Working Class Audio

Tardon Feathered runs an audio operation that keeps recordings alive. His Mr. Toads transfer business specializes in bringing back audio off of media made on machines that are no longer made or very few people have. Whether it’s a priceless family 3″ tape recording, that lost bandmaster on the 8 track, a live recording on a videocassette that doesn’t look anything like VHS, or even 78 rpm records, he is equipped to transfer most anything. These days, it’s not too big of a stretch to include digital sources such as floppy discs, Syquest, Jaz, DVD-RAM, and MO drives as near-obsolete formats because of the difficulty in finding any units to play them back on. Tardon is able to handle simple projects like the transfer of priceless 16, 33, 45, and 78 rpm recordings, to complete restorations of tape libraries (including tape baking and splice replacement!) and transfer them to whatever digital format you need via the highest quality signal chain available. It would be near impossible t

This interview with Jim Scott was recorded live at the Focal booth at NAMM 2016 was fantastic. Jim is best known for his large body of work as an engineer and his work as a producer with the American rock band Wilco.Jim has worked as an engineer with a range of other rock music artists, including Dixie Chicks, Tom Petty, Sting, the Rolling Stones, Roger Daltrey, Crowded House, 7 Worlds Collide, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lowen & Navarro, Jack’s Mannequin, Ron Sexsmith and many others. Scott won a Grammy Award for his work as an engineer on Red Hot Chili Peppers’ benchmark album Californication (which he also mixed), as well as for engineering Tom Petty’s Wildflowers, mixing the Foo Fighters’ One By One, doing engineering work on Santana’s Supernatural, and getting three Grammys for his work on the Dixie Chicks’ Taking The Long Way. He also mixed Matchbox Twenty’s “More Than You Think You Are” which reached a no. 6 on the US Billboard 200 and had two Top10 sing

The Pellicci brothers Jay and Ian, spent 13 years as staff engineers at Tiny Telephone  working with bands like Sleater-Kinney, Deerhoof, Birds and Batteries and Rogue Wave. Since then they have expanded their recording universe and have joined Eli Crews and John Finkbeiner  in a partnership at New Improved Recording. While they still work at many other studios including Tiny, New Improved acts as a sort of home base. Since coming on board at NIR, they have given the studio a complete makeover that included replacing the AMEK Einstein with a lovely highly customized 5316 series Neve and added burlap covered acoustic treatment on the walls. The brothers came to the Bay Area on a family vacation when they were kids. During that vacation their father stumbled upon a job opportunity in Silicon Valley and the family ended up staying and living in Fremont, California.Matt and the Pellicci brothers discuss the st

I’ve known Josh Roberts for over 20 years now. He’s humble, fun, and one of the best human beings I know. He doesn’t waste time trying to impress people. To highlight that he doesn’t even have a web page, bio, Facebook page etc… He’s passionate about making records and is really good at letting people be themselves. I’ve been in a couple studio situations with him, I’ve toured with him and he was at my wedding. The guy is honestly in many ways from another time period. As a live sound person he has done sound from bands like the Squirrel Nut Zippers to politicians. As a studio rat he has worked with many including Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto. Santo, his new studio is a true incarnation of what Josh is about. Josh is a dear friend who I’ve learned a ton from over the years, so it with great pleasure I hand this interview over to the WCA audience to hear. Cheers, Matt

Producer/Engineer Ben Bernstein has worked extensively as a music producer and recording engineer. In recent years Ben has been working in game audio as a sound designer & project manager. He has also mixed several documentary films, online ads, and interactive in-app ads. Working with Disney Mobile, Pyramind Sound, KFOG , Microsoft as well as numerous Bay Area bands, Ben keeps his audio world diversified. Ben is also an incredible in-demand live and session bass player who has taught at the famous Blue Bear School of Music. Matt joins Ben at his home studio (Petting Zoo) for a chat that took place on New Years eve.

