Bob Weston (born 1965) is an American musician, producer,

recording engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, ...

, and record mastering engineer. Critic Jason AnkenyAnkeny, Jason. " Bob Weston: Overview from Allmusic.com declares that "Weston's name and fingerprints are all over the American

underground rock Underground music is music with practices perceived as outside, or somehow opposed to, mainstream popular music culture. Underground music is intimately tied to popular music culture as a whole, so there are important tensions within underground ...

of the

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...

era, producing and engineering dates for a seemingly endless number of bands." As a performer, Weston is best known as the bass guitarist in the groups

Volcano Suns Volcano Suns was an American alternative rock band from Boston, Massachusetts formed by Mission of Burma drummer Peter Prescott in 1984.Strong, Martin C. (2003) ''The Great Indie Discography'', Canongate, , p. 559 History The band was founded i ...

and

Shellac Shellac () is a resin secreted by the female lac bug on trees in the forests of India and Thailand. It is processed and sold as dry flakes and dissolved in alcohol to make liquid shellac, which is used as a brush-on colorant, food glaze and ...

Biography

Weston was born and raised in

Waltham, Massachusetts Waltham ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, and was an early center for the labor movement as well as a major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, th ...

. During the summers of 1985 and 1987, he marched as a bugler with the renowned Garfield Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps from Garfield, New Jersey.Engineers
," from Chicago Mastering Service The corps won the Drum Corps International World Championships in both those years. Weston still plays trumpet, as on the albums ''

The Sea and the Bells ''The Sea and the Bells'' is the third studio album by American post-rock band Rachel's. It was released on October 22, 1996 by Quarterstick Records. The album was named after and inspired by Pablo Neruda's poetry collection of the same name. In ...

'' by

Rachel's Rachel's were an American chamber music group that formed in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1991. Former Rodan guitarist Jason Noble played music individually and referred to himself as Rachel's but then began collaborating with core members violist C ...

(1996) and '' Things We Lost in the Fire'' by Low (2001)." Bob Weston: Credits" from Allmusic.com In 1988, he earned a B.S. in

Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

from the University of Lowell in

Lowell, MA Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, in the United States. Alongside Cambridge, It is one of two traditional seats of Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in 2020, it was the fifth most populous city in Massachusetts as of ...

. While working at the University's campus radio station, WJUL, he began mixing live performances of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

-area bands such as

Pixies A pixie (also pisky, pixy, pixi, pizkie, and piskie in Cornwall and Devon, and pigsie or puggsy in the New Forest) is a mythical creature of British folklore. Pixies are considered to be particularly concentrated in the high moorland areas aro ...

and the

Blake Babies Blake Babies were an American college rock band formed in 1986 in Boston, Massachusetts. The three primary members were John Strohm, Freda Love, and Juliana Hatfield. They recorded three albums before splitting up in 1991. They reformed to reco ...

. In 1987 Weston joined The

, playing bass guitar. The group was led by Peter Prescott, (previously the drummer for

Mission of Burma Mission of Burma was an American post-punk band from Boston, Massachusetts. The group formed in 1979 with Roger Miller on guitar, Clint Conley on bass, Peter Prescott on drums, and Martin Swope contributing audiotape manipulation and acting as ...

, who had broken up in 1983). Weston joined

Steve Albini Steve Albini (pronounced ; born July 22, 1962) is an American musician, record producer, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman and Flour, and is a member of Shellac. He is the founder, owner and principal en ...

and

Todd Trainer Todd Trainer is the drummer for the band Shellac. He also performs as a solo artist under the name Brick Layer Cake. He previously played drums for the bands Breaking Circus and Rifle Sport, and he played drums with Scout Niblett in 2005. Pers ...

in 1991. Under Albini, Weston honed his studio production skills and has gone on to record and mix material for bands including

Sebadoh Sebadoh () is an American indie rock band formed in 1986 in Northampton, Massachusetts, by Eric Gaffney and Lou Barlow, with multi-instrumentalist Jason Loewenstein completing the line-up in 1989. Barlow co-created Sebadoh as an outlet for his ...

June of 44 June of 44 is an American rock band which was formed in 1994 from ex-members of Rodan, Lungfish, Rex, and Hoover. The band's name refers to the period during which writers Henry Miller Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1 ...

Polvo Polvo is an American indie rock band from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The band formed in 1990 and is fronted by guitarists/vocalists Ash Bowie and Dave Brylawski, with Steve Popson playing bass guitar and Brian Quast playing drums. Eddie Watkin ...

The Coctails The Coctails were a musical group from Chicago, who formed while its members were attending the Kansas City Art Institute. The band was active from about 1988 to 1995, with reunions in 2000 as the last band to play on stage at Lounge Ax before th ...

Archers of Loaf Archers of Loaf is an American indie rock band originally formed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1991. The group toured extensively and released four studio albums, one compilation, numerous singles and EPs, and a live album which was release ...

, Chavez,

Ken Vandermark Ken Vandermark (born September 22, 1964) is an American composer, saxophonist, and clarinetist. A fixture on the Chicago-area music scene since the 1990s, Vandermark has earned wide critical praise for his playing and his multilayered composi ...

, 33.3 and

Rodan is a fictional monster, or ''kaiju'', which first appeared as the title character in Ishirō Honda's 1956 film '' Rodan'', produced and distributed by Toho. Following its debut standalone appearance, Rodan went on to be featured in numerous e ...

. Weston was also Albini's Assistant Engineer on

Nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...

's ''

In Utero ''In Utero'' is the third and final studio album by American rock band Nirvana. It was released on September 21, 1993, by DGC Records. After breaking into the mainstream with their second album, ''Nevermind'' (1991), Nirvana hired Steve Albini t ...

'' album. According to a 2006 interview,Mitts, Eric.
Bob Weston of Shellac
", 2006 being a musician has helped shape Weston's work recording, mixing and mastering: "It’s obvious to me that the best recording engineers have played in bands. You understand the dynamic better and can almost become an unofficial band member during the session. And it’s pretty easy to tell on what sort of session your musical opinion is wanted or not." However, Weston's recording and mixing work is not limited to music: he occasionally freelances for

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

, often working on comedy quiz show ''

Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me ''Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!'' is an hour-long weekly news radio panel show produced by WBEZ and National Public Radio (NPR) in Chicago, Illinois. On the program, panelists and contestants are quizzed in humorous ways about that week's news. It ...

'', which is headquartered in Chicago.DeRogatis, Jim. 2005.
Weston remains one of the most in-demand bass players
"
In 2002, Weston joined the reunited

, taking the place of

Martin Swope Martin Swope (b. June 1, 1955, Ann Arbor, Michigan, US) is an American musician and composer. He was the tape manipulator and sound engineer for the Boston-based postpunk band Mission of Burma from 1979–1983, when they split up due to lead voc ...

as tape manipulator and live

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

for the band. He appears on and recorded the albums ''

ONoffON ''ONoffON'' is the second studio album by American post-punk band Mission of Burma. It was released on May 4, 2004 by Matador Records, marking the band's first studio recording after a nineteen-year hiatus. Track listing # "The Setup" – 3:08 # ...

'', '' The Obliterati'', '' The Sound The Speed The Light'', and '' Unsound''. In early 2007, Weston opened Chicago Mastering Service with Jason Ward on Chicago's west side.

Equipment

* A detailed gear diagram of Bob Weston's Shellac bass rig is well-documented.Cooper, Adam (2000)
"Bob Weston's 2000 Shellac Bass Rig"
GuitarGeek.Com.

References

External links

Interview_with_EQ_Magazine_featuring_Weston_and_Mission_of_Burma
.html" ;"title="Mission of Burma">Interview with EQ Magazine featuring Weston and Mission of Burma
">Mission of Burma">Interview with EQ Magazine featuring Weston and Mission of Burma
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weston, Bob Living people American audio engineers American rock bass guitarists American male bass guitarists People from Waltham, Massachusetts Guitarists from Massachusetts Mission of Burma members University of Massachusetts Lowell alumni Mastering engineers 1965 births Guitarists from Chicago American male guitarists Shellac (band) members 20th-century American guitarists American post-punk musicians American punk rock bass guitarists American punk rock singers American male singer-songwriters Singer-songwriters from Illinois Singer-songwriters from Massachusetts