Daniel Catullo
Daniel E Catullo III went into the biz straight after high school. “I became a lighting guy,” he says. Before long he was working with artists such as BB King and Extreme. He graduated to tour manager and continued to work the circuit for five years before deciding enough was enough. Moving to California, Dan set up Ventura, a theatre partnership, with Michael Gross. Two years later, he felt it was time to move on again. He tried his hand in the feature film business, but the call of the road had once again become too great. Paul Geary, one-time band member of Extreme, was now managing Godsmack and agreed for Dan to film a few shows of the tour. And thus, Dan’s live video production company, Coming Home Studios, was formed. “We fund our own shows and distribute our own DVDs, we only do music DVDs,” explains Dan, who has worked for Marilyn Manson and Dave Matthews. (“That’s the biggest thing I’ve done, in Central Park this last fall.”) It was Jimbo Barton, who Dan had met while working with Marilyn Manson, who helped get the gig to work with Rush by introducing the two sides. “Dan brought to my attention the fact they’d pitched and couldn’t get a look in,” says Jimbo. “Dan said, if you can get me the meeting, then let’s go make the thing. So, I got the meeting.” It was then that Dan found out how little interest there had been from the major labels to produce a Rush live DVD. “This band has consistently sold out venues for 30 years,” says Dan, explaining his confidence that a live DVD would do well. He was pleased to get the gig – “we very seldom get to do a stadium,” he says. Nobody could have predicted the victory snatched from the jaws of defeat that became ‘Rush in Rio’, which he co-produced with Larry Jordan and Lionel Pasamonte. Says Dan, “Hopefully some day we’ll release some extra footage – we’ve got a couple of hundred hours there!” Since Rush, Coming Home Studios has not been idle with productions from Matchbox 20, Duran Duran, Nickleback and a repeat performance of Godsmack. “Rush is the most professional band I’ve ever worked with,” says Dan.