After getting his audio education Sebastien Richard took a position as the head audio engineer at Coast Recorders in San Francisco and quickly became a mainstay in the crowded San Francisco audio world. Sebastien went on to spend a few years in NYC and Prague where he toured and helped produce some of the biggest pop acts in the world. He then returned to San Francisco to become the lead audio engineer for the legendary Cafe Du Nord and opened up  Mission Recorders, an up and coming recording studio that has the claim to be one of the few in the city with an all original issue Neve console. He also is FOH for various venues including Slims, Great American Music Hall and The Chapel.Matt and Sebastien discuss running a studio, building your own equipment, touring, corporate audio and the ability to mix for 5000 people after having surgery!

Darrell Thorp is a seven time Grammy Award winning (OutKast, Radiohead, Switchfoot, Molotov, Beck) producer, mixer, engineer with over 18 years experience under his belt and many multi platinum records to his discography. Darrell moved to Los Angles in 1997 after a 4 year service in the U.S. Navy and started interning at smaller studios and eventually worked his way up to an Assistant Engineer at some of L.A.’s prestigious studios such as Track Record, Conway, and finally Ocean Way Recording. It was at Ocean Way recording that Darrell meet famed Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich. Shortly after meeting Godrich, Darrell became his full time engineer and ended up recording Beck’s “Sea Change”, Radiohead’s “Hail to The Thief”, Paul McCartney’s “Chaos and Creation In The Back Yard” and many others. Currently Darrell is splitting his time between mixing various records and projects and producing. Darrell has had the pleasure of being the principle recording engineer

After 10 years working as a sales rep for a pro audio and recording equipment distributer, Robert Preston made the plunge into recording full-time by opening a recording studio (GetReel) and locating it inside a rehearsal facility (Secret Studios) surrounded by bands! As one would imagine Robert gets a lot of business directly from the many bands rehearsing in the building, since it’s easy for them to take their gear down the hall to GetReel. After 10 years in the first incarnation of the studio then 13 years in the “new” studio, Robert continues a steady stream of work. As Robert says, “I still love working with and recording bands and singer-songwriters and helping them with their projects and visions of their music. I come at the recording process from a player’s perspective. I’ve built the studio with the players in mind, and I think it shows.”Matt and Robert dissect Robert’s recording situation and talk gear, money, location and the pros and cons of growi

Growing up in a house filled with music Peter studied the ʻclassicsʼ by day, but escaped to play – way underaged – at night in bars & clubs to gain the requisite “chops” – playing rock, blues, and jazz throughout high school. Although entering college in a pre-med program, he quickly re-found his musical bearings, and graduated with a degree in Electronic Music Composition! Upon completion of his degree, he went on to be a journeyman musician and engineer, and after several years working in recording studios in Boston, relocated to LA in 1980. His entrance into the recording scene there was facilitated by his technical background, and got a staff position at Capitol Studios as a studio tech. But he quickly got “in the trenches” – in sessions there, recording everyone from Prince, Frank Sinatra, David Lee Roth, the Stray Cats and Miles Davis along the way.The lure of films took him away from Capitol after 15 years, and he took a staff position&nbs

Larry Crane has been involved in music since the late seventies, when he self-released home recordings of his own music. Since then he’s been a musician, record producer/engineer/mixer, Tape Op Magazine founder and editor, book editor, studio owner, archivist, disc jockey, small label owner and even a record distributor employee.From 1994 to 1997, Crane ran Laundry Rules Recording, a home studio in his basement in Portland, where he recorded artists that include Versus, Stephen Malkmus and Cat Power. Since 1997, Crane has owned and run Jackpot! Recording Studio, Inc., a busy mid-sized studio in Portland, where he has worked with artists such as Sleater-Kinney, The Joggers, The Decemberists, Jenny Lewis, M. Ward, The Go-Betweens, Elliott Smith, Death Cab for Cutie, The Thermals, Stephen Malkmus, Quasi, The Portland Cello Project, Jason Lytle and Richmond Fontaine.Crane has spoken on and

