Hometown or residence. Born in Australia, currently living in Europe.
Year you began playing. Started playing guitar, bass and keyboards in 1987.
Bio:Moonhead is a producer, remixer and multi-instrumentalist located on planet earth. As a producer and composer, Moonhead has worked with many notable engineers, producers and mixers including Richard Chycki (Rush, Aerosmith) Jeff Martin (The Tea Party), Dan Brodbeck (The Cranberries, Dolores O’Riordan), Mike Fraser (AC/DC, Metallica, Van Halen), 3 time Grammy winner David Bottrill (Peter Gabriel, Muse, Tool), Ben Mink (Feist, Rush, Elton John), Ken Lewis (Drake, Eminem, Wu Tang Clan) and Adam Kasper (Queens Of The Stone Age, Foo Fighters, Soundgarden).
“Working with some of the world’s best engineers and mixers has given me an incredible education on signal flow and approach to audio and music. It raises and continues to raise the bar and helps align my own frequency to theirs in the sense of taste and what to listen for” says Moonhead. “It’s the single most important thing to work with as many knowledgeable people in my field as possible. That, and to create music that resonates”.
Moonhead has composed theme songs and music supervised for sports TV shows seen across North America and the world.
As a remixer, Moonhead has worked on multiple remixes for Chris Vrenna (Nine Inch Nails).
As a multi-instrumentalist, playing guitars, keys and bass, Moonhead has played over 4,000 shows touring extensively across many countries including Australia, Asia, UK, Canada, USA and Europe playing festivals and supporting acts including Foo Fighters, David Lee Roth, Cheap Trick, Alterbridge and many more.
Moonhead is currently producing, composing and mixing his own projects. This includes Divine Astronaut and producing the Trope album ‘Eleutheromania’ engineered by Mike Fraser and mixed by David Bottrill. Mastering on the Trope debut is being handled by legendary mastering engineer Ted Jensen of Sterling Sound. The Trope singles Shout, Hyperextend and Pareidolia were produced, mixed and mastered by Moonhead, and Pareidolia was recently added to the Rock Hard Spotify playlist with over 750,000 listeners, and was featured in Louder and Prog magazines.
What have been a few highlights of your career.
* Support for David Lee Roth
* Playing on stage with Ben Mink (Rush, KD Lang, Heart, Feist)
* Recorded debut album with Mike Fraser (ACDC) David Bottrill (Tool, Muse)
* Added to Spotify Rock Hard Editorial Spotify playlist with over 750k listeners)
* Features in Prog Magazine, Louder Sound, Metal Hammer Germany, Loudwire (Best songs of April Staff Picks), Loudwire Spotify Playlist, Heavy Mag (Top 40 female Rock Acts)
* Performed at NAMM for Sennheiser
* Featured in American Songwriter, Earmilk, Parade, Dark Beauty, Metal Hammer.
* Supported The Pineapple Thief on 26 date European tour in Winter 2022
* Supported The Pineapple Thief on 6 date US tour in Spring 2022
* Supporting Symphony X and Haken on 27 date US tour Spring 2022.
* Supporting Kings X on 10 date UK tour Fall 2022
Describe your rig or instrument of choice. For studio, I use amplifiers from Mesa Boogie (Dual Rectifier, REV F) Friedman, Fender, Ampeg SVT, Wizard and other eclectic amps and effects. I use effects from MXR, Strymon, Boss, Thompson FX, Echoplex and many more. For live, I use Kemper Stage for guitar and Ampeg for Bass, all basses have Nordstrand MM4.2 Alnico fitted. Also, when I play live with backing tracks for promo tours, the bass sound is that MM4.2 pickup.
How did you discover Nordstrand? I was reading online about replacement pickups for Music Man basses, and the wonderful reviews for the Nordstrand MM series were unanimous. So I decided to install the Nordstrand MM4.2 Alnico before we went into the studio and just was instantly sold. Having used an original 77 Sting Ray, I can say that the MM series Nordstrand Pickups satisfy and provide a tone and feel that is hard to match. I basically put them in all basses for studio and live now.
How long have you been using Nordstrand? Started using Nordstrand pickups in 2017 while producing and recording our debut album ‘Eleutheromania’.
What do you like about Nordstrand? What I love most about Nordstrand is the commitment to quality and consistency in their pickups, so I can rely on tone when installing them in many different guitars and builds. We are constantly changing basses and guitars, but the mainstay in the basses are the MM4.2. It’s THE sound we love for Trope and is a requirement for studio and live.
Artists whom with you are currently working: In Trope, Just finished a 26 date 2022 European Tour with The Pineapple Thief which included an extra 6 US dates, and are also touring with Symphony X and Haken in Spring/Summer 2022. In the fall of 2022 will be touring UK with Kings X.
Find more about Moonhead at
http://www.moonheadmix.com and Trope the band at
http://www.tropetheband.com
