Renowned music producer Michael Beinhorn has had a legendary career working with superstar acts such as Soundgarden, Korn, Marilyn Manson, Hole, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ozzy Osbourne, Herbie Hancock and many more.
His recordings have achieved combined worldwide sales of more than 45 million albums, and he is one of only a handful of producers to have two separate recordings debut on Billboard’s Top Ten in the same week, with Marilyn Manson’s “Mechanical Animals” (#1) and Hole’s “Celebrity Skin” (#9) which also earned him a 1998 Grammy nomination for Producer of the Year.
In recent years, Beinhorn has turned his attention to the concerns facing today’s artists and producers attempting to maintain their creative ethics and focus on the recording process.
His latest venture focuses on the art of pre-production, where he works closely with clients on such facets of the recording process as song selection, song repair, song arrangement/orchestration, project overview and more.
Most recently Beinhorn worked with Weezer on the band’s latest recording ‘The Black Album.’ Beinhorn says, “I got involved with the project after 4 songs had already been recorded and mixed and continued with it until it was done. Rivers (Cuomo) sent me demos of songs he was planning on recording and I gave him detailed feedback about structural and foundational elements such as composition, lyrics arrangement, etc. My involvement on the project was completely separate from the album production, which was often taking place simultaneously. As the album progressed, we had further discussions about song selection and later, post-production details like orchestration and mix down.”
In speaking about the importance of pre-production on any recording, Beinhorn states, “Most of the musicians I encounter these days who want to go into a recording studio have absolutely no idea that they will drastically improve their end result if they simply take enough time beforehand with a trusted third party to properly assess and optimize what they’re going to be recording. Without pre-production, an artist who has a bunch of songs they want to record will only know if they’re any good once they’ve recorded them since they haven’t had a chance to see what’s working and what isn’t. With all that in mind, I decided to offer this service to artists who need it the most. I did it because it’s vitally important and artists will be able to make better recordings as a result.”
He says, “The process starts with me listening to demos of music that the artist plans on recording. From there, I go through all of it in great detail and determine how it can be improved. I come back to the artist with my notes and the collaboration begins from there. One side benefit is that once the artist has my initial ideas, their brain gets a major jumpstart and they’ll usually come back to me with a whole slew of new ideas and extrapolations on what I gave them. It becomes a very inspiring exchange which goes back and forth a few times (generally three or four) and concludes either with the artist being ready to record their music or with me rehearsing the artist and then them being ready to record. It’s all incredibly basic, logical and cost-effective (since all the work is done remotely over email and/or a video conferencing app such as Skype). I know this process works because I’ve incorporated the exact same method on every recording I’ve done over the past four decades with seasoned pros and beginners, alike.” Find out more about Michael Beinhorn’s pre-production services at: www.michaelbeinhorn.com.
| To inquire about Michael Beinhorn’s services, visit: www.michaelbeinhorn.com |
About Michael Beinhorn:
Michael Beinhorn has lived his life in the pursuit of artistic expression, first as a visual artist, then as a performer, and finally as a record producer.
Forgoing a promising career in medical illustration, Beinhorn began his musical endeavors in 1979 as co-founder of the seminal New York musical collective Material. The group’s singular style and strong artistic personalities led to their producing their own recordings out of necessity. As the band rose to prominence, in 1980 they were approached by Brian Eno, collaborating on the track “Lizard Point” from Eno’s acclaimed recording “Ambient 4: On Land.”
In 1983, Beinhorn co-produced Herbie Hancock’s landmark recording, Future Shock, which included the groundbreaking cut “Rockit.” The song, co-written and co-produced by Beinhorn, would become Columbia Records’ most successful 12-inch single ever, selling over three million copies and winning a Grammy in 1984 for Best R&B Instrumental Recording.
After departing Material in 1984, Beinhorn’s production career began to reach new heights. His work on the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ breakthrough albums “The Uplift Mofo Party Plan” and “Mother’s Milk” was instrumental in propelling the band to stardom.
Beinhorn gained a reputation for producing a number of “high watermark” albums that have helped to define the careers of a diverse range of artists, including Soul Asylum, Hole, Soundgarden, Ozzy Osbourne, Courtney Love, Marilyn Manson, Social Distortion, Korn, Golden Palominos, and Mew.
In addition to producing, arranging, engineering, co-writing, and performing on many of his projects, Beinhorn’s attention to detail and tireless pursuit of sonic excellence led him to develop and commission the first two-inch eight-track Ultra-Analog multitrack tape recording format.
In 2015, Beinhorn authored the book “Unlocking Creativity: A Producers Guide To Making Music and Art”, published by Hal Leonard. He continues to inspire the artists he works with to excel to greater heights, with an unwavering commitment to sonic exploration and creative excellence.
