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Mr. Bonzai Hosting Bold “Producers” Panel At Upcoming 2014 NAMM Show

Some of today's most creative producer/engineers will they reveal the inside story of their success

Award-winning photographer/music journalist Mr. Bonzai hosts the slashing-edge panel “Producers” in the Winter NAMM H.O.T Zone (Hands On Training) on Friday, January 24 at this year’s show in Anaheim.

Some of today’s most creative producer/engineers will they reveal the inside story of their success and the pitfalls they have encountered. Mr. Bonzai moderates, with Michael Bradford, Billy Bush and Ken Jordan.

Day: Friday, January 24, 2014
Start Time: 01:30 pm
Duration: 1 hour 30 min
Room: The Forum (203 A-B)
Presenter: Mr. Bonzai

Michael Bradford
Michael Bradford lives in L.A., but his heart and soul were made in Detroit, where he was born, and where he first learned to play music. One of the most versatile musicians and producers in music, Bradford has worked with a stunning variety of top artists. He has written, produced and engineered records for Kid Rock, Uncle Kracker, Stevie Nicks, Anita Baker, New Radicals and Beth Hart, in addition to creating dozens of orchestral arrangements for records, film and TV.

Bradford has worked extensively in film and TV, notably with composer Paul Buckmaster (Murder In Mind, The Maker) Terence Trent D’arby (The Fan), Uncle Kracker (Osmosis Jones, American Pie 2), and Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana). Bradford is the co-writer and producer of Uncle Kracker’s #1 smash “Follow Me,” and the producer of his #1 cover of Dobie Grey’s classic “Drift Away.” He has also coproduced Kid Rock’s triple-platinum LP, “The History of Rock,” and engineered the New Radicals classic “Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too.”

Bradford has recently produced and written songs for Jem, John Mellencamp, Deep Purple and Travis Tritt. He has performed live as the music director for artists Dave Stewart, Kid Rock and Ringo Starr. Another recent highlight for Bradford was Stevie Nicks’ new album “In Your Dreams”, where he played bass on various tracks, and co-produced the song “Cheaper Than Free”. Bradford’s latest work can be heard in the Film “About Time”, where he co-produced a new recording of Ben Folds’ song “The Luckiest”, featuring Folds and a full orchestra. Bradford has also recently produced music for the film “The Getaway”, as well as the upcoming film “Life Of Crime”, based on a novel by the legendary Elmore Leonard. “The Long Night” is the first full-length album, coming soon from Michael Bradford, writer, producer and musician. A mix of rock and ambient, with some trip-hop influences, it is perhaps the missing link between Massive Attack and Pink Floyd.

Billy Bush
Record producer, engineer and mixer Billy Bush is well known for his extensive work with multi-platinum rock band Garbage. In addition to producing, engineering and mixing records for Garbage, Bush joins the band on tour to help reconcile their technological needs with their live performance. The result has pushed the boundaries of and blurred the lines between live performance and recorded music. As a mixer, Bush’s credits include The Naked & Famous’s Passive Me, Aggressive You (Fiction), Snow Patrol’s single “In The End” from Fallen Empires (Polydor), and Neon Trees’ Picture Show, including the single “Everybody Talks” which reached #6 on the Billboard 200.

Also an accomplished producer, Bush produced, engineered, and mixed Fink’s Perfect Darkness (Ninja Tune), as well as French band Superbus’s Sunset (Polydor France) and The Boxer Rebellion’s Promises (Absentee). Recently, Bush engineered and mixed The Naked and Famous’s song “Following Morning,” which will appear on the Dallas Buyers Club soundtrack. He also recently completed mixing Los Angeles band NO’s forthcoming album, as well as English singer and songwriter Jake Bugg’s forthcoming Shangri La (Mercury), produced by Rick Rubin. He is currently mixing the forthcoming album from Eastern Conference Champions, and is set to produce the follow up to Fink’s critically acclaimed Perfect Darkness.

Ken Jordan
Celebrated producer and songwriter Ken Jordan is one of the founding members of the Grammy-nominated, platinum-selling electronic music duo The Crystal Method. Originally formed in 1993 in Las Vegas, NV, The Crystal Method has been heralded by the Village Voice as “one of the best live dance acts on Earth.” Together with production partner Scott Kirkland, The Crystal Method have been known for over a decade for their enduring dance floor anthems (“Now Is The Time,” “Keep Hope Alive”), airwave smashes (“Trip Like I Do”) and a willingness to collaborate with an array of talent-including rock’s elite like Scott Weiland, Matisyahu, New Order’s Peter Hook, Emily Haines of Metric and Filter’s Richard Patrick.

TCM has dominated the remix, film soundtrack, television, gaming and advertising worlds, most recently helping Victoria’s Secret drop jaws with music for a TV commercial campaign and collaborating with soundtrack heavyweight Danny Elfman for several contributions to Hollywood blockbuster Real Steel. Their platinum-status debut album Vegas (released in 1997) is one of the biggest-selling electronic albums of all time, landing them in the top five of best-selling electronic acts in America. TCM scored the film London, as well as the themes for TV shows “Bones” and “Third Watch,” and were the first act to work with Nike for their running soundtrack series.

In his spare time, Jordan serves as a board member of the Electronic Music Alliance (EMA)-a public charity, non-profit organization and global membership alliance uniting the electronic music industry and community to be the “Sound of Change,” cultivating, collaborating and celebrating social responsibility, environmental stewardship, community building and volunteerism-an avid hockey player, environmentalist and electric car driver.

Mr. Bonzai
Award-winning photographer, filmmaker and music journalist Mr. Bonzai has written over 1,000 articles for magazines in the U.S., Europe and Asia. His photos and stories have appeared in Rolling Stone, Billboard, Mix, EQ, Pro Sound News, Keyboard, Daily Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times, and the New York Times. He has authored seven books, including “Faces of Music” (Cengage, 2006) “Music Smarts” (Berklee Press, 2009) and “John Lennon’s Tooth” (BookBaby 2012).

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