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Q Division Studios

Making great sounding records in comfort and style in Boston's best recording studio

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Mike J. Denneen

1963-2018

Our friend, mentor, and the co-founder of Q Division, Mike Denneen, passed away in the summer of 2018. Our dear friend Joan Anderman wrote this lovely remembrance. We miss Mike every day and sometimes turn up the lead vocal a smidge in his honor.  


Mike Denneen, whose sharp producing instincts guided musicians and bands, dies at 54

When an unknown Boston band named Letters to Cleo brought a demo tape of a song called “Here & Now” to Mike Denneen in 1992, he listened once and knew exactly what to do: take a throwaway background vocal and turn it into the hook.

“That moment changed the course of our lives forever,” said Kay Hanley, Letters to Cleo’s frontwoman. “Without that part, the song isn’t a hit. Without Denneen, I’m general manager at TGI Fridays.”

Renowned for his legendary ear, Mr. Denneen heard melodies, sensed structures, and crafted crunching, sparkling sounds that influenced a generation of pop and rock musicians in Boston and beyond. An intellectual powerhouse, he infused the creative process with his incisive thinking.

“I’m like an editor,” he told The Boston Globe in 1995. “I’m obsessed with how songs move.”

Mr. Denneen was 54 when he died at home in Watertown on July 10, more than three years after being diagnosed with colon cancer that metastasized. Several days earlier, he told his wife, the musician and author Jen Trynin, that, as planned, he had done a David Bowie — working until he died. “He died the way he lived,” she said, “on his own terms.”

His strong opinions, uncompromising standards, and preternatural clarity in the studio earned the producer and recording engineer a nickname: the Sheriff.

“Mike said to me one time that he felt production was as much about making decisions as it was about generating ideas, and that stuck with me,” said Aimee Mann, who collaborated with him frequently at Q Division, the studio Mr. Denneen opened in 1986 with his best friend from high school, Jon Lupfer. “He had qualities no one else had. Mike was somebody I could go to to ask for perspective on my own shortcomings and I knew I would get a truthful, but never mean, answer. He was everything you could want in a producer.”

An accomplished pianist, Mr. Denneen turned his attention to other musicians shortly after graduating in 1985 from Yale University, where he majored in political science. He and Lupfer sublet the fourth floor of a neglected warehouse on Albany Street in Boston’s South End. They had neither qualifications nor building permits, but with the help of friends who traded their labor for future studio time the pair built Q Division, named for the repository of wacky gadgets in the James Bond movies.

“We wanted to start a studio that was run by musicians, that wasn’t worrying about being slick and corporate,” Mr. Denneen told the Metro in 2003.

The idea is common today but was virtually unheard of when Q Division opened its doors. Equipped with little more than a few microphones, a Tascam tape machine, and a cheap 16-track recording console, the pair befriended a handful of local engineers and invited them to do a project or two for free — “The oldest trick in the book,” Mr. Denneen later noted. He and Mr. Lupfer watched and learned.

Word spread about the new studio, others came in, and within a couple of years the schedule was solidly booked.

“He was the most interesting combination of smart and honest and thoughtful and talented,” said his wife, who initially was a client. Mr. Denneen produced two albums for her, including “Gun Shy Trigger Happy,” Entertainment Weekly’s album of the year for 1997, before they married and had a daughter, Grace.

As Mr. Denneen’s reputation as an engineer and producer grew, his generosity and good humor, coupled with a profound intuition for just how hard and how far he could push artists to give their best performance, made him a pillar of the city’s music community.

In 2000, Q Division moved to a state-of-the-art clubhouse in Somerville, just outside of Davis Square, where Mr. Denneen mentored a growing staff of engineers and producers.

“I could never pretend to understand half the stuff Mike was pulling out of his head,” said Ed Valauskas, a bassist, producer, and the longtime studio manager at Q Division, “but he had a way of communicating his ideas that made you feel like you were a part of it. It was never about him. It was about the song and the artist.”

