Lynda Arnold (aka "Divasonic")

Piano Workshop, Production

Lynda Arnold has worked as an educator, artist, producer and promoter since moving to the Bay Area in 1999. She received classical training in piano and flute from DePauw University, as well as audio production and recording training from Ex’pression College for the Digital Arts in Emeryville.

In the past decade, Lynda has recorded and produced several solo albums under her ‘Divasonic’ moniker in addition to playing with other bands and composing for dance company Capacitor. In 2004, she established her own label and production company Digital Bliss Productions, which releases her music as well as that of other women producers and performers in the field of electronic music production.

Lynda understands the need for well-rounded next generation audio producers and professionals and is excited to be sharing her knowledge and skills with the Pyramind students and staff.

More more information, visit: www.divasonic.com and www.digitalblissproductions.com

Matt Boudreau

Advanced Audio Fundamentals

I'll spare you the details of my childhood except for a few things. I was was born and raised in New Mexico. I started playing drums in the 6th grade. In junior high I met Max Butler and Brennan Hester who I would end up playing with in a band called the Sextants. Max and Brennan had a great punk band called MFC (Manson Family Christmas) that went through a lineup change and I became the drummer. The name and sound was changed and the Sextants were born.

In 1988 I moved to San Francisco with The Sextants. Brennan's sister Lori joined us on bass Brennan could play guitar. In 1990 we signed a record deal with Imago Records, created by Terri Ellis of Chrysalis records fame. Larry Hirsch (Los Lobos, John Hiatt, Bonnie Raitt) would produce our debut album "Lucky You" at Ocean Way and Sunset Sound Factory in Los Angeles. We toured all over the US and Canada but were eventually dropped from the label.

The Sextants broke up and I joined Seven Day Diary in 1993. Seven Day Diary signed with Warner Bros./Reprise soon after. Producer Joe Chiccarelli (Frank Zappa, Tori Amos, American Music Club, White Stripes) did an EP with us called "Fig. 6" at Coast Recorders in SF. We then went on to make a full-length record ("Skin and Blister") with producer Gil Norton (Echo & The Bunnymen, Counting Crows, Foo Fighters) in London at Britannia Row and Swan Yard. The band would tour all over Europe with moderate success but unfortunately would suffer a similar fate as The Sextants and we eventually broke up as well.

During my time in Seven Day Diary around '94 I worked part time at a small studio in San Francisco on a 1-inch 16 track and ADATs while also working in pro audio retail. In that same year I did my first gig as a producer for a band called Spackle. In 1998 I went full time, bought a Pro Tools system and never looked back.

In addition to teaching at Pyramind, I also operate a small recording studio, Broken Radio Studios, where we have recorded artists ranging from Keith Urban, to Jello Biafra, Tower of Power, and more.

For more information, visit: www.brokenradio.com

Steffen Franz (aka "Stand Out Selector")

Music Business

President and Founder of Positive Sound Massive Recordings and Independent Distribution Collective and is also Label Consultant for Epiphyte Records. Stand Out Selector, aka Steffen Franz is well known as a dancehall innovator. As a DJ/Producer/Remixer and the owner of PSM Recordings, he has brought his conscious reggae vibes to people from New York to Hawaii (and San Francisco in between). Since forming PSM, Steffen worked as reggae buyer for Rough Trade Records in San Francisco, and as Reggae Editor for American Music Press. From 1994 to 1998, Steffen was the Production Manager of the Paradise Lounge /Transmission Theater in San Francisco. In the summer of 1998, he began tour managing Mix Master Mike, traveling the globe on Mike's solo tours as well as with the Beastie Boys. Steffen has also tour managed Linton “Kwesi” Johnson and Lee “Scratch” Perry across the USA.

In the Late 1990s, SOS DJ’d hundreds of shows throughout California, Nevada, Washington, New York and even Australia & New Zealand, where he played opening and break sets for the Beastie Boys "Hello Nasty" World tour. SOS has produced tracks for artists such as Nicodemus, Shinehead, Barrington Levy, Rocker-T, Jamalski, Wookie J., Karney, DJ Collage, and San Francisco’s New Dealers. In the past few years, SOS has been running Positive Sound Management which currently represents Rocker-T, Poetz4Peace, Haji Mike, Cas Lucas, Ian Collins, and Karney. SOS also plays bass in the rock band Not For Not, raps in Karney and is a member of "biL" a dancehall, surf, hip hop, band.

