Podcast 449 – Engineer Lenise Bent, Metal Still Rules, And The Death Of The Key Change

My guest this week is Lenise Bent, who was one of a handful of women working in the Hollywood recording studio business in a technical role during the 1970s, and was the first woman to receive an RIAA Platinum album for her engineering of AutoAmerican by Blondie. While working as an assistant at Village Recorder, Lenise worked on a number of classic albums, including Aja by Steely Dan, Breakfast In America by Supertramp, and Tusk by Fleetwood Mac. She then became chief engineer for producer Mike Chapman, working on albums by Blondie, The Knack and Suzi Quatro. Lenise eventually moved over to post-production sound where she worked as a sound editor, sound supervisor and re-recording mixer on films like Shrek, Spirit and Shrek 2. During the interview we spoke about her getting her start as an assistant at Village Recorders, working on Steely Dan’s Aja Album, being chief engineer for producer Mike Chapman, getting sick from the intense work schedule, starting back at the bottom in post, and much more. I spoke with Lenise from her office in Los Angeles via zoom. On the intro I’ll take a look at how Metal continues to thrive, and the death of the key change in modern music. var podscribeEmbedVars = { epId: 84272927, backgroundColor: 'white', font: undefined, fontColor: undefined, speakerFontColor: undefined, height: '600px', showEditButton: false, showSpeakers: true, showTimestamps: true };