“I thought about being a rock critic,” says Hank Neuberger, “but then I had to come up with an honest way to make a living.” Neuberger–recording engineer and producer, operations manager of the tony Chicago Recording Company, and chairman of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences–takes a lot of guff about the Grammys, and he can give as good as he gets. The youthful-looking 42-year-old studied film at Northwestern and actually did write about rock for the 70s Chicago rock mag Triad. But he knew he wanted to make records, and joined CRC as an assistant engineer when it opened as a one-studio outfit in 1975. Nearly 20 years on, the studio has expanded to four multitrack music studios, nine digital postproduction rooms, and three duplicating studios. And Neuberger’s a pretty big cheese as well; after years of engineering (everyone from the Ohio Players to Sting), producing (he won a Grammy himself for Tribute to Steve Goodman, recorded live at the Arie Crown in 1985), and involvement with NARAS, he was elected this year as national head of the 5,000-member organization, whose 36th annual Grammy Awards ceremony will take place March 1.
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Specifically, Neuberger notes that the organization has finally gotten its branch-office concept off the ground. In addition to the original big three music-center groups (New York, LA, and Nashville), full-fledged chapters have been around for a while in Memphis, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Chicago. Finally catching on to the massive decentralization of record making in the 1980s, NARAS is now forming smaller arms in towns like Austin, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Miami. And Neuberger says the Grammys are getting better already. Look at this year’s nominations, he says. The best-alternative-album category includes In Utero, Automatic for the People, Zooropa, Belly’s Star, and the Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream. “Those are great records.”
