Sylvia Massy

Sylvia Lenore Massy is an American record producer, mixer, and engineer. Undertow (1993), a full-length triple platinum-selling debut for alternative metal band Tool from Los Angeles,^[1] was her major breakthrough. In addition she has worked with System of a Down,^[2] Johnny Cash,^[3] Red Hot Chili Peppers,^[4] and South Cry, a Brazilian rock band.

Massy's first project was in the mid-1980s as producer, engineer, and mixer for a compilation album titled Rat Music for Rat People, Vol. 3 on the CD Presents label.^[5] Acts featured included Adolescents, Raw Power, Doggy Style and Mojo Nixon. Next she produced the punk band Verbal Abuse for Boner Records,^[6] was an engineer on two projects for metal band Exodus,^[7] and co-produced the Sea Hags independent album with a young Kirk Hammett,^[8] a guitarist who had just finished recording the Master of Puppets album with thrash metal group Metallica. She also produced "Television, Drug of a Nation" by the Beatnigs, the former band of Michael Franti from the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy's.^[9]

In the late 1980s, Massy moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles and worked at Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard.^[10] At Tower she met the members of Green Jellö (later known as Green Jellÿ), a band from Buffalo, New York and recorded their debut album. After becoming a staff engineer at Larrabee Sound in West Hollywood, California, Massy was hired by Zoo Records/BMG to produce Green Jellö's major label debut album^[11] featuring members of a new Los Angeles group called Tool. On Green Jellö's Cereal Killer album, Tool's Maynard James Keenan sings on "Three Little Pigs", and Tool's drummer Danny Carey plays on the album.^[12] A relationship was begun between Massy and Tool leading to two recordings, Opiate and Undertow.^[10]

In Los Angeles, Massy was an engineer, producer, or mixer on recordings from artists including Aerosmith, Babyface, Big Daddy Kane, Bobby Brown, Prince,^[13] Julio Iglesias, Seal, Skunk Anansie,^[14] Paula Abdul, Ryuichi Sakamoto and others. She worked with manager Gary Kurfirst on Irish rock band Cyclefly for Kurfirst's Radioactive Records.^[15] At Larrabee Sound, Sylvia connected with producer Rick Rubin and worked with him on several projects over seven years.

From 1994 until 2001, Massy's vintage Neve 8038 console and other specialized recording equipment occupied Studio B at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California. Besides Massy's work at Sound City, several other successful projects were recorded on her equipment during those years including albums by Sheryl Crow,^[16] Queens of the Stone Age,^[16] Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, the Smashing Pumpkins, the Black Crowes, and Lenny Kravitz.^[16] Massy's equipment is visible in many scenes of Dave Grohl's film Sound City.

Massy engineered and mixed several projects for producer Rick Rubin on his label American Recordings, including Johnny Cash's album Unchained,^[17] which won a Grammy award for Best Country Album in 1997. With Rubin, she recorded Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Slayer, Donovan, Geto Boys, the Black Crowes, Danzig, and System of a Down's debut album.^[18] In the '90s, Massy produced material for Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sevendust, and Powerman 5000, which featured guest appearances from Rob Zombie^[19] and actor Malachi Throne and also newcomer Pauley Perrette.^[20] In 1997 Massy mixed the Beastie Boys' "Tibetan Freedom Concert"^[21] on Randall’s Island in Manhattan, New York with Adam Yauch and producer Pat McCarthy.

Beginning in 2001, Massy owned and operated RadioStar Studios in the Weed Palace Theater^[22] until it closed in 2012. She acquired the theater in 2001 in Weed, California, and operated it as a recording studio for 11 years with notable clients: Sublime, Dishwalla, Swirl 360, Econoline Crush, Cog, Spiderbait, Norma Jean, Built To Spill, and From First To Last (featuring Sonny Moore of Skrillex.)^[23] Several international hits have emerged from RadioStar Studios in conjunction with Massy. Notable achievements include Spiderbait's "Black Betty", which reached No. 1 on the ARIA Singles Chart in Australia in 2004, and Cog's debut album The New Normal, which received a nomination into Triple J's "Album of the Year" J Award in 2005. Additionally, Seigmen's "Metropolis" achieved No. 4 on Norway's sales charts, while Klepht was recognized as the "Best Portuguese Act" by MTV Europe. Econoline Crush earned a Canadian Juno nomination and their 1997 album The Devil You Know was Certified Platinum. Furthermore, Animal Alpha's self-titled EP attained Certified Gold status in Norway in 2005.

