Gear Club Podcast

Joe Chiccarelli is a producer and engineer whose career spans almost 4 decades. Refusing to be tied down in any one genre, Joe's skill, versatility, and eclectic taste has put him in rooms with Frank Zappa, Tori Amos, Oingo Boingo, The Bangles, The Strokes, Morrissey, Dwight Yoakam, The Bee Gees, The White Stripes and many, many more.

Alex U. Case is an Associate Professor of Sound Recording Technology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and, as you'll discover in this episode, the audio world's foremost sleuth - the Sherlock Holmes of audio techniques. Professor Case's research and professional activities focus on the technical foundations, creative motivations, and aesthetic merits of recording and signal processing tec...

In this episode, John & Stewart continue their chat with Kevin Killen. Kevin's extensive discography includes projects with U2, Bon Jovi, Peter Gabriel, Burt Bacharach, Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello, Tori Amos and so many more. This is part 2 of our interview with Kevin. Make sure to listen to part 1 at bit.ly/46KevinKillen

Eight time Grammy award winner Kevin Killen's extensive discography includes projects with U2, Van Morrison, Peter Gabriel, Burt Bacharach, Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello, Tori Amos and so many others. Join our hosts as they learn how Kevin, born and bred in Dublin Ireland, came to be the man at the controls for some of the world's most iconic artists. In part 1 of our chat with Kevin his talent,...

In this special live episode, John and Stewart talk with Bob Clearmountain. An award-winning music engineer, mixer and producer, Bob has worked with many prominent names including Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, Bryan Adams, Toto, Bon Jovi, and many more. Watch the full episode at bit.ly/GCBClearmountain

In this special live episode of Gear Club, John and Stewart chat with Tony Visconti. Tony is a renowned, GRAMMY® winning record producer, musician and singer. Since the late 1960s, he has worked with an array of performers including David Bowie, Thin Lizzy, T. Rex, and Iggy Pop. Watch the full live interview at http://bit.ly/GCTViscontiLive

Our guest this week is Roy Hendrickson, a veteran of the New York music scene for over 3 decades. Roy got his start working at Power Station recording studio in the mid 80's. After going freelance and working at first class studios from coast to coast, Roy returned to New York and became instrumental in the Power Station's successful metamorphosis to Avatar, and continues making records there as i...

Paul Wolff has been designing professional audio equipment since the 70s. Any fans of API audio products know him as the man who brought that company back from the brink of extinction. While at API, Paul designed the 550B EQ, 512 and 3124 mic preamps, Legacy console, and 2500 compressor. But that's just the beginning — His legendary Lunchbox and 500-series format, which ushered in a new industry,...

In this episode, John & Stewart talk about their latest projects which inevitably leads to a discussion on how our hosts perceive the evolution of the recording industry. The guys also dive deep into the song of the week: "Fat Old Sun" by Pink Floyd. John & Stewart hone in on production techniques used to create the piece, and dissect the wacky, experimental nature of  Atom Heart Mother  in compar...

Doug Wimbish is a bass player with an extraordinary resume. A key member of Living Colour and Tackhead, Doug has toured with Sugarhill Gang, Mick Jagger, Annie Lenox, Depeche Mode and many others. But Doug is much more than just a talented musician, he is a mentor, organizer, fund raiser and honorary uncle to dozens of up and coming performers. Doug has organized community-based charity events aro...

In our last episode, our hosts spoke with the Verve Music Groups' Creative Director, Josh Cheuse. Part 2 of the interview brings us up to date with his career and also covers the 'nerd notes' that Josh created in preparing to geek out at our club. Josh's interview inspired our hosts to go back and listen to early Clash recordings, so our song of the episode is inspired by one of the largest drug b...

Josh Cheuse (aka "Funky Ishmael") has played a key role as a photographer, creative director, tour manager, rapper and collaborator at the heart of the punk and rap scene in NY and London spending his days in the studio and on the road with iconic bands like The Clash, The Beastie Boys, RUNDMC, Big Audio Dynamite. Josh went on to become an art director at Sony Music for 20 years. Today Josh is Cre...

