Indie Music Insights with John Neff

Engineer Extraordinaire

John Neff started playing in bands in the Detroit area in 1963; He made my first record in ’65, another one in ’67, my first album in ’69 and ’70. for about 125 non Motown R&B records as a session guitarist between ’70 and ’73, toured for many, years with lots of different bands. He moved to Toronto, then Phoenix, then Hawaii for almost 14 years, built a studio there with Walter Becker from Steely Dan, we did the ‘Kamakiriad’ album for Donald Fagen and Walter’s Solo album. Walter bought him out in ’92, and I moved to Phoenix, built a great big studio over there started designing studios.1979 saw a move to Maui, Hawaii, where he retired from touring but not the music business. Neff did a morning radio show for nine years, started a Hawaiian record company and built a recording studio with Walter Becker from Steely Dan.Artists worked with there include Buffy Ste. Marie, Donald Fagen and Willie Nelson.Moving back to the mainland in 1993, he spent a dozen years in Hollywood, nine of which were working with film director David Lynch. He recorded the scores for and mixed the films, “The Straight Story” and “Mulholland Drive” for which he received a technical Oscar nomination. He also mixed all of David’s earlier films in 5.1 surround for their DVD releases and has an album out with Lynch titled “BlueBOB”. A move to Marin County in 2005 resulted in John working at the legendary Plant Studios with artists such as Journey, Sammy Hagar, Michael Franti and more. John has mixed 17 Feature Films, and three shorts, and worked on approximately 450 music recordings over the last fifty years in the business, and been nominated for a Grammy as well as receiving numerous Gold and Platinum awards. http://www.johnneff2.com