Brendan O'Brien

Brendan O'Brien is a record producer, mixer, engineer, and musician. His career blossomed as a young guitarist with a local Atlanta band by the name of "Pranks" signed by then Century Artists Management. The management company had the best of Atlanta and the region in those days including the likes of "Mother's Finest" "Ezra Pound" and a dozen other "super-regional" acts. In the late 1970s, he moved on to writing, performing and recording with the band Samurai Catfish. His studio career was propelled by the success of the first Black Crowes album, Shake Your Money Maker, on which he played guitar and bass and engineered. He started working in collaboration with newcomer to the LA music scene, Jimmy Boyle, who would go on to record and produce bands including the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Andrew Dice Clay. Boyle credits everything he knows from production, to recording, to even song writing to Brendan and his influence as friend and mentor. In the mid 1990s, O'Brien became vice president of Epic Records and the Epic imprint 57 Records. 14 of the albums O'Brien has produced have reached No. 1 in the U.S. on the Billboard 200 chart.