Bob Clearmountain
Clearmountain in 2017
Born	Bob Chiaramonte (1953-01-15)January 15, 1953 (age 72) Connecticut, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Mixing engineer,producer
Years active	1977–present
Spouse	Betty Bennett
Awards	Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album Latin Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Album Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album

Bob Clearmountain (bornChiaramonte, January 15, 1953)^[1] is an Americanmixing engineer andrecord producer,^[2] best known for his work with major acts, includingBruce Springsteen,The Rolling Stones,David Bowie,Roxy Music,Pretenders, andBryan Adams. Described bySound on Sound magazine as having "his name on more hit records than anyone else in the history of popular music",^[2] he is credited with establishing the role of mixing engineer.^[3]

Clearmountain has mixed some of the most iconiclive shows in music history, includingLive Aid^[4] andThe Concert for New York City. Records mixed by Clearmountain have won eightGrammy Awards. He has also won twoEmmy Awards from five nominations.

Born in Connecticut, Clearmountain later moved to New York City, where he graduated fromGreenwich High School in 1971.^[5] As a teenager, Clearmountain had many friends who were musicians. He loved music, and playedbass guitar in various bar bands, but felt he didn't want his career to depend on other musicians.^[2] When a band he was a member of went toMediasound Studios on 57th Street in New York to record ademo, Clearmountain felt like he could live there. Recognizing his interest in recording, Clearmountain assembled a makeshifthome studio with atwo-trackreel-to-reel tape recorder, somemicrophones and atalkback. He also loved to make tape recordings of the band's concerts.^[2]

Determined to make a career in recording, he visited Mediasound frequently and lobbied the studio for a job. He was eventually hired as agofer in 1972.^[6][2] On his first day working at the studio, after making about two deliveries, he realized that studio staff had been looking for him – they had apparently been expecting him to be working on arecording session as an assistantengineer. The star-struck new assistant engineer found that his first session was withDuke Ellington.^[2] Ellington's solo piano session remained unreleased until 2017, whenStoryville Records released it asAn Intimate Piano Session.^[7] At Mediasound, Clearmountain engineered albums forKool & the Gang. He also played bass onthe Dead Boys' first album,Young, Loud and Snotty (1977), before Jeff Magnum rejoined the group.

In 1977, Clearmountain was approached by his Mediasound co-worker,Tony Bongiovi, who had decided to build his own recording studio. Clearmountain became part of Bongiovi's team that designed and openedPower Station, with Clearmountain becoming the studio's Chief Engineer.^[2][6][8] Clearmountain worked exclusively at the Power Station over the next two or three years, working with artists includingThe Rezillos,Narada Michael Walden, and others.^[9] During this time, he recorded several hit albums for theNile Rodgers/Bernard Edwards projectChic andSister Sledge's hit albumWe Are Family, which established his reputation as a mixing engineer. Clearmountain soon found himself being sought out specifically as a mixing engineer, withThe Rolling Stones requesting Clearmountain to mix their single, "Miss You", andRoxy Music having him remix their single "Dance Away".^[2]

Around 1979, Clearmountain became independent, working at various studios in addition to the Power Station.^[6] Artists he had worked with brought him back, and he mixed Roxy Music'sFlesh and Blood (1980) andAvalon (1982),^[10] and the Rolling Stones'Tattoo You (1981) (including engineering vocals and overdubs for "Start Me Up"),^[11][6] as well as their live album,Still Life (1982).

Clearmountain also began both mixing and producing withBryan Adams on his 1981 albumYou Want It You Got It, beginning a longstanding professional collaboration between the two that continued throughCuts Like a Knife and Adams' rise to mainstream popularity, and decades beyond.^[9]

In late 1982, whenDavid Bowie chose Nile Rodgers to produce his next album, Clearmountain was chosen to engineer the sessions at the Power Station. The resulting album,Let's Dance (1983) was a worldwide commercial success.^[6] The same year, Clearmountain mixedHuey Lewis and the News' albumSports. The following year, he produced and mixedHall & Oates'Big Bam Boom and mixedBruce Springsteen's landmark albumBorn in the U.S.A..^[12][13] In 1985, he mixedLive Aid.^[4]

He continued to mix new albums for Springsteen and Bowie, and worked withJimmy Iovine, co-producingSimple Minds'Once Upon a Time (1985) andThe Pretenders'Get Close (1986). In 1987, having established himself as a top mixing engineer, he mixedINXS's albumKick (1987),^[14]Robbie Robertson'sdebut solo album, and albums forCrowded House andDivinyls.^[6]

In the early 1990s,EastWest Sounds partnered with Clearmountain to release two commercially-successful Bob Clearmountain Drumsample libraries,^[15] and Clearmountain developed SessionTools, a studio management application.^[3] In 1991, after Clearmountain had mixed 21 tracks for theGuns N' Roses albumsUse Your Illusion I andUse Your Illusion II, the band decided to scrap the mixes and start over with engineerBill Price.^[16] Clearmountain continued to work with Adams, Springsteen, Rolling Stones, and INXS, and mixed albums forBryan Ferry,The Who,Dire Straits,Aimee Mann,The Corrs,Jonatha Brooke,Melissa Etheridge,Counting Crows and others.^[6]

In 1994, Clearmountain built Mix This!,^[1][17] a private recording studio located in the basement of his home in thePacific Palisades neighborhood ofLos Angeles.^[18][19] He eventually sought out theNeve 8068 from the Power Station's Studio A and acquired it for his studio.^[20][21]

Episode 6 of the first season ofFrom the Basement,Nigel Godrich'sweb television series, was filmed at Mix This! rather than the show's usual filming location of London'sMaida Vale Studios. Clearmountain later upgraded the studio to for Dolby Atmos, and used it for immersive album mixes of Roxy Music'sAvalon and Simple Minds'Sparkle in the Rain.^[18]

On January 8, 2025, the studio and the residence in which it was located were both destroyed by thePalisades Fire.^[18]

Clearmountain is married toApogee Electronics CEO Betty Bennett.^[18][22] In January 2025, their residence and his studio were destroyed by thePalisades Fire.^[19][4]

• Bryan Adams -You Want It You Got It (1981),Cuts Like a Knife (1983),Reckless (1984) andInto the Fire (1987)
• Jonatha Brooke -Steady Pull (2001) andCareful What You Wish For (2007)
• The Church -The Blurred Crusade (1982)
• Hall & Oates -Big Bam Boom (1984)
• Paul McCartney -Tripping the Live Fantastic (1990)
• The Pretenders -Get Close (1986)
• Simple Minds -Once Upon a Time (1985)
• The Who -Join Together (1990)
• Michael Stanley Band -You Can't Fight Fashion (1983)
• Various -Woodstock 94 (1994)
• The Silencers -Rock 'N' Roll Enforcers (1980)
• The Rolling Stones -Get Yer Leeds Lungs Out

In 2005, Clearmountain collaborated with Apogee Electronics to convert unused space in the company's Santa Monica headquarters into Apogee Studio, a recording studio and performance venue.^[23] Beginning in 2010, Santa Monica radio stationKCRW began hosting live music performances in the venue, calledKCRW Apogee Sessions and laterKCRW Live from Apogee Studio, with Clearmountain handling the mixing and recording.^[24][25] Artists for these KCRW sessions have includedDavid Gray,Ryan Adams,Chrissie Hynde,Patti Smith,Vampire Weekend,Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds,Regina Spektor,Glen Hansard,the Shins,k.d. lang,Shelby Lynne,Leon Bridges,Norah Jones,the Avett Brothers,Mayer Hawthorne,Alabama Shakes,Belle & Sebastian,John Legend,Beck,John Mayer,Common, andQueens of the Stone Age.^[26][27] In 2024,Cory Henry recorded his albumLive at the Piano at the studio; the first recorded there to receive aGrammy Award nomination.^[27]

Clearmountain has won multiple Grammy and Emmy awards.

In 1991, he was awarded theTEC Awards Les Paul Award, honoring "individuals or institutions that have set the highest standards of excellence in the creative application of audio technology." The following year, Clearmountain was awarded the TEC Lifetime Achievement Award.^[28]

In 2003, he was awarded theMusic Producers Guild Icon Award for "a person seen to be an icon of the recording industry."^[29]

• Bob Clearmountain's homepage
• Bob Clearmountain Interview atNAMM Oral History Collection (2016)

• Chiaramonti

• 1953 births
• Living people
• Record producers from Connecticut
• Grammy Award winners
• Latin Grammy Award winners
• Emmy Award winners
• American audio engineers
• Mixing engineers
• American record producers

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