Working Class Audio

Dan Jaspar is a sound mixer, boom operator, and sound designer from the  Bay Area . As a Graduate of  San Francisco State University  with a Bachelor’s Degree in Cinema production and Sound Design he continues to work in the field of production audio for the film and video Industry. Dan and Matt have worked together in the past when Dan was fronting the Bay Area band Yellow 5 a...

John Siket  is a producer, engineer, and mixer and is best known for his work with  Sonic Youth ,  Phish ,  Yo La Tengo ,  Dave Matthews Band ,  Blonde Redhead ,  Fountains of Wayne ,  Moe ,  Peter Murphy ,  Freedy Johnston , and Ex Cops. Having spent 30 years in the recording world, John has amassed a world of experience. John has also h...

Tim Palmer has produced and mixed albums for a huge selection of classic and alternative artists, from  Robert Plant ,  David Bowie , and  Tears For Fears  to  Ozzy Osbourne ,  Goo Goo Dolls , and  U2 . In 1989 Tim mixed ‘TEN’ for  Pearl Jam , which is now in the top 50 best album sellers in US history. In 2001 Palmer was nominated for a Grammy for his...

Gary Philips is a talented multi-instrumentalist, producer, songwriter and mix engineer. During his college years at University of Pennsylvania, Gary realized his life would follow a musical path. This path soon led to a life as a touring musician. Touring led Gary to New York, where he quickly found himself in studios playing guitar and bass for artists both up-and-coming and legendary, incl...

Ryan Hewitt began his musical career by taking up drums and piano in the third grade and set up his first primitive bedroom recording studio at age 10. His interest in recording prompted his father, remote recording engineer David Hewitt, to take him on the road at age 12. Over the course of 15 years on the Remote Recording Services trucks, Ryan learned to get sessions going quickly, pay...

Michael Rosen is a Grammy-winning producer/engineer who has worked with Santana, Rancid, Papa Roach, Tesla, AFI, The Donnas, Journey, Death Angel, Tony Macalpine, and Testament……..to name a few! In addition to recording and producing he also teaches at Chabot College and San Francisco State and is an alumnus of the famed Automatt studios where he got started on his professional recording journey....

Doug Kallmeyer is a 25 year plus veteran of live sound, a bass player and composer as well as a studio rat. Doug is a fan suggestion and carries with him a large amount of experience and miles travelled who is based in Virginia. Traveling the world mostly doing FOH (Front of House) sound, Doug has worked with Phantogram, Blonde Redhead, Shellac, Sunny Day Real Estate, Rancid, D...

Don Gunn is a Seattle-based recording/mixing engineer, producer, and musician who flies under the radar yet seems to work with cool people! Soundgarden, Death Cab for Cutie, Peter Frampton, Trey Gunn (No relation), and Matt Cameron! Don was a WCA fan suggestion from our Facebook page and joins Matt for a Skype chat from his home studio in Seattle called The Office. Don talks gear, money, busi...

Working Class Audio Session #019 with Matt Kelley!!! Matt Kelley has been at the recording game for just over 27 years. Based in the  Bay Area in California Matt has worked with Tupac, Del tha Funkee Homosapien, DJ Qbert, Digital Underground, George Clinton,  Hieroglyphics as well as Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine.  Matt started […] The post WCA #019 with Matt Ke...

David v. R. Bowles formed Swineshead Productions, LLC as a classical recording production company in 1995. His recordings have been GRAMMY-nominated (Classical – Best Orchestral Performance) and won the “Classical Orchestral Album” prize from Just Plain Folks Awards. Other Bowles-produced and engineered releases have been named “Record of the Month – Editor’s Choice” from Gramophone Magazine, Musi...

Ross Hogarth is a multiple Grammy-nominated and Grammy-winning producer/engineer/mixer who has worked with artists such as Keb’ Mo’, Motley Crue, Van Halen, Gov’t Mule, Roger Waters, The Black Crowes, Shawn Colvin, John Mellencamp, and R.E.M.  His studio work runs the gamut from the heavy metal insanity of Motley Crue and Coal Chamber to the Grammy-winning Keb’ Mo’ released  Slow Do...

Early on March 21st, a fire struck the warehouse that has been home to Jonah Strauss’ Shipwreck Studios since 2008. The fire began in the unit directly above the studio. In less than an hour, it claimed two lives and displaced dozens of people, as well as several independent printing presses and artists. Jonah’s recording studio and home suffered severe water damage, amounting to tens of thousands...