Other recent developments include launching Independent Distribution Collective in 2004, which grew from 9 labels to over 200 products in 3 years, and now includes digital distribution and film and DVD distribution. Recent studio works include production of over a dozen albums including: Nuffsed "Ignite the Fuse", Rastrillos "Se Acabo El Reve", Haji Mike "The Storyman", Jahson Ites "Forward Outta Babylon", and new releases from Bhi Bhiman and Lou Dog Trio.

Steffen also now brings his diverse experience and knowledge to bear as an instructor for the music business classes at Pyramind, and to consulting for Pyramind's label, Epiphyte Records.

Chris Lum

Advanced Remixing

Chris Lum has been a mainstay of the San Francisco dance music scene for over fifteen years. Lum moved to the city in 1993 from LA, where he helped open and run the famous store Beat Non Stop.  Arriving in San Francisco he earned a gig behind the counter at the much-missed BPM Records on Polk & Post, where he slung records, ordered the cream of domestic dance music of that era, and advised fledgling DJs and newcomers to the scene about what to spin and how to spin it. 

Between 2001 and 2005, Chris had 80+ songs pressed and published on labels from around the world including notable names like Defected, Strictly Rhythm, Hooj Choons, and Arista. In 2004 he was honored to be nominated for a Grammy Award for a Jill Scott remix, and since he has remixed artists such as Alicia Keys, Mary J Blige, Missy Elliot, Luther Vandros and Mariah Carey. 

Chris has also been a working DJ since 1992, and began traveling the world in 2002. He has played at major venues and festivals including: The Southport Weekender in the UK (twice), Field Day and Home nightclub in Sydney Australia, Ministry of Sound and Neighborhood in London, Cielo in NYC, Electric Circus in Adelaide Australia and anywhere in Melbourne Australia.  Other cities include:  AUSTRALIA (Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Byron Bay, and yes, Wollongong), BRAZIL (Sao Palo, Rio De Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Curitiba), CANADA (Vancouver and Toronto), EUROPE (Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Skopje, Barcelona, Mallorca and the Canary Islands), UK (London, Southport and Glasgow), U.S. (Seattle, Portland, L.A San Diego, Phoenix, Houston, Dallas, Austin, Denver, Chicago, Miami, Ft Lauderdale, Orlando, Gainesville, Baltimore and N.Y.C). 

On top of all this Chris is also the sole owner of Moulton Media, and has been a mix and editing engineer for artists like Kaskade, Halo and Gregory Del Piero.  Current projects include founding a new imprint, Harlum Music, with David Harness, and to open the famed Moulton Media production facility to the general public, continuing his never-ending mission to better the music scene of San Francisco and beyond.

For more information, visit www.moultonmedia.net 

Anthony Michael Peterson (aka "Tru")

Music Theory, Songwriting

Anthony Michael Peterson, a native of St. Louis, MO, began playing guitar at the age of twelve. At thirteen, Anthony received a classical guitar scholarship to the St. Louis Conservatory of Music, where during the course of a four year study, he studied with classical guitar teachers Michael Cedric Smith and Rodney Stuckey. During this period Anthony had also taken master classes with renowned classical guitar master and author Aaron Shearer. At the age of fourteen, Michael Cedric Smith encouraged Anthony to begin teaching privately, and he has been doing it ever since!

After high school, Anthony moved to Boston, MA to attend the Berklee College of Music. The year after his graduation ('83), Anthony became one of the youngest faculty members of the college. He taught there for three years.

After freelancing and teaching in Boston for one year, Anthony moved to Brooklyn, New York. It was here that he began working with Peter Gabriel, Marcus Miller, Joan Baez, Cassandra Wilson, and saxophonist Oliver Lake. During this period, Anthony also recorded his solo debut cd, "The Book of Days" for Gazelle Records. Anthony also became a member of The Black Rock Coalition, which resulted in his long standing association with Living Color band leader and guitarist Vernon Reid.

While in New York, Anthony placed two songs for Columbia on singer/actress Lonnette McKee's debut, "Natural Love", produced by director Spike Lee.

After touring with Cassandra Wilson, Anthony moved to The Bay Area and began playing various venues and festivals. He soon developed his own production company, "Lone Warrior Music", as a business and publishing resource for his compositions and musical education materials.

After receiving an offer from investors, Anthony created his own recording studio and produced his first solo project as singer-song writer Tru, "I'm Not Through Dreaming". He formed his own band and has been playing throughout the Bay Area.

In 2005 Anthony attended The Midem Music Conference in Cannes, France. At the conference, Anthony created distribution and publishing interest for the catalog of Lone Warrior Music. This catalogue includes songs for publishing, soundtrack music for video games and extreme sports shows, children's music, Christmas music, and a three-volume work on improvisation for guitarists.

