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Musically, New
York City has experienced a creative renaissance over the past few
years, with the bands creating some of the most challenging,
interesting and exciting music heard since the heyday of CBGB’s.
Paul Mahajan has been behind the board to capture the sounds and
energy of much of this incredibly fertile scene. Some of his work
includes the incredible Yeah Yeah Yeah’s album, Fever To Tell
(Interscope), as well as the prior EP, Machine. He recorded and
mixed the Liars tracks on their split EP with Oneida (Arena
Rock), as well as the album Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes and
the Young Liars EP (Touch and Go/ 4AD), by the un-categorizable and
amazing TV on the Radio. |
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Paul grew up in the suburbs of the Baltimore/Washington
metropolitan area. He began playing music as a teenager,
going on to study music theory. He then took
recording classes at Omega Studios (a studio/school in
the Washington, D.C. area.) After finishing recording
classes, he did brief stints as an intern and staff
assistant at Omega. |
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Tiring of the politics of a corporate studio, Paul left
for a job in a music store, and began doing freelance
recording at various small studios. While working
at the music store, he had the good fortune of meeting
one of the customers, David Andrew Sitek, and the two
quickly found a synergy that led to their work with
Love Life (who later evolved into Celebration).
After a move to Williamsburg, they worked together on
releases by Brooklyn’s best: the Yeah’s, Liars, and
Dave’s own band, TV on the Radio. Their collaboration
has to date culminated in the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Grammy
nomination for Best Alternative Music Album for Fever to
Tell. |
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Paul has quickly obtained a reputation for being able to
get amazing sounds to tape (or disc), whether it be the
powerful and expressive vocals of Karen O (Yeah’s) and
Tunde Adebimpe (TV on the Radio), Nick Zinner’s (Yeah’s)
and Sitek’s guitars, or the varied sounds (flute, sax,
etc.) found on TV on the Radio’s recordings. He is
equally adept at mixing the minimalist punk-folk-blues
of Entrance (Tiger Style), as well as the complex array
of sounds found on TV on the Radio’s releases. Paul
plays guitar, bass, piano, works with pro-tools, and
sets up guitars and basses (action and intonation). He
has helped put together systems for home recordings for
varied budget levels. He is at home recording in an
apartment or a house (as was done with Young Liars and
the second Liars album, They Were Wrong, So We Drowned,
for Mute), or a proper studio like Headgear in
Williamsburg, where Paul recorded and co-mixed the full-length TV on the Radio
album and where he worked on “Machine” and recorded
Fever To Tell. |
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Paul continues to develop NYC’s varied young bands.
Most recently, he mixed the critically acclaimed debut
album by Essie Jain, We Made This Ourselves for Ba Da
Bing! He
recorded The National’s introspectively pastoral
and rocking Alligator for Beggars Banquet, which
has garnered great press and worldwide sales. He
recorded and mixed a project by Vic Thrill (led by the
charismatic Billy Campion, ex-Bogmen), which promises to
be a multi-media bonanza with a Paramount film (set to
star Ali G with a script written by Tina Fey) and a
Random House book in addition to the CD. And he took
special pleasure in his work with the amazing Japanese prog punks,
Green Milk From The Planet Orange (Beta-lactam Ring). |
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