Jim Greer is a Bay Area record producer who has massed a wide variety of credits through many years of wielding multiple instruments and knowing how to fiddle some knobs. Highlights included writing and producing with or for: Galactic, Macy Gray, Handsome Boy modeling School, Cyndi Harvell, Andrew St.James, Diegos Umbrella, MC Lars, Del the Funkee Homosapien, Irma Thomas, Rondo Brothers, Butterscotch, and many more, including lots of writing and placing music in various films, tv shows, and commercials…
Matt and Jim sit down for an in person talk that covers Jim’s approach to making records, business and how the death of his son Teddy has shaped his view and approach to life.
Will Russell is the owner and chief engineer at Electric Wilburland Studio, which is located in an old Baptist church in Newfield, NY. He has been working in audio since the age of 17, when he first started doing live sound. Will continues to mix live at regional music festivals for bands like The Horse Flies and Sim Redmond Band. His most notable tour was mixing for Rusted Root from 1994-95.
After being on the road, Will switched his focus to running Electric Wilburland full time, where he records and produces mostly local and regional artists– and has been for 30 years. Past clients include The Samples, Madder Rose, Martin Simpson, The Horse Flies, Joe Crookston and Donna The Buffalo. He won a Grammy in 2009 for recording the album “Douga Mansa” with kora player Mamadou Diabate.
Three years ago, Will joined the staff at The Park School of Communications at Ithaca College, where he teaches audio production part time. He also teaches a handful of young engineers and interns at Electric Wilburland year-round.
Tucker Martine is a record producer, musician and composer and the son of singer and songwriter Layng Martine, Jr., Tucker grew up in Nashville, Tennessee where he played in bands and tinkered with recording devices before moving to Boulder, Colorado after graduating from high school. In Colorado, Martine was a DJ at a public radio station KGNU. He would frequently play two or more records at once on the air to experiment with creating new sounds. Martine also took courses at the Naropa Institute where he studied sound collage and befriended Harry Smith – the ethnomusicologist, artist and Kabbalist – who made a large impression on Martine.
1993, Martine moved to Seattle, Washington where he began to combine his skills and interests. He joined Wayne Horvitz‘s chamber group The 4 Plus 1 Ensemble where Martine’s instrument was a series of looping and sound manipulating devices which were fed by the groups otherwise acoustic instruments. Martine received a Grammy nomination in 2007 in the “best engineered album” category for the Floratone album with Bill Frisell on Blue Note. He has also released several albums of his field recordings. As a composer and musician Martine has released 2 albums under the recording pseudonym Mount Analog and a 3rd one is on the way. Additionally, Microsoft called upon Martine’s creativity when they asked him to help compose the startup and branding sounds for Microsoft’s new operating system Vista.Today Martine lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife, singer songwriter Laura Veirs and continues to make records in his own studio, Flora Recording & Playback.
Tyler Crowder is a freelance recording/audio engineer in the San Francisco Bay Area, who enjoys working in various recording studios, where he’s done projects with both artist on major labels including Sony, RCA, Def Jam, GOOD Music, Windham Hill, Arista Records, B&G, Dancing Cat, etc. as well as with a diverse range of local indy bands. By working with a diverse range of major artists and local indy artist, it allows Tyler to be fluent in all styles of music, and be able to contribute to the local community of musicians and bands that surround the San Francisco Bay Area. Over the years Tyler has earned 2 Grammy nominations for audio engineering, and participated in many Billboard Charting Albums. Tyler has worked with numerous artists including Kanye West, Justin Bieber, Jennifer Hudson, Lil’ Wayne, Snoop Dog, George Winston, Melvin Seals, Tuck & Pattie, Joan Jeanrenaud, Phil Aaburg, Henry Butler, Dave “Dave’s Hands” Jackson, Keola Beamer, Cyril Pahinui, Bola Sete, Professor Longhair, Steven, Damian, and Ziggy Marley, and the Los Lonely Boys along with many other artists.
