John Would is a Grammy award-winning American musician, songwriter, record producer, audio engineer, and mixer, who was born in Vallejo, California. He has recorded and performed extensively as a multi-instrumentalist (primarily guitarist) and works mainly out of his own studio, Stanley Recordings, in Los Angeles, California.
Would, previously known as John Wood (name change due to too many John Woods), served as a guitarist for Warren Zevon in his 1982 touring band. [1]
Would won a Grammy Award for his work on Fiona Apple's highly acclaimed Fetch the Bolt Cutters record. He recorded a large part of the 2020 release as well as playing keyboards and some mixing. [2] Would's daughter, Amy Wood, is Apple's drummer and co-producer on the album. He also recorded Apple's 2012 Grammy-nominated album, The Idler Wheel... [3]
For the 2021 Sharon Van Etten tribute album Epic Ten, Would recorded most of and mixed Fiona Apple’s version of "Love More".
For the 2022 Netflix documentary White Hot: The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch, Would was on daughter Amy Wood’s team producing, composing, playing, and mixing the score.
For Adam Levy's 2019 release, Accidental Courage, Would recorded the record mostly live in the studio with very few overdubs. The band featured Levy on guitars and vocals, Gaby Moreno on guitar and vocals, Charley Drayton on drums, Madison Cunningham on guitars and vocals, Darryl Jones on bass guitar, and Benmont Tench on keyboards. Would also mixed the record.
For HBO's True Blood , Would produced, recorded, played on, and mixed the song "Let's Boot and Rally" with Iggy Pop and Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast, and a remake of The Animals song "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood". Which featured a duet with Eric Burdon and Jenny Lewis. [4]
Would produced, arranged, and played on a remix of the T. Rex song "Children of the Revolution" for Gary Calamar and KCRW.
He recorded vocals, played lap steel guitar, and mixed Wanda Jackson's album, I Remember Elvis.
He co-produced, recorded, and mixed and played lap steel guitar on Graham Parker's album Your Country.
He has also worked with Lucinda Williams, Wild Colonials, Chuck E. Weiss, and many other prominent musicians/entertainers. [5]
He was producer, engineer, and session musician on most of the tracks appearing on A Fair Forgery of Pink Floyd including "Comfortably Numb" by Graham Parker, "Astronomy Domine" by Mike Keneally and "What Shall We Do Now?" by Which One's Pink?
Would works almost exclusively out of his studio, Stanley Recordings, now in Arlington Heights, Los Angeles.
John Would has done music for:
Would released an album in 2009 under the name The Quincy Blaque Trio entitled Uneasy Listening Music. [6] He has released three albums with the band Yortoise. [7]
Fiona Apple McAfee-Maggart is an American singer-songwriter. Noted for her songwriting, she released five albums from 1996 to 2020, all of which reached the top 20 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. Apple has received numerous awards and nominations, including three Grammy Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards, and a Billboard Music Award.
Warren William Zevon was an American rock singer and songwriter. His most famous compositions include "Werewolves of London", "Lawyers, Guns and Money" and "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner". All three songs are featured on his third album, Excitable Boy (1978), the title track of which is also well-known. He also wrote major hits that were recorded by other artists, including "Poor Poor Pitiful Me", "Mohammed's Radio", "Carmelita" and "Hasten Down the Wind". Per The New York Times, "Mr. Zevon had a pulp-fiction imagination" which yielded "terse, action-packed, gallows-humored tales that could sketch an entire screenplay in four minutes and often had death as a punchline. But there was also vulnerability and longing in Mr. Zevon's ballads, like 'Mutineer,' 'Accidentally Like a Martyr' and 'Hasten Down the Wind.'"
Aimee Elizabeth Mann is an American singer-songwriter. Over the course of four decades, she has released ten studio albums as a solo artist. She is noted for her sardonic and literate lyrics about dark subjects, often describing lost or lonely underdog characters. Her work with the producer Jon Brion in the 1990s was influential on American alternative rock.
Steven Lee "Luke" Lukather is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger and record producer, best known as the sole continuous founding member of the rock band Toto. His reputation as a skilled guitarist led to a steady flow of session work beginning in the 1970s that has since established him as a prolific session musician, recording guitar tracks for more than 1,500 albums spanning a broad array of artists and genres. He has also contributed to albums and hit singles as a songwriter, arranger and producer. Notably, Lukather played guitar on Boz Scaggs' albums Down Two Then Left (1977) and Middle Man (1980), and was a prominent contributor to several studio albums by Michael Jackson, including Thriller (1982). Lukather has released nine solo albums, the latest of which, Bridges, was released in June 2023.
Stone Carpenter Gossard is an American musician and songwriter who serves as a guitarist for the rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of the band.
