I've been writing, recording and performing music off and on since I was about six years old. You think I'm kidding? I'll put up some early demos that my brother and I recorded! The name of our band was "Rom", a clever conjoining of our names, Rick and Tom. By the way, I added the "h" to my name shortly after that, just so you know. We worked in a genre exclusively our own known as Toilet Rock, though we did have a hit in the Hiller household that pre-dated this particular genre called "Snuggle Bug". It was pretty much straight-up pop.
At the age of fourteen my brother and I joined our first "working" band, "Fury", playing clubs and private parties in the New Bedford, MA area. We often responded to the obligatory "Free Bird" chants by both opening AND closing shows with the famed southern rock anthem. Skip ahead to the early 90's and I once again found myself playing with my brother, now on bass, in an innovative alternative band called John Monopoly. The band fused rock, rap/hip hop, reggae, jazz and funk in a high energy live show. Playing mostly in Boston, Providence, Worcester, Conn. and New York city we had the pleasure of sharing the stage with such acts as The Roots, G-Love and Special Sauce, 311 and Powerman 5000 (remember those guys?). In 1993 John Monopoly won Providence radio station WBRU's Rock Hunt. Shortly after that the band signed to a small indie label and soon found out that we did not know much about the inner workings of the industry. We were better suited to the creative end of the biz.
The band split up in 1996 and after a few modest endeavors and a couple of "real" jobs I found myself playing with local guitar hero and blues aficionado Neal McCarthy both in his original band "Snow Monkey Plum" and doing cover shows on the side. During this period I started work as a studio engineer under the expert tutelage of Jack Gauthier at Lakewest Recording in West Greenwich, RI. He gave me a large box of articles from various recording, mixing and engineering periodicals and an engineering text from the Berklee School of Music in Boston, MA. Most importantly, however, besides giving me the keys to the studio and allowing me to sharpen my technical skills, he lent me a copy of the book "All You Need Is Ears" ,by the famed Beatles producer George Martin, in which he espoused such ideas as "if it sounds right, it is right", which basically means that there is really no wrong way to engineer. Sure there are some basic guidelines that must be adhered to (so you don't ruin your expensive gear) but mainly you need to trust your ears to guide you through the process of creating great sound both recorded and live. Thanks Jack! You were certainly the best teacher one could ask for.
During one of my first sessions as an engineer I was fortunate enough to work with legendary blues/jazz guitarist and producer, Duke Robillard. The rest ,they say, is history! Nearly ten years later Duke and I are still going strong working in his studio, Duke's Mood Room in Pawtucket, RI. I've been fortunate enough in my career to work with the likes of J. Geils, Billy Boy Arnold, Roscoe Gordon, Sax Gordon, Eddie 'The Chief" Clearwater, Deb Davies, Dave Gross, Bryan Lee, Eric "Two Scoops" Moore, Chris Flory, Toni Lynn Washington, Doug James, Sugar Ray Norcia, Al Basile,Cheryl Arena, Jerry Portnoy, David Ralston... and the list goes on. Last year Duke was finally recognized by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences with a Grammy nomination in the Traditional Blues category for his album, "Guitar Groove-A-Rama". I received a nomination as recording and mixing engineer and have come one step closer to one of my childhood dreams of winning a Grammy.