Cesar Mejia is an L.A. based engineer and producer born and raised in Boyle Heights in East Los Angeles. Besides engineering and producing he is a faculty member at Cal State Dominguez Hills where he teaches audio recording courses for the Digital Media Arts program. Cesar has a unique approach of putting his clients at ease, allowing the artist to perform at their optimal. Cesar’s methods and skills have allowed him to maintain an ever-growing list of clients like: Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Brian Eno, Bill Withers, Will I. Am, Beatmo, Chicago, Zach de la Rocha, Mezklah, Wayne Shorter, Hurley Clothing, Hanoi Counsel for the Arts Vietnam, Sting, Joni Mitchell, Al Geroe, George Duke, George Benson, Motorhead, Monte Carlo 76, Natashia Williams, Brujeria, Nathan East, Los Lobos, Marcus Miller, Aztlan Underground, Chicano Son, Amazon Gold Foundation, Andy Garcia, Most Eligible Basturds, Marisa Ronstadt, Susan Egan, & Kenny Moreno. Constantly working on projects of multiple magnitudes, he fully dedicates himself and applies the same enthusiasm to all his clients.
Cesar speaks with Matt about all things WCA from The Shelter Studios in Los Angeles.
Mark Kilborn is a sound designer, mixer and implementer with over a decade of experience in the video games industry. He has worked on various game franchises including Borderlands, Forza Motorsport, Brothers In Arms, Tony Hawk and Project Gotham Racing. For the last seven years he has served as one of the Audio Directors for the Call of Duty series, collaborating with teams of sound designers around the world on various projects including Modern Warfare 3, Advanced Warfare, Black Ops 1-3, Exo Zombies, Call of Duty Online and Modern Warfare Remastered. After he and his wife had twins in 2015, he setup a home studio and continues to contribute to the Call of Duty series as a Principal Audio Designer. He lives in Madison, WI with his wife, three kids, two dogs and too much snow. Mark flew to San Francisco for the Game Developers Conference recently and met Matt at a Starbucks to talk about Mark’s world in game sound.
Mark’s list of credits include , Call of Duty 2017 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered (PS4/XB1/PC) Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 (PS4/XB1/PC) Call of Duty: Exo Zombies (PS4/XB1/PC) Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (PS4/XB1/PC) – Nominated for BAFTA, AIAS awards for sound – Winner, GANG Sound Design and Audio of the Year awards Call of Duty: Ghosts (PS4/XB1/PC) Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (360/PS3/PC) Call of Duty Online (PC) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (360/PS3/PC/WII) – Nominated for BAFTA, AIAS, GANG and MPSE awards for sound Call of Duty: Black Ops (360/PS3/PC/WII) Singularity (360/PS3/PC) Forza Motorsport 3 (360) Dr. Awesome Microsurgeon MD (iPhone) Borderlands (360/PS3/PC) Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway (360/PS3/PC) Samba De Amigo (Wii) Project Gotham Racing 4 (360) The Club (360/PS3/PC) Boom Boom Rocket (XBLA) Tony Hawk’s Project 8 (360/PS3) Bionicle Heroes (NDS)
Kurt Ballou is a musician and producer, best known as the guitarist from Massachusetts-based band Converge. Aside from his role in Converge, Ballou is a prolific producer, recording and producing out of his own GodCity Studio. Kurt has worked with numerous bands over the last 25 years in a producing/ recording role including High on Fire, Nails, Russian Circles and Code Orange. Kurt and Matt talk over Skype discussing health, retirement, drugs, family, money and Asperger’s syndrome. Enjoy!
Monte Vallier grew up in the Bay Area and launched his musical career by dropping out of high school and moving to London with his band Half Church who he played bass with. After making a record and playing tons of gigs with bands such as The Fall, Echo and the Bunnymen, and PIL, the band called it quits in 1986. After interning at The music annex and Coast Recorders (Bay Area) Monte built his own studio with engineer Gibbs Chapman that was destroyed in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake . It was that same year that Monte started working with the band Swell as a bass player. They Made 5 albums and toured extensively in the 90’s and eventually signed to Rick Rubin’s Def American label in 1993. They made all their our own records starting with a Tascam 38 but then took all the recording advances and bought more gear. They built studios in LA and NYC and in various places in SF to make the records. Monte says he truly learned how to a make a proper record while working with Swell. After Monte left Swell he got busy by producing other people partnered with Marc Capelle to pursue commercial composition, film scoring, and corporate music and audio post , formed Jet Black Crayon with Tommy Guerrero and toured a bit, making 3 albums then working on 9 solo records for Tommy. Eventually Monte partnered with Jamie Kahn and Nathan Harlow to create a recording space in San Francisco in 2006.
