RIP Grammy-Winning Rock & Roll Mixer Mike Shipley
This has been an emotional week for the global pro audio community.
On Tuesday, we learned of not only NYC studio owner Jim Bentley’s passing but also that of L.A.-based Troy Morris, of Westlake Audio. And then, this morning, we woke up to news that renowned mixer Mike Shipley had also passed away. The details of his death are still unknown.
Mike Shipley at the 2012 GRAMMY Awards
Not only was Shipley a tremendous talent in the studio – his discography speaks for itself – he was also an incredibly sweet and modest guy…and funny, with a perfectly dry sense of humor. I had the chance to spend time with him on a trip to his native Australia with SAE back in 2002. He had a great, laid-back vibe about him – a temperament, no doubt, that would put any artist or producer at ease.
Shipley was probably most well-known for engineering/mixing on many a Mutt Lange production, from Def Leppard to Shania Twain. But he got his start in punk and new wave-era London, at Wessex Studios in the early 80s, where he worked with The Sex Pistols, The Damned, and A Flock of Seagulls. He’d connected with Lange at Wessex, and moved to Los Angeles in the 80s where he went onto mix, produce and/or engineer an amazing career’s worth of albums by artists like The Cars, Joni Mitchell, Tom Petty, Yes, Cheap Trick, Meatloaf, Devo, and The Black Crowes, as well as the huge country cross-over hits by Shania Twain (Come on Over) Faith Hill (Breathe) and Tim McGraw, and more recently albums by Maroon 5, 30 Seconds to Mars, and Thomas Dolby.
In 2012, Shipley won “Best Engineered Album” and “Best Bluegrass Album” GRAMMYs for his engineering and mixing work on the Alison Krauss & Union Station album, Paper Airplanes.
The Internet is buzzing with tribute posts from the recording community – Shipley was so highly regarded by people all over the globe, and it’s clear he’s left an amazing legacy of music to inspire future records and engineers/mixers in their craft.
Rest in peace, Mike. You will be missed!
For more on Mike Shipley, read the Gearslutz Q&A, the Sound on Sound feature, or watch the Pensado’s Place interview.