Over the years, a wealth of local and independent bands and many illustrious artists recorded there, including the Pixies, James Taylor, Liz Phair, Natalie Merchant, Wyclef Jean, and Destiny’s Child. Mr. Denneen was particularly attuned to young talent, using his keen pop sensibilities to help unformed artists develop their sound and launch careers.

“We were juniors at Tufts when our demo was passed to Mike,” recalled Brian Rosenworcel, the drummer in Guster. “He recognized something in the very immature version of our band and produced the hell out of ‘Parachute,’ which was eons above where we were as songwriters and performers. We had no business making that album. It only happened because of Mike.”

Michael Joseph Denneen was born in Boston and grew up in Quincy, the oldest of four boys. He began piano lessons as a toddler, started writing music shortly after, and was performing in public by the time he turned 8.

Aware that their son was woefully under-challenged in public school, his middle class parents hoped to send him to Milton Academy, despite the financial hardship it would impose. Mr. Denneen hated the idea of an elite education and purposely bungled the interview. He was nonetheless accepted, awarded a scholarship, and flourished.

“Milton was the best thing to happen to him,” said Mr. Denneen’s younger brother Mark, of Boston. “Mike was brilliant, intensely interested in things, and he met people as bright and creative as he was.”

Mr. Denneen and Jon Lupfer met in a jazz improvisation class. The pair bonded over their love of Monty Python and formed their first band, Busload of Nuns, which blended jazz elements with the angular rock they adored. “It was an incoherent mess,” recalled Mr. Lupfer. Still, they recorded tracks at Newbury Sound and Downtown Recorders, and both young men fell hard for the studio experience. Making records became Mr. Denneen’s business, but nurturing artists (along with politics and the Red Sox) was his passion.

“When Fountains of Wayne got dropped by our record label, Mike worked with us for two years on a new album anyway,” said Adam Schlesinger, the band’s cofounder. “Welcome Interstate Managers” flew up the charts thanks to the hit “Stacy’s Mom,” which Mr. Denneen produced. “That record resurrected our career,” Schlesinger said.

In addition to his wife, daughter, and brother, Mr. Denneen leaves his parents, William and Mary Denneen of Quincy, and two other brothers, Bill of Oberlin, Ohio, and Jeff of Alpharetta, Ga.

A memorial celebration was held at 4 p.m. Aug. 4, 2018 in the Mosesian Center for the Arts in Watertown.

Until several weeks before his death, Mr. Denneen continued to work at Berklee College of Music, where he was associate professor, and at the Mosesian Center for the Arts, where he was board president. His wife was doing dishes when Mr. Denneen, in his final week of life and barely able to breath, somehow got himself to the living room piano. He sat and played for half an hour. She pressed record on her phone.

“I don’t know what it was but it was just beautiful,” she said. “Incredibly gentle. Crazy sense of time. As Mike would say, ‘feel for days.’ ”

By Joan Anderman Globe Correspondent,July 18, 2018, 7:48 p.m.

 

Here is Mike’s reel on Spotify.

More information at mikedenneen.com

Mike’s full discography is available at www.AllMusic.com.

Mike in 1990 – Photo by Tom Dube

Photo by Lisa Garner
Photo by Lisa Garner

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Staff

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Stuff Mike's worked on…

  • Patty Larkin – Bird in a Cage

    Patty Larkin – Bird in a Cage

  • Anne Heaton – The Alchemist (Video)

    Anne Heaton – The Alchemist (Video)

  • Q Division featured in Tape Op

    Q Division featured in Tape Op

  • Superlow – Going Out Heavy

    Superlow – Going Out Heavy

  • The Vodkasonics – “take her to the zoo!”

    The Vodkasonics – “take her to the zoo!”

