#101: Tad Kubler: In the studio and on the road with The Hold Steady

In this episode John and Stewart sit down for a chat with friend and mentor Rick Chertoff. Rick is a Producer and songwriter whose career started in A&R for Clive Davis's newly minted Arista records in 1974. From there, he went on to be senior VP of A&R at Columbia records, started his own Blue Gorilla record Label at Polygram, and all the while produced songs and albums for Cyndi Lauper, The Band, Joan Osborne, Sophie B Hawkins, and many others. In this interview Rick discusses his path through the music industry, gets in depth about the writing and recording of Cyndi Lauper's smash first album She's So Unusual, and shares behind the scenes stories from a career filled with hit records.

In this episode John and Stewart sit down for a chat with friend and mentor Rick Chertoff. Rick is a Producer and songwriter whose career started in A&R for Clive Davis's newly minted Arista records in 1974. From there he went on to be senior VP of A&R at Columbia records, started his own Blue Gorilla record Label at Polygram, and all the while produced songs and albums for The Kinks, Air Supply, Cyndi Lauper, The Band, Joan Osborne, Sophie B Hawkins, and many others. In this interview Rick discusses his path through the music industry, gets in depth about the writing and recording of Cyndi Lauper's smash first album She's So Unusual, and shares behind the scenes stories from a career filled with hit records.

In this episode John, Stewart, and myself sit down with Tad Kubler, best known as guitarist and songwriter for the best bar band in the world, The Hold Steady. John and I have both made records with the band and it was awesome to catch up with Tad about gear, guitars, and all things Hold Steady. We also got into Tad's production and engineering work, his burgeoning home studio, and his writing and demoing process.

For our centennial episode, we took a trip down memory lane and revisited all the interviews we've shared over the years. We gathered some of our team's favorite moments—stories that inspired us, moved us, and reminded us why we love making this show. We're incredibly proud of everything we've created together, and we hope you can feel that joy and gratitude in this special episode. Thanks for being here, and we hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed putting it together!

In this episode, I sit down with Grammy award-winning producer, engineer, musician, studio owner, and cool name having Lorenzo Wolf. Lorenzo has worked with artists such as Taylor Swift, Randy Newman, Lauryn Hill and and just about every musician local to New York City. Lorenzo owns and operates the recently expanded and renovated Restoration Sound in Brooklyn, New York, featuring a main tracking studio with a 32-channel 80-series Neve console and multiple production rooms — including one reserved for his Resident C program, a rotating residency supporting local artists. We talk about his work on Grammy-winning albums, his ongoing work with Ms. Lauryn Hill, his unique approach to record-making, and the process of producing his own music. This interview begins after a studio tour of Restoration Sound, which you can also find on our YouTube channel.

This week on Record of the Week, we dive into Rod Stewart's classic song Every Picture Tells a Story. We break down what makes it so memorable, how the band works together, the production choices that make the song stand out, and why it still rocks hard, even 45 years later. If you love classic rock or just want to hear what makes a song timeless, this episode is for you!

Recently, we caught up with Ed Stasium about remixing classic albums from The Replacements and Talking Heads and his dive into the world of immersive audio. In this clip, Ed walks us through remixing the Ramones catalog in Atmos and how he used Eventide's immersive plugins to both stay true to the original recordings and bring them to new life in the spatial audio arena.

Hey everyone! Recently, we had the band ZOPA over to the studio for a listening party! Their new album, Diamond Vehicle, was produced, engineered, and mixed by our very own John Agnello. We had Michael Imperioli on the show in Episode 89 where he talked about his own creative process and the history of the band. In this episode, John sits down with ZOPA to listen through the album and give us a behind the scenes look at the recording, songwriting, creative process, and gear that went into this fantastic record.

In this Record of the Week, John and Stewart dig into Waterloo Sunset by The Kinks. With its dreamy atmosphere, raw mono mix, and Ray Davies' poetic storytelling, the song captures a fleeting moment of beauty in 1960s London. Because of its lo-fi charm, Waterloo Sunset stands as one of the most emotionally resonant and sonically unique recordings of its era.

We first interviewed producer and engineer Ed Stasium in Episodes 80 and 81, where he spoke with John and Stewart about recording some truly seminal albums with Gladys Knight & the Pips, the Ramones, Talking Heads, and Living Colour, as well as his pivotal role in the design and construction of the Power Station in NYC. These episodes offer a fascinating inside look into music history— we highly recommend checking them out. In this episode, John catches up with Ed about his recent work on records from the Hoodoo Gurus and The Dictators, remixing Tim by The Replacements and outtakes from Talking Heads: 77, and his latest immersive audio projects.