Carmen Rizzo is a music producer and engineer from the USA who has worked with Marius De Vries, Trevor Horn, Seal, Sinéad O'Connor, Billy Corgan, Alanis Morrisette, Paul Oakenfold, Perry Farrell, Kate Havnevik, Jem, Esthero, Coldplay, and Pete Townshend to name but a few. Marius De Vries is an English music producer. ... Trevor Horn, born July 15, 1949 in Leicester, England, is a pop music producer and musician. ... Look up seal in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Sinéad Marie Bernadette OConnor (born December 8, 1966) is a critically acclaimed Irish pop music singer and songwriter. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Alanis Morissette Alanis Nadine Morissette (born June 1, Canadian singer_songwriter and occasional actress. ... Paul Oakenfold performs at Club Nation in Washington DC. Photo by: Utopium Paul Oakenfold (born August 30, 1963 in Britain) is a record producer and one of the best-known DJs worldwide. ... HEY, DOES ANYONE KNOW IF PERRY IS GAY? Perry Farrell (born Perry Bernstein in New York City on March 29, 1959) is a musician particularly noted for his varied and founding role in alternative rock during the late 1980s and 1990s. ... Kate Havnevik appears on the album The Understanding by Röyksopp Kate Havnevik (b. ... Jem may refer to: a television animated series which aired in the mid-1980s, see Jem (animated) the musician Jem (Jemma Griffiths). ... Esthero on the cover of Wikked Lil Grrrls (2005) Esthero (real name Jen-Bea Englishman, born December 23, 1978) is a Canadian singer-songwriter who lives and works in the city of Toronto, Ontario. ... Coldplay is a post-Britpop/alternative rock band from London, England well known for their rock melodies and introspective lyrics. ... Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend (born May 19, 1945 in Chiswick, London) is an influential British rock guitarist and songwriter is best known for his work with The Who. ...

Carmen Rizzo's official website

In 2005, after two Grammy nominations, producing, engineering, remixing, co-writing and being a musician on records for everyone from mega DJ Paul Oakenfold, Coldplay, Alanis Morrisette, Seal to rock god Pete Townshend of The Who, Carmen Rizzo finally carved out time to record his own CD. Grammy Award statuette The Grammy Awards, presented by the Recording Academy (an association of Americans professionally involved in the recorded music industry) for outstanding achievements in the recording industry, is one of four major music awards shows held annually in the United States (the Billboard Music Awards, the American Music... The Who is a British rock band of 1960s and 1970s fame. ...

Fittingly, the lush, cinematic beat driven disc is called Carmen Rizzo “The Lost Art of the Idle Moment” (The Lab/Universal). Rizzo’s first solo album features collaborations with a wide range of guest vocalists & collaborations, including Esthero (Canada), Welsh singer Jem, Norwegian singer Kate Havnevik, Ladybug Mecca from The Digable Planets (NYC), Grant Lee Phillips (LA), Thomas Heinrich (Germany) Alpha (UK) and Diedre Dubois (France).

“The reason I chose this title for the CD is based on my life having become so busy with career and family that I realized I had lost the art of the idle moment,” Rizzo says. “I no longer knew what it was like to have any idle moments in my life. Making this record was a way to express that and to escape and do music from my heart. I wanted to make something I would buy and that I could play for people with no excuses”.

And he has. Already, tastemaker Jason Bentley, Nic Harcourt & Ann Litt from L.A. radio station KCRW have championed the disc before he even had a record deal. Rizzo recorded all over the world, in friends’ homes, hotel rooms and studios, wherever and whenever he could, using all the wonderfully eclectic influences he’s picked up over the years. The songs include gorgeous vocal tracks, particularly the dreamy “Too Rude” (with Esthero) and mysterious “Travel in Time” (with Kate Havnevik), and atmospheric instrumentals such as “Overlooked Happiness”. Nic Harcourt is the current Music Director for Los Angeles, California-based radio station KCRW. Since 1998, he has hosted the daily Morning Becomes Eclectic radio show which features his picks for the best new music spanning all genres. ... KCRW (89. ... Esthero on the cover of Wikked Lil Grrrls (2005) Esthero (real name Jen-Bea Englishman, born December 23, 1978) is a Canadian singer-songwriter who lives and works in the city of Toronto, Ontario. ... Kate Havnevik appears on the album The Understanding by Röyksopp Kate Havnevik (b. ...

The quality and eclecticism will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Rizzo’s work. The two-time Grammy nominee has, after all, worked with Alanis Morissette, Coldplay, Seal, BT, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Cirque du Soleil, among many others, and made records with a slew of notable producers, including Marius de Vries, Trevor Horn, David Foster and Don Was. BT may stand for: B.T. (tabloid), a Danish tabloid newspaper BT Group plc, formerly British Telecommunications BT tank, a series of Soviet fast tanks (BT-1 through BT-8) AirBaltic (in the IATA code) Bacillus thuringiensis or Bt toxin, or Cry proteins Baronet, a title in the British honours... Ryuichi Sakamoto at his New York City studio September 2003 Ryuichi Sakamoto (坂本 龍一 Sakamoto RyÅ«ichi, born January 17, 1952, Nakano, Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese musician, composer, producer and actor. ... Cirque du Soleil (French for Circus of the Sun) is an entertainment company founded by Guy Laliberté and Daniel Gauthier, both former street performers, in 1984 and is based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. ...

In 2000, Rizzo’s band project, Povi (Nettwerk), released its first disc, a down-tempo electronic record in the style of Portishead and Massive Attack. Rizzo’s current band, Niyaz (Six Degrees), is currently lighting up the world music market with its #1 self-titled I-tunes debut, a world/electronic record that the trio has toured in support of, from San Francisco and Washington, D.C. to New Delhi, India. Beth Gibbons, Portishead For the town, see Portishead, Somerset. ... The original three members of Massive Attack. ...

As Rizzo will tell you, “Any creative person who makes a living working for other people needs an outlet.” While making music for Paul Oakenfold, Carmen’s manager, Dave Holmes said “You really should start to do your own music again.” Rizzo felt the spark. “I enjoyed co-writing again and collaborating with people I admire, especially longtime friend Jamie Muhoberac (Seal, Rolling Stones) who was very instrumental in making this record”. Rizzo says, “What I sought to do was make an album. I really wasn’t interested in making a bunch of songs that were “single” formatted, I tried to make an album that was seamless”.

Rizzo grew up in northern California moving to Los Angeles at 19 with $1,000 and the phone number of a friend of a friend of a friend in the music business. He got a job at Westlake Studios as a janitor in the morning, a runner during the day. At night, he hung out with producers and musicians, discovering that he wanted to be involved in making records behind the scenes.

His first break came producing Kristin Vigard in 1990 for Private Music/ BMG, which helped him break into a Los Angeles music scene that included up-and-coming bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fishbone, N’dea Davenport of The Brand New Heavies and Amp Fiddler. Since then, he’s been in high demand as a producer, mixer and remixer.

Rizzo plans to get back to that work, but for now, he’s enjoying his focus on “The Lost Art of the Idle Moment.” “In making this record, I was constantly putting myself in the listeners’ seat” he says. “Often times you’re compromising for the record company or for chart success. I listen to an awful lot of music from all over the globe, and none of it is chart related, so it was important for me to create music that is fearless and I could enjoy as a listener as I do with the many records I own”.

Great interview with Carmen Rizzo