Kevin Killen is an adjunct faculty member for NYU Steinhardt’s Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions and NYU Tisch’s Clive Davis School of Music.
The eight-time Grammy-winning producer, engineer, and mixer has spent the last four decades compiling an impressive list of credentials featuring the premier pop artists in the music industry: David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Elvis Costello, U2, Shakira, Yo-Yo Ma & The Silk Road Ensemble, Kate Bush, Jewel, Sugarland, Brandon Flowers of The Killers, Suzanne Vega, Duncan Sheik, Bobby McFerrin, and The Damned, to name a few.
Kevin continues his craft with recent projects including the a cappella group Straight No Chaser, legendary songwriter Graham Nash, and EDM London duo Ooberfuse.
Kevin apprenticed at Dublin’s Lombard Sound Studios and Windmill Lane from 1979-1984, before embarking on a freelance career based out of New York City. His formative years included working on a customized discreet Helios console and Studer A80 multi-track machine. Using a console without automation, Kevin quickly learned the value of capturing great sounds at the source and adapting to the realities of “performance mixing.” Moving to Windmill Lane, Ireland’s premier studio made famous by U2, Kevin was trained on both MCI console and tape machines – the first inline console with automation – followed by an SSL 4000E series and Otari MTR 90 multi-track machine. The SSL featured its own proprietary automation system based on time code and was embedded with the first disk-based “total recall” protocol.
His exposure to commercial jingles, folk, rock, pop, punk, new wave, reggae, jazz, and classical recordings has informed his approach and methodologies to this day. Throughout his career, Kevin has embraced both technology and the notion that the studio boundaries can be expanded beyond the normal footprint. Two of his projects that embraced this approach are considered seminal albums for those artists: U2’s The Unforgettable Fire, recorded on location at a 17th-century castle in north Dublin, and Peter Gabriel’s So, recorded on location outside of Bath, England, in a converted cowshed!
From large-format consoles to working in the DAW, Kevin’s approach is the same, to immerse and transport the listener on a sonic journey and to exceed the artist’s expectations.
