Recording Studio Rockstars

My guest today is Eric Bazilian, an original member of The Hooters, producer, and musician writing and recording with other artists liken Cyndi Lauper, Joan Osborne, The Scorpions, Ricky Martin, Jonatha Brooke, Leanne Rymes, and William Wittman to name just a few. Eric has been a guest on the podcast on episode RSR122 to talk about his start in music and writing the song “One Of Us” for Joane Osborne on his kitchen table. So please go check out that episode too. Also, make sure to catch his video series Under The Hood where Eric breaks down all his music and writing methods. Email in 2021 “...Being stuck in Stockholm with limited resources (a 2012 MacBook Pro, Apollo Twin, one Gefell mic, a couple of electric guitars, a mandola, a keyboard controller, and a short scale Gretsch bass that my son bought when was twelve) afforded me the time and motivation to make my first solo album in almost twenty years. Drums were cut by my drummer in Philadelphia (challenging considering his total lack of engineering experie

My guest today is Bill Cheney co-owner with Jim Romney of Spectra1964. Bill designs mic pre amps, eqs, and compressor limiters for studios following in the footsteps of William Dilley who founded the original Spectra Sonics company in 1964.  Bill has been a guest on the podcast before to talk about the history of Spectra Sonics and Spectra 1964 on episodes RSR227 and 269. So you should check those episodes out too and today we are going to talk about what's new at Spectra1964, the importance of understanding Peaks, how they affect your recordings, mixes, productions and ultimately masters and how Spectra1964 handles peak content to make sure your records sound amazing (like the many great records recorded with the Spectra 101 amplifier circuit including Aerosmith, ZZ Top, KISS and John Lennon to name a few. Spotify playlist in show notes) Get access to FREE mixing mini-course: http://MixMasterBundle.com THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS! https://RecordingStudioRockstars.com/Academy Use code ROCKSTAR to get 10% https://s

My guest today is Matt Baxley, better known to the wider world as Moot Booxlé, a multi-instrumentalist, singer, producer, composer, synthesist, teacher, and funk connoisseur currently based in Fort Myers, Florida.  Moot rose to prominence in the early days of YouTube with his videos demonstrating his abilities on the modular synthesizer and the talkbox, gaining millions of views and many followers. He played his first professional gig at the age of 16, playing drums in a production of the musical “Grease” in his hometown of Morristown, TN. He has played thousands of gigs since then on multiple instruments. He currently plays and sings nightly in several bands in Southwest Florida, producing records, playing on studio sessions, demonstrating musical equipment both live and on the internet and writing books. I stumbled on Moots Youtube channel surfing synth videos when I was checking out the new line of Behringer synths like the Poly D, Odyssey, MS-101, Crave, and Pro-1 where he does a great job of demoing all

My guest today is Trent Jones, a podcast producer, editor, and composer based in  Chattanooga, TN. He has produced over 1,000 podcast episodes in a wide variety of formats and topics, as well as a number of audiobooks. As a  composer, he has written bumpers and music beds for podcasts and midroll advertisements.  Trent is also a strength and conditioning coach, with a speciality in training men and women over 40 using barbells, resistance training, and high intensity interval training. After years of “working out” in public gyms and seeing little progress, Trent discovered the Starting Strength method in 2016 and began training under a Starting Strength Coach.  He gained 40lbs of muscular bodyweight over a year and greatly improved his strength, joint health, and mental health in the process. He began coaching others in 2018, and earned the Starting Strength Coach credential himself in 2020. His passion is teaching people to lift barbells to build stronger, more useful bodies, gain confidence, and improve the

My guest today is David Gnozzi a platinum mixing/mastering engineer and producer, as well as the creator and host of the popular YouTube channel MixbusTV and a Pro Mix Academy Tutor. David is a former professional musician with 2 albums published (Universal Records and Danse Macabre Records), and he has been recording and mixing for almost 20 years, he fully dedicated himself to recording, mix and mastering after ending his career as musician in 2010. David initially started to gain recognition as a mixing engineer after successful remixes for Ladytron and Felix Da Housecat. His credits include: Raygun Romance, MC Solaar, Ryan Shuck (Orgy, Adema, Julien-K), Daniel Graves (Aesthetic Perfection), Mad Gallica, Danny Blue, Stonebreed, The Nest, and Italian pop superstar, Valeria Rossi to name a few. He mixed various projects for Universal Records, Nettwerk Records and Virgin Radio and video games such as Fallout 4 and Rock Band 3. In 2017, David worked with one of France’s most famous and influential hip hop arti

