Meet Bruce Duff of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bruce Duff.

Hi Bruce, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I began as a musician decades ago. In the late ’70s I edited a local music magazine in Riverside, CA. I moved to Hollywood in 1979 and used the editing experience to begin a side-career as a music journalist, writing for countless publications from my arrival in L.A. until retiring from writing in 2005. I signed my second record deal in the early 80s with Enigma records, an early groundbreaking indie label. Fired from the band I was signed with, I decided that rather than take another useless musician-type day job to feed myself, I chose to get behind the scenes in the music biz as well as stay on stage and continuing to produce records. I became a successful publicist at New Image PR (RIP) and did that for six years, moving to publicity/production management/etc. at vital L.A. indie label Triple X Records for the next 11 years. In 2001 I moved to the more corporate Knitting Factory Entertainment, where I handled a variety of things from publicity, venue marketing, artist management, show production. In 2017 I was laid off and started my own artist management business; I also am GM of boutique label Kitten Robot Records. During this long journey I have continued as a recording artist, producer, engineer, musician and songwriter, working on over 200 released recordings.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I was fortunate in working with a lot of people who were both open-minded and generous with sharing knowledge, oftentimes as we learned together. As you see, from 1984 to 2017, I worked for three companies. I know people who changed music jobs ten times in half that period. I was happy for the most part at every stop, until things stopped moving forward as I had hoped, at which point I made a transition. Being completely independent as I am now can be very challenging, I am no doubt the toughest of all my employers. I call my own shots and move from day to day.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Running my own shop as it were, I divide my time between taking care of others’ business and producing/engineering recordings for both others and my own projects. Let’s focus on the latter, as that’s what got me here in the first place. Working on the recordings of other artists has always been enjoyable for me, I’ve been doing it at varying degrees since the late 1980s. Nowadays, almost everyone has some level of digital home recording set-up, and I suppose we all operate within varying levels of confidence versus intimidation, if we’re being honest. Oftentimes artists will send me completed multi-track recordings to mix. This is fun as I see how others assemble their ideas and it’s my job to turn it into what they are hearing in their heads. I don’t always get there on the first try, and that’s part of it too. Other jobs are more top-to-bottom, and those can be working with a singer-songwriter who needs their concepts fleshed out or a band with whom I have to take their rehearsed live material and guide it into a finished recording. This involves pre-production at rehearsals, hiring a recording studio to track drums and rhythm instruments and then taking the tracks to my studio Toneduff where the overdubs of all the vocals and instrumental solos/details are recorded. Then I mix. Then I get notes on the mix. Then I address the notes. Then it’s off to the mastering lab and the pressing plant. It never, ever gets old.

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Hearing a completed recording that I worked on that came out great is always a pleasure. Playing a test pressing or streaming a released recording thru the adult stereo in my living room (as opposed to my studio) and being delighted by the sound of it is pure joy. They don’t all come out the way I would hope. Everyone that works on the tech side of music is haunted by ‘if I’d only turned the bass up a bit’ or ‘if I’d only left the vocal more dry’ or whatever the detail is that no one else will likely ever react to can drive you nuts; anyone who does this is nodding their heads right now as they read this. Like anything in life, celebrate the good times.

Pricing:

• It’s project to project. Nothing in stone.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://bruceduffmusic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bruceduff/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScreaminLord