Acclaimed producer Michael Beinhorn has worked with the likes of Herbie Hancock, Hole, Soundgarden, Marilyn Manson, Mew, Social Distortion and Ozzy Osbourne, and he's launched a new preproduction service. We chatted with him about it.

L.A. WEEKLY: When did you start producing?
MICHAEL BEINHORN: Completely by accident. I was in a band, and I wasn’t really planning on doing that, either. It just sort of happened. I love synthesizers, and one thing led to another. Five years after we started this band, we wind up working with Herbie Hancock and making a very successful recording with him. The rest is history. Before then, we had produced our own recordings and we’d begun producing other people. We did a project with Nona Hendryx, who was in Labelle. This was sort of the first major thing that we got involved with.

You've worked with Soundgarden, Korn, Manson, Ozzy … Any favorites?
A lot of them. I learned so much from all of them. Even projects that I don’t feel went particularly well, there’s always something to learn from it. It’s a wonderful process. I’m very grateful.

Tell us about your new preproduction servic
The genesis is in my awareness that people aren’t doing this as much as they used to. One of the main reasons is that it’s very difficult to find the funds to make a record with a producer where the producer is going to be on on board for the two months, or however many months, prior to the recording. In the interim, we have an artist with a bunch of songs, and people are tending to rush in, especially in genres such as rock music where you’re dealing with compositions that aren’t being done on a computer. My feeling is, this has to be something that people start doing again, even on projects where there isn’t a whole lot of money involved.

So who is this for?
It’s really for everybody. For people who have recording budgets with major labels, all the way to people who have very little money to work with but need to have their songs honed and developed. I feel like, for that market, it’s most effective.

When does it launch and how do people get involved?
It’s already launched, and the best way to do that is contact me at michaelbeinhorn.com. I’m working on an educational curriculum with a colleague of mine and hope to be able to teach some of the basics of this approach. This is really the most important thing for me. I think it’s something people need desperately right now. My job is to help make their music as good as it can be.

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