Bob Clearmountain
Bob Clearmountain | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Clearmountain in 2017 | |
| Born | January 15, 1953 |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Music engineer, audio mixer, producer |
| Years active | 1977–present |
| Spouse | Betty Bennett |
| Awards | |
Bob Clearmountain (born January 15, 1953) is an American recording engineer, mixer and record producer. He has worked with many major acts, including Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, Toto, Bon Jovi and Bryan Adams, with whom he has a very long association.[1] He has been nominated for four Grammy Awards and won a Latin Grammy Award in 2007 for Best Male Pop Vocal Album for his work with engineering Ricky Martin's "MTV Unplugged". He has also won an Emmy and he has won seven TEC Awards for "Best Recording Engineer", two others for "Best Broadcast Engineer", one special "Les Paul Award" and a Monitor Award for the Rolling Stones' Voodoo Lounge pay-per-view show. He is married to Apogee Electronics CEO, Betty Bennett.[2]
Biography
As a teenager, Clearmountain had many friends who were musicians or aspirants. He loved music, and played bass guitar in a bar band, but felt he did not want to rely on these capricious beings for his career.[3] Always more interested in the technical side, Clearmountain had a makeshift studio at home equipped with a two-track reel-to-reel tape recorder, some microphones and a talkback. He also loved to make tape recordings of the band's concerts. According to an interview with Sound on Sound, Clearmountain was immediately attracted when he entered a professional recording studio for the first time.[3]
His band had been making a demo recording at Mediasound Studios on 57th Street in New York. Determined to make a career in the technical side of the music business, he visited frequently and pestered the studio for a job. He was eventually hired as a gofer.[3] Clearmountain claims that after making about two deliveries, he found staff at the office had been looking for him – they had apparently been expecting him to be working on a recording session, as an assistant engineer. The star-struck new assistant engineer found that his first session was with Duke Ellington.[3]
According to Clearmountain, he was hired as Chief Engineer at the Power Station (now Avatar Studios) as they were opening in around 1977, and had a say in designing the recording studios and choosing the equipment as a rock music studio.[3]
Clearmountain also played bass on the Dead Boys' first album, Young, Loud and Snotty, before Jeff Magnum rejoined the group.
On September 3rd, 2022, Clearmountain recorded and mixed the live broadcast of the Foo Fighters Taylor Hawkins Tribute concert from Wembley Stadium. On September 27th, he recorded the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert at the Los Angeles Forum.
As mixer/producer
Clearmountain has worked with many of the biggest names in music, having, for example, mixed Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A., The Rolling Stones' Tattoo You, and having produced or mixed extensively for Bryan Adams since 1981.[1] He cites works he is most proud of are Aimee Mann's first solo album, Whatever; albums by Australian band Crowded House, Play by Squeeze and Avalon by Roxy Music (1982). He also mixed David Bowie's 1983 album Let's Dance. [4] Live at El Mocambo boxed set 2022 remix He has been nominated for four Grammy Awards and won a Latin Grammy Award in 2007 for Best Male Pop Vocal Album for his work with engineering "MTV Unplugged" for Ricky Martin. He has also won an Emmy and he has won seven TEC Awards for "Best Recording Engineer", two others for "Best Broadcast Engineer", one special "Les Paul Award" and a Monitor Award for the Rolling Stone's Voodoo Lounge pay-per-view show.
Selection of his work as a Mixer
- Bryan Adams' You Want It You Got It, Cuts Like a Knife, Reckless and Into the Fire albums
- Jonatha Brooke's Steady Pull and Careful What You Wish For albums
- The Church's 1982 album The Blurred Crusade
- David Bowie's 1983 album Let's Dance
- Hall & Oates' 1984 album Big Bam Boom
- Paul McCartney's Tripping the Live Fantastic album
- The Pretenders' Get Close album
- Simple Minds' Once Upon a Time album
- The Who's Join Together album
- Michael Stanley Band's 1983 You Can't Fight Fashion album
- The album documenting the Woodstock '94 concert in Saugerties, NY
- The Silencers' Rock 'N' Roll Enforcers album (1980)
References
- ^ a b Bob Cleamountain's Associated Artists List Archived November 25, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Droney, Maureen (March 1, 2004). "Bob Clearmountain". Bob Clearmountain | Mixonline.com. www.mixonline.com. Retrieved August 13, 2016.
- ^ a b c d e "Master Mixer Bob Clearmountain". Sound on Sound, June 1999
- ^ Buckley, David (2005) [1999]. Strange Fascination – David Bowie: The Definitive Story. London: Virgin Books. p. 359. ISBN 978-0-75351-002-5.
External links
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- 1953 births
- Living people
- Record producers from Connecticut
- Grammy Award winners
- Latin Grammy Award winners
- Emmy Award winners
- American audio engineers
- Mixing engineers