Thom Russo

Thomas "Thom" Russo is an American record producer, composer, mixer and songwriter.

His works range from Anglo-American pop rock to alternative Latin.

He is a recipient of 16 Grammy awards.

Thom Russo was born in Cleveland, Ohio.

He studied composition, music theory, and electronic music at Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois.

He lives and works in Los Angeles.

Russo started his professional career as a musician but became interested in music production, composing, engineering and recording as a college student at Northwestern University Conservatory of Music.

He first worked at River North Studios in Chicago mentoring under many prolific composers and arrangers in the advertising industry, and then moved on to Larrabee Sound, one of the largest and most famous recording studios in Los Angeles, and later on his own under the Nettwerk Producer Management.

As one of the first projects at Larrabee, Russo produced vocals for Michael Jackson's album Dangerous, Bobby Brown's album Bobby, Cher's Greatest Hits 1965–1992, Diana Ross's Take Me Higher and Paula Abdul's Head Over Heels.

That early work laid foundation for Russo's later career.

Over the years he has worked with a variety of well-known musicians, in addition to the ones named above,

and others; full listings are available.

Since 2000, Russo has been involved in Latin rock and pop music and has worked with Juanes, Mana, and other legendary Latin artists from Latin America, Central America, and Spain.

Russo's mixing techniques include the commonly used audio filtering with different microphones and equalizers, reduction and amplification by DRC, sound fading, and a range of more unconventional approaches.

He adapts his methods to accentuate the idiosyncratic features in the music he records, citing the record producer and colleague Rick Rubin as one of the main professional influences.

Russo has received 12 platinum record awards for his work in the music industry, and won 2 American Grammy Awards and 12 Latin Grammy Awards (listed below in chronological order).