Producer/engineer JOE BARRESI is featured in a new interview with Ultimate-Guitar.com as the first in a series of discussions with producers and engineers in the business. An excerpt from the piece is available below:

Joe Barresi has produced, engineered and mixed some of the most important hard rock, metal and punk bands of the last 15 years including TOOL, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, BAD RELIGION, THE MELVINS, SKUNK ANANSIE, TURBONEGRO and CLUTCH.

Although widely respected for his abilities as an engineer, Barresi is first and foremost a musician. He started playing guitar when he was seven, and played in local bands in New York and in Florida. He studied classical guitar, piano and music theory at the University of South Florida and the University of Miami. He also studied engineering, and spent hundreds of hours recording local bands, developing a patience and understanding for what goes on in the studio.

He later made the move to Los Angeles where he began working his way up the ladder by assisting at numerous local studios. In time, he engineered for many well-respected producers including David Kahne, Michael Beinhorn and GGGarth Richardson, and gained a reputation for getting great sounds, particularly with guitars and drums.

Soon he was producing and mixing records on his own, and produced, recorded and mixed the debut album for the newly formed Queens Of The Stone Age, whom were unsigned at the time. The self-titled album was eventually released by indie label Loose Groove, and after garnering lots of attention from press and alternative radio, the band soon landed a deal with Interscope Records.

Over the years, Barresi has consistently worked with quality artists and made some of their more seminal records which include WEEZER’s Pinkerton, The Melvins’ Stoner Witch to name but a few. Recently Joe Matera chatted to Joe Barresi to discuss his production, engineering and mixing work as well as give readers an insight into his method of operation in the studio.

UG: Garth “GGGarth” Richardson was instrumental in getting your career path set. How did that come about?

Barresi: "GGGarth was booked to do a demo for a band at the studio I was working at called Sound City. Since it was a demo and he was producing it for free, his normal assistant didn’t want to work for no money. So I volunteered my services and we worked three days together on the project. From then on GGGarth requested me to assist him whenever he worked at Sound City, and that eventually lead to a few years of engineering and mixing records together."

UG: You help create the sonic blueprint for what became known as "stoner rock" with bands such The Melvins, Fu Manchu and Kyuss.

Barresi: "Basically it was KYUSS that started it all off for me. I was a freelance assistant engineer at Sound City when the band had come in to do their Blues For The Red Sun (1992) record. An engineering friend of mine, who normally worked with Chris Goss (who was the producer), had just done some other big record and started getting popular as a freelance engineer. He wasn’t available to commit to Chris on Kyuss, so he set up the drum sound and split. I took over the session and recorded and mixed that record. And then that led to two more records with Kyuss, as well as, work with Chris’s own band MASTERS OF REALITY."

UG: You have a background in guitar, how important has that been when it comes to producing and mixing guitar based bands?

Barresi: "I think it has been incredibly important because for me it’s not just a matter of getting a guitar sound. It is also about being able to look at someone while they are playing, and help them get a sound based on their technique - or lack thereof. It also helps that I do spend considerable time experimenting with amps, pedals and guitars, and having knowledge of combinations of sounds to help achieve the desired tone."

Go to this location for the complete interview.