I started playing music in 3rd grade when I got a small Magnus Chord Organ and accompanied myself on songs I'd sing, such as Silent Night and Glow Worm. I picked up guitar in 7th grade, thanks to Joe Naspini, who showed me how to read chords out of a Beatles songbook.
In the late 60's and early 70's I wrote songs and performed with Larry Dunlap, mostly at the People Of Orphales Coffee House and various other locations around Long Beach, California. From 1970-1972 (during high school) I also played at local parties with schoolmates Frank Furillo, Simon McPherson, Jerry Earwood, Casey Simpson, Bob Bennett, and others from my drama class.
In 1974 I moved to Hawaii, lived in Waikiki, and worked in the produce department at the Beretania Safeway store in Honolulu. While living there I was introduced by one of the stock clerks to Jerry Santos and Robert Beaumont, who had just formed the group Olomana. They played at the Black Angus in the International Marketplace, which happened to be right where the bus dropped me when I got off work each evening. Jerry and Robert were kind enough to let me perform my songs on their breaks as well as sit in with them often. It was there I also met Liko Martin, Tony Tamsing, Chris Rego, Autumn (the violinist), Steve Vaile, Ginger Johnson, Cindy Combs, Ren Beaumont, and many other musicians from the local Hawaiian music scene.
During 1975 I went back to Seal Beach, California and started up a group called Paddlefoot with singer/songwriter Bob Bennett and bassist Joe Naspini. We performed at Captain Jack's in nearby Sunset Beach and also played at the West Coast Bodega in Long Beach. During this period Bob and I wrote songs and started showing them to the publishers in Hollywood. We had some interest from a guy named Kerry Chater at Chappell Music who had been in Gary Pucket and the Union Gap. Kerry helped us with our songwriting form and recorded us at Chappell. We didn't get any covers from Chappell, but I think the experience really helped Bob and I focus our songwriting, recording, and production skills.
During the late 80's and early 90's I was part of the band Kindred Spirit with Elaine Latimer, Robin Rader, Bill Plummer, Keith McCabe, Mark Wenner, and sometimes Scott Fulton. Later, in 1994, I formed a group with Bill Plummer, Dale Spalding, and Keith McCabe called the Blues Monks. We recorded an album of acoustic blues tunes called In Your Living Room. Now I play mostly in a trio called DoRoJo with Don Reed and Robin Rabens and another with Marshall Hawkins, Don Reed and I called The Louie Bluies.
The name The Louie Bluies came from one of my favorite music teachers, Howard "Louie Bluie" Armstrong. I also studied guitar with Del Ray, Orville Johnson, Wolfman Belfouer, John Miller, Steve James, Roy Bookbinder, John Cephas, John Jackson, and Mary Flower.
Recording Studio Engineering
When I was 23 years old, in 1977, I got a job working as a staff-recording engineer for Artie Ripp's Fidelity Studios (now called Studio City Sound) and Family Productions in Studio City, California. I apprenticed there under Joel Soifer, Boris Menart, and Larry Elliot, who each had very different engineering styles and backgrounds. After a few years I became a first engineer.
Artists and projects I was involved with at Fidelity included Billy Joel, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Lita Ford, The Bay City Rollers, Billy Burnette, Papa John Creech, The Krofft Super Show, The Ramones, Simon Posthuma, Sneaker, Mandrill, CBS Radio Mystery Theater, The Warriors movie soundtrack, Muhammid Ali--The Greatest movie, Gabor Szabo, Ambrosia, 707, Bugs Tomorrow, Gerard McMann, The Steve Miller Band, Vinnie Vincent (Cusano), Brenda Russell, Thom Rotella, Tom Saviano, Heat, Chick Corea, Don Ciccone, Ava Barber, Peter Yarrow, Floyd Dixon, Bernie Hamilton, Wayne Henderson, Judee Sill, Bert Sommer, Don Ciccone, Basses International, Bill Plummer, Diana Horowitz, Gayle Moran, Geno Cunico, and Peter Noone.
Some of the producers I have had the privilege to share the console with include Phil Spector, Clive Davis, David Campbell, Nick Venet, Mallory Earl, Wayne Henderson, Artie Ripp, Artie Kornfeld, Dave Pell, Jim Ed Norman, Dean Kay, Kenny Laguna, and Ricthie Cordell.