In the 2000s, she wrote a regular column in Mix Magazine called "Gear Stories"^[24] contrasting vintage recording equipment with modern equivalents. She wrote an essay about Thomas Edison's contribution to the recording industry which was included in the official Grammy Awards Program. In 2011, Massy co-founded the 4&20 Blackbird Music Festival^[25] which operated for two years in downtown Weed, California. The festival drew approximately 7000 people and featured 250 musical acts during its run.

In January 2015, Massy began to write a book called Recording Unhinged for Hal Leonard Publishing.^[26] The book was published in March 2016. Interviews and contributors for the book include Hans Zimmer, Geoff Emerick, Bob Ezrin, Bruce Swedien, Michael Franti, Bob Clearmountain, Al Schmitt, Elliot Scheiner, Linda Perry, Ross Robinson, Matt Wallace, Ross Hogarth, Shelly Yakus, Paul Wolff. Massy also illustrated the book. The cover of the March 2016 issue of Electronic Musician features Massy's illustration of a dinosaur and a robot battling.

In 2015 and 2018, Massy was a visiting professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston. In 2018 she taught a workshop at the Abbey Road Institute in London. In 2016 she lectured at SAE Institute's audio engineering schools in London and Munich, Germany. She has presented periodic recording workshops in Dresden at Castle Rohrsdorf and at Mix with the Masters in Les Studios de la Fabrique in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in the south of France. In 2017 Massy conducted a workshop and lecture at the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences in Gilbert, Arizona and a workshop at Tecnólogico de Monterrey in Mexico City for several hundred students. She has conducted workshops in Sardinia, Oslo, Gdansk, Poland; and Rome. In 2017, Massy and co-author Chris Johnson began a collaboration for a professional recording course at Berklee based on their book, Recording Unhinged.

In 2019, Massy toured and conducted workshops for Abbey Road Institute locations in Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, and London.

Massy lives in Ashland, Oregon and works in a private studio.^[27] She continues to work as an independent producer, educator, and music promoter. She has appeared on an episode of Pensado's Place, an industry video program with producer/mixer Dave Pensado and was nominated for "The Big Award" at the Pensado Awards in 2014. Massy is a member of NARAS and served on the P&E Wing Steering Committee^[28] and Advisory Boards. In 2009, she traveled to Washington, D.C. to lobby for musicians' performance rights and is involved with musician, producer, and educational advocacy work on behalf of NARAS. In February 2016 Massy won the Music Producers Guild's "MPG Inspiration Award" at the MPG Awards in London. The award was presented by John Leckie.

In 2015 Massy mixed for Cage the Elephant and Soilwork. In late 2015 and early 2016 she oversaw the production of Avatar's album Feathers & Flesh.^[29] In 2016 she recorded Seattle all-woman noise band Thunderpussy in an abandoned nuclear power plant's cooling tower for the song "Torpedo Love".^[30][31] She recorded singer-songwriter Sarah Brendel in the underground venue at the Merkers Show Mine, a retired salt mine in Merkers, Germany. In early 2017 she produced and engineered the Melvins at the Village studio in Santa Monica, California while being filmed by Mix with the Masters. She produced albums by Econoline Crush, Far From Alaska and Dishwalla, and was hired to re-work the recordings of Grey Daze, a side project by Linkin Park's frontman Chester Bennington. In early 2018, Massy produced the MTV Unplugged television broadcast (and then album release) of Molotov, a Mexican rock band in Mexico City. In the summer of 2018 she gained access to the abandoned London Underground station at Aldwych to record British band God Damn on the subway platform.

In 2019 Massy produced and mixed the follow-up to Life of Agony's River Runs Red album, named The Sound of Scars. Tracks were recorded at Studio Divine in Ashland, Oregon. Later in 2019 Massy mixed a solo album for Taylor Hawkins (drummer for Foo Fighters). The album features performances by Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana), Joe Walsh (Eagles), Chrissie Hynde (Pretenders), LeAnn Rimes, Nancy Wilson (Heart), Perry Farrell (Jane's Addiction, Porno For Pyros), Roger Taylor (Queen), Chris Chaney (Porno For Pyros) and Duff McKagan (Guns N' Roses).

Massy has worked on the following projects:^[32]

• Official website
• Sylvia Massy on The Producer Series on Triple J, Archived
• Sylvia Massy at AllMusic
• Sylvia Massy Interview NAMM Oral History Library (2021)