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GRAMMY WINNING PRODUCER MICHAEL FREEMAN

By Lawrence Lebo

This month I am honoured to interview fascinating and multi-
talented Michael Freeman (below right). The former Brit (if there
is such a thing!) is playing out a successful and multi-facetted
career in the music business. A bassist, manager, recording
engineer, and Grammy winning producer, Michael does it all at
the very top of the game.

Michael has garnered one Grammy Award and three Grammy
Nominations, three WC Handy/Blues Music Award nominations and one
Blues Music Award. Additionally, a Platinum Award for Candi
Staton’s single ‘You’ve Got The Love’, released in 1986 and remixed over
20 times by many DJs and engineers worldwide. In 2011 he received a
prestigious “Keeping The Blues Alive Award - Producer”, from The Blues

Foundation.

And…Michael is a highly respected member of the Chicago, Illinois recording
community, a past Governor, Chapter President and National Trustee
for the Chicago Chapter of the Recording Academy. He also has served
on the Recording Academy’s Producer and Engineer’s Wing Advisory
Council and currently Co-Chairs their Blues Advisory Committee.

If all that weren’t sufficient, Michael currently serves as adjunct
faculty to Columbia College Chicago teaching Master Classes in
recording and is also a founder member of EARS, the Engineering
and Recording Society of Chicago. He is a member of AES, The Audio
Engineering Society and The Blues Foundation on whose Board he
sits as Chairman of the Board of Directors. BLIMEY!

I asked Michael to tell us a bit about his life and career. This is what he
told me…

LL: Please tell us about where you grew up in the UK,
what your family was like and what kind of music your

family listened to.

MF: I was born in 1952. For the first 12 years of my life, I grew up in
Chiswick, (pronounced Chiz-Ick), West London, moved to Dallas, Texas for

almost two years and then returned to the UK. We lived near Richmond,
Surrey for about a year and then settled in Ruislip (pronounced Rice-Lip !!) on the northwestern
edge of greater London. My father was a respected physicist with many fields of expertise which
included early work on radar and night vision equipment during WW2, work on the first cathode

ray tubes at the dawn of the television age, and upon returning to the UK from Texas, EMI asked
him to “Find out about this new silicon chip technology”, which he did and designed and ran their
micro-chip factory in Hayes, Middlesex until he retired. I probably got my technical sensibilities
and work ethic from him which all stood me in good stead as a recording engineer, and as a