Jeff Powell lives in Memphis, Tennessee, and has been making records since his first studio gig at Kiva Studios in 1987. He became an employee at Ardent Studios in 1989 and worked his way up from assistant to staff engineer, and eventually to staff producer. He went independent in 1997 and has worked in studios all over the US, The UK, and Canada, but still calls Ardent home. He still stays very b...

Sylvia Massy has been Producing, Engineering, and Mixing popular music for decades. She’s renowned for her work with Tool, System of a Down, Johnny Cash, and Prince. She’s received over 25 gold and platinum records including awards for her work with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sevendust, and Tom Petty. She’s also an accomplished fine artist, a published columnist, an in-demand educator, and a...

Billy Anderson  is a record producer, engineer, and musician. He has worked with hundreds of bands over the past 20 years, including Cormorant, Eyehategod, Mr. Bungle, Red House Painters, Fantômas, and Sleep. He is also a member of the bands Blessing the Hogs, Porn (The Men Of), Solodolor, and Good God. Billy takes time to talk to Matt Boudreau about his progression from his days playing coll...

Michael Starita is a lifelong musician with over 17 years experience as an engineer, producer and remixer. His career started at the famous Hyde Street Studios in the late 90s learning from many of the Bay Area greats. Moving to EDNET, Starita had the pleasure of being the ISDN engineer for clients such as Rick Rubin, Sting, Warner Bros, Universal Motown and many others. This propelled his ca...

For the past 20 years, Gabriel Shepard has been an engineer working at various Bay Area studios including the historic Hyde Street Studios where he earned a platinum and gold record with the band Cake. Other artists he’s worked with include Sun Kil Moon, Black Francis, Zigaboo Modeliste, and Joanna Newsome. Gabriel stops by my house for an in-person chat about car accidents, session vibe, and...

Scott Evans is a member of Kowloon Walled City, a recording engineer (Puig Destroyer, The Loyalists, Neurosis), and a contributor to Tape Op magazine. Scott sits down to talk to me in his personal studio Antisleep Audio located in Oakland, CA. We talk family, summing, drool over his Neotek console, as well as the usual business of recording and doing our jobs as engineers. Enjoy! Links Kowloon Wal...

Andrew Scheps has worked with The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Adele, Metallica, Grace Potter, Jay-Z, U2, Justin Timberlake, and Green Day…just to name a few. Just home from a European trip that included a week in France conducting a seminar at  Mix with the Masters, Andrew shares his views on recording studio etiquette, his in-the-box workflow when mixing, his adventures as a record...

Like so many professionals in music, Steve Silverstein got his start creating music — his electronic group  Christmas Decorations  has released an album on  kranky  and been played on the  BBC . He’s written articles and reviews for  Tape Op , and assistant edited a collection of Aaron Copland’s writings. He’s excited to have finally moved his studio from his apartmen...

Vance Powell, who has worked with Jack White, Red Fang, and Buddy Guy to name just a few is featured on Session #007. Vance is outspoken and takes a no-bullshit approach to not only his work but this interview. We talk technique including specifics of his analog workflow, business, including managers plus a bit of criticism of the old guard of the music industry. I love talking...

Robert L. Smith is an Oscar winning, Grammy and Emmy nominated Producer/Engineer/Mixer based in New York City. After 25+ years of working with the biggest names in music, his résumé reads like a who’s who of modern pop music. Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Aerosmith, David Byrne and U2 are just a tiny list of those on his discography. Robert is passionate and focused about what he does and opens up t...

My guest is producer/ engineer /mastering engineer John Cuniberti, based in the Bay Area. John has worked with Joe Satriani, Sammy Hagar, The Dead Kennedys, and Chicken Foot. John is known for bringing the concept and name ReAmping into the mainstream of recording with his ReAmp box, which he created and sold on his own for many years, but eventually sold the name and circuit patent to Radial Engi...

David Wheeler is a recording engineer based in Las Cruces, New Mexico . Las Cruces is located north of El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico . David talks about the pros and cons of being one of very few recording people in Las Cruces who do it on a pro level and also talks about how the changes to the environment and business world affect the world of recording in the southern part of New Mexi...

Happy to present WCA session #003 with New York recording engineer Hillary Johnson. Check Hillary's site out at www.hillaryjohnson.com Hillary has worked with The Prids, Bell Hollow, Michael Gira (Swans, Angels Of Light), The Secret History, Jeff Buckley, The Misfits, Jennifer Kimball, Rufus Wainwright, The Ramones, Bishop Allen, Project Jenny, Project Jan, Nile Rodgers, Vernon Reid, Stereojax, D...