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 [1][2] and has toured with Soundgarden, Fugazi, Sonic Youth, Neil Young,[3] and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
In high school, she wasn't presented with career options in the music industry.
[1] Keyes and Rat lived in a warehouse without hot water for two years so they could put money back into the business (for expenses like equipment, insurance and gas).
In addition to sound work, she helped with accounting and bills and in her final five years, HR and management.
She met Pearl Jam in 1991 when they were opening for RHCP on the Blood Sugar Sex Magic Tour.
[6] Some Pearl Jam fans recognize her as the "microphone girl" because she is on stage checking mics before the show begins.
[11] Keyes co-founded SoundGirls in 2013 with Michelle Sabolchick Pettinato with the mission of "empowering the next generation of women in audio."
The five panelists had never met before but found a lot of similarities in their experiences, work ethics and interests.
The original idea of Soundgirls was to create a website where women in audio could meet and network.
[4] In 2018, SoundGirls teamed up with Spotify to create the EQL Directory, an international database for women working in audio and music production.
The two tried to balance their tour schedules as much as possible and Keyes likened it to a military family where a parent may be gone for months at a time.
"[1] Keyes has been based in California for most of her career but lived in Seattle briefly during the Grunge era.
[16] Keyes was an honoree at the 2017 She Rocks Awards at the NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA.