Photo by John Soares

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THE WEISSTRONAUTS
PETE WEISS & THE ROCK BAND

Pete Weiss is a New England-based producer/engineer/mixer/musician. His unfussy, organic, "artist first" work has earned him a reputation as an outstanding producer who can adapt to many musical genres and is unafraid to ignore stylistic convention. Notable artists Weiss has worked with include Charlie Chesterman, Chris Brokaw, Peter Holsapple, Kustomized, Slim Cessna's Auto Club, Doug Yule, Moe Tucker, The Upper Crust, Aimee Mann, Lee Ranaldo, Bell X1, Willard Grant Conspiracy, Two Dollar Pistols, Bow Thayer & Levon Helm, Hayley Thompson-King and many others.

In 1989 he co-founded Zippah Studio in Boston. In 2004, he built and opened Verdant Studio, an "open room" retreat-style studio with artist lodging in rural Vermont which he operated until late 2020, when he returned to Boston to concentrate on mixing and mastering at Jade Cow Music Post Production Services.

When not in the studio, Weiss fronts the instrumental band The Weisstronauts and is a member of the experimental pop collective known as Sool.  Since 2017, he has collaborated with eclectic vocalist/songwriter Hayley Thompson-King.  He released a solo album in 1996 and three albums while fronting the subversive Pete Weiss & the Rock Band from 1995-2000. He has scored four independent films, "Methods" (1998), "Metal" (2001), "Bad Gravity" (with Sool 2006), and "The Arcadian Ideal" (2007).

He is a Senior Contributor for Tape Op Magazine, writing reviews of audio equipment as well as conducting interviews with recording industry figures. Over the years he has served on many panels & workshops at Tape Op's and Potluck Audio's conferences. In the early 1990's Weiss authored two books on baseball, "Baseball's All Time Goats" and "Longshots!", both published by Adams Media.

Artists interested in working with Pete can contact him via gmail: peteweiss2000

News:

Pete continues to do more and more mastering work, both for digital and vinyl releases... Vinyl projects are often done in conjunction with Jeff Powell (who cuts the lacquer at Sam Phillips, Memphis) for boutique vinyl-only label Run Out Groove.
Recent albums mastered by Pete include The Jayhawks' critically-acclaimed XOXO album, along with an upcoming Gary Louris solo album, deluxe reissues by Morphine, the Beau Brummels, Marshall Crenshaw, Type O Negative, Tony Joe White, Cher, Devo, Juliana Hatfield, Belly, Dr. John, Warren Zevon, Dusty Springfiled and more. 

Some of Pete's recent production/engineering projects include:
• The upcoming sophomore album by Vapors of Morphine - low, moody rock that picks up where the legendary Boston band Morphine left off.
• mixing Peter Holsapple Combo's "Live at Q Division" album
• "Yellow House" by North Carolina stalwarts LUD.

A few years back, Pete collaborated with Chris Ballew (Caspar Babypants, Presidents of the United States of America) on a 7" single for UK-based label WIAIWYA. The pair swapped recordings every Friday until two songs were complete, hence they called themselves The Friday Swaps.

Influential roots-pop-cowpunk band Scruffy The Cat got the long-overdue anthology treatment from two labels.  Sony Music digitally released Time Never Forgets: The Anthology, the band's complete catalog of two albums and two EP's. Simultaneously, Omnivore Recordings released The Good Goodbye, a comprehensive collection of previously-unreleased rarities. Pete assisted with remastering the Sony collection, and compiled, remastered/restored the Omnivore album (and also wrote the liner notes).

In various configurations, Pete and the Weisstronauts have been sporadically backing up NYC musical institution Jack Grace, as well as his alter ego Van Hayride. The latter did a brief tour in late 2014, opening for Puss N Boots (side project for Norah Jones, Cat Popper and Sasha Dobson). Video of the 2nd gig of that tour HERE.

In 2012 Pete Weiss & the Rock Band reunited in the studio and created a new 10-song album with co-producer Adam Fuest called "Sex Contest." The album includes a cover of the Tracey Ullman / Kirsty MacColl hit "They Don't Know," and a shot-by-shot parody video was created by Jeff Mellin and John Soares. Here it is, side-by-side with the original. Also, here's a video for the song/anthem "Ermahgerd," that was created by Sool's Neal Spaulding.

The Weisstronauts have released an anthology of their best songs, "Control Is In Your Command: The Best Of The Weisstronauts" in the form of a deluxe vinyl LP/CD pairing.

Press:

Why Vinyl Sounds Different: Mojo Flucke chats with Pete.

Pete Weiss interview on the Working Class Audio podcast.

"Pete Weiss Interviews Pete Weiss" in Tape Op Magazine online. There are at least two engineer/producer Pete Weisses.  The "other" one was most active in the 60's and 70's and worked with artists such as Bill Evans, Looking Glass (known for "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)", Edgar Winter, Barbra Streisand and others.  These two Petes became friendly a few years ago and the younger Pete figured it would be fun to conduct an interview with the elder Pete.  Confused?  Read the interview...

Interview (with Rafi Sofer of the Invisible Rays), discussing instrumental rock for Jonathan Donaldson's blog.

A podcast from Björgvin Benediktsson's excellent Audio Issues site. Pete talks about simple and not-so-simple things that happen in a recording studio.

Interviews with Mojo Flucke for Popdose...
and with John Clarkson in the U.K. webzine Pennyblackmusic...
and an older interview in Pennyblackmusic, from 2002...