Check Out Sean Fodor’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sean Fodor. Them and their team share their story with us below:

Hi Sean, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
West Michigan native Sean Fodor is a talented multimedia producer, director, editor, musician, and documentary filmmaker with over thirty-seven years of experience. At age nineteen, Sean taught himself to play guitar (plus 3 other instruments), becoming a musician, music producer, and popular club DJ.

In 1986, he joined the band ‘Alter Ego’ (1986-1990) with fellow West Michigan natives Dave Ogilvie (vocals), Joe Botwinski (Keys), Michael Bouldin (Drums), and Walter Florido (Bass) (later replaced by Michael Perffit). Alter Ego’s song ‘Wicked Girls’ hit radio airplay in the summer of 1988 on WKLQ on the ‘Make It or Break It’ segment. The fans voted and their ‘break’ led to their opening for Jane’s Addiction in front of 1,000 people the following November. Alter Ego then went on to open for national acts like Information Society, Figures On A Beach, and Gordon Lightfoot.

Alter Ego disbanded in 1990 and Sean formed Lektrawyne which featured him writing, producing and playing guitar, with vocalist Stephani Engman, Earl Toliver on bass and Jason Babcock on drums. Lektrawyne went on to play the 1993 Reggae Sunsplash Festival in front of a crowd of 20,000 people. Lektrawyne disbanded in 1995.

Alter Ego band mates Joe Botwinski and David Ogilvie approached Sean to form Mesh with Lektrawyne bassist Earl Toliver and drummer Scott Veenstra. Mesh recorded their debut E.P. with producer/engineer Jay Elliot Hunt. Their single ‘Beach of Pain’ became a regional college radio staple. Their second single “Help Everyone Make Peace” (H.E.M.P.) became an anthem for legalizing cannabis. In 1996 producer Mark Sandstendt negotiated with Mesh to contribute their song ‘Which Way’ to the WGRD Radioactive Volume II CD.

Unbeknownst to Sean, all these performances would lead to an invitation to move to Los Angeles in 1998 after touring the West Coast as the bassist with West Michigan band, Pill Box, where he launched West Multimedia. His first studio was located across the street from Frank Zappa’s ‘Barking Pumpkin’ studio in