ANDY ZULLA

Andy Zulla is one of the music industry’s most versatile and respected talents, having accumulated an impressive string of successes as a producer, mixer, songwriter and composer. The proud owner of a Grammy, an Emmy, a Telly and a Gold Reel award, among others, Zulla has mixed multiple #1 singles and has received more than 20 gold and platinum albums for his studio wizardry.

Zulla is best known inside the music business for his work with high-profile pop singers like Kelly Clarkson (including her massive debut single “A Moment Like This”), Clay Aiken and other products of the American Idol franchise, Rod Stewart (he won a Grammy for mixing Stardust: the Great American Songbook, Vol. 3), Heather Headley (he mixed the #1 R&B single “I Wish I Wasn’t”), Jessica Simpson (he mixed the singles on her breakthrough album), Backstreet Boys, Paula DeAnda and Teddy Geiger. But his dense discography contains all manner of projects, including composing and producing music for TV, writing, producing and mixing songs for film soundtracks and returning now and then to his first love, rock music. Zulla is presently turning over a new leaf (no pun intended), composing a series of nature, atmospheric and other lifestyle albums.

What ties everything together is a dynamic, “just do it” pragmatism, bespeaking his diehard workaholic tendencies, along with chops for miles and a truly expansive musical sensibility. In essence, Zulla is known for delivering exactly what the artist, label or client desires.

After working for many years in New York, Zulla was ready for a change of climate, literally and musically, so in early 2006 he packed up his massive collection of gear, records and awards and headed west to Los Angeles, where he set up a studio near Hollywood.

One of the fascinating aspects of Zulla’s story is the way in which it debunks several longstanding music biz myths. For example…

Musical Careers Don’t Always Proceed in Straight Lines: If you’d seen Andy in action during his adolescence in Westchester, you wouldn’t have predicted that he would one day be associated with mainstream pop. “I started out in rock bands playing Led Zeppelin and Who songs,” he recalls with amusement. “I had the whole package—the Marshall stacks, the Les Paul guitars, the big afro.” But during that same formative period, down in the basement of his parents’ house, he discovered a skill set that has served him well through the years. “The first time I got in front of a mixer, when I was 13, it made sense to me,” he says. “No training, no teachers; I just turned the knobs until it sounded right.” By the age of 15, he was doing the sound in several Westchester nightclubs, meaning one of his parents would have to accompany him and endure several hours of pumping decibels.

Several years later, after setting up a home studio in his parents’ basement, Zulla met Debbie Gibson, who took a shine to him, taking note of his already apparent talent and his work ethic, hiring him to work in the Long Island studio she had just set up. Fast-forward a couple of years, and this quick study was making records with C&C Music Factory, soon parlaying his knowledge of record making and TV into the composing and production of news and sports music packages for Fox and the WB, winning an Emmy for the music used on Fox’s New York Yankees telecasts. During this period, Zulla also wrote and produced songs for the series Boston Public, Malcolm in the Middle and Baywatch. Which brings us to the early part of this century, and the next lesson…

Credits Don’t Necessarily Tell the Whole Story: Zulla’s first high-profile fix-and-mix project, for Headley’s 2002 album This Is Who I Am, so impressed the RCA A&R staff that soon thereafter he was asked to work on Clarkson’s debut single, “A Moment Like This,” which had to be re-tracked and mixed on a tight 48-hour deadline in order to be ready for the Idol first-season finale. Clarkson would be singing to the song live on the air to Zulla’s backing track if she won the competition.
The rest really is history: “A Moment Like This” debuted at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became the fastest-rising single in chart history, breaking a record held for nearly four decades by the Beatles. For his efforts, Zulla received a credit for “engineering, mixing and Pro Tools.” But those behind the scenes were acutely aware of what he’d accomplished, including Clive Davis, who took charge of the RCA Music Group soon after the initial Clarkson milestone. For the next four years, until he relocated to L.A., Zulla functioned as Davis’ Mr. Fixit, tweaking and mixing more than 100 tracks. Additionally, he somehow found time to take on projects outside of RCA, including mixing the additional singles that were added to Jessica Simpson’s In This Skin album for the relaunch that pushed it multi-platinum, making it the best-selling album of her career, and has mixed records for industry legends such as Diana Ross, Kenny G and Michael Bolton.

Talent Cannot Be Typecast: Along with all of the above, Zulla has written and produced songs for such films as Sony Pictures’ Zathura and TNT’s Night Breaker, mixed tracks for the films Mr. Deeds and AquaMarine and produced the song “If This Isn’t Love” for the soap opera As the World Turns. He’s made forays into rock, mixing Teddy Geiger’s album and pair of EPs (Columbia), producing Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers (Universal) and Rich Price (Geffen) for the Shrek 2 soundtrack.

Zulla is currently producing and developing several new major and indie label projects.