Alan Parsons profile

Born: December 20, 1949 in London, England.

Alan Parsons studied a number of musical instruments in childhood but, like many of his peers, settled on the guitar in his early teens. His job in the late '60s at the EMI tape duplication facility allowed him access to many classics of the day, including the tape master of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", which fired him to become a recording engineer. He subsequently managed to get work at the Abbey Road studios and participated in the creation of The Beatles albums "Let It Be", "Abbey Road" and the infamous Apple rooftop session. He also went on to work as mix engineer with Paul McCartney and George Harrison after The Beatles split.

Other artists Parsons has worked with include The Hollies, Cockney Rebel, John Miles & Al Stewart but his real ongoing claim to fame was his engineering work on Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon" which earned him his first grammy nomination.

It was after this that Parsons co-founded the Project with songwriter Eric Woolfson, creating conceptual albums that featured a revolving cast of uber studio aces and members of bands such as The Hollies, The Zombies & Cockney Rebel. The early albums were inspired by the works of Poe ("Tales Of Mystery & Imagination") and Asimov ("I Robot"), and later by esoteric subjects ("Pyramid", "Eye In The Sky").

During the '90s Parsons expanded his reportoire with a theatre show ("Freudiana"), and a touring live act with long time collaborators, guitarist Ian Bairnson and drummer Stuart Elliott. A long-standing fan of Alan's music, Mike Myers as Austin Powers in "The Spy Who Shagged Me" decided to name his Dr. Evil character's death ray "The Alan Parsons Project". Yeah, baby yeah!!

Alan's music is now taking a new contemporary direction into the world of Electronica. His latest album features a number of notables in the genre including The Crystal Method, Shpongle, The Nortec Collective and Uberzone. The album also features a guest appearance by Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour. Alan says, "The industry is changing and I feel the need to capture a different kind of audience while still keeping my identity. Electronic music is the fastest growing music category right now and I'm enjoying working with new people and new technology". The album is now available on CD and will be released in DVD formats. The DVD will contain 5.1 surround mixes as well as new visual material.

Alan has written extensively for the Pro-Audio press and is an acknowledged expert in 5.1 Surround Sound recording. He has often lectured at Recording conferences and Schools of Recording and was the keynote speaker at The Audio Engineering Society convention in 1998.