Michael Beinhorn
Michael Beinhorn is an American musician and record producer.[1] He works primarily with bands in the alternative rock and rock genres, having produced albums for the bands Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soundgarden, Hole, Violent Femmes and Marilyn Manson.
Michael Beinhorn | |
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Origin | United States |
Occupation(s) | Musician, record producer |
Associated acts | Material |
Career
Musician
Beinhorn started his professional career as a musician, playing synthesizer (Micromoog, EML Synthi AKS, Prophet-5, Roland SVC-350 Vocoder, etc) and co-founding the seminal New York band, Material with Bill Laswell (originally the backing band for Daevid Allen's New York Gong LP, 1979) during the early 1980s. He worked with the jazz musician Herbie Hancock as co-writer and co-producer on Hancock's Future Shock album, which contained the hit single "Rockit". Like most tracks on the album, except for the title track, "Rockit" was co-written by Beinhorn and Laswell. "Rockit" quickly became a Billboard #1, and is regarded as one of hip hop's seminal hits; it was the first recording to contain the legendary "Fresh" sample (which Beinhorn had created 2 years prior on a recording by the New York hip hop artist Fab Five Freddy/Beside called "Change The Beat" on Celluloid Records).
Producer
In 1998, Beinhorn received a Grammy nomination for "Producer Of The Year" for his work on Celebrity Skin by Hole and Mechanical Animals by Marilyn Manson. In that year, he became the only producer in history to have two recordings enter the Billboard Album Charts Top Ten in the same week (September 15, 1998), with "Celebrity Skin" at Number 9 and "Mechanical Animals" at Number 1.
Looking for the best way to capture a broad frequency range during the recording process, Beinhorn devised the Ultra Analog Recording format. This process utilizes two inch magnetic tape, running on a custom built 8 track head stack.
Beinhorn has since produced the albums of such artists as; Korn, Marilyn Manson, Soundgarden,[1] Soul Asylum,[1] Red Hot Chili Peppers, Hole, Raging Slab, Ozzy Osbourne, Mew, Social Distortion, The Golden Palominos, and Aerosmith.
In 2015, Beinhorn wrote a book called Unlocking Creativity (published by Hal Leonard) which outlines his personal experience with the creative process as a record producer.
In July 2017, Beinhorn detailed the process of recording Soundgarden’s 1994 album Superunknown while appearing on The Pods & Sods Network. And he shares his reaction to first hearing Black Hole Sun during that time, “I think for the rest of my entire life, until I draw my last breath, I’ll never ever forget how I felt when they started playing that song. From the very first few notes, I felt like I’d been hit by a thunderbolt. I was just absolutely stunned. What in the world is this? I get goosebumps thinking about it now.”[2]
In 2018, being a staunch advocate of album pre-production, Beinhorn started a new business to address the changing music industry climate and the lack of reasonable budgets available to most musicians. Including such services as Song Analysis and Pre-production, he sees this as a way to help musicians achieve their greatest potential while pursuing a return to excellence.
Productions discography
- 1982: One Down - Material
- 1983: Future Shock - Herbie Hancock
- 1984: At the Feet of the Moon - The Parachute Club
- 1986: Love's Imperfection - Idle Eyes
- 1987: The Uplift Mofo Party Plan - Red Hot Chili Peppers
- 1988: Standing at the Edge - Idle Eyes
- 1989: Mother's Milk - Red Hot Chili Peppers
- 1990: Mercurotones - The Buck Pets
- 1991: Why Do Birds Sing? - Violent Femmes
- 1991: Hot Diggity - Raw Youth
- 1992: Grave Dancers Union - Soul Asylum
- 1992: Soul Martini - Cavedogs
- 1993: Numb - Hammerbox
- 1993: Far Gone - Love Battery
- 1994: Superunknown - Soundgarden
- 1994: "Blind Man" and "Walk on Water" - Aerosmith
- 1995: Ozzmosis - Ozzy Osbourne
- 1996: White Light, White Heat, White Trash - Social Distortion
- 1997: Big Windshield Little Mirror - Foam
- 1998: Celebrity Skin - Hole
- 1998: Mechanical Animals - Marilyn Manson
- 1999: The Verve Pipe - The Verve Pipe
- 1999: "Be a Man" - Hole
- 2000: "Painted on My Heart" - The Cult
- 2002: Untouchables - Korn
- 2003: Natural Selection - Fuel
- 2003: Greatest Hits - Red Hot Chili Peppers
- 2004: Lest We Forget: The Best Of - Marilyn Manson
- 2005: Permanent Record: The Very Best of Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes
- 2005: The Best of Fuel - Fuel
- 2005: And the Glass Handed Kites - Mew
- 2006: A Public Display of Affection - The Blizzards
- 2006: Shot to Hell - Black Label Society
- 2006: Nightcrawler - Pete Yorn
- 2006: The Bronx - The Bronx
- 2007: Everything Last Winter - Fields
- 2008: The Sucker Punch Show - Lovedrug
- 2008: Domino Effect - The Blizzards
- 2010: Nobody's Daughter - Hole
- 2015: + - - Mew
- 2016: Control - Kensington
References
- Bambarger, Bradley (30 July 1994). "For Soundgarden, Soul Asylum Producer Michael Beinhorn, Personality Is Paramount". Billboard. Vol. 106 no. 31. p. 110. ISSN 0006-2510.
- "EM54 – Remembering Chris Cornell Part 1". Podoscast.com. 25 July 2017. Retrieved 5 August 2018.