I'm obsessed with the history of recorded music. Many nights are spent sitting in bed, reading biographies of musicians and recordists that I admire.
Sometimes they are about the people that changed history on a massive scale, like Peter Guralnick's Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock 'n' Roll. Other reads might be about obscure yet groundbreaking artists, like Cosey Fanni Tutti's Art Sex Music on her life and experiences in the group Throbbing Gristle. While creating this issue, I had the pleasure of reading Bill Schnee's book, Chairman at the Board: Recording the Soundtrack of a Generation as I was also editing his interview. It's a fascinating and even-keeled account of a golden era of classic albums and big studio budgets, a time even its author admits we will never see again. See my review of David W. Hewitt's book, On the Road, in this issue for more insight into this era. On a wholly different front, I also read through some of Sandy Stone's writings on transgender studies, a field and discourse she entered into after attacks against her were made as she was recording groundbreaking albums for the women's label, Olivia Records.
In all this reading I learn a lot about music, recording, culture, and society. Everything is interconnected in so many ways; by looking at the whole world and taking it in, this understanding only enriches the art we are all are lucky to help create.
Bill Schnee has earned his place in the pantheon of recording engineers, with credits like Three Dog Night, Ringo Starr, Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond, Marvin Gaye, Whitney Houston, Boz Scaggs, Huey...
Ben Baptie is a London-based producer and mix engineer. After working with Tom Elmhirst at Electric Lady Studios in New York, Ben went freelance, working on records by Albert Hammond Jr., U2, and Lian...
A multi-instrumentalist, performance artist, educator, programmer, and author, Sandy Stone's lived a full enough life to fill several books. With a list of credits that includes Jimi Hendrix, Van Morr...
If you look at the history of Tears For Fears, the original duo of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith only made three albums – The Hurting, Songs from the Big Chair, and The Seeds Of Love – before splittin...
With her eighth album, Songwrights Apothecary Lab, vocalist, bassist, and fearless explorer Esperanza Spalding blends input from various disciplines and asks the question, "What do we need a song for?...
Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe is one the most innovative composers working today. With his experience in punk and metal bands, and as a vocalist, his compositions are grounded in a way that is usually sorel...
There is a portal inside of a garage in Van Nuys, California, that leads to another world. A world of crushing heaviness, monstrous sounds, and violently compelling breakdowns. Despite its modest size...
Producer and musician Tommy Brenneck got his start as a member of New York's Dap-Kings. He has since made an impression on the east coast music scene as a band member and producer on projects with The...
If there is anyone out there who is meant to be working in music as a producer, engineer, and songwriter that would be Toronto's Gavin Brown. For years, he has been Canada's go-to producer. His list o...
I've been following the career of Portland, Oregon's Blitzen Trapper since their first self-titled release in 2003. I think I bought the CD based on the name of the band and album cover alone. I was t...