Musician

My father loved people, children and pets.

I am not a creature of habit.

Since my teen years I was interested in martial arts.

Today a record producer is even more involved and is often the production's sole musician, one person playing all the instruments one-by-one.

Our last jam session was this past Christmas. Dad played his harmonica, mom sang in English and Italian, and I played guitar. I'm so happy that we could share that musical experience for one last time.

Marc Bolan had inspired so many people to pick up a guitar and join a band.

I also mixed David Bowie's Young Americans album in 5.1 earlier this year and it will be available very soon. Even the original stereo mixes have been re-mastered and sound amazingly good, better than ever, in fact!

My father had a brilliant scholastic record in high school and was awarded a college scholarship. Unfortunately he had to turn it down so that he could continue to support his family.

My dad's sense of humor was direct and sometimes surreal - his quick wit is well known amongst our family and friends. He raised me on Spike Jones records and W.C. Fields movies, and his sense of humor fell somewhere in between.

Rock and Roll has certainly tried to take its toll on me. I'd rather not talk about my past excesses here, although some hardcore rockers might argue that those excesses were responsible for some great records, but I know which side I came out on.

In August most of Europe goes on holiday.

My profession is called record production.

Now I know what it's like to be a rock star. No, I didn't sleep with 5 groupies at once. But I was interviewed about 45 times in 5 days in 3 cities.

Today's recording techniques would have been regarded as science fiction forty years ago.

But some great records are are being made with today's technology and there are still great artists among us. Likewise there are artists today who are so reliant on modern technology, they wouldn't have emerged when recording was more organic.

Originally a record producer more or less hired a bunch of professionals to participate in a recording session, the performers and the technicians, and a music director was put in charge. That directly related to a film producer's job.

No one else in our family was a professional musician so this took an enormous leap of faith on their part.

It is easily overlooked that what is now called vintage was once brand new.

I could never have a better teacher in those days than my father.

I make records with an open mind, I always have.