Producers
Ali Chant
Ali started off playing guitar in indie bands in his early teens, mixing a love of movies and music he went on to study Film, and specialised in sound production. After graduating he spent 2 years working in film and television doing sound and music production. It was during this period he began to develop his skills in mixing and Pro Tools.
In 2001, his band ‘Actual Size’ were signed by a label called Gut records and he moved into music full time. During this period Ali and the band took money from the record deal and set up a small recording space in Bristol, which would eventually become Toybox Studios.
Inspired by the music producers that Actual Size worked with, Ali began taking serious interest in production technique, learning from likes of John Parish, Ben Hillier, John Cornfield, Hugh Padgham and Michael H Brauer. Around this time Ali also played lead guitar for cult Bristol electro rock outfit Madnomad, as well as running up an experimental 24hour album project.
In 2003, Ali began taking on engineering and production work full time and Toybox started to become a popular local recording studio. He also started playing guitar for Bristol indie band Termites and went on to record 2 EP’s for Universal Music as well as extensive touring over the following 3 years.
Ali has also played guitar in afro/indie outfit Drinks.
During his time as an engineer Ali has worked with John Parish, Jim Abbiss, Paul Corkett, Flood, Ben Hillier, Steve Revitte, Hugh Padgham, James Rutledge, Mark Ronson and Head.
He also, occasionally moonlights on drums, keyboards, percussion and backing vocals.
Selected discography
2010- M. Ward – Forthcoming tracks- Engineer/Mixer
2010- Seasick Steve – Live album (forthcoming) – Engineer/ Mixer- Atlantic
2009- Solange La Frange – album – Co-Producer – Gentlemen Records Switzerland
2009- Howe Gelb – A Band of Gypsies album Pias Engineer
2008- PJ Harvey & John Parish ‘A Woman A Man Walked By’ album – Island- Engineer.
2008- Giant Sand & Mark Lanegan- ‘unreleased tracks’- Engineer, Mixer
2008- Kool Keith- ‘tracks’- Yeti Beats – Engineer.
2008- Kid Carpet-‘Casio Royale’ album – Sunday Best Records- Co-Producer.
2008- The Heavy – Forthcoming album – Engineer
2007- PJ Harvey-‘White Chalk’ album track- Island Records – Engineer.
2007- Mark Ronson & Daniel Merriweather ‘Chainsaw’ single- Mix Engineer.
2007- Portishead – ‘Live’ unreleased- All Tomorrows Parties- Engineer.
2007- Tom Brosseau- ‘Cavalier’ album– Fat Cat Records – Engineer.
2006- Magicrays- ‘Off the Map’ album- Gentleman Records Switzerland- Engineer.
2006- Rosqo- ‘No Stone Left Unturned’ album- Gentleman Records.– Producer.
2005- The Kills & Dionysos- ‘Old Child’ single- Universal – Engineer.
2005- Gravenhurst- ‘Fires in Distant Buildings’ album–Warp Records- co-Producer.
2005- Future of the Left- Tracks- Too Pure Records– Engineer.
2005- Shooting at Unarmed Men- ‘Debut Album’ – Too Pure- Producer.
2005- Kid Carpet- ‘Ideas and Oh Dears’ album- Tired & Lonesome – co-Producer.
2005- Mississippi Witch- ‘Black Gamble’ album- Universal- Producer, musician
2005- John Parish- ‘Once Upon A Little Time’ album- Thrill Jockey. Engineer.
2005- Fatboy Slim- ‘The Joker’ Kid Carpet remix- Skint Records,-Mixer.
2005- Scout Nibblet & Howe Gelb – ‘Tracks’ – Engineer, musician.
2004- The Dirty –‘album tracks’- Brown Punk Records- Producer.
2003- Big Joan- ‘Insects & Engines’ album– Blood Red Sounds, Producer.
2002- Actual Size- Weights & Measures EP- Gut Records Co-production, musician.
Film Work
2010- ‘Longfellow’- feature Film- music engineer/mixer
2009- ‘She, a Chinese’ feature film- music mixer/editor
2008- ‘The Frome,’ – short film- Composer (runner up prize at Wildscreen festival)
2008- ‘Spring Ritual’- forthcoming feature film- music mixer/ editor.
2005- ‘Tea Break’ – short film – Sound designer/mixer
2004- ‘Pool Shark’ short film – Sound designer/mixer
1999- ‘Chicken Run’ – Aardman, Foley editor
1997- ‘Human Traffic’ – feature film, additional sound recording
Influences
Producers – Steve Albini, Dave Fridmann, John Parish, Brian Eno, Tony Viscontti, Flood, Ben Hillier, Glyn Johns
Music
The Cure, Sonic Youth, David Bowie, The Flaming Lips, Liars, Pixies, Johnny Cash, Slayer, PJ Harvey, Wilco, Vampire Weekend, Tom Waits, The Police, Soundgarden, Led Zeppelin, Magazine, Deerhoof, Lambchop, Bernard Herrmann, Ween, Angelo Badalamenti, Aphex Twin, Giant Sand, Mike Patton, Tim Buckley, Beefheart, Sinatra, Nina Nastasia, G Love and Special Sauce, Helmet,
Film/ TV
David Lynch, The Wire, Mike Leigh, Charlie Brooker, Control, Jim Jarmusch, Wong Kar Wai, Dario Argento, Chris Morris, Bill Hicks.
Stef Hambrook
When I moved to Bristol in 2000 I played drums in a band called Butcher and sang in Naked Voices. Prior to this I studied music at Salford on the UKs first pop music and recording degree, getting valuable experience with multi track tape before everything went digital. Balancing the timbres of different instruments according to the dynamics of music is a skill common to both drumming and recording. My approach to music production draws on my experience as a musician as much as the use of buttons and dials.
Here are some things that interest me to do with music production…
The way music has it’s own fundamental roots in human physiology.
Music is primarily a real-time participatory medium if you measure by the length of time we’ve had the technology to record it’s tone in detail. We can so accurately record it now it’s easy to forget what it rests on. The best music communicates to the next person via a common pool of physiology. Physical feelings and movement as responses to music have a flavour that rest in that physiology.
The performance and writing of music taps into this. So does improvisation. The best productions work on the fact that the texture of sound can make the hair on the back of your neck stand on end and your guts go goey. A piece of recorded music is about the physics of what we feel as much as the musical elements themselves or what they represent culturally.