NAMM 2025: Buzz Me In - Birth of Record Plant Recording Studios 1968-1978

NAMM TEC Tracks 2025 - "Buzz Me In - Birth of Record Plant Recording Studios 1968-1978"

Pictured (clockwise from upper left are Ken Caillat, John Storyk, Mr. Bonzai and Bob Margouleff

On Thursday afternoon at this year's Winter NAMM Show, moderator Mr. Bonzai and special guests Ken Caillat, Bob Margouleff and John Storyk will celebrate "Buzz Me In," a new book coming in Spring 2025 documenting the formative decade of the world-famous Record Plant chain of recording studios in New York City, Los Angeles, and Sausalito. "Buzz Me In - The inside story of Record Plant Studios" reveals how the greatest music of the 1970s was recorded.

Jan 23, 2025 - 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM - Hilton California Ballroom A

Ken Caillat is a Grammy-winning record producer and engineer. His legendary work has earned him multiple Grammy nominations including 'Best Engineered Album', and the Grammy award for 'Album of the Year' for Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours," one the best-selling albums of all time. Additionally, he produced Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk", "Mirage," "Live," and "The Chain Box Set." His other credits include superstars Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson, Christine McVie, and many others.

Critically acclaimed recording engineer and producer Robert Margouleff has been at the helm of hit records for Stevie Wonder, DEVO, Oingo Boingo, The Isley Brothers, Depeche Mode, and David Sanborn. Margouleff's work can be found listed multiple times in the official list of Top Records Of All Time.

John Storyk is an architect and acoustician and has provided design and construction supervision services for the professional audio and video recording community since his 1969 design of Jimi Hendrix's Electric Lady Studios in New York City. Since then, he has been responsible for over 3500 world-class audio/video production facilities, including studios, radio stations, video suites, entertainment clubs and theaters.

A highlight of the event will be a look at the creation of the immersive Studio B at Record Plant Los Angeles in 1972. Studio B was outfitted for quadraphonic sound recording and was the home of TONTO, the massive modular synthesizer used by Stevie Wonder to create "Music of My Mind," "Talking Book," "Innervisions," "Fulfillingness' First Finale," and "Songs in the Key of Life," plus over two hundred other songs, many still unreleased.

In the 1970s, Record Plant Studios was at the heart of the largest boom in record production in music history. Founded in 1968 by charismatic audio engineer Gary Kellgren and ace businessman Chris Stone, with complexes in New York, Los Angeles, and Sausalito, with a fleet of remote recording trucks, Record Plant was everywhere there was music. In 1976 alone, the studio produced three No. 1 albums: Stevie Wonder's "Songs in the Key of Life," the Eagles' "Hotel California," and Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours."

Written by two veteran music journalists, the fast-paced and engrossing new book "Buzz Me In: Inside the Record Plant Studios" tells the incredible story of the evolution of the studios tape by tape. Starting on the westside of New York City with the 1968 recording of Jimi Hendrix's "Electric Ladyland," Record Plant expanded to L.A., where Stevie Wonder produced his greatest hits, and then to Sausalito where Sly Stone, Bob Marley, and Fleetwood Mac encamped; John Lennon made New York his post-Beatles home, and the Eagles conceived "Hotel California" while working in L.A. Each location showcased Record Plant's founders' proven formula of combining state-of-the-art audio, fantasy bedrooms, and group Jacuzzis, with sex, drugs, and celebrity jams.

Based on the memoirs and archives of Chris Stone, as well as interviews with more than 100 studio employees, music producers, and recording artists, "Buzz Me In" is a helter-skelter ride through more than a decade's worth of high drama, hedonism, high tech, and musical genius-chronicling the behind-the-scenes stories of classic rock 'n' roll, as told by insiders working behind the iconic studios' locked doors alongside the great rock stars of the 20th century.

About the Authors

Martin Porter is an author, journalist, and publisher who began his career as a technology writer/reporter in the mid-1970s for Rolling Stone, GQ, and Premiere magazines. He has since been one of the leading chroniclers of this golden period in music and audio technology.

David Goggin, aka Mr. Bonzai, is an award-winning author, photographer, and music journalist whose work has been featured in Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Billboard, and The Hollywood Reporter, among others.

The authors manage the popular Record Plant Diaries Facebook page: www.facebook.com/recordplantdiaries

2025 NAMM TEC Track Sessions

https://www.namm.org/thenammshow/sessions/tec-tracks









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