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qdivisionstudios

Check out the first ever recording session in Stud Check out the first ever recording session in Studio A - with @ericsaltmusic's band Electric City. We got to hear the rooms and find a few faults. With @valauskased on bass, @mikeorammusic on guitar, and Denis Saulnier on drums and grins. @chuck.hargreaves and I (@mr.distorter) moved mics and faders, and I took a few pictures. We're going to keep trouble shooting - and there's more to build, but we can see the finish line.
We put away the soldering irons and hid the constr We put away the soldering irons and hid the construction equipment for a few hours. This is what Q 3.0 is looking like right now. Here's to next year - we very much are looking forward to hearing folks making music together in these spaces (and helping you sound your very best!).
Shout out to all the fine folks who've made this come together @recordingstudiodesigner, @soundwallconstruction, @chuck.hargreaves, @communalwaves, @colindrumskinda, @henrysoults, @themeganchase, @terrance_reeves, @valauskased, @jbmoney33, @mr.distorter, and folks who can't be tagged - Andrew Lypps and Matt Tahaney. Be safe out there folks!
Slow and steady - but progress. Control room views Slow and steady - but progress. Control room views and almost fully loaded racks, lounge and mezzanine views, and a view into the live room and of @chuck.hargreaves tuning the house kit’s floor tom. We’re getting close friends - can’t wait to hear you in here!
This is the state of things in Studio A’s contro This is the state of things in Studio A’s control room. We have racks and are slowly moving the gear back into them - which is pretty damn exciting!
The box of jokes has been unpacked and the jokes a The box of jokes has been unpacked and the jokes are slowly making their way into various nooks and crannies of the new studio. 
Take notice @frankyciampi @emeenz @valauskased #studiojokes
Check it out! 1/2 Piano room treatments are nearly Check it out! 1/2 Piano room treatments are nearly complete (@soundwallconstruction!!). 3 Tech room is getting close. 4 the lounge has a rug! 5 Storage room in Malden at @sum.studios is full of stuff we can’t wait to either get back or never see again. 6 First Q meeting in the mezzanine (hi @chuck.hargreaves, @valauskased, @mayorqdiv and me @mr.distorter). 7/8 Our Neve guru Andrew Lypps with his 3d printed brackets for the playback select and speaker select illumination mods! And 8, the live room floor is protected again as the final phase of work continues in there. 
Phew. Can’t wait to be open again!
@chuck.hargreaves set up some drums in the new liv @chuck.hargreaves set up some drums in the new live room and who shows up but @mikepiehl… this is what the new room sounds like right now, before final treatments!
A little Neve update from Q3.0 -we found a rare si A little Neve update from Q3.0 -we found a rare sifam phase meter for the center section - the console had one long ago, and now it has one again! Anything hitting the mix buss will also hit the phase meter - pan left and right and the meter will let you know how close you are. 

Early on we decided we had to re paint and re screen the 32404 and 31103 modules - they were just too chewed up. The 32408’s were fine. This was no small task- but with lots of help from @daykampcreative who redesigned the faceplate graphics for us (we added a .q to the module numbers, just for fun), and with the help of a silk screener and a metal shop in Hudson MA, the color was matched and the legends are now crisp and legible. 

You can also see the phase and eql switch caps which out master tech Andrew Lypps (who’s overseeing the restoration project) etched for us on his 3d printer/cnc machine, one of 3 or 4 pieces that he’s hand crafted as part of the Neve restoration project.
Here’s a peak at the latest from Q3.0 - first, S Here’s a peak at the latest from Q3.0 - first, Studio A’s lounge, which includes two levels, including a kitchenon the ground floor, and a view into the live room from the mezzanine level (window on the left). Second image is Studio A’s control room during the install process - most of the treatments are in, but not the finishes. The Neve is in its place and getting wired and commissioned - we’ve restored almost every inch of that beast. You can see the the window to the performance spaces on the right - hard to tell, but it’s enormous with great lines of sight. Design and build by @recordingstudiodesigner and @soundwallconstruction
The Neve (well, the frame at least!) is in its fin The Neve (well, the frame at least!) is in its final position in the new control room, so while Eric of @soundwallconstruction continues to finish the various spaces we can start wiring up the patch bay. It’s a proper milestone. We can’t wait to share this space with you!
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