Danny Shaffer: my story
Having been a musician most of my life, I was fortunate to have grown up in Los Angeles, just above the Sunset Strip, in the late 60’s and early 70’s. New music was happening everywhere! The sounds of the Beatles, Stones, Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Motown were fresh and new and inspiring a whole new generation of us future rock n rollers. I moved to Chicago when I was 13 and started playing guitar professionally at 15. I played every kind of gig you can imagine…from blues to disco, with Romanian Elvis impersonators, transvestite country punk singers, as well as pick-up gigs with such Chicago legends as Tyrone Davis and the Shadows of Night. Not old enough to drive, I would take the bus home from gigs at 4AM, only to wake up two hours later and go to high school!
After spending most of my early 20’s as a sideman and studio guitarist, I landed a publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music. I spent my entire advance on recording equipment and turned my 2 bedroom apartment into my own version of Abbey Road (well…sort of). Having paltry demo budgets mixed with very high expectations from my publishing company, I learned how to make great sounding recordings quickly and for very little money (the secret is in the arrangement!). Outgrowing my apartment, I ended up renting a small space within the legendary Chicago Trax studio. Great artists such as R. Kelley and Ministry, as well as world class producers like Steve Lillywhite (U2) and Kevin Shirley (Aerosmith and Black Crowes) were all making records there at that time…a great learning experience! My engineering and mixing capabilities, combined with my background as a composer/arranger/multi-instrumentalist, led to a staff producer/engineer position that lasted for almost two years. I eventually went on to open my own recording studio, Velvetshirt Studio. I recorded a lot of great music at Velvetshirt, including albums for such cutting edge local artists as Frisbie, Julie Frost, and Falling Wallendas, as well as major label artists Liz Phair (“whitechocolatespaceegg”), Kinsey Report and Wayne Baker Brooks.
As a composer, I scored music for the Emmy-award winning PBS special "Fables from the New School" (1997) and the Golden Apple Awards (1996-2000) to name a few. In addition, I’ve been fortunate to have produced and composed music for numerous ad agencies including: BBDO Worldwide Cramer-Krasselt DDB Needham JWT and Leo Burnett on a number of national commercial ad campaigns, including Burger King, Coca Cola, Coors, McDonalds and many others.
At the end of 2008, after 14 years, I made the decision to close my commercial recording studio, so I could concentrate all of my energy on producing/composing/pitching music for TV and film as well as freelance album production/engineering/mixing for independent artists.