In this episode, our hosts get schooled in studio monitors and power amps by checking in with Zwickipedia. In our song of the episode, Patterson Hood talks about the making of "What It Means" and how Drive-By Truckers's album American Band  was faced with politically charged criticism.

Chuck Zwicky has been described as equal part audio expert and scientist. He's built studios, designed plug-ins and recorded, mixed and mastered hit records. His credits include Prince, The Rembrandts, Reggie Watts, Soul Asylum, Nine Inch Nails, the Jonas Brothers and more. Listen as Chuck shares his unique approach to every aspect of recording. His experiences working one-on-one with Prince, his...

During the last AES convention our hosts were honored to have a chance to speak with four time Grammy-award winning, George Massenburg. Simply put, George has no peer. He is an inventor, a recording engineer, a producer, a studio designer, a product developer, a professor of the recording arts AND, in 1998, became the youngest recipient of a special Grammy, the prestigious Grammy for lifetime tech...

This week, John and Stewart are joined by singer/songwriter and co-founder of Drive-By Truckers, Patterson Hood. Patterson grew up in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. His father, David, was the bass player in the legendary Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. Through osmosis and a deep love of music, Patterson became an artist to be reckoned in his own right. Whether with the Drive-By Truckers, or as a solo artis...

Bill Burrs is a music fan. As a young man, Bill was a late night DJ on a top 40 radio station in his native Minneapolis before moving into record promotion. Bill has spent his career helping bands get on the radio and noticed. He's worked first at Geffen records and then as a Senior VP at RCA. Today, Bill is at 300 Entertainment doing what he loves doing - helping records get heard. Bill doesn't m...

During the AES convention, Gear Club was honored to have some of the industry's leading provocateurs. While we were talking to pal Geoff Daking, our party got crashed by William Wittman, Steve Rosenthal, Rod O'Brien, Greg Calbi and Joe Warda.

Jack talks about how that experience inspired him to study the art of recording. Jack was a member of the first graduating class of the Institute of Audio Research landing him the position of janitor at The Record Plant. Jack's story of moving up through the ranks of that legendary studio (and getting fired and rehired along the way) is inspirational. Record Plant's owner Roy Cicala gave Jack an o...

Welcome to another Gear Club episode from AES NY. Our guest is an old friend of John and Stewart, the great Geoff Daking. From playing drums in the Blues Magoos to engineering and running Messina Sound to developing gear and making the amazing line of Daking Audio gear, Geoff has done it all. 

In this episode we continue with our AES series and are delighted to have another Record Plant alum, Rod O'Brien with us. Rod grew up in New York's Hell's Kitchen back when that name meant something. Starting hired on as a 'general' at Record Plant, Rod was teamed with Jack Douglas working on legendary records by the likes of John & Yoko, Aerosmith, The New York Dolls, Cheap Trick and many more. T...

In January 30, 1989, a 20 year old EveAnna, on sabbatical from her music studies at Columbia University, met the original Manley crew and was hired on to the production team. She quickly learned to solder and assemble vacuum tube amplifiers, and after only three years with Manley Laboratories, co-founder David Manley abruptly left the company and the country in 1996. With EveAnna now at the helm,...

We continue our AES series with Terri Winston, the founder and director of Women's Audio Mission (WAM). An industry veteran, Terri has a degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University and is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, composer, recording engineer, and producer. She has toured with P.J. Harvey, The Pixies, and The Flaming Lips just to name a few.   Located in a world-class facili...

This week, we continue our series recorded at the NY AES Show. Sit back and listen to John and Stewart learn a thing or two from three-time Grammy® award-winning producer/engineer, Andrew Scheps. From making house calls at Frank Zappa's Utility Muffin Research Kitchen to life on the road as Stevie Wonder's keyboard tech to mixing Michael Jackson's live shows, Andrew has seen, heard and done it all...

Welcome to the 2nd episode of Gear Club recorded at New York AES. When it comes to microphones, monitors, outboard gear and consoles no two studios are exactly alike but you'll find that the one thing that they all have in common is the latest edition of Tape Op  – a magazine that owes its existence to its creator and editor Larry Crane. Larry runs his recording studio, Jackpot!, produces and engi...