- Active: '90s, 2000s
- Genres: Rock
- Instrument: Producer, A&R
Biography
As a producer, Rob Cavallo worked on chart-topping material for Green Day (the 15-million-selling album Dookie, as well as the four-million-selling Insomnia), Goo Goo Dolls, L7, the Dance Hall Crashers, Alanis Morissette ("Uninvited" from the City of Angels soundtrack), Jawbreaker, David Cook, and the Muffs. Born in Washington, D.C., his father owned the Cellar Door and became a manager whose client lists included Little Feat, Weather Report, and Prince. At age ten, Rob Cavallo and his family relocated to Los Angeles, where Cavallo would often accompany his father to the recording studio and learn guitar licks from the blues great Lowell Fulson. Enthusiastic about music,Cavallo spent many hours playing guitar and listening to records in his room. His father bought him a Teac A3340 four-track tape recorder, and Cavallo began to experiment with multi-track recording.In his teens, Cavallo began playing in numerous cover bands. After high school, he went to work for top engineer George Massenburg, building electronic equipment and being second engineer on sessions by Fleetwood Mac and Linda Ronstadt. He also attended the Dick Grove School of Music. Cavallo's father eventually introduced him to Lenny Waronker of Warner Bros./Reprise Records, who offered Cavallo a position in the label's A&R department. He began working closely with A&R head Michael Ostin and other music business luminaries like Ted Templeman, Tommy LiPuma, and Russ Titelman.
Around 1992, fellow A&R employee David Katznelson approached Cavallo about producing his bi-gender band, the Muffs. The project went well and attracted attention from Green Day, a San Francisco band that had yet to break into the mainstream. Cavallo was asked to produce the band's next album, Dookie, which became of the biggest albums of the '90s and helped establish both Green Day and Cavallo himself as industry icons.
Rob Cavallo was made Senior Vice President of Reprise Records; later, he assumed the role of staff producer at Warner Bros. while helping to manage their A&R department. His work can be heard on Clapton Chronicles: The Best of Eric Clapton; the movie soundtracks to The Runaway Bride, City of Angels, Varsity Blues, Detroit Rock City, Godzilla, Clueless, Angus, Tommy Boy, Private Parts, Jerky Boys, National Lampoon's Senior Trip; and such albums as Speak of the Devil by Chris Isaak, Boy Named Goo by Goo Goo Dolls, Nimrod and Insomniac by Green Day, Jump Start by Simon Says, Totally Crushed Out! by that dog, Trailer by Ash, Fourth World by Kara's Flowers (who later became Maroon 5), and the debut record by David Cook. ~ Ed Hogan, All Music Guide
