I didn’t realize how badly I had mucked it up until years later. I started Sound & Vision Studios in 1983—transforming the former annex of a metal shop in San Francisco’s bohemian-artist backwater of Potrero Hill—with band mate Neal Breitbarth. We prided ourselves on how ultra-modern the studio looked—all sleek black, white, and gray hues with custom cabinets. No wood. No metal. No cables littering the floors. Amps, mic stands, mics, and instruments hidden away in secret storage rooms. And no album or CD covers displayed on the lobby walls as self-aggrandizing “artwork” to promote the studio’s resume. But after Sound & Vision closed in 1993—and I went on to establish Tiki Town Studios with producer Scott Mathews—I was haunted by visits to other studios that proudly exhibited the albums they had recorded. Rather than the artifacts of ego I had wanted to avoid in my studios, I finally understood […]