My guest today is Linda Taylor a Guitarist and composer for over 20 years on “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” with Drew Carey, and Aisha Tyler. She has Toured, recorded and/or performed with Art Garfunkel, Terri Lyne Carrington, Tracy Chapman, Sheila E., Christopher Cross, Sara Niemietz, Crystal Bowersox, Edwin McCain, Don Was, Jim Keltner, Thelma Houston, and many more. And her recent recordings include Terri Lyne Carrington’s Grammy winning “Mosaic” and “Love And Soul”; Art Garfunkel’s “The Singer”; Ed Roth’s “Mad Beatnik”; Edwin McCain’s “Mercy Bound”; and Maia Sharp’s “The Dash Between The Dates”.   Currently Linda is collaborating with Sara Niemietz, co-writing, producing, mixing. Film and TV composer with placements including “This Is Us” and “Superstore”. Thanks to Bill Cheney at Spectra 1964 for making our introduction.  Get access to FREE mixing mini-course: http://MixMasterBundle.com THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS! https://RecordingStudioRockstars.com/Academy Use code ROCKSTAR to get 10% https://samplyaudio.com U

My guest today is Duane Lundy, a music producer, mixer, and studio owner in Lexington Kentucky. Duane has worked with hundreds of artists from Grammy-Award winners like Sturgill Simpson & Flor de Toloache, to critically acclaimed and eclectic Ben Sollee, Vandaveers, Jim James, and the Horse Feathers. Duane also works on projects that include legacy artists like Ringo Starr, Michael McDonald, Bela Fleck, Robert Randolph, Earl Slick, Duff McKagan, and touring artists like Joe Pug, JDawn Landes, Daniel Rodriguez, as well as emerging buzz acts such as The National Reserve, Ian Noe, Brain Owens, Miles Nielsen and The Rusted Hearts.  Recently he produced and engineered two tracks on the new Ringo Starr album, as well as produced and mixed Saving Country Musics 2016 song of the year “The Dogs” by Justin Wells. He also records his own music for television shows, feature films and advertising like Sons of Anarchy, Weeds, NCIS, and BMW Mini Cooper among many others. I met Duane in 2013 when he produced Americana ba

My guest today is Brian Charles a producer, engineer, plugin designer for Rare Signals from Boston Massachusetts. Brian has been a fantastic guest on the podcast before on episode RSR174 to talk about working with indie rock bands. He’s worked with thousands of artists over the years and has made albums in almost every genre imaginable.  Some of Brian’s many credits include The Vatican Commandos featuring a young “Moby” as the lead singer, Dispatch, pop artist Marina and the Diamonds, Weakened Friends, and his longtime work as a producer and touring member of the band “The Sheila Divine”.  Brian is also an educator working with Berklee College of Music, Emerson College, The Walnut Hill School for The Arts, and The Recording Workshop. And he is the creator of the “Transatlantic Plate Reverb” at his plugin company Rare Signals where he digitally recreated the iconic plate reverbs of Zippah studio. Tragically in December 2021 His Home base studio, Zippah Recording (of 33 years), was destroyed in an 8-alarm fire.

My guest today is Ben Rubin a producer, mixer, bassist, and composer in Brooklyn NY. Whether he’s melding hip-hop and jazz with legends like Masta Ace and Donny McCaslin, playing upright bass at the Newport Jazz Festival with Dred Scott Trio, remixing Karsh Kale or WuTang’s Killah Priest, rockin’ on electric bass with Marshall Crenshaw, or producing Peter Bernstein solo jazz guitar, Grammy-nominated producer/(re)mixer/bassist/composer Ben Rubin (aka Benny Cha Cha) is renowned for making records that are pure or genre-bending or both. Picked seven times as a “Rising Star Producer” in DownBeat Magazine’s International Critics’ Poll, Rubin has well over 100 album credits to his name. Lately, he has been working with a diversity of artists including Queen Esther, Erik Deutsch & Theo Bleckmann, Steve Conte (New York Dolls), Stripmall Ballads, Rachel Eckroth (St Vincent), Lower Power, Caleb Wheeler Curtis, Drifter feat. Lucy Woodward, Buzzed Armstrong, and Jon Irabagon, as well as labels like Ropeadope, Sunnys

My guest today is Collin Dupuis a Nashville and Detroit based multi Grammy nominated and two time Grammy winning mixer, producer, and engineer. Collin has been on the podcast previously to talk about working with artists and projects including, Lana Del Rey, St. Vincent, Dr. John, The Black Keys, and many others. You can hear his back story on episode RSR252 where he talked about starting out in Detroit working with the Bass Brothers, Jack White, Planet-E Records, and Dan Auerbach and moving to Nashville. Currently, Collin is busy working as a freelance mixer and engineer, recording, and mixing songs and albums for artists including, Angel Olsen, Yves Tumor, Boy and Bear, Cherry Glazer, Lawrence Rothman and many others. Get access to FREE mixing mini-course: http://MixMasterBundle.com THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS! https://RecordingStudioRockstars.com/Academy Use code ROCKSTAR to get 10% https://samplyaudio.com Use code RSR20 to get 20% off for the first 3 months https://carltatzdesign.com/Mixroom-Mentor https://www

My guest today is Mike Fahey an engineer, mixer, and producer from the great state of Maine. Michael went to college for mechanical engineering at the University Of Maine before switching over to an audio engineering degree at The New England School Of Communications (NESCOM). My first instrument was the trumpet in my elementary school band and he picked up the guitar at 11.  In 2012, He landed an internship at Sputnik Sound after Vance Powell came to speak at NESCOM earlier that year about mixing for The Raconteurs' Consolers of the Lonely. He moved to Nashville that fall and after two months of interning was hired by Mitch Dane to be his assistant engineer. During that time, Sputnik moved to a new building in Berry Hill where he helped with construction for 7 months renovating the studio. In late 2014 Vance hired Michael as his assistant engineer and he has been with him ever since. In May 2020 Mike started his own studio, Starbird Sound and has been able to spend time on his production projects while worki

My guest today is Alan Evans a multi instrumentalist, engineer, producer, artist, studio and record label owner based in Western Massachusetts.  Alan has been making music on stage and in the studio for over 30 years, most notably with his band Soulive as well as with artist like Oteil Burbridge, John Scofield, George Porter Jr., Karl Denson, Ivan Neville and Reggie Watts.   These days, Alan has pulled back from touring to focus his time and energy at Iron Wax Studios, his recording facility in Erving Massachusetts where he works with artists from around the U.S and beyond.  Iron Wax is also the sound of Vintage League Music, the record label he runs with his London based partner Robert Fleming.  In the end, Alan’s goal is to spread great music, love and positivity throughout the world which he hopes will inspire a new generation of creatives. Al has been a guest on the show before so if you want to hear his backstory with Soulive you should check out RSR183. Get access to FREE mixing mini-course: http://MixM

My guest today is Enrico Berto an engineer, producer, and musician from Northern Italy. I am very lucky to receive a lot of wonderful emails and messages from our listeners, aka you Rockstars. Here is what I received from Enrico. “Hello Lij, Few weeks ago I discovered your podcast and ever since I've been an avid consumer of it! I love the way you make your guests feel cause they open up in a way I rarely saw on other shows. Beside the great nerdy tips they seem to be willing to share deeper stuff - ex I now know what's Vance Powell monthly break even or that huge mixers still suffer from "impostor syndrome" - and this is very inspiring and precious. I've been in the music industry as a session player, then a mixer/producer for nearly 20 years and as covid hit I was having a major momentum that got slowed down quite a bit. Listening to your podcast is a great source of inspiration and it's giving me the power to keep my head down and carry on with the grind. I thank you so much for it! I have a vast love for

My guest today is Jack Rubinacci an Anglo - Italian Singer, songwriter, producer and author, now based in Norway. Jack started playing in bands in his hometown Birmingham UK. Was the lead singer of Honeyman, and was widely considered one of the best Birmingham bands of the late 90’s.  He went solo and recorded his debut album with producer Tchad Blake at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studio with Jerry Marotta on drums. He released 4 studio albums including his latest album A Thousand Winters. And Worked with producer Ian Grimble and Thomas Johansen. Many of his songs have been covered by international artists in Italy, France, Norway and Asia.  He has opened for Lionel Richie. Joe Cocker. Arcade Fire. Jackson Browne. The Script. The Chicks. Heather Nova and many others. And many of his songs have gotten radio play in Norway. In his 20s he Developed Tinnitus and has had chronic tinnitus ever since. He is now a strong advocate for ear protection and offers help and advice for people suffering from Tinnitus. Jack w

My guest today is Nick Broste, an audio engineer and musician who works in a wide variety of musical situations, ranging from creative improvisation to popular, folk and new music forms. He has engineered hundreds of recordings and performed all over the world, from tiny clubs to huge festivals and live television.   Having spent much of his youth obsessed with music but in a small midwestern town, Nick moved to Chicago in 1996, where he attended music school and began performing around the city and on the road, all the while soaking up any new sounds he could find. Touring with bands led to performing in the recording studio, where he began to get interested in the capture, manipulation and reproduction of audio.  In 2005 Nick moved into the Shape Shoppe, an underground music, art and living space with a 16 track analog studio, where he was able to experiment and teach himself how to record, eventually re-designing and completely rebuilding the space in 2008. At the same time Nick began mixing bands live in

