SoundGym Hero: John Greco
Pianist, synth devotee, and mixing and mastering engineer behind Greco Media, John Greco took the long way into audio, the youngest of six kids raised on records played on the family console stereo, a high schooler who took home a Minimoog nobody had touched from the back of the band room, an electrical engineer who spent 20 years in the motion picture industry, and a volunteer court mediator who learned that the best result is the one that works for everyone, before discovering that daily ear training and weekly mix challenges could turn the sounds in his head into the ones coming out of his speakers. John Greco is this month’s SoundGym Hero!
How did you first find your way into making music?
I think music found its way into me. I'm the youngest of six children, all encouraged musically by our parents. My mom and dad were children of immigrants and Depression-era kids, and my dad was the first in his family to go to college. For them, everyone should play an instrument, and we all did. As far back as I can remember, there was music in our home. Some of my earliest memories are lying in front of the console stereo, listening to records with my sisters.
I don't know exactly when I went from listening to music to making it, but I remember having to sit on a pillow on the piano bench to play, so I was very young. A career in music wasn't really presented as an option in the late '70s, but engineering was, given my math and science skills, so I chose to become an electrical engineer. I'd always hoped to move into music, but I gravitated to the motion picture industry instead. Through all of it, I never stopped making music.
Aside from music, what hobbies or activities do you enjoy?
Aside from music, I love to write. I often enter writing competitions, both stories and poetry, mostly for fun. In the past few years I've also gotten really into lutherie, and I'm loving building acoustic and electric guitars!
What's something you're surprisingly good at that has nothing to do with music?
A few years ago, I took a mediation certification course through Cornell University's Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution. It turns out I really enjoy it, and I'm quite good at it. I now volunteer as a mediator for the San Jose Superior Court and for Santa Clara County. There's more overlap with music than you'd think. Whether we're producing, mixing, or mastering, we're trying to create the best song possible, and not only from our own point of view, but from the artist's and the listener's too.
That dance between people's perceptions is a skill that carries over. In mediation, there's rarely an absolute right or wrong, or a single "best result." There's a result that meshes the desires of everyone involved.
If you could play or create with any artist, who would it be and why?
Picking just one is way too difficult! My main instrument is piano, and I spent a big chunk of my listening life with Elton John and Billy Joel. Their songwriting is world-class, and what I'd learn from even one session with either of them would be huge. But a big part of my childhood was shaped by classic rock, particularly Rush.
We moved around a few times when I was a kid, and there were many years when my only friends were Neil's insightful lyrics and incredible rock drumming, Alex's soulful guitar playing, and Geddy's masterful (if not frenetic) bass playing. Their music changed my life. If I could sit in on just one songwriting session or rehearsal with Geddy and Alex, it would be a dream come true.
What piece of music gear do you love the most, and what makes it irreplaceable in your creative process?
No matter what the final instrumentation ends up being on any song I write, it starts on the piano. Piano was my first instrument, and it's the one I feel most comfortable composing on. That said, I fell in love with synthesizers the first time I played a Minimoog in high school. This might seem unbelievable, but I was in stage band, and way in the back of the instrument shelves was a Minimoog that no one had touched.
The band instructor let me take it home and experiment with it, and I was hooked. It was also a big part of what drew me to electrical engineering. So today, I still compose on the piano, but I "hear" everything with synthetic sounds in my mind. I can't imagine finishing a modern composition without some level of synthesizer activity.
What daily or weekly habits do you have in place to keep you creating?
For the past few years, I've been focusing my creativity on editing, mixing, and mastering. Some of my best habits are daily ear training, regular mix competitions, and continued education. There's so much good information out there, but in my opinion there are three key elements: learning how to use the tools (the mechanics), learning to make the tools produce or enhance the sounds you're hearing in your head (the application), and learning how to create something unique that appeals not only to yourself but to others (the creativity).
All three require constant learning and constant growth, and SoundGym has been, and will continue to be, a big part of that for me.
What keeps you motivated to continue making music?
What song would you choose as the soundtrack of your life?
If I had to pick one of the most impactful songs in my life, it would probably be "Limelight" by Rush. It has everything. The music is timeless. Perfect instrumentation: bass, guitar, drums, and synths. Perfect chord structure (who ends a song on a suspended chord?). Time signature changes that always keep the listener interested. A guitar solo that exudes melancholy. But none of that compares to the intensity, the sadness, and the honesty of Neil's lyrics.
I first heard that song in 1981 and have used it as my morning wake-up song for the past 30+ years, first on a CD alarm clock and now on my iPhone. I've never known life in the limelight the way Rush did, but I can tap into the emotions in that song and try to bring them into my music.
What's your favorite feature on SoundGym, and how has it helped you in your musical journey?
What’s something exciting you're working on or looking forward to?
I love taking on the challenge of producing, editing, mixing, and mastering clients' songs through Greco Media. It's one thing to do this for fun, and quite another to do it under the real-world pressures of genuine client work. One of my next projects is giving an entire album a fresh mix and master for a client. I'm also writing music for a short film, which brings me full circle, back to the industry where I spent the first 20 years of my career. Writing music for film feels like coming home.
You can check out John in his Website, and on his Instagram. You can also listen to his work on these links
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