Grammy Award Winning and Legendary Music Icon
The Sonic Master of Progressive Rock
Alan Parsons was born into entertainment with a family tree of acclaimed actors in London. He dabbled in live performance but landed his first real gig at the famous Abbey Road Studios at the age of 19. It became clear that the world of sound recording was to dominate his career.
Abbey Road: He was fortunate enough to work as assistant engineer on the last two albums by The Beatles and after he qualified as a fully-fledged recording engineer, he went on to work with Paul McCartney and The Hollies among many others. But it was his contribution as engineer on Pink Floyd’s classic The Dark Side Of The Moon that really got him world attention. He also produced the hugely successful Year Of The Cat album with Al Stewart and two albums with American prog rock band Ambrosia.
In 1975 he met Eric Woolfson who not only became his manager, but joined forces with Alan as a songwriting and performing partner for what became known as The Alan Parsons Project. The APP’s debut album, Tales Of Mystery And Imagination based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe paved the way for a signing to Clive Davis’ newly launched Arista label and a string of hit albums, namely I Robot (1977), Pyramid (1978), The Turn of a Friendly Card (1980), Eye in the Sky (1982), Ammonia Avenue (1984), Vulture Culture (1985), Stereotomy (1986) and Gaudi (1987).
Woolfson and Parsons eventually parted ways. With his long-standing previous APP collaborators, guitarist Ian Bairnson, drummer Stuart Elliott and orchestral arranger Andrew Powell, Alan dropped the “Project” identity for Alan Parsons’ -Try Anything Once – in 1994. The partnership continued for On Air in 1996 and The Time Machine in 1999. During this time the first incarnation of “Alan Parsons Live Project” toured to sell out audiences throughout the globe. The band has reshuffled a few times since then. The current live band consists of Alan on acoustic guitar, keyboards and vocals, P.J. Olsson on vocals, Tom Brooks on keyboards, Guy Erez on bass, Jeff Kollman on guitar and vocals, Danny Thompson on Drums, Todd Cooper on sax, percussion and vocals, Dan Tracey on guitar and vocals and Tyson Montgomery Leonard on violin.
One of the most familiar Project tracks is Sirius, perhaps best known as the Chicago Bulls theme. It was also used as the walk-on music for The New Orleans Saints at their triumphant Super Bowl game in 2010 and at the 2012 European Cup soccer matches. Sirius has also been featured at countless other sporting events, commercials and in the movies Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs and Beerfest.
Alan has received a large number of awards including 11 Grammy nominations, The Les Paul Award in 1995 and The Diva Hall Of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award in Munich, Germany in June 2012. He is in demand as a public speaker and was keynote speaker at the 2014 Audio Engineering Society Convention in Los Angeles and was the opening speaker at the TEDx Conejo conference in California in April 2012.
Alan has been leading the way regarding technology, blending tech with art for his craft as a recording engineer and producer-performer. Compiling years of expertise into his book (and DVD set), "The Art & Science of Sound Recording,” he has created a work unlike anything else available in the marketplace.
