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Mentor My Mix Ep. 013 with Shane Hazleton – From conceptualizing the original APC 40 to Mentoring LMFAO

Shane’s seven years of education (including studying with Miller S. Puckette, inventor of MAX MSP) at UCSD, where he received his undergraduate degree in Music Interdisciplinary Computing in The Arts followed by his MFA at Cal Arts in Experimental Sound Practices and Integrated Media, led him down a path of visionary development.

His idea for creating a matrix-based touch controller for clip launching and integration with Ableton Live led him to share that vision with multiple developers and was eventually embraced by Akai, and led to the creation of the APC 40.

Pre-college he was influenced by the likes of Marilyn Manson and Nirvana and then discovered Raves, Psychedelics, and the intense desire to create electronic music.

A few of the talking points we cover:

  • Inspired by Brian Crabtree at UCSD, inventor of The Box, led to shopping around the idea for a matrix controller.
  • Going to work for Allesis/Newmark/Akai and developing Max patches to test their audio products.
  • Making a video for the APC to “get shows” and having Steffen Gordy (The son of Motown Records founder Berry Gordy) from LMFAO reach out to hire him to come to Las Vegas to help develop their live performance with Ableton.
  • Partying with the duo in Vegas but being influenced by his girlfriend to make a bad career decision and the backlash that brought him to the SF Bay Area.
  • Being influenced by the level of consciousness in the SF Bay Area and a noticeable “psychic field” that was creatively stimulating.
  • Working with the “Mind Machine” and Performing in Quad to create a different kind of live performance.
  • Breaking down his track “On Top Of The World” and discussing MAX For Live and custom patch creation.
 
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Greg Gordon

host

I connect artists and producers to their purpose and help launch their careers.

Executive, producer & engineer with over 25 years in the music and video game industries: technical and creative services, business development and management, music publishing & education.

Host of the “Mentor My Mix” Podcast that features interviews with a global network of industry professionals, producers, artists and educators.

I have conducted panels and spoken at: SXSW, The SF Music Tech Conference, AES Conference, The Academy of Art, SFSU, and GRAMMY Sound Tables.

Voted entrepreneur of the Year by The Renaissance Center For Entrepreneurship and awarded ICIC’s (Initiative for a Competitive Inner City) top 100 fastest growing inner city companies in America.

30 year voting member of The Recording Academy (The Grammys). Served on the board of Governors and as a Trustee.

Clients have included: HTC Vive, Microsoft Studios, Insomniac Games, Ubisoft, Disney, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Blizzard and Zynga, working on award-winning titles like: Watch Dogs 2, Halo Anniversary, Sunset Overdrive, God Of War, World Of Warcraft, Kinect Disneyland, Arcade Saga VR, and Tron Run/r.

Music credits include working with many globally recognized recording artists including Rob Garza (Thievery Corporation), Giorgio Moroder, K Theory, Rain Phutureprimitive, The Bronx, Merl Saunders & Jerry Garcia (The Grateful Dead) and Rocker T & the legendary Joan Baez amongst many others.

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