Interviews | No. 174
By Ian Brennan
Tod A. Maitland has worked as production sound mixer on over 100 films since 1978, with known directors such as Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen, and Oliver Stone. His work has been nominated six times for an Academy Award for Best Sound (including Bob Dylan’s music...
Ambrose Bye laughingly calls himself a “nepo baby with a laptop.” As the son of internationally-renowned poet Anne Waldman, Bye practically grew up at the Buddhist-inspired school in Boulder, Colorado – now known as Naropa University – where Waldman and Allen Ginsberg started the...
Sonny Smith, of Sonny & The Sunsets, has been called a "San Francisco garage rock hero" by Pitchfork and "an institution" by SF Weekly, who asked, "Is there a more iconic San Francisco album?" of Sonny's first with the Sunsets, Tomorrow is Alright....
I have a lot of favorite rock bands, but one that always puts a smile on my face was the original lineup(s) of The Saints. This Australian band released the first non-US punk single, “(I’m) Stranded,” in September 1976, even preceding some well-known London combos. The core of the...
On Temperance, a musical Reverb
Formed in 1971, Eventide soon became one of the first companies to build digital delays and other future-shaping audio processers. Their H910 Harmonizer may have changed the sound of records forever. Their SP2016 was the world’s first digital audio...
I met Stella Mozgawa a decade or so ago at Panoramic, the studio I co-own, when she played drums on Cate Le Bon's Crab Day LP, produced by Noah Georgeson and Josiah Steinbrick and engineered by Samur Khouja. Over the years, I'd see more of this crew, especially Stella and...
Bob Attiyeh founded Yarlung Records over 20 years ago, and they have gone on to release almost 60 albums since then, all recorded in stereo, live, straight-to-tape, and almost exclusively using custom-built gear. Yarlung specializes mostly in classical music but has featured jazz and...
Pete Caigan, the studio manager and chief engineer for a revamped Utopia Studios Bearsville, is a longtime Woodstock-area resident and busy guy. Utopia is a multi-use space that is deal for video/film shoots, live recordings, album sessions, and more. The Lumineers recent album...
Terry Manning [Tape Op#58] had already changed my life before I ever met him. Like many of us in the recording and record-making community, his work with Big Star, Led Zeppelin, ZZ Top, and Booker T. & the M.G.’s, along with countless others, had shaped my listening ahead of my even...
Atlanta-based producer and songwriter Chandler A. Great, professionally known as Turbo, has been behind hits from Travis Scott, Gunna, Lil Baby, Nav, and Young Thug. His signature productions are easily recognized, and he has an innate ability to distill songs and their...
Mike Viola is a musical powerhouse, in every sense. His fearless approach to songcraft and record making is uncanny. He also has the ability to deliver them with an impressive vocal performance. Mike has worked as a producer, engineer, songwriter, composer, performer, and A&R for...
For over four decades, David Lowery has been an innovator and thought leader in the music business. As musician, he's the founder and leader of both indie rock legends Camper Van Beethoven and the successful band Cracker. He's also a writer, producer, studio owner, educator...
We recently had a chance to meet up with Johannes Russ, Ableton's Head of ABL Products Unit (Move, Note, and Core Technology), to talk about their new portable music-making tool. Our conversation was held at Different Fur Studios in the Mission in San Francisco a few days in...