My guest today is Alena Moran a producer/engineer and artist manager based out of Nashville, TN. Her current roster includes Jon Randall , F. Reid Shippen , Cason Cooley, and Shani Gandhi. In addition to management, Alena handles production coordination work for artists including Seaforth , Tyler Braden, Jordan Harvey , and Warren Zeiders.  Alena began her career in the music business as a photographer and blogger based out of Washington DC, and eventually relocated to Nashville in 2010 to attend Belmont University. She spent several years as a freelance audio engineer, studio manager, and production coordinator, before moving into management.  In 2018, Alena joined Triple 8 Management as a full-time manager and launched their Creative Management vertical where she focuses on the roster’s producer and engineer clients. Outside of music, Alena trains in aerial acrobatics and spends her free time hanging out with her dog and cat. She also managed my Bonnaroo backstage Haybale Studio from  2015-2017 which is how

My guest today is Bob Clearmountain, an American recording engineer, mixer and record producer. He has worked with many prominent names in music including Bruce Springsteen (mixing Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. and 25 other projects), The Rolling Stones including Tattoo You and Voodoo Lounge amongst over 20 album, movie & concert video projects, Bryan Adams (producing and/or mixing nearly all of his albums since 1983), Robbie Williams, Huey Lewis & The News, Toto, Bon Jovi (These Days, Crush, Bounce), Simple Minds, The Pretenders, The Who, David Bowie, Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry, INXS and hundreds of other artists. He is also married to Apogee Electronics CEO, Betty Bennett and has created a plugin for mixing called Spaces. With multiple Platinum LPs, Grammy Awards, Emmy’s and even a Les Paul Award, Bob continues to be one of the world’s premier mixers working from his studio in Los Angeles Mix This! sharing his knowledge in places like Mix With The Masters and right here on Recording Studio Rockstars

My guest today is Bryan Cook a Los Angeles based mixer working in the studio world for the past 20 years.  Bryan grew up just outside of Philadelphia, playing the saxophone. A book of Charlie Parker solos became the initial inspiration to pursue music on a deeper level experiencing the studio for the first time in high school and he went on to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston to study music production and engineering, where his first studio job was interning at Blue Jay studios outside of Boston.  Upon graduation, Bryan headed to Los Angeles, where he landed at the legendary A&M Studios, which has since been renamed Henson Recording Studios.  He worked with artists like Rod Stewart, The Wallflowers, Korn and +Live+, and producers such as Brendan O’Brien, Roy Thomas Baker, Jerry Harrison, Richard Perry, and Trevor Horn.  He then headed out on his own in 2002. He worked for many years recording and mixing for composer/producer Michael Andrews doing music projects including Inara George and Gary

My guest today is Jamie Lidell a Grammy nominated self described Soul Scientist who has been making all manner of noise since he was a teen. His early outpourings were purest of techno until, rather unexpectedly, his voice emerged and he discovered a live looping style that took him around the world as a solo act opening as a one-man show for Beck, Bjork and James Brown.  He has had several bands to play later albums and opened for Prince, Elton John and more.  There was a whole lot of touring, much opening, much headlining. Much of a muchness really. Somewhat of a rambling man, he’s jumped all over the place, from Brighton to Berlin to New York to his current castle dwelling in Nashville.  For the hunters, there’s plenty of music to be discovered, whether it’s from his first 9 EPs with Subhead to 2 LPs as Super_collider (with badass weirdo Cristian Vogel) to the rare work he pushed out as George Lister to a slew of solo Lidellian activity and there’s now his rather entertaining podcast of course.  The pod go

My guest today is Craig Parker Adams who in 1997 was lucky enough to take over a historic recording space in Hollywood Ca which would become known as Winslow Ct. Studio. The studio's original history was said to be one of the oldest audio recording studios in the world for film dating back to the early 1900's.  At one time it was an RCA location as well as Columbia but nonetheless by way of doing Craig would eventually become a word of mouth go-to-guy for many diverse artists and top tier session players.  Owning & operating a historic boutique recording studio business in the heart of Hollywood for 20 plus years and working with accomplished artists from all over the world as well as a multitude of industry greats of varying styles ranging all the way from Opera to Punk, Writers & Artists, Producers, Directors  Photographers, Editors, Engineers, Thinkers, Healers, Politicians, Actors, Models,  Athletes & even Motivational Speakers has brought so much to Craig's studio skills, production & all