Artist Profile: Doug DeAngelis

Doug DeAngelis, Producer, Composer, Remixer and Engineer, has recently added SONAR to his studio arsenal, and he has already incorporated SONAR into the production of projects including the Myst III Exile single. Doug began working with synthesizers and computer-based music technology at age 11. While majoring in Music Synthesis at the Berklee College of Music, he worked his way from Intern to Chief Engineer at Boston’s SyncroSound Studios. By nineteen, he had picked up his first major recording credits, including the industrial crossover hit Head Like A Hole from the debut Nine Inch Nails album Pretty Hate Machine.

In 1989 at the age of twenty, Doug was hired to take the Detroit techno super group and Virgin Recording artist Inner City onto the arena stage for the Big Fun World Tour. He sampled the master tapes, re-programmed, re-sequenced, and recreated the all electronic album with a live band. He has since toured as the keyboardist for Psychotica (1998) and Peter Murphy (2000).

After the Inner City world tour and eight months of studio work with Detroit’s pioneers of club music and remixing, Doug moved to New York City where he became the Chief Engineer at Platinum Island Studios in Manhattan. In 1991, his background in industrial, rock, house, and techno lead to work with artists such as Madonna, Chaka Khan, and The Pet Shop Boys, and remixers such as Roger S., Deep Dish, Danny Teneglia, Mood II Swing, and Junior Sanchez. By 1997, his work had gone to #1 on the Billboard charts more than twenty times, been nominated for Grammy awards, and certified Gold and Platinum in sales. To his production credits, he added the critically acclaimed Love and Rockets album Lift, which included several co-write credits with the band, and a single with Luscious Jackson.

In the fall of 1998, Doug moved to Los Angeles to pursue producing and composing music for films, television, and video games. His private production facility includes an extensive collection of vintage and modern synthesizers, recording equipment, and software. Together with Kevin Haskins of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets, he founded Messy Music. Their recent credits include music in The Crow III, What Lies Beneath, 2Gether, NBC’s Third Watch, Things Behind the Sun, Skechers USA, EVE.com, PlayStation 2, The Unreal Tournament sequel, Myst III’s “Exile” single, HBO, Disney, and an award-winning trailer for the Independent Film Channel. Messy Music is represented by The Creative Artists Agency in Los Angeles.

Doug has been featured in magazines such as Keyboard (June 2000), Music Connection’s ‘Keyboard Roundtable’ (May 2000), Electronic Musician (January 1999), and Mix (January 1997).

Doug integrated SONAR into his studio because "SONAR has so many great features. It’s the first to utilize DirectX 8 and WDM drivers to make Cakewalk’s DXi virtual instruments playable in real time with virtually no latency. The effects are fully automatable. The Groove Clips feature lets me sync up and hear sample after sample from my sound libraries without ever having to stop, tune and time stretch. SONAR is a great hybrid of all the best production tools in one package.”

Doug is using SONAR to compose scores for video games, film, and television, as well as finishing tracks for a first full length LP for MESSY. He and Kevin describe MESSY as Electronic Alternative music, featuring guests like Flea from The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jessicka from Jack off Jill, and several other interesting individuals.

Visit MESSY’s MP3.com page.

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