Squire’s unique in that he tends to introduce electronic touches not usually associated with pop-punk to his best productions. He got his feet wet in production during high school, in a band called Ashes. “We had a studio in my mom’s basement where we recorded our own stuff,” he explains. “That’s kind of how we cut our teeth and that’s how I fell into the production thing. I’m a song guy, not a technical guy. But nobody had enough money to pay for me and an engineer. So I learned the technical part of it. That’s been essential — not only because I could do lower-budget stuff and bands could take chances on me even if they didn’t have a lot of money, but also from the perspective that, if I understand everything that’s going on, I have a better ability to craft that song. Having that working technical knowledge is a real integral part of production these days.”
— Matt Ashare

Steve Albini

Steve Albini
Landmark work Pixies, Surfer Rosa; Nirvana, In Utero
Ass-kicking recent release Scout Niblett, This Fool Can Die Now
Wrestling name The Atomizer!
Steve Albini? How about Steve Almeanie? His verdict on Pixies’ full-length debut, 1988’s Surfer Rosa: “A patchwork pinch loaf from a band who, at their top-dollar best, are blandly entertaining college rock.” And he produced the damn thing. But if Albini is wont to badmouth his clients from time to time — don’t even get him started on Urge Overkill — one must also give him this: the man knows how to record a drum set. Albini disputes that he’s got a “sound.” But he does. Its roots are in the scabrous, precise noise of his own bands, beginning with Big Black and later finding its apotheosis with Shellac. Hallmarks: loud, crisp guitars; bass and drums interlocking in spare, scrupulous singularity; relatively unobtrusive vocals; a hint of echo. At his Electrical Audio studios in Chicago, Albini eschews multi-tracking in favor of live recording: the ambience of the room caught just so, thanks to his meticulous arranging and rearranging of microphones. But while his signature recordings share a certain rough-cut robustness, he’s worked with an astounding variety of artists, including Cheap Trick, Gogol Bordello, Plant and Page, Joanna Newsom, Palace Music, and Magnolia Electric Co., among scores of others. And he doesn’t take royalties — to do so would be “an insult to the band” — instead charging either a flat fee or a sliding-scale rate based on an artist’s ability to pay. So, maybe he’s not so mean after all.
— Mike Miliard

Jon Brion

Jon Brion
Landmark work Kanye West, Graduation
Ass-kicking recent release Spoon, “The Underdog”
Wrestling name Sugar Magnolia!
A behind-the-scenes fixture on the LA singer-songwriter scene, Jon Brion sees no reason why a nice little folk-pop album can’t offer the same amount of ear-tickling detail as a state-of-the-art hip-hop track. His productions for Aimee Mann, Robyn Hitchcock, and Old 97’s frontman Rhett Miller are compact marvels of instrumental and textural detail. Ironically, it was his work on a version of Fiona Apple’s Extraordinary Machine album (a version that never saw the light of day) that brought him as close as he ever has been to household-name status. After squabbles with Apple and the label, Brion was canned and the album was finished by Mike Elizondo (see below), but a leaked Brion version of the album became an illicit Internet sensation, and Brion used the renown to expand his portfolio. First, he became a go-to guy for whimsical film-score sounds (that’s him plucking your heartstrings in Punch-Drunk Love and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). Second, he started making state-of-the-art hip-hop tracks. Kanye West hired him to juice up material on both Late Registration and the new Graduation. Brion the orchestral maximalist also produced “The Underdog,” the hit cut on indie-rock minimalists Spoon’s recent Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, which demonstrates his growing devotion to diversification.|
— Mikael Wood

Danger Mouse

Danger Mouse
Landmark work Danger Mouse, The Grey Album; Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere
Highly anticipating upcoming release Black Keys’ next album, as yet unnamed
Wrestling name Ikonoklast!
Known to his mother and to the Social Security Administration as 30-year-old Brian Burton, Danger Mouse has made a career out of defying easy description. Is he a smart-ass underground hip-hop guy, as suggested by his work with rappers Jemini and MF Doom? Or is he a touchy-feely soul-music maven, best represented by his hit collaboration with Cee-Lo in Gnarls Barkley? He’s also worked with scruffy hipster bands such as the Rapture and Sparklehorse — so is he a rock dude? The answer to all questions is, Yes. Danger first turned heads with 2004’s Internet-only The Grey Album, his meticulous mash-up of Jay-Z’s The Black Album raps with the Beatles’ “White Album” music. Since then, he’s treated the strictures of genre with very little respect. If it’s a sonic signature you’re looking for, start with chewy beats and then proceed to catchy choruses and crisp headphone background noise. But most important, expect the unexpected: Danger’s currently at work in the studio with the Ohio blues-rock duo the Black Keys, and he just finished work on a new album by former Tricky associate Martina Topley-Bird. He’s most interested in keeping us guessing.
— Mikael Wood