Rich Costey

Rich Costey
Origin	Los Angeles, U.S.
Genres	Alternative rock, experimental rock, indie rock, post-punk revival, art rock, electronica
Occupation(s)	Record producer, mixer, engineer
Years active	1995–present

Rich Costey is an American record producer, mixer and engineer, whose work ranges from hip-hop, rock, pop, indie, and electronica. As a producer Costey's credits include Sigur Rós, Frank Turner, Muse, Foster the People, Swirlies, Santigold and Biffy Clyro. He has occasionally done work as a DJ and musician on these albums as well.

Biography

At age 16 Costey became a disc jockey on a local radio station before going on to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston. While working at Q Division Studios as an assistant, he learned about classic recording techniques and started working with producer Jon Brion whom he credits as an important influence and future collaborator. His first steady gig as a producer was with Boston indie band Swirlies whose repertoire expanded from American shoegaze rock into dance music and electronica under Costey's tutelage. The albums and EPs Costey made with Swirlies helped establish him as a go-to producer for indy bands, and brought him to work with Sebadoh, Madder Rose, and Pavement during the 1990s.

After college Costey moved to New York City, and in 1995 started working at Philip Glass's Looking Glass studio. Within six months Costey was the facility's head engineer. At the same time, he worked with bands such as Bowery Electric and the Lilys at Michael Deming's Studio 45 in Hartford, Connecticut.

After he relocated to Los Angeles, Costey and Brion collaborated on the Fiona Apple track Brion was producing for the soundtrack to Pleasantville as well as contributing a remix of Cheap Trick's "Surrender" for the Small Soldiers soundtrack. He later engineered and mixed Fiona Apple's album When the Pawn.... His work on the Fiona album attracted the attention of producer Rick Rubin who loved the sound of When The Pawn... and hired Costey to mix Audioslave's 2002 self-titled debut and Rage Against the Machine's 2003 live album, Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium.

In 2003, Muse recruited Costey to produce their breakthrough third LP, Absolution. His most recent credits include Foster the People, Birdy, Young the Giant, Chvrches, Phantogram and Kimbra. He also produced Death Cab for Cutie's eighth studio album, Kintsugi, which was released on March 31, 2015.

Awards

In 2008 the Foo Fighters album Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, which Costey mixed, won the award for Best Rock Album at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards. The album also won Best International Album at the 2008 Brit Awards.

Discography

Notable works produced and mixed

• Swirlies – Blonder Tongue Audio Baton, 1993
• Swirlies – They Spent Their Wild Youthful Days in the Glittering World of the Salons, 1996
• Fiona Apple - When the Pawn..., 1999
• Muse – Absolution, 2003
• Mew - Frengers, 2003
• Franz Ferdinand – You Could Have It So Much Better, 2005
• Muse – Black Holes and Revelations, 2006
• Interpol – Our Love to Admire, 2007
• Glasvegas – Glasvegas, 2008
• Mew – No More Stories..., 2009
• Jane's Addiction – The Great Escape Artist, 2011
• Birdy – Birdy, 2011
• Frank Turner – Tape Deck Heart, 2013
• Birdy – Fire Within, 2013
• Kimbra – The Golden Echo, 2014
• Death Cab for Cutie – Kintsugi, 2015
• Of Monsters and Men – Beneath the Skin, 2015
• Muse – Drones, 2015
• Biffy Clyro – Ellipsis, 2016
• At the Drive-In – In•ter a•li•a, 2017
• Joywave – Content, 2017

Notable mixed works

• Ice Cube – War & Peace Vol. 1 (The War Disc), 1998
• Jurassic 5 – Quality Control, 2000
• Rage Against the Machine – Renegades, 2000
• Rival Schools – United by Fate, 2001
• Audioslave – Audioslave, 2002
• The Mars Volta – De-Loused in the Comatorium, 2003
• Rage Against the Machine – Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium, 2003
• Secret Machines – Now Here Is Nowhere, 2004
• The Polyphonic Spree – Together We're Heavy, 2004
• Doves – Some Cities, 2005
• The Mars Volta – Frances the Mute, 2005
• Bloc Party – Silent Alarm, 2005
• Weezer – Make Believe, 2005
• The Mars Volta – Amputechture, 2006
• Mastodon – Blood Mountain, 2006
• Blonde Redhead – 23, 2007
• Against Me! – New Wave, 2007
• Foo Fighters – Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, 2007
• The Mars Volta – The Bedlam in Goliath, 2008
• Does It Offend You, Yeah? – You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into, 2008
• Muse – HAARP, 2008
• Weezer – Weezer, 2008
• The Rumble Strips – Welcome to the Walk Alone, 2009
• Arctic Monkeys – Humbug, 2009
• The Big Pink – A Brief History of Love, 2009
• Weezer – Raditude, 2009
• The Cars – Move Like This, 2011
• TV on the Radio – Nine Types of Light, 2011
• Grace Potter and the Nocturnals – The Lion the Beast the Beat, 2012
• Santigold – Master of My Make-Believe, 2012
• The Shins – Port of Morrow, 2012
• Deftones – Koi No Yokan, 2012
• Alt-J – "Fitzpleasure", 2012
• The Mars Volta – Octahedron, 2012
• Primal Scream – More Light, 2013
• Gossip – A Joyful Noise, 2013
• Wavves – Afraid of Heights, 2013
• Major Lazer – Free the Universe, 2013
• Sigur Rós – Kveikur, 2013
• The Strypes – Snapshot, 2013
• Chvrches – The Bones of What You Believe, 2013
• Young the Giant – Mind over Matter, 2014
• Phantogram – Voices, 2014
• Foster the People – Supermodel, 2014
• Jenny Lewis – The Voyager, 2014
• Pulled Apart by Horses – Blood, 2014
• Flying Lotus – You're Dead!, 2014
• Mew – + -, 2015
• Boots – Aquaria, 2015
• Santigold – 99¢, 2015
• Barns Courtney – The Dull Drums EP, 2017
• Blondie – Pollinator, 2017
• San Fermin – Belong, 2017

External links

• Rich Costey at Allmusic