You gotta love this guy. I asked him for a bio and I got this....."I hate bios. Bios suck. For more information about me you can visit my website at http://www.robotlemon.com/"So in an effort to have a little bit more info here's this....  F. Reid Shippen is a New Jersey-born, Nashville-based, highly motivated, completely caffeinated multiple Grammy® award-winning producer/engineer/mixer.Matt and Reid talk family, work/life balance, his power supply to his SSL, interns and much more. Listen in and enjoy.Happy Thanksgiving to my American audience! -Matt

Bill Simpkins started in a music career by teaching guitar at the age of 16. In the early 1990s, he started recording his own projects and other bands mostly in the local hardcore punk or straight-edge metal scene with some ADATs and a Mackie mixer. He then worked for several years at Binary Recording Studio with regional bands, eclectic audio projects, orchestras and films. In 2001, Bill graduated with a degree in Mathematics and became a software engineer but still did audio part-time. In 2011 he created Alpenglow Sound Studios in the downstairs of his house and has been mostly mixing and recording local/remote artists and doing part-time software engineering.Bill may be best known for his blog titled "aediaries" that aims to present highly-filtered information and useful philosophies for those who don't want to sift through endless forum posts and opinions.He enjoys climbing, snowboarding and surfing. He sings and plays guitar in the heavy metal band "Slavemason".Some of the artists Bill has worked wi

John Vanderslice (born in Gainesville, Florida) is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, and recording engineer.He is the owner and founder of Tiny Telephone, and Tiny Telephone Oakland, Bay Area analog recording studios.In 10 full-length albums, and 5 remix records and EPs, Vanderslice’s songwriting is characterized by deeply personal and political lyrics and the use of experimental analog recording techniques. His declared musical influences are diverse, ranging from Neutral Milk Hotel and Radiohead to Public Enemy and Henry Cowell. He has collaborated with renowned musicians such as Mark Kozelek, St. Vincent, and John Darnielle.He is currently a full-time producer and has worked with The Mountain Goats, Teen Daze, Spoon, Strand Of Oaks and Sophie Hunger.Matt and John sit down for a chat in Tiny Telephone studio A where they discuss borrowing money, the opening of Tiny Telepho

Matt Wallace is an American record producer. He is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, and has been producing professionally since the early 1980s. He is best known for his work with Faith No More, Maroon 5, O.A.R., The Replacements, and Train.Wallace has produced some of Faith No More’s most iconic recordings, including We Care a Lot, their debut album on Mordam Records. He produced and mixed their breakthrough album, The Real Thing, which featured the hit song, “Epic.” He produced Angel Dust, named the #1 most influential album of all time by Kerrang!. In 2015, he joined the band again to co-mix their album, Sol Invictus. The album debuted at number 1 on the Billboard Hard Rock Album chart.He produced albums for The Replacements (Don’t Tell A Soul), Paul Westerberg (14 Songs) and John Hiatt (Perfectly Good Guitar). He co-produced the debut Juno-nominated album for Canadian singer

Piper Payne is a Mastering Engineer at Coast Mastering (formerly Michael Romanowski Mastering) in San Francisco. Piper is the Vice President of the SF Chapter of the Recording Academy and she Co-Chairs the SF Producers and Engineers Wing. She also serves on the Education Committee. In addition she is an active member of the AES and the Women's Audio Mission, as well as being the CEO of Giving Stage. Piper is an audio educator and lectures often about mastering and recording. She is also a first-call for large venue concert and classical recordings.Piper began her career with a BFA in Audio from the University of Michigan, continuing her Graduate education in Audio at the University of Stavanger in Norway. Piper has apprenticed under some of the best Mastering and audio mentors in the world, including Bob Katz in Orlando and Michael Romanowski in San Francisco. Piper moved to San Francisco after working at the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada as the Senior Audio Associate in a work-study program that had her cl

Eli Crews has been recording since the early-'90s, when he started making weirdo fractured music on 4-track machines, hugely inspired by The Residents and early Devo. At the time he was also a very active musician, playing guitar and bass in a zillion and a half San Francisco bands. Over the course of making a few albums at small studios owned by Myles Boisen and Kyle Statham, he became inspired to pursue recording himself. Already being part of a vibrant music community, it was easy to find musicians and bands to practice his skills on. Things have luckily come a long way since then. Artists Eli has had the enormous fortune to work with, either in the studio or onstage, include tUnE-yArDs, ?uestlove, Yoko Ono, Kathleen Hanna/The Julie Ruin, Yuka Honda/Cibo Matto, Sean Ono Lennon/The GOASTT, Yo La Tengo, Laurie Anderson, Marc Ribot, Deerhoof, WHY?, Son Lux, Colin Stetson, Mike Watt, Erase Errata, Scott Amendola, Jeff Parker (Tortoise), Fred Frith, Ben Goldberg, Nels Cline (Wilco), Greg Cohen (Masada/Tom

Eric Valentine, is a record producer, who began his career as drummer and producer in the heavy metal band T-Ride. He subsequently produced albums for artists such as Good Charlotte, Taking Back Sunday, Nickel Creek, Queens of the Stone Age, Third Eye Blind, Smash Mouth, The All-American Rejects, Persephone’s Bees, and Slash, among others.Eric chats with Matt about Undertone Audio, DIY acoustics, recording Dave Grohl & Dennis Chambers plus working his ass off and the importance of bringing your A-game. Moto the Bulldog makes an appearance by snoring during the interview.Barefoot Recording (Eric's Studio)Undertone Audio 

Greg Wurth is a Grammy Nominated, Gold & Platinum award-winning producer, working as Manager and Chief Engineer at L.A.’s Mothership Studio and Patagonia Studio. His credits range from Steve Vai and Tony MacAlpine to Tracii Guns to Jim Florentine & Don Jamieson, 2Cellos and Mary J Blige. Greg has been Steve Vai’s Engineer for 10 years and spends much his time  in the “Harmony Hut” studio in Encino, CA where Greg and Steve currently do all of Vai’s projects.“I grew up in southern San Diego. My parents were big fans of music and introduced me to The Beatles and Led Zeppelin early on. I used to collect cassettes & CD’s in the early ’90s and eventually I became interested enough to play an instrument, so I bought a guitar. I took lessons for a few years and had some bands but I realized that it wasn’t a natural thing for me. I eventually figured out that I was meant to produce and engineer music.”Matt and Greg chat about working for Steve Vai and what he's learned from working with Vai over the years,

Kim Rosen grew up in the western Massachusetts town of Northampton. Known for its amazing college music scene, the town and surrounding area is infamous for spawning such ground-breaking acts as Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr. and Buffalo Tom…just to name a few.Kim realized early-on that music was a driving force in her life. She poured herself into the local music scene while searching out a way to carve a path for herself. It was in the summer of 2001 that a friend turned her on to a mastering studio in NJ that was looking for an intern. Kim jumped at the opportunity, moved to NJ and began her journey with West West Side Music.After a couple of years in production, training and assisting in sessions, Kim was given the opportunity to take on her own mastering projects. While engineering at West West Side Kim racked up a few hundred mastering credits including notable projects from Jeremy Enigk, Franz Ferdinand, Dashboard Confessional and La Dispute.In 2009 Kim dove in head-first and made

Bird and Egg studio owner Nino Moschella is a multi-instrumentalist, recording engineer, and producer, who has been professionally engineering and producing for 15 years (though his interest in record-making started nearly 25 years ago). Born into a musical family, Nino began playing drums at the age of 6 when his father asked him to keep time on the snare drum at a band rehearsal after the band’s drummer failed to show. At that point, Nino was hooked and in time added vocals, guitar, bass, and keyboard to his repertoire.Moschella opened Bird and Egg in 2009. The studio has thrived and become a favorite of many of the Bay Area’s top musicians and singers. Moschella has had the opportunity to have supported the creation of a vastly diverse range of music for artists including, The late Skip Pitts (Issac Hayes Guitar player), Dennis Coffey, Chief Xcel of Blackalicious, Ledisi, Bernard Purdie, Laurie Lewis, Galactic, Ladybug Mecca (Digable Planets), Ashling Cole