are usually buried at the end of a movie. I got credit as Audio Director at the opening of this show. It was just wonderful.”
Clio Award
The Clio is an annual industry award program that recognizes innovative and creative excellence in advertising, design and communication, judged by a panel of advertising professionals. Donnelly Sound worked on a project that won him a Clio.
“The Clios are like an Oscar for advertising,” he explained. “So, this was for an ad sound design on ‘The Bunt Machine.’ It was directed by this very creative guy, Mac Premo. I didn’t even know I won because you don’t enter it yourself. It was 2019 and I get a call in June asking, ‘Did you know you won a Clio for part of the production?’ I called the Clio company, and they asked if I could prove I worked on it. I did a group email with the producer and director and the Clio lady. The producer said not only did he work on it, but we also want to pay for it. That was great.
“But I kept looking for it in the mail, when is this thing coming? I got invited to that director’s Christmas party. I showed up and they surprised me with the award. It was brilliant. I could have died right then.”
Rubbing elbows
It isn’t unusual for Donnelly to be working with famous and important people or to be on location at Yankee Stadium, or other amazing places working for the likes of ESPN, NFL Network or Fox Sports. He has a long list of clients from a President to rock stars, movie stars and professional athletes, and many others in between.
Those he has worked with read like a ‘Who’s Who’ list. Some of the names include Mark Wahlberg, Kevin Hart, Michael Keaton, Paul Rudd, Eric Stonestreet, Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt, as well as Ernest Borgnine and Mickey Rooney.
Besides those mentioned earlier, some of the musical artists he has worked with include Alicia Keys, Norah Jones, Alannis Morrisette and P. Diddy (for an advertising piece).
Politicians he has worked with include Hillary Clinton, Chris Christie and Donald Trump.
Where credit is due
A person that experiences success knows what helped get them through their trek. And that successful person credits these people and places throughout the journey. Donnelly knows where his help came from.
“I always tell people I grew up in a Norman Rockwell painting,” Donnelly said. “It was just one beautiful place to grow up. My parents were both artists. There was always music in my house. There was love in my house and the community. Great friends, great teachers, safe place to grow up, good food, good air, low crime. Again, really good teachers. I got a good education there. I must emphasize that because it’s always served me well. And I have lifelong friends from there. I still come back and visit.
Donnelly is definitely a big time proponent of education. But his curriculum would include more than just the three ‘R’s’.
“I would say it’s harder to find good art in schools, but art and music are essential to good humans,” he said. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, ‘If we don’t have art, what are we fighting for?’ The thing is, I came from artists, art. If without music, I don’t want to live. And I was able to nurture those things in Great Bend, Kansas. I wouldn’t change one thing about the way I was raised. I love that place. It was a great place to grow up.”
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