If you have heard a number-one hit single in the past four decades, there is a reasonable chance Mick Guzauski mixed it. Born and raised in Rochester, New York, Guzauski has mixed over 27 number-one singles, won nine Grammy Awards, and worked with a client list that spans the entire spectrum of popular music — from Daft Punk and Pharrell Williams to Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, Prince, and Eric Clapton.
Rochester Origins
Guzauski’s career began in the most Upstate New York way possible: in his parents’ basement. With no commercial recording studios available in Rochester during his high school years, he built his own, using self-built, borrowed, repaired, and modified equipment. That homemade studio became the training ground for a career that would take him to the top of the recording industry.
His early work was rooted in the Rochester music scene. He engineered sessions for fellow Rochester musicians Steve Gadd, Tony Levin, and Lou Gramm — all future Hall of Famers in their own right. His relationship with Chuck Mangione proved especially formative: starting in 1975, Guzauski engineered several of Mangione’s A&M Records albums, including sessions with a 45-piece orchestra. He mixed Mangione’s live sound and studio recordings, building a reputation for both technical precision and musical sensitivity.
The Hit Factory
Guzauski’s move to Los Angeles opened the floodgates. His mixing credits include some of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed recordings of the modern era. He mixed Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories (2013), the album that won Album of the Year at the Grammys and resurrected analog production values for a digital generation. He received an Emmy nomination for mixing the Eric Clapton: Crossroads Guitar Festival (2005).
His client list reads like a who’s who of popular music: Madonna, Talking Heads, Quincy Jones, Earth, Wind & Fire, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Patti LaBelle, Burt Bacharach, Dionne Warwick, George Benson, Kenny G, Boyz II Men, Backstreet Boys, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, and Marc Anthony. Before relocating to Los Angeles in 2013, he operated Barking Doctor Recording studio in Mount Kisco, New York.
Recognition
Guzauski was inducted into the Rochester Music Hall of Fame in 2020, joining the ranks of the city’s musicians he had helped define decades earlier. His nine Grammy Awards and 27-plus number-one hits make him one of the most decorated audio engineers in history — and it all started with a teenager in Rochester building a studio out of spare parts.