Garageband audio track keeps fading out on it's own... why??

First, let me preface that I'm fairly new to mac and garageband. I'm very familiar with PC and various audio apps for the pc, but garageband is wearing me out a bit.

I'm importing a .wav into garageband, it's about 5 mins long. after about 30 seconds the sound just fades out, even though I can see the meters jumping.

1. why is it doing this.
2. how do i stop it from doing this??

I'm pulling what's left of my hair out!!

Thanks 🙂