Olympia’s Dave Sederberg Sets The Stage
Lead AV Designer. Project Manager. Audio design and engineering. Visual arts creator. Dave Sederberg’s list of job responsibilities are far from typical. As the owner of Pacific Stage, he’s collected many lived experiences from his creative business. Sederberg chats with us about the hard lessons he’s learned, why we should embrace the word “amateur,” and what makes Olympia the perfect place for creatives.
Tell us about what Pacific Stage does.
Many years ago, I called my DJ company Pacific Stage, with aspirations of being more than just a DJ. So I gave it this name that wasn't too specific (and some people think we just do stages), with the intention of evolving and growing my business. As the years went by, I made pretty good money deejaying and I spent as much as I could buy microphones, mic cables, monitors, and then, it evolved into lighting and more production equipment.
Slowly but surely, when I had my fill of deejaying, I evolved out of that. Now we primarily help produce events for nonprofits, government entities, and companies, to make their events look exciting and sound great—through lighting, stage sets, vision, video projection, and rock solid sound.
Boys and Girls Club, “Born to be Wild” Auction LED screens, projection and blacklight flames.
What’s a relatable lesson that was hard for you to learn?
Realizing that not everybody can absorb information the same way. When you're trying to sell a product or an idea, I think that creatives should realize that a lot of people aren’t visual learners. There’s people that learn best auditorily, or by experience, or visually, kinesthetically, and everything else in between.
When I’m trying to sell new ideas, I've got to give my clients pictures and drawings to help them understand. I can see it in my head: I can turn it around, build it, rearrange it, and I think, oh, everybody can, but they can’t.
Even with my crew, when we’re going to do a big setup, I've got it all on my mind. What I have found works best is being able to combine all those learning methods in one. So I'll lay down a dry erase board with nothing on it, and just start sketching out a rough sketch of where everything goes. Cable runs, size of stage, position of screens, all that, and everybody gets it.
Where do you find joy as an established business owner?
I find joy by being able to have the freedom to create art for art's sake. Not for business, not for somebody else’s parameters of what they want to pay me to paint, create, or build.
That's where the “flow” is at. I recommend the book Flow, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. The state of flow, sheer creativity, is where a child lives most of the time when they're in their playroom, building blocks and living in a state of pure creation and joy.
I love being there—putting on some good music in my shop, turning my phone off. And so it's always a balance. You can't just stay static in one place. Often some of your best ideas come when you're on a walk without any devices, taking a shower, or you allow your subconscious to dig around.
Why do you love being a creative in Olympia?
It's small enough that you can make a difference and know a lot of people. When people ask what sets Olympia apart? Two things—art and activism. I see promotional videos for other cities saying “Oh, we’ve got coffee shops and microbrews and gift stores.” Have you been to any other towns around Puget Sound or anywhere? They all have that. But that big [State Capitol] dome—that's something that nobody else has. And the Evergreen State Colleges—I feel it draws a certain kind of self-motivated, more likely than not creative person.
Where do you go if you need inspiration besides your shop?
I love traveling and going to museums. It gets me to see what other people are doing around the country and around the world. It expands your consciousness, gives you a broader view, and a different way to look at things.
I love kids' art. So pure. It's from the heart. It's not controlled by anything. A lot of people know the word “amateur,” but they don't know where it came from, what it means. It means “for the love.” Somehow the word has become derogatory and pejorative: “Oh, you’re just an amateur,” but yeah – I am! Because I do it for the love.
