Rising Stars: Meet Dave Klein of Highland Park

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dave Klein.

Dave, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’ve been playing music my entire life, my family has a long history of musicians starting way back late 19th century (from my knowledge, there may be earlier musicians) from my great grandfather Benjamin Bloom that was a concert violinist in Latvia, he eventually made his way over here in the states via New York around the time of WWI, Along the way he met my great grandmother Goldie, they got married and eventually moved to Hollywood to pursue his career where he joined the LA Philharmonic as a second chair violinist and taught violin. They had a daughter Rosalie (my grandmother) who sang opera professionally and eventually retired from singing when she raised my father Lee and my uncle Bob. My grandfather Harold Klein was a professional musician too and performed weekly at the Biltmore hotel in DTLA, I also had a great uncle of mine that performed Hungarian Cimbalom with big bands and can be seen in some films from that era. On my mother’s side my mother had a degree in music. I recall spending a lot of time as a little kid at Cal State Dominguez Hills while she was getting her degree, I remember going to recitals and I always admired the symphony conductors and composers. I always grew up with a piano my house and started playing by ear at a very early age. I started off playing drums in 5th grade which was my introduction to performing in front of an audience. I stayed in school band including the marching band until my sophomore year when I started playing in garage, punk and surf bands with my friends, this is where I got my first taste of recording. Back then my 2 big goals for music were to be on a record and tour. My very first band I played shows in was called The Others, 3 piece power pop band based out of Laguna Beach, we did some recording back then in a makeshift studio we built in my mom’s garage but never released it. I still have the 1/4” Ampex tape. After The Others I joined a 60’s garage band The Witchdoctors, that recorded my first single and eventually a full length. That band split into two bands, myself, the organist and guitarist started a band called The Finks that eventually turned into The Bomboras which was my first experience doing full tours. We played a ton in the 1990’s which lead to me meeting the guys in my current band The Ghastly Ones that I play organ in. Both bands were noticed by Rob Zombie who signed us and released albums on his Zombie A Go Go label (subsidiary of Geffen and eventually Universal Music) Both bands had taken a hiatus in the early 200’s, at which time I joined The Seeds fronted by the original singer Sky Saxon, we recorded and released an album Red Planet, toured Europe a few times, after The Seeds is when I really started pursuing recording in a small studio I set up in a basement in my house I was renting in Eagle Rock. Over the years the more time I spent in studios the more intrigued I became with the process but was always on the musician side of the glass until my early 30’s, around 2003 I decided to pursue recording professionally and I started applying to studios and eventually got a job at Conway Studios located on Melrose Blvd. Beautiful studios with big rooms, Neve and SSL consoles where I immersed myself in a professional studio environment learning gear and the process. I worked there for a year or two and then that’s where I really started recording records professionally at my first private studio. Fast forward to 2009 I connected with Mike Palm of Agent Orange who was looking for a replacement drummer, I joined the band and toured with them until 2019 when my studio business really picked up and I shifted my focus from full time touring musician to producer, engineer and session musician and eventually mastering engineer too. In 2024 a good friend of mine contacted me about composing music for a new Bob Ross show he was producing “The Bob Ross Gallery Collection”I brought in my good friend and super talented guitarist/writer Jason Lee and we composed a season and a 1/2 of jazz, classical, bossa nova, country and even yacht rock for the episodes. Jason, myself, vibraphoneist Marty Lush have a project Dark Entities that performs on occasion, in the group we have an occasional 4th member Canadian therminist Thea Faulds.

After all these decades, recorded 100’s of records, composed for film & television, toured all over the world I still love working with music and audio. I’ve kept on this journey of recording for over 22 years and never looked back, it’s a work in progress and I love how there’s always something new to learn.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There’s always struggles as a musician especially when you pursue it professionally, between financial or dealing with personalities, the main thing is to not lose sight of why you started playing and to remember to count your blessings especially when you can do what you love as your living. Just like anything there’s some amazing moments and those times where you question why you keep doing it

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I have been producing/recording/mixing/mastering records, composing and session work for over 22 years now. I work with most genres of music but the main styles I’m known for are surf, garage, punk rock, rockabilly, postpunk, rock and alternative. I do work with voice actors as well.

I’m proud of my body of work, I’ve been fortunate to have worked with a ton amazing musicians and actors over the years. Like any other producer I have my own sound to my records and a product of my age and what I grew up listening to which has influenced me, I tend to be a bit more old school in my productions and sound.

What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
To be patient and control the controllables. You need to be tenacious pursuing a career in music and when you get knocked down, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and keep in truckin.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.davekleinrecording.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dave_klein_recording?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DaveKleinProducer?mibextid=wwXIfr&mibextid=wwXIfr
• Other: https://www.davekleinmusic.com/