Sylvia Massy

Sylvia Massy is an entrepreneur, record producer, and studio engineer in the United States. Massy is perhaps best recognized for her work on 1993's Undertow, the full-length double platinum-selling debut for Los Angeles rock band Tool.

History

Massy started out in San Francisco circa 1985 as producer, engineer, and mixer for Rat Music for Rat People, Vol. 3, a compilation album released on the CD Presents label. It featured several notable acts, including Adolescents, Raw Power, and Mojo Nixon, among several others. Towards the end of that decade and into the 1990s, Massy was an engineer on recordings from a diverse group of internationally-known artists, including Aerosmith, Babyface, Big Daddy Kane, The Black Crowes, Bobby Brown, Danzig, Prince, Geto Boys, Julio Iglesias, Seal, Skunk Anansie, Paula Abdul, Seigmen, and many others.

From Green Jellÿ to Tool

During the early 1990s, Massy was working on a project with Green Jellÿ when one of the members of that band invited Massy to produce a fledgling band known as Tool.

Rubin and Beyond

In the late 1990s, Massy connected with veteran producer Rick Rubin, for whom she engineered and mixed several projects, including Johnny Cash's album Unchained, which won a Grammy award for Best Country Album in 1997. With Rubin, she also recorded Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Slayer, Donovan Leitch, and System of a Down's debut album. During this time, Massy also produced many popular artists, including the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sevendust, and Powerman 5000.

Current status

Massy lives in Weed, California with spouse Greg Shivy. They own and operate RadioStar Studios out of the Weed Palace Theater, a facility that was constructed in the 1920s. They acquired the property in 2001 and also use it as a theater.

Works

Sylvia Massy Shivy has worked with the following musicians:

• Acroma – Orbitals (Republic/Universal) (P-E-M)
• Adjacent To Nothing – self-titled (Self-Released) (P)
• Awaking State - Into The Machine - The EP (P-M)
• Air Dubai - Day Escape EP
• Animal Alpha – Pheromones (Racing Junior) (P-E-M)
• Belladonna – forthcoming album (P)
• The Blushing Gun - forthcoming EP (P-E)
• BULK - Guardian (Nordic Records)
• Casanovas – forthcoming album (Rubber Records) (P-E-M)
• The Cliks - Dirty King
• Cog – The New Normal (MGM) (P-E-M)
• Cog – Sharing Space (MGM) (P-E-M)
• Counterfist – Give up the Ghost - EP (2011)
• Cyclefly – Generation Sap (Radioactive) (P-E-M)
• The Deadlights - Self-titled
• Deftones – Escape From LA
• Econoline Crush – The Devil You Know (EMI Canada/Restless) (P-E-M)
• Five Star Iris – self-titled debut (Hooptiville Records) (P)
• Green Jellÿ – Cereal Killer (Zoo) (P-E-M) gold
• Johnny Cash – Unchained (American) (E-M)
• Lisa Haley – King Cake (P-E-M)
• Lollipop Lust Kill – My So Called Knife (Artemis)
• Lucky Lew – Beauty In Aggression (Big Noisy Records)
• Lustra – Lustra (XOFF) (P-E)
• Machines of Loving Grace – Gilt (Atlantic) (P-E-M)
• Major Parkinson - Major Parkinson (Degaton Records)
• Mankind Is Obsolete - Trapped Inside (P)
• My Glorious - Inside My Head Is A Scary Place (2011)
• One-Eyed Doll - Dirty (Kimberly Freeman Productions) (2012)
• Powerman 5000 – Tonight the Stars Revolt! (DreamWorks) (P-E) platinum
• Prince – Diamonds and Pearls (E-M)
• Red Hot Chili Peppers – Love Rollercoaster (Geffen) (P-E-M) gold
• R.E.M. – Road Movie (Warner Bros./HBO) (M)
• Savoy - Savoy Songbook Volume 1 (album) (Universal/Norway)
• Seek Irony – Blend (Israel)
• Seigmen – Metropolis (Sony/Norway)
• Seigmen – Total (Sony/Norway) (P-E-M)
• Seven Day Sonnet - Upcoming EP 2011
• Sevendust – Scream 3 (on the song "Fall")
• Seven Mary Three – Welcome Race Fans (self-released EP)
• Showbread – No Sir, Nihilism Is Not Practical (Tooth and Nail Records)
• Showbread – Age of Reptiles (Tooth and Nail Records)
• Showbread - The Fear of God (Tooth and Nail Records)
• Showbread - Who Can Know It? (Independent/Come&Live Records)
• Skunk Anansie – Paranoid & Sunburnt (One Little Indian/Epic)
• South Cry - Blue Moon (Big Sky Rock)
• Spiderbait – Tonight Alright (Universal Australia) (P-E-M)
• System of a Down – self-titled debut (American) (E)
• Tallman – Mechanism (Aperture) (P-E-M)
• Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – She's the One (E-M)
• Tool – Undertow (Zoo/BMG) (P-E) 2x platinum
• Tool – Opiate (Zoo/BMG) (P-E-M) platinum
• Tripdavon – The Enlightened Operative (Oxygen Recording) (P-E-M)
• Uncledog – Face On The Floor (Upcoming EP - 2011)
• Lax'n'Busto - RELAX (Global Music)
• Klepht - Hipocondria
• The Distortion Mirrors - Circle of Wolves EP (suRRism Phonoethics) (P-E-M)
• 81db – Impressions LP (2011)
• DANTE – the rorschach manifiesto(2011)

External links

• Sylvia Massy on The Producer Series on triple j
• Sylvia Massy on MySpace
• Radio Stars Studios
• Sylvia Massy at Allmusic
• Sylvia Massy at the Internet Movie Database