Monte has worked with many bands and solo artists including, Tommy Guerrero, Wax Idols, Mark Eitzel, Sean Hayes, Oxbow, Chuck Dukowski and Blackface, Weekend, Mall Walk, Houses of Heaven, Never Young, Wild Moth, Hariguem Zaboy, Terry Malts, The Mattson 2, Young Prisms, Wax Idols, Jet Black Crayon, The Mumlers. The Soft Moon, BLKTOP Project, Vetiver, Rova Saxophone Quartet (OrchestraRova-Larry Ochs), [the] caseworker, Beautiful Machines, Tomorrow’s Tulips, Peggy Honeywell, GoJoGo, Kelley Stoltz, Money Mark, Swell, The Japanese Motors, Erik Arnaud, My Diet Pill, Warbler, Kurt Nilsen, Ice Sun, Xiu Xiu, TODD, Bunuel, LiXi, Seventeen Evergreen, Rupa and the April Fishes, Ghost in the City, Trust.
Mike Wells has spent the last 15 plus years mastering, complimented by a lifetime in music as a musician, music theory graduate, recording artist, and recording/mixing engineer. From San Francisco to Los Angeles, Mike has had one hell of a journey to get to the point of working with artists such as Green Day, PARRI$, Prince, and Gridlock. While we all have career ups and downs of which Mike is no stranger, Mike also spent many years trying to decipher a medical condition that developed later in his life that was eventually diagnosed as Epilepsy. Not to be deterred by his diagnosis and the seizures that come, as a result, Mike developed his mastering business which is known for his incredible attention to detail and going the extra mile for his clients. After many challenges that would stop most people, Mike persevered and is now at a point where he is no longer facing the daily threat of seizures with the help of 21st-century medicine. The biggest takeaway from this interview is that Mike doesn’t have a “poor me” attitude. He is upbeat and forward-thinking and that’s inspiring. Mike joins us from his studio in Los Angeles.
Mike Wells passed away on Wednesday, January 5, 2022
Although Frank Wolf’s background was in music, he found myself drawn to “the other side of the glass” and changed his studies to Physics and Electrical Engineering. While in college, Frank also built and ran a small studio with an old ½” Scully at it’s heart. (ahh analog!) During those years, he met the folks at The Village Recorder, and when he graduated, he was immediately hired as a tech. While there, the staff was given permission to use the studios any time they were open so Frank was able to hone his craft with many, many hours of studio time! One of the bands he worked with got a record deal, Frank left his employ, recorded their album and has been independent ever since. Frank worked almost exclusively on records for many years, but eventually got and took the opportunity to start in both TV and Feature Films. For the next several years, he worked on many of Disney’s and Pixar’s animated films while also meeting and developing working relationships with many other composers and film studios.
Frank talks to Matt from his home in Los Angles about his background, tech talk about his home mixing setup and the templates he uses to mix music for major motion pictures as well as finances.
Nathan Harlow grew up in San Francisco, played in bands and eventually found his way into the world of live sound. 20 years later, his experience touring, mixing, recording and doing system design has allowed him the opportunity to work with artists such as Prince, Rob Zombie, Sonic Youth, Bebel Gilberto, Medeski, Martin and Wood and Primus. His skills are also in demand at the Fox Theater in Oakland, California, the Warfield Theater and Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, California. On top of his live sound skills doing monitors or front of house Nathan is also trained in systems management and room acoustics. He states that his intention is to use his unique set of skills to assist in the creation of beauty and inspiration with elegance and grace.
Matt heads into San Francisco to chat with Nathan in person in his studio South of Market.
I took a trip from NORCAL to SOCAL to hit NAMM 2017. As I arrived I decided to put together a show based on “Power Chats/Talks”. 20 minute or so quick chats with friends about certain topics. Ben Lindell from Puremix, Sean McLaughlin, Andy Freeman, Gary Boss of Audio-Technica and Vance Powell joined me. Enjoy!
