Ed Stasium

• Genres: Rock
• Instrument: Engineer, Mixing, Producer

Biography

Producer Ed Stasium first surfaced in 1970 fronting the band Brandywine, appearing on their sole LP Aged. When he returned to the music industry three years later, it was as a recording engineer, working on a wide variety of projects ranging from the Chambers Brothers' Unbonded to Barry Miles' Magic Theater to Sha Na Na's Sha Na Na Now. Stasium's long affiliation with American punk and new wave -- and the latter-day alternative rock they jointly inspired -- began in 1977, the year he engineered both the Ramones' Leave Home and Talking Heads' Talking Heads '77. His production career began a year later with the Ramones' Road to Ruin, followed in 1979 by work on the group's It's Alive and the soundtrack to the film Rock 'N Roll High School. Stasium enjoyed perhaps his greatest success during the latter half of the 1980s -- in addition to engineering Mick Jagger's Medium Cool, he scored a major hit with Living Colour's Vivid, and also produced acclaimed outings from Soul Asylum (Hang Time), the Long Ryders (Two Fisted Tales) and Julian Cope (Saint Julian). In 1990, he helmed the Smithereens' hit 11, reuniting with the group a year later for Blow Up; Marshall Crenshaw's Life's Too Short and Motorhead's 1916 appeared around the same time. Productions from acts including the Hoodoo Gurus (Crank) and the Reverend Horton Heat (Space Heater) followed as the decade progressed. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide