Episode 63: Producer John Congleton

Vinyl Emergency

Texas native John Congleton's production, engineering and mixing résumé is as diverse as they come, spanning projects with everyone from Blondie to The Roots & Erykah Badu to Angel Olsen to Talking Heads' David Byrne to gospel legend Kirk Franklin. A Grammy-winner for his work on St. Vincent's 2014 self-titled album, Congleton also fronted The Paper Chase for over a decade, crafting some of the most feverishly manic and intriguing music known within indie-rock -- thanks to, in his words today, being "willing to destroy the integrity of a completely reasonable song for the effect of an audio hallucination." Last year saw the release of his first post-Paper Chase album under The Nighty Nite moniker, titled "Until The Horror Goes," and he's already produced five albums that have come out so far in 2017 from Nelly Furtado, Blondie, Future Islands, Xiu Xiu and Goldrapp. On this episode, Congleton recalls his early memories of ZZ Top and Fawlty Towers, the influence of Pink Floyd, Public Enemy and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop on the Paper Chase, what artists of all walks ultimately want from an engineer or producer, where exactly he keeps his Grammy and why we're still fascinated with the Zodiac Killer. Be sure to follow him @congletonjohn on Twitter and Instagram!