Recording engineer Ed Stasium rocks on
San Diego — Ed Stasium's goal has remained happily unchanged in the nearly 50 years he has worked as a recording engineer and album producer for such varied artists as Talking Heads, Ramones, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Mick Jagger, Living Colour, Kool & The Gang and gospel-music queen Shirley Caesar.
“I just put up the microphones and do my best to capture the band's essence,” said the former New Yorker, who now works out of his suburban home studio in San Diego's North County.
“I love what I do. I can work at home in my underwear, if I want! I've put so much effort into everything I do, whether it's Mick Jagger or a local band here in San Diego doing a demo. And I've been very lucky, being at the right place at the right time.”
Just how well Stasium does his job is demonstrated by how quickly some of his high-profile collaborators responded to a request for comments — and by how highly they sing his praises.
“When you're talking about great record producers, Ed ticks all the boxes,” said Blondie drummer Clem Burke, whose other band, Empty Hearts, has made two albums with Stasium.
“Ed is creative, technical, objective and professional, and he is always adding a little bit of his special sauce in the final production.”
Burke's enthusiasm is shared by fellow Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee and fellow drummer Chris Frantz and by former Rod Stewart/ Mick Jagger guitarist Stevie Salas.
“Eddie is a legend!” said Oceanside native Salas. “He's just the coolest guy who shines with any kind of music. And, despite everything he's done, he's never egotistical.”
Frantz is equally effusive. A co-founder of the bands Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club with his Coronado-born wife, Tina Weymouth, Frantz singles Stasium out in his 2020 book, “Remain in Love: Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, Tina.”
“Ed was our secret weapon,” he writes in “Remain in Love.” “(He was) full of encouragement and positive reinforcement, which is what a young band needs when recording their first album.”
Speaking from his and Weymouth's New England home recently, Frantz happily elaborated on Stasium's attributes.
“Ed really made the first Talking Heads album so much better in every way,” the drummer said. “He was very encouraging, and we really looked to him for guidance and approval. Ed really saved the day for us.
“He was also working with the Ramones at that time, and — not too long after that — with Living Colour. Those three bands alone, in downtown New York City, really covered all the bases, musically. And Ed helped us all.”
As unassuming as he is accomplished, Stasium is quick to downplay his role while praising the talents of the legendary artists he has worked with.
His mission with the Ramones, Talking Heads and Living Colour was the same as with his many other musical clients, past and present. He sought to be as sensitive, empathetic and unobtrusive as possible to let the vision of each artist shine through unimpeded.
“The Ramones, Talking Heads and Living Colour absolutely did not sound like anybody else, which was very cool,” Stasium, 72, said.
“I was just doing my thing, recording, mixing, and having the best time of my life, and I still am. What else could I ask for in life?”
He let out a knowing laugh.
“Who knew, back then, the Ramones would be so influential and that their records would go gold and platinum, more than 40 years after they were released?” Stasium mused. “Who knew?”
All told, this bearded recording master has worked on more than a dozen albums and compilations by the pioneering Ramones alone, including the landmark “Leave Home” and “Rocket to Russia,” both released in 1977.
The Ramones' raw, concise songs created an enduring template for punk-rock in the mid-1970s. So did the shake-the-rafters volume levels at which the band performed — and recorded.
“I've never told anybody I've worked with to turn down. I've never asked or even suggested anybody turn down. And I've never asked a drummer to play softer,” said Stasium, who contributed guitar parts to several Ramones' albums.
“I have asked guitarists to change the settings on their amps. But, as an engineer, you have a fader and a (mixing) console. You can turn things up and down, and you can adjust the microphone attenuation.”
Stasium, who is mulling the possibility of writing his memoir, laughed again.
“In a recording studio,” he noted, “you can accommodate a jet engine — which was probably the same volume Johnny (Ramone) was playing his guitar at!”
Stasium also played a pivotal role on three of Talking Heads' standout albums, “Talking Heads: 77,” “More Songs About Buildings and Food” and “The Name of This Band is Talking Heads.” And he produced, engineered and mixed Living Colour's first three albums, “Vivid,” “Time's Up” and “Biscuits.”
One of Stasium's big claims to fame in 1973 was mixing the Gladys Knight & The Pips classic “Midnight Train to Georgia.” He was all of 22 at the time.
Stasium mixed “Midnight Train to Georgia” in a tiny basement recording studio in New Jersey, using a 16-track Langevin console. Knight and The Pips had recorded their vocals in Detroit at the Motown Records studio. Stasium oversaw the small group of New York session musicians who recorded the guitar, bass, drum and keyboard tracks, then combined what they did with Knight and The Pips' singing.
“‘Midnight Train' was done in 1973,” Stasium said. “Wow, I'm old!”
It was the first chart-topping, million-selling record he worked on. Hearing it for the first time on the radio remains a vivid memory.
“My first wife, Debbie, and our newborn son, Jason, were living with me in my parents' house in New Jersey,” said Stasium, a Garden State native.
“I was washing dishes in our kitchen and, all of a sudden, the radio station I had on started playing ‘Midnight Train to Georgia.' It was an incredible experience, one of those moments you never forget, and it sounded good!
“I still get compliments on that drum sound on ‘Midnight Train.' I had no idea what I was doing!”