Justin Pizzoferrato is a recording engineer based out of western Massachusetts. He owns and runs Sonelab with Mark Alan Miller and also freelances from time to time.
Justin has worked with such bands as Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth, Speedy Ortiz, Elder, and many more in the rock genre. He got his start freelancing around Boston. After moving to western Mass, he noted the lack of studios and decided to open up his own facility. When he’s not in the studio, he’s hanging out with his wife and son, biking, or buying too many records!
Justin chats with Matt over Skype about Sonelab, recording life before kids, freelancing and work ethic.
Chris Montgomery is an audio engineer and producer living and working in New York City. Having grown up in Glasgow, Scotland, he brings a musical heritage from one of the most prolific and diverse music scenes and applies this to his work in studio, live and field audio production. From live sound at The Bitter End to studio work and location sound at Dubway Studios, Chris digs in and tries it all.
Chris has worked with many notable artists including The Lumineers, Mumford And Sons, The Killers, Florence And The Machine, Ed Sheeran, Sheryl Crow and Damien Rice.
Having recently finished an 18 month period touring with multi-platinum recording artist, Rachel Platten, Chris is now focusing on a move to Los Angeles with the intention of opening a new studio. Chris talks with Matt about his decision to move from Glasgow, Half & Half, having a willingness to say yes to work and his new console.
Chris Graham runs Chris Graham Mastering outside of Columbus, Ohio. Chris joined Matt for a Skype call from his mastering studio to talk about integrity, his business, his website, the tools he uses to stay organized and audio conspiracy theories!
Before I became a full time audio mastering engineer, I was an audio engineer, music producer and musician. Like other audio engineers, I occasionally was put in the uncomfortable position of having to master my own mixes due to an artist’s budget problems. Mastering anything you’ve also mixed is a nightmare, but I quickly grew fascinated with the process and began acquiring specialized audio mastering equipment and software and working hard to hone my skills.
I started mastering every unmastered album I could get my hands on, and after showing my producer friends the results I was achieving, I was soon being asked to master albums all the time. Eventually, more and more people began asking me to master their projects, and I grew to really look forward to the reactions I would get after sending them my work. I soon realized that I enjoyed mastering music for other people more than I had ever enjoyed producing, engineering or even playing my own music professionally. As the projects kept coming in, I decided in 2008 to devote all my efforts to providing music mastering services, and stopped accepting work as an mix engineer or producer.
I had my mastering studio built, and the choice felt right in my heart. I couldn’t be more pleased with where that decision has taken me. Few things give me more satisfaction than the feedback I receive from people about how excited they are that their recordings are finally “coming to life.”
I still occasionally find the time to get out on the road and play my own music, but I prefer to stay home with my wife & our three kids and master music for a living. Mastering music for a living has been a blast and I love meeting and working with the incredible people from all over the globe that come to me for their mastering services.
My family and I live just north of Columbus, Ohio. My wife and I love Jesus, hanging out with our kids, leading Young Life, our Aeropress coffee maker, books, and Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams.
If you’d like to get to know me a little more before sending your project my way, please give me a call or send me an email.
Don Zientara is a musician and recording engineer as well as the owner and chief engineer at Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, Virginia located outside of Washington DC. Don has a varied background that is part art, part military, part electronics and ultimately all music and recording. While Don records many kinds of music, he is best known for his work with Dischord Records and DC Hardcore bands including The Teen Idles, Minor Threat, Rites of Spring, Fugazi and Bad Brains as well as many, many more.
Matt stopped in to Inner Ear Studios while on a recent trip to the Washington/Virginia area to interview Don in person. Enjoy!
Michael Ashby is next generation audio engineer who started out as a drummer, he was inspired by Grammy award winning engineers like Jaycen Joshua and Craig Bauermix. Michael has mixed for multiple Sony & Universal artists on his way up including Timbaland’s BK Brasco, Latoya Jackson, Fetty Wap, Sixx John (by Neyo), Grafh and more! He’s attracting the industry’s attention due to the overwhelming positive feedback from countless clients in every corner of the country. He has worked with a wide variety of underground artists since 2007. Michael is also a graduate of SAE Institute (School of Audio Engineering) in NYC. Michael is also the owner and chief engineer of Krematorium Studio in Long Island, New York .
