George Graves
School wasn’t the first love for Los Angeles-born George Graves. “I went for music and lunch,” he says. George started in mastering in the sixties, first at Century Records in Newhall, CA, then at RCA Hollywood on Sunset Boulevard. “This was a large turning point in my career,” says George. “I now was working with artists whose music I enjoyed hearing such as Henry Mancini, Harry Nillson, and The Monkees.” It was at RCA that George first met Jack Richardson, who was producing The Guess Who at the time.
After he finished his military service in 1971, George took another step up in his mastering career, at The Mastering Lab, again in Hollywood. “The artists were super heroes of the industry,” he explains. “Some of the ones I worked with were Neil Diamond, Seals & Croft, Ike & Tina Turner, Kenny Rogers, Three Dog Night and Steppenwolf. The best part of this job was working with fellow engineers that knew that they made a great difference to this music that people loved.” In 1974 George was approached by Jack Richardson to help start Just Another Mastering Facility (JAMF) in Toronto. At JAMF George mastered first ‘2112’ and then ‘A Farewell To Kings’. “Terry Brown was the producer at the time for Rush and he brought ‘2112’ to me at JAMF,” says George. “Terry was the contact person with these projects and came to all the mastering sessions. All the decisions that were made concerning the Rush projects were made through him.” Eventually, Rush took their business to US- based studios. “Rush became popular worldwide and their Canadian complex prevailed where the thought was it had to be better across the border,” says George. “Like so many Canadian artists when they have money their thought is, it must be better in the USA. I don’t blame the artist completely for this decision as usually it’s their management or record company that pushes them towards something different.”
In 1978 he moved to The Lacquer Channel (TLC), originally part of Phase One recording studios. Today, George is Chief Mastering Engineer at TLC where he’s worked “with artists just starting out as well as more established ones.” Bigger names include Peter Gabriel, Alice Cooper and Cirque du Soleil. “I now have been in Canada for 30 years,” George says.