Tidal is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Fiona Apple, released on July 23, 1996, by The WORK Group. Tidal produced three singles: "Shadowboxer", "Sleep to Dream", and "Criminal". The latter was the album's most popular single, winning a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance in 1998. In 2017, Tidal got its first vinyl run as a "Vinyl Me Please" exclusive "Record of the Month".
The Wind is the twelfth and final studio album by American singer-songwriter Warren Zevon. The album was released on August 26, 2003, by Artemis Records. Zevon began recording the album shortly after he was diagnosed with inoperable pleural mesothelioma, and it was released just two weeks before his death on September 7, 2003. The album was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album, and "Disorder in the House", performed by Zevon with Bruce Springsteen, won the Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance. Songs from the album were nominated for an additional three Grammys.
Robert "Waddy" Wachtel is an American musician, composer and record producer, most notable for his guitar work. Wachtel has worked as session musician for other artists such as Linda Ronstadt, Beth Hart, Stevie Nicks, Kim Carnes, Randy Newman, Keith Richards, The Rolling Stones, Jon Bon Jovi, James Taylor, Iggy Pop, Warren Zevon, Bryan Ferry, Michael Sweet, Jackson Browne, Karla Bonoff, The Motels and Andrew Gold, both in the studio and live.
Maude Amber McAfee-Maggart is an American cabaret singer and recording artist who performs throughout the United States and Europe, but most often in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City.
William Gregory Wells is a Canadian record producer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and mix engineer. He has worked with Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Quincy Jones, Adele, Twenty One Pilots, Missy Elliot, Burt Bacharach, Celine Dion, Kid Cudi, Deftones, Timbaland, Taylor Swift, Michael Bublé, Stephen Schwartz, Dua Lipa, John Legend, Selena Gomez, the Count Basie Orchestra, Rufus Wainwright, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Ryan Tedder, Weezer, Jazmine Sullivan, Katy Perry, OneRepublic, Carrie Underwood, Jamie Cullum, Pink, Theophilus London, Keith Urban, Crash Test Dummies, MIKA, Aerosmith, Elton John, and Sir George Martin. Throughout his career, Wells has written or produced projects selling a cumulative 130 million units.
David Garza is a Grammy winning producer, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and visual artist who has crafted a 35-year repertoire of over 400 original compositions.
Sebastian Steinberg is an American bass player, best known for his work in the band Soul Coughing.
Simple Dreams is the eighth studio album by the American singer Linda Ronstadt, released in 1977 by Asylum Records. It includes several of her best-known songs, including her cover of the Rolling Stones song "Tumbling Dice" and her version of the Roy Orbison song "Blue Bayou", which earned her a Grammy nomination for Record of the Year. The album also contains covers of the Buddy Holly song "It's So Easy!" and the Warren Zevon songs "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" and "Carmelita".
The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do, frequently abridged as The Idler Wheel..., is the fourth studio album by Fiona Apple. Like her second album When the Pawn..., its title derives from a poem written by Apple herself. It was released on June 19, 2012 by Epic Records.
Blake Mathew Simon Mills is an American songwriter, guitarist, producer, and composer based in California. He is known for production and guitar work on albums and singles by many artists, including Fiona Apple, Perfume Genius, Bob Dylan, Feist, Jack Johnson, Marcus Mumford, Laura Marling, Weyes Blood, John Legend, Alabama Shakes, Beck, Conor Oberst, and Bruce Hornsby; as a touring musician with artists such as Lucinda Williams, Band of Horses and Jenny Lewis; and his four solo albums.
"Dull Tool" is a song by American singer-songwriter Fiona Apple, released on the soundtrack to the comedy film This Is 40 (2012). It is the first track Apple wrote solely for a film. "Dull Tool" was produced by Apple's long-time collaborator Jon Brion, and leaked online in November 2012, several weeks before the soundtrack hit stores on December 11.
Jacob Collier is an English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and educator. His music incorporates a combination of jazz and elements from other musical genres, and often features extensive use of reharmonisations and close harmony. He is known for his energetic live performances, in which he often conducts the audience to sing harmony or play percussion parts. Collier demonstrates his harmonic expertise in lectures and master classes, particularly with his detailed analyses of songs like Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke" and his own music.
Fetch the Bolt Cutters is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Fiona Apple. It was released on April 17, 2020, Apple's first release since The Idler Wheel... in 2012. The album was recorded from 2015 to 2020, largely at Apple's home in Venice Beach. It was produced and performed by Apple alongside Amy Aileen Wood, Sebastian Steinberg and Davíd Garza; the recording consisted of long, often improvised takes with unconventional percussive sounds. GarageBand was used for much of this recording, and Fiona Apple credited the album's unedited vocals and long takes to her lack of expertise with the program.