Anthony is also passionately interested in developing musical learning techniques for students of all levels of ability. He has developed an intuitional band concept for children called "I Dare You to Make Music!" In this concept, students learn songs they choose by ear. Throughout the class, the children are encouraged to learn from and laugh at their mistakes. They learn how to rehearse, listen to one another, and apply simple music theory as solutions to any questions that may arise.

Timo Preece (aka "Gravity Terminal")

Ableton Live, Production

Timo has been teaching, creating and producing both music and sound art in Los Angeles, California and in Tokyo, Japan. He obtained his ethnomusicology degree at UCLA and has done a number of studio recordings and live performances with noteworthy individuals including, Craig Harris (Disney, documentary music producer), Frank Serafini (film score and music video producer- TRON), Abhiman Kaushal (classical Indian tabla master), Kobla Ladzekpo (Ghanian master drummer), Francisco Aguabella (Latin jazz master), Gerald Wilson (Grammy award winning jazz musician and producer), Jun (D&B DJ), Echoplex, Medicine Drum, Dubstract, and others.

For four years, Timo was based in Tokyo, Japan working to create a new electronic based music - ranging from designing and creating music and sound design for web sites, DJ events throughout Tokyo, live electronic shows, radio, CD/DVD productions and audio mastering. In addition to DJing original music, Timo created a live electronic band which performed at events such as: 'Eyesaw' for their 13th annual Arts events which took place at Le Deco, (Shibuya), Garage (Shimokitazawa, live house), Milk (Ebisu) and Radio on Active (Gaienmae). As a producer, he has mastered tracks and CDs for artists such as South African DJ Shane Berry, Saloman and Eyesaw's interactive CD.

Back in California and now based in San Francisco, Timo plans to continue teaching and working with electronic based music, digital audio, sound design, post production, and synthesis. Currently, in addition to instructing at Pyramind, he is teaching DAW and Advanced Post Production labs at Expression College for Digital Arts.

For more information, visit: www.gravityterminal.com

Peter Steinbach

Game Audio, Sound Design

Peter Steinbach has been working in the SF Bay Area since 1988.

He started as an intern at Hyde Street Studios, where his talent for shampooing rugs at 6am did not go unnoticed. Before long, he was shampooing rugs in the coveted 4pm time slot.

He then moved on to Alpha and Omega Studios as an assistant engineer and was engineering sessions before long. Sessions included Brian Eno, The Neville Brothers and Exodus.

Peter then decided to move into audio post production, and became a sound designer at Earwax Productions. There he worked on over three hundred national TV commercials including Sega, Foster Farms, Got Milk?, Disney and many others. He also did sound design for the IMAX films "Whales" and "Yellowstone".

Not being satisfied by library sound effects, Peter started recording his own. His recordings have appeared in "The English Patient, "The Rainmaker", The Sound Ideas library and at Skywalker Ranch's in-house library.

Most recently, Peter worked at Antenna Audio/Discovery Network as a lead Sound Designer. He was the sound designer for audio tours of Alcatraz, The USS Midway, The Statue of Liberty, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY), The Guggenheim (NY), and many others. He was awarded the NAI award for best audio tour twice for first place, once for second.

Peter feels uneasy referring to himself in the third person. He has decided to get over it.

Brian Trifon (aka "Trifonic")

Synthesis

Brian Trifon is the co-founder and head composer/producer/sound designer of Trifonic, a music group that specializes in cutting-edge electronic and alternative music.

After graduating from USCʼs Thornton School of Music in 2004 with a degree in Guitar Performance, Brian worked as a music programmer and guitarist for renowned electronic artist BT. In his time at BTʼs studio, Brian contributed additional music and programming to several films, TV shows, and video games, including: Catch and Release (Sony, 2007), Look (2008), Battle In Seattle (2008), Kevin Hill (UPN, 2004) and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 (EA Sports).  Brian also played guitar, provided additional programming and toured in support of BTʼs studio album, This Binary Universe (DTS, 2006).

In January 2007, Brian founded Trifonic with his brother Laurence and began work on their debut album  Emergence, which they released in February, 2008. Trifonic has licensed music to CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS, 2007), Playstation Home (Sony, 2008) and several other advertisements  and TV shows.  Trifonic's track “Parks On Fire” is featured on Hybridʼs latest mix album  Soundsystem 01 (Nettwerk/Hope Recordings, 2008), along with tracks by Massive Attack, Trentemøller, Sasha, and Hybrid.

For more information, visit www.trifonic.com