A producer, engineer, composer, and audio expert, Robert Margouleff has worked with a wide array of acts in the studio including Wilson Pickett, Oingo Boingo, Billy Preston, Depeche Mode, and others. His new book, Shaping Sounds: Stevie Wonder, Devo, The Synth Revolution, and My Life Behind The Music is out May 19 from Jawbone Press.
Along with his then partner Malcolm Cecil, he worked extensively with Stevie Wonder, during what is perhaps the most creatively fertile period of Wonder’s career, spanning albums such as Music of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions, and Fulfillingness’ First Finale.
Cecil and Margouleff also released on album, Zero Time, as Tonto’s Expanding Head Band. Dubbed The Original New Timbral Orchestra, the instrument, the world’s largest multitimbral polyphonic analog synthesizer was better known by its acronym, TONTO.
A quick glance at the projects Margouleff has lent his talents to reveals a penchant for singular, innovative voices, eager to move into new sonic territories, whether Devo or Tony MacAlpine.
In this conversation, Margouleff discusses his attitudes toward AI, what he hoped to bring out of musicians as a producer, and what his future in music making looks like.
Host/Producer: Jedd Beaudoin
Theme music: Torin Andersen