In addition to working at Fidelity Studios I also worked as a recording engineer at Hitman, Crystal Sound, and Goldstar in Hollywood (as well as my own studio called Big Yellow Sound) with artists and projects including Calvin Keys, The Ink Spots, Suggie Otis, Peggy Fleming's Hot Ice, Marshall Hawkins, Bob Boss, Paul Carmen, and Chris Thile. I also mixed live sound and The Troubador, The Palomino Club, The Starwood, Dante's, Topanga Corral, and Idyllwild Jazz Festival.
Family Computing and other computer magazines
In 1983 I became a founding contributor and editor for Family Computing Magazine and K-Power for Scholastic, Inc. My game, music, and utility programs were featured in The Programmer section of Family Computing. In K-Power we created the first computer music column I know of in a magazine, called MicroTones. This column featured music programs and information about the latest computer music products. K-Power and Microtones also featured type in songs by artists such as the Ramones, Talking Heads, and the Steve Miller Band. Check out PDF archives of Family Computing and K-Power below.
Additional magazines I wrote programs and articles for included COMPUTE!, COMPUTE!'S Gazette, Run, InCider, A+, Rhythm, Parents, Home Office Computing, and Small Business Computing. I wrote or cowrote several books for Scholastic, including The K-Power Collection, 10 Starter Programs for Family Computing, The Best of Family Computing Programs Volumes I and II and Amazin' Games.
As an offshoot of my work on Microtones I was very active in supporting the MIDI standard when it was being proposed and wrote many articles about it when the standard was made available [Below: See PDF files of articles below]. I met a guy named Perry Leopold from the Pan Network (a music BBS I participated in) at the CES show in Las Vegas in 1983. He was the first one I remember telling me about it and I thought that a standard connecting computers and synthesizers was sorely needed. So, I through all my support behind it and experimented with a lot of the first MIDI products.
From the late 1989 until 2008 I worked at the Idyllwild Arts campus in Idyllwild where I served as the IT Manager, responsible for fostering technology growth. During this time we built a campus-wide fiber optic network, computer labs for artists, musicians, and film makers, and integrated all the different departments into software for running the school.
Archives
Mix Magazine March 1980 L.A. Studio Roundup Fidelity Studios.pdf - This is a photo copy of Mix Magazine's Los Angeles area 24-track studio roundup in 1980 when I worked as an engineer at Fidelity Studios in Studio City. It is interesting to see the gear we had then, just before the computer revolution changed recording forever.
Mix Magazine - Classic Tracks: The Runaways Cherry Bomb - I worked with Joan Jett at Fidelity Studios in 1979 and was interviewed for this article on the recording of Cherry Bomb, which also was recorded at Fidelity.
Hacksville Hoedown - This is a You Tube video of a bluegrass tune I composed and programmed for the Commodore SID chip back in the early 80's--before MIDI! This user bread-boarded the 6581 SID Arduino chip, entered my original code, and got it to play back correctly in 2012. My how things have changed since I first started doing music with computers.
Index of COMPUTE! articles by Joey Latimer - I also wrote quite a few articles for COMPUTE! Magazine in the 80's. Some of them seem pretty funny now.
PDF Files of Articles and Programs
Compute! April 1990 PC Sound Gets Serious by Joey Latimer.pdf
Compute! Dec. 1988 Music By The Numbers by Joey Latimer.pdf
Compute! Dec. 1988 Yamaha C1 Music Computer Review by Joey Latimer.pdf
Family & Home Office Computing July 1988 Making Music by Joey Latimer.pdf
Family Computing August 1985 Music Hardware and Software by Joey Latimer.pdf
Family Computing July 1985 Hit Or Miss Game by Joey Latimer.pdf
Family Computing K-Power Microtones July 1985 Curly Calipso with Steve Miller Band.pdf
Family Computing May 1987 Face Cartoon by Joey Latimer.pdf
K-Power March 1984 with Joey Ramone song Slug.pdf
K-Power Nov.-Dec. 1984 Musical Stings by Joey Latimer.pdf