22
Jun
My introduction to Mediasound came on November 3, 1970. I was the guitar player in a New Jersey band called “Brandywine”. The band had been around for a while trying to hawk our original songs to anyone who would listen, previously we had recorded demos at Dick Charles and Allegro. My impression was that Dick Charles was basically a factory workshop for jingles (we were REALLY rushed in between sessions) and Allegro was a windowless basement studio that churned out dozens of “bubble gum” hits. At Allegro we were not allowed to use any of our own gear, the room was set up so that a band could literally walk in, plug in, sit down and record!! I wouldn’t be surprised if the faders on the console had never been moved !!
In October of 1970 the band had acquired a demo deal with Richie Havens’ “Stormy Forest Productions” how exciting it was! We rehearsed at Richie’s loft down on Perry Street and then we were off to record at a studio in town, Mediasound on 57th Street. Nothing could have prepared me for the glorious room that we were about to enter. Of course my first impression was the enormous size of studio “A” and the massive electronic mass on the east wall known as “Tonto” an aptly named synthesizer that was manned by two Media staffers, Bob Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil. This was a year before they would team up with Stevie Wonder for several magnificent albums. The console was a custom job, the predecessor to the Neve that would later be installed and the tape machine was a one inch twelve track Scully.
Bob Margouleff was the engineer on the session, I had worked with several engineers before but they all seemed as though they couldn’t give two hoots about the creativity that was going on behind the glass. Their attitude was like …ok lets go..time for lunch.
Ted Baron was the producer, however Bob took over the session; he was animated, smart, funny and had a lot to say about what and how we performing in the studio, plus the recording sounded amazing !! Nothing ever happened with that recording but I was left with a great impression of Mediasound and Bob Margouleff which gave me the initial inspiration for a lasting career.
The band also went to Chicago in the summer of 1971 to record a LP for Brunswick Records, Bruce Swedien was the engineer! Bruce also was a huge inspiration for me.
Fast forward (pun intended) to June 1972 Somerville, New Jersey. My childhood friend Michael Bonagura (later of Baillie and the Boys) has introduced me to Tony Camillo and Tony Bongiovi, partners in a studio called Venture Sound. The bands are gone, I’m living in my parent’s basement with my first wife and my nine month old son, Jason…..I’m collecting unemployment.
I start hanging out at Venture hoping to get into engineering; Tony B. is on staff at Mediasound. One sunny day he asks me to join him for a day of sessions, the daytime session was Kool & the Gang, the evening was Buzzy Feiten. Tony always parked his car in New Brunswick and took the bus into town, I hate buses, I go anyway, this is a golden opportunity to see a master at work.
I meet up with Tony at his home in Raritan NJ, (which is adjacent to the Bongiovi Funeral home, the family business) and eagerly take the bus trip into the city.
We arrive at Mediasound for the 10 AM session and I watch Tony set up for tracking, the band sets down an infectious groove, throws down a great take and are now eager to do vocals and some overdubs. Back in ’72 for this session Kool and the boys were recording and finishing a track in 2 three hour sessions! As we set up to do vocals Tony gets a level, turns to me and says “Eddie, I’m gonna go out and get some sandwiches, you sit down here and record the vocals, what kind of sandwich do ya want?”.
Me?….record vocals? Hummana..hummana…not only had I never sat down behind a console before but I never had operated the monstrous Ampex MM1000 16 track machine lurking in the corner. Not to mention I had just gotten over a hour long bout with nervous hiccups, I think there’re coming back. Tony leaves, I sit down, we start vocals, we punch in some lines, listen back and the vocalist tells me “OK that’s cool, let’s go to another track and try one more”
Another track…hmmmm sweaty palms… well I saw Tony fooling around with those cables over there (the patch bay), thank heaven that there were little numbers indicating the tracks. But what track should I record on? I guess these 16 switches on the 2 inch machine flip up and down for some reason, oh look its up, its red..I guess that’s in record now. We continue, I’m totally stressed but I keep my KOOL (pun intended again) and we do more overdubs, percussion etc.
What about Tony?? He left at Noon, it’s now 2:30PM I’m having a great time and we are finishing up. Suddenly a dapper gentleman dressed in a jacket and tie appears at the control room door, he is very cordial; Kool recognizes him, the gentleman smiles and shakes hands with everybody in the room until he looks at me operating the console and tape machine. The cordial look slightly disappears from his face, he walks up to me and curiously looks me in the eye and addresses me “What are you doing? Who are you? Where’s TONY?” he is not letting on to the client that something is amiss. The words “He went out to get a sandwi” hardly get out of my mouth when as though on cue Tony walks in with a brown paper bag and finishes my sentence “Sandwich’s anyone?”.
Tony introduces us, “Bob Walters, meet Eddie Stasium, I’ve been teaching Eddie engineering and I let him sit in for a minute, he is really talented” Tony winks at me. Bob (then manager of Mediasound) shakes my hand and smiles with relief, “If Tony says you’re all right then you must be in the right place” …..I hope that my hiccups don’t come back, return the greeting to Mr. Walters and seriously hope that Tony got mustard on my liverwurst sandwich.
That day prepared me for a career I’d never expected to have, I stayed at Venture for three years, did a one year stint at Le Studio Morin Heights in Montreal and returned to New York in September of 1976 to take a position as a staff engineer for Bob Walters and Tony Bongiovi at a new studio called Power Station.
I left Power Station shortly after they opened it to the public, Mr. Walters did not want to lock out Studio “A” for a project I wanted to do and I quickly became an independent. I brought the project to Mediasound and started a relationship that lasted through the “End of Days” there.
An amazing amount of talent came out of those days at Mediasound, it’s a who’s-who of the Producer/Engineer/Mixer genre, we all know who they are.. geez the list is endless!
It was one big happy family, it was my college education and the camaraderie of the staff was unparalleled. I never was an official staffer at Mediasound but manager Susan Planer took me under her wing and I consider myself an “honorary member” of the Mediasound alumni.
