Bob Clearmountain

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]

Bob Clearmountain
Clearmountain in 2017
Born (1953-01-15) January 15, 1953
Connecticut, United States
NationalityAmerican
OccupationMusic engineer, audio mixer, producer
Years active1977–present
Spouse(s)Betty Bennett
Awards

Biography

As a teenager, Clearmountain had many friends who were musicians or aspirants. He loved music, 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 would also love 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 New York. So 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's 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.

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]

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 producer

References
  1. Bob Cleamountain's Associated Artists List Archived November 25, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  2. Droney, Maureen (March 1, 2004). "Bob Clearmountain". Bob Clearmountain | Mixonline.com. www.mixonline.com. Retrieved August 13, 2016.
  3. "Master Mixer Bob Clearmountain". Sound on Sound, June 1999
  4. Buckley, David (2005) [1999]. Strange Fascination – David Bowie: The Definitive Story. London: Virgin Books. p. 359. ISBN 978-0-75351-002-5.
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