Gary Loizzo
Recording
Engineer/Co-Producer
(Summer 1978-February 1988)
- Engineered Vocals/Music Overdubs for the 3 song session which gave birth to the 1st Skafish record: “Disgracing the Family Name” & “Work Song” (Recorded Summer 1978-Released November 1979)
- Engineered the 3 song demo recorded December 1981
- Engineered sessions for the 2nd Skafish LP & rejected masters (November 1982)
- Engineered/Co-Produced the Spring 1983 tracks for the released 2nd LP “Conversation” (Recorded Spring 1983-Released September 1983)
- Engineered/Co-Produced “Limited Series Cassette” (Recorded February, November, December 1987 & February 1988-Released June 1988)
As lead singer of Chicago’s American Breed, Gary Loizzo rose to pop stardom at a young age by scoring 3 top 40 hits in the 1960’s. His first chart success, “Step Out Of Your Mind” climbed to #25, followed by the smash hit “Bend Me Shape Me” which reached the #1 Billboard slot on March 3, 1968. A third single, “Green Light,” charted at #20.
With the fleeting quality of popular music, Gary sensed the need to develop other aspects of his talents, and cultivated another one of his passions - recording engineering. Opening his own facility, Pumpkin Studios, Loizzo began recording various artists, quickly gaining a reputation as an excellent engineer.
In the years that followed, he worked with such artists as Styx and Liza Minelli, just to name a few. For Styx, he recorded 5 albums, 3 live videos, and 2 live foreign LP’s. He was twice nominated for a Grammy award for best engineer for his work on2 Styx studio LP’s - once in 1979 and again in 1983.
By the time Skafish met Gary Loizzo in 1978, he was already an established engineer. When Skafish needed an engineer to complete the recording of what became his first record release, the two were introduced by Skafish manager Scott Cameron.
In December 1981, Loizzo engineered three Skafish demo tracks and was called upon again to engineer the 1982 Skafish second LP sessions. In 1983, Skafish, appreciative of Gary’s input, appointed Loizzo co-producer for the first time in Loizzo’s career during the spring sessions for the 2nd Skafish LP “Conversation.” The pair teamed up again when Loizzo worked with Skafish as co-producer and engineer for the 1988 independent Skafish release, Limited Series Cassette.
Loizzo still engineers state of the art recordings at Pumpkin Studio. He is also the live sound engineer for Styx on tour and occasionally performs with The American Breed.