Michael joins Matt over Skype for a conversation about his studio, his work schedule and his thinking behind building a studio business.
Andy Deguara is a studio owner, audio engineer and producer working in the San Francisco Bay Area. His recording career started in 1994 as a Junior in High school. He obtained his first 4 track recorder and immediately started recording his friend’s vocals and D.J. mixes. It soon became very clear that He wanted to work in a studio recording and mixing records.
By 1997 Andy had moved up from his 4 track tape recorder to a single 8 track digital tape recorder and a small mixer. He also acquired a keyboard and sequencer which he was using along with the recorder to write and record songs. He would later have people write and record vocals to the music he created. This was the beginning of A&D Studios.
In 1998 Andy decided he wanted to fast track his recording knowledge and decided to attend the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Science in Tempe Arizona. Here he gained extensive knowledge in understanding acoustics, signal flow, Basic equipment maintenance and electrical engineering, along with live sound and music business.
Upon completing the Program Andy returned to the bay area where he began working for M.A.R.S Studios (Music Arts Recording Studio) in Aptos California. Andy started as an assistant engineer working on a variety of projects. Eventually he got the opportunity to engineer and run sessions on his own.
While working at M.A.R.S. Andy also continued making and recording music at his home studio. At this point he was running a full 24 tracks for recording and a 32 channel mixing board. His gear collection also continued to grow substantially. In the fall of 2000 Andy came across an opportunity to lease some office/warehouse space. He jumped on the opportunity and began building out a full studio. The studio consisted of a large control room, a good sized recording room, and a separated iso booth.
For the next 14 years this was the home of A&D Studios where Andy recorded a variety of projects that ranged from singer songwriters, independent record labels, independent Artists, and corporate work. Andy Worked with Artists like blues man Kenny Neal, rapper Too Short, and Metal Band Jeoff Tates’s Queensrych.
In 2014 the building that housed A&D studios was sold to developers. Andy was forced temporarily close down the studio and find a new location.
After two months of searching and not finding a suitable location that was not overpriced by the bay area’s skyrocketing real-estate market, a new opportunity was presented to Andy. A local community college that he had done work with in the past just finished construction of a new building that housed a space that was built and dedicated as a recording studio. The college offered Andy the opportunity to rent the space and use as a home base when classes were not in session. This new arrangement has allowed Andy the ability to change the way he operates his studio and has created new opportunities.
Since establishing the relationship with the college Andy has built a private 280sqft home studio which gives him the ability to edit and mix in his home studio and use the college studio to record and work on projects with clients. He also works closely with the college to help maintain the studio. He currently co-teaches some of the recording classes as well as holds special recording seminars for the students.
Andy Continues to record mix and produce records at A&D Studios as well as in his private studio. He also is available for freelance work and travels to studios all around to work on projects.
Pat Patten came to be on Working Class Audio through a set of random circumstances. At our 100th show we chose his name at random to win a set of Audio-Technica headphones. After talking Pat on the phone I realized he would make a great guest for the WCA podcast. He sent me his resume which is filled with a wide variety of jobs and experience including President of Commercial Sight & Sound, Inc., CEO of Kinekom, Inc., Studio Manager and Talent Buyer, Senior Record Producer and Festival Promoter, and now Mastering Engineer | Music Mentor-Manager and Music Educator at CEC (Central Education Center), Charter College & Career Academy. AT 60 years young Pat continues the journey in the small town of La Grange, Georgia. We discuss relationship building, his students, and family. Check out http://www.jamgood.com/live/
Mentioned in the interview for those in California is the post production tax incentive.
WCA #102 with Frank McDonough Frank McDonough has worked in the music industry since 1988. He worked at Arista Records for four years, then worked for various producer management firms, eventually starting his own company in January 2000. McDonough Management has a small but impressive client roster including former WCA alumni Andrew Scheps, Matt Wallace, Joe Barresi, Ross Hogarth, and Rob Schnapf as well as Mike Clink, David Bianco, Nick Didia, John Fields, Paul David Hager, Matt Hyde, Alain Johannes, Pierre Marchand, Nick Raskulinecz, Garth Richardson and Phillip Steir. Frank joins Matt for conversation over Skype and takes us through the realities of what a manager does and what he or she does not. Enjoy!
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