Five questions with Ed Stasium: The Ramones and Talking Heads producer who landed in Poway

Ed Stasium in his Poway studio Photo courtesy of Ed Stasium A native of New Jersey renowned producer engineer mixer Ed Stasium is bulk commonly associated with the cutting-edge rock music of New York City where he helped to shape the early sounds of bands including the Ramones the Talking Heads and Living Colour He started out as a guitarist with the band Brandywine whose only album came out in before a fateful session as engineer on Gladys Knight the Pips iconic song Midnight Train to Georgia redirected his focus to the studio In the s and s Stasium bounced back and forth between New York and Los Angeles but eventually left those music-industry meccas behind After a decade in Durango Colorado Stasium landed in Poway in From a house on the outskirts of town he s brought in bands for production projects and mixed dozens of records in his studio We caught up with Stasium by Zoom in recent weeks for this inaugural Five Questions feature You ve worked extensively as a producer an engineer and a mixer How did you get started with it My background was playing in bands that s where my production chops came from I had a tape recorder at home If we were going to record a song let s say Hanky Panky by Tommy James the Shondells I d write down all the words the chords and I d even notate the drum beats Then I would show the band the song This is what we re going to do So it really comes from way back when I was a teenager and I was the guy in the band with a tape recorder I work with bands on arrangements on lyrics on chord changes on adding a bridge cutting a chorus in half cutting an intro in half I suggest that kind of stuff within the arrangement And then doing the backing track making sure it s right splicing everything getting it together Well no splicing anymore but with tape I used to splice drum takes together to get a good take out of three or four takes Now it s much easier with ProTools and I enjoy doing that I get to figure it out in mixing which is a blast really I m doing a lot of mixing these days for artists and I m doing a lot of catalog work for Rhino Right now I m doing stereo remixes and Dolby Atmos mixes of the first two Stooges records which is a lot of fun and a real challenge Ed Stasium at home in his Poway studio Photo courtesy of Ed Stasium What other projects have you worked on in At the beginning of the year I did Dolby Atmos mixes of the first three Ramones records that I worked on Leave Home Rocket to Russia and Road to Ruin That came out a couple months ago as a box set It s called and it has the first four records with Dolby Atmos mixes It s a nice little box I did liner notes for it as well I did specific Living Color Dolby Atmos this year also I mixed the Minus Five record Oar On Penelope I really enjoyed working with Scott McCaughey Minus Five leader I did an EP with Lori Garrote I ve known her since she s a good songwriter with a very personable cool vibe That s coming out in it s called Resilience I mixed a record by the Black Sugar Band that they recorded at Rancho de la Luna in Joshua Tree It s called Straight Outta Rancho It s kind of a bluesy vibe it s really cool There was a band in New York in the late s that played Max s and CBGB called the Rousers and I mixed one of the songs called Bumblebee Rock That just came out it s called Sire Sessions I had the Long Ryders here in July four our fourth LP together It s called High Noon Hymns I think it s coming out March And I did the new Rosie Flores record Impossible Frontiers I m a little more pop rock and her stuff that she did on her own is a little more traditional but there s a nice balance between them on the record The vinyl sounds amazing it s one of the best pressings I ve had in years I was brought into the Tearaways from my my good buddy Clem Burke the late Blondie Empty Hearts drummer who I ve known since I had worked with Clem on two Empty Hearts records over the years Clem called up and mentioned hey I m doing work with the Tearaways I hadn t heard of them but they ve been around for years Clem is no longer with us so they have a new drummer and we have six tracks done We re going to do selected more in January and February So that s a pretty full year There s allegedly something I forgot Ed Stasium with Joey Ramone Photo courtesy of Ed Stasium What San Diego acts have you worked with I worked with the Verigolds I thought they were really good I did two tracks with them They won San Diego Music Awards the year I worked with them I think it was or I m not really ensconced in the local group I don t know multiple people here Tamar Berk is really good she just came out with a new record and she does everything herself I d love to work with her San Diego Music Hall of Famer Cindy Lee Berryhill is a good friend I ve known her for a long time When did you move to California after making a name for yourself in New York The first time I moved from the East Coast to L A was on March I couch-surfed for months got a car had no money I think I went there with and a suitcase I worked with a band called Burning Rome on A M that was kind of a big deal By November of I had a beautiful little guest house in Laurel Canyon on Green Valley Road When Peter Wolf left the J Geils Band he sought Dave Jerden Red Hot Chili Peppers Jane s Addiction etc to work on the record Dave couldn t do it but he recommended me I talked to Peter on the phone and I flew to Boston for a weekend We met and chatted and we got along and I got hired He was still signed to EMI and we had pretty much an unlimited budget I got a huge salary At the time I was kind of broke so it was a great opportunity And then he declared Ed do you think you could mix the record in New York So I declared sure I could do that And everybody I ran to explained What are you doing in L A Come back to New York So I moved back to New York in March of And then more things started coming along Dave Jerden got me the engineering job on the Mick Jagger record Primitive Cool I was still going to L A to do different projects I really loved L A at that time It was right after the success of Living Colour when you see a royalty check for six figures you re like this is in the end paying off after all these years So my girlfriend Francine and I started looking in Los Angeles and detected a place in Sherman Oaks and in August of we purchased a home there That s when I went to L A the second time I kept an apartment in Manhattan until because I was still going back and forth a lot We were bicoastal for about three or four years How did you end up in Poway I moved here with my ex-wife Amy Hartman She s from San Diego The reason we moved here is because Amy s parents were elderly They needed a family member nearby so we searched and determined the place that I m in now in April And then in October we split up so I ve been here on my own for years I m still in touch with her She s a very talented singer-songwriter and she teaches voice and piano here in San Diego Her dad passed away and her mom is now in an assisted living facility But she s still here and I m still here I m calm here It s a good space I m off the beaten path It s an equestrian neighborhood that I live in and I m on five acres I know all my neighbors I ve had bands here making noise until late hours and nobody seems to care But I m kind of retired from doing stuff here at the house unless something really great comes up