Karrie Keyes

Karrie Keyes is an American audio engineer and the executive director of SoundGirls, a non-profit organization that supports women in the sound industry. She has been the monitor engineer for Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder for over 25 years and has toured with Soundgarden, Fugazi, Sonic Youth, Neil Young, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Keyes was one of very few women working as a live sound engineer in the 1980s and is recognized for her contributions to helping women in the sound industry (which is estimated to be 95% men). She was a 2017 honoree of the She Rocks Awards. She would "fall in love" with songs she heard on the radio. She took music lessons from third grade to middle school (playing flute and clarinet) She was a fan of music who attended concerts and shows. In high school, she wasn't presented with career options in the music industry. She aspired to be a writer and to travel the world.

Keyes was a fan of punk music as a teenager. at a Black Flag show on the In My Head tour. She was 17 at the time. Keyes worked her way to the front before the show and talked to Rat. He invited Keyes to the stage after the show and taught her how to wrap mic cables. The next day, she was in Palo Alto with Black Flag and knew she wanted to do sound.

Dave Rat owned a sound company, Rat Sound, and brought Keyes to work for him. Her first job was loading and unloading PA equipment from trucks at shows.

SoundGirls

Keyes co-founded SoundGirls in 2013 with Michelle Sabolchick Pettinato with the mission of "empowering the next generation of women in audio." SoundGirls is looking to increase the number of women in the workforce, which is currently at 5 percent.

Keyes and Sabolchick met when they were on a panel together at the 2012 AES Convention in San Francisco. The panel was hosted by the Women's Audio Mission called "Women of Professional Concert Sound" and was moderated by Terri Winston, the founder of WAM. The five panelists had never met before but found a lot of similarities in their experiences, work ethics and interests. They also recognized they had hadn't crossed paths or been able to support each other but they bonded "like sisters." These events are held in California, New York, Philadelphia, and St. Louis.

Keyes says of women in the industry, "Women must work harder, smarter, and be tougher, and by being those things is how you overcome adversity. Since starting SoundGirls I have learned that the issues women face are not limited to women; it affects all marginalized people. The industry needs diversity."

Awards Keyes was an honoree at the 2017 She Rocks Awards at the NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA.

In 2019, Keyes won the audio innovator award for her work with soundgirls at the Parnelli Awards.