Robin Danar is an American producer, recording and mixing engineer, and musician.

Career

Danar started engineering records in New York City under mentors Steve Lillywhite,

Phil Ramone Philip Ramone (né Rabinowitz, January 5, 1934March 30, 2013) was a South African-born American recording engineer, record producer, violinist and composer, who in 1958 co-founded A & R Recording, Inc., a recording studio with business par ...

, and Gary Katz. At the same time, he was doing live sound and recording at the famed club CBGB in its prime when it was known for hosting punk rock and new wave bands, including the

New York Dolls New York Dolls were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1971. Along with the Velvet Underground and the Stooges, they were one of the first bands of the early punk rock scenes. Although the band never achieved much commercial succe ...

. Danar then went on to tour internationally as a

front of house In the performing arts, front of house (FOH) is the part of a performance venue that is open to the public. In theatres and live music venues, it consists of the auditorium and foyers, as opposed to the stage and backstage areas. In a theatre, t ...

sound engineer for artists including Laurie Anderson,

Suzanne Vega Suzanne Nadine Vega ( Peck; born July 11, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter best known for her folk-inspired music. Vega's music career spans almost 40 years. She came to prominence in the mid-1980s, releasing four singles that entered the ...

, The B-52's, and Cyndi Lauper. He was also involved in recording

Bonnie Raitt Bonnie Lynn Raitt (; born November 8, 1949) is an American blues singer and guitarist. In 1971, Raitt released her self-titled debut album. Following this, she released a series of critically acclaimed roots-influenced albums that incorporated ...

and

Los Lobos Los Lobos (, Spanish for "the Wolves") are an American rock band from East Los Angeles, California. Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, zydeco, folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional music such as cumbia, ...

for the

Wim Wenders Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders (; born 14 August 1945) is a German filmmaker, playwright, author, and photographer. He is a major figure in New German Cinema. Among many honors, he has received three nominations for the Academy Award for Best Docum ...

film ''

The Soul of a Man ''The Soul of a Man'' is a 2003 documentary film, directed by Wim Wenders, as the second instalment of the documentary film series ''The Blues'', produced by Martin Scorsese. The film explores the musical careers of blues musicians Skip James, ...

'', part of the PBS series '' Martin Scorsese Presents

The Blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the African- ...

''. Danar is involved with Santa Monica's public radio station

KCRW KCRW (89.9 MHz FM) is a National Public Radio member station broadcasting from the campus of Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, where the station is licensed. KCRW airs original news and music programming in addition to programm ...

as a producer of the annual "A Sounds Eclectic Evening" and "Sessions" projects. He was also involved as a producer of the Shortlist Music Prize which was broadcast on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

and XM Radio. He is currently the Production Manager at Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles.

''Altered States''

In 2008, Danar released his first producer-as-artist album ''Altered States'', featuring performers from the Los Angeles music scene including Lisa Loeb, Rachael Yamagata, Jesca Hoop, and others. The album received positive reviews from critics at PopMatters and Hits Daily Double. Gianfranco Marmoni, writing in ''OnDaRock'', gave the album 6.5 out of 10 stars, praising its "great instrumental mastery" and the quality of its song covers, while finding that the varieties of music styles made listening "somewhat discontinuous". ''Altered States'' was recorded entirely inside Danar's garage.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Danar, Robin American record producers American audio engineers Living people Year of birth missing (living people)