This was in 1986, at Avalanche Studio in Denver Colorado. I'm at the mixing desk engineering Ron Miles' first album which was called Distance for Safety. A friend of ours had decided to try starting a record label, and booked us a couple days in this 24 track studio which besides being well-equipped also had a good-sized room so the sound there wasn't muffled and dead. I know this was during the tracking sessions because I'm occupied with the monitor mix there on the mixing desk.

I often tried to get engineering gigs at this studio rather than work temp jobs in pickle factories or just be a bum, but they didn't take me seriously because I wasn't interested in emulating that smooth contemporary 1980's jazzrock sound the studio was known for. The tracks for Distance for Safety sounded bloody great, but during this very session the studio's house engineer came in and said "...if I'd known you wanted such a crappy sound I would have mis-aligned the tape machine before you came in". (For those of you who have heard the album: as a joke in honor of that disgruntled engineer we made the one huge ridiculous gated reverb snare hit during the first tune!)

In the background is my father (RIP 2000). He and my mother had come out from Watseka Illinois to Denver for a visit and stopped by the studio. My father was (and my mother still is) always appreciative and respectful of my work, even if they didn't "get it" sometimes!

Other observations: My studio tan is lookin' good here, and the hair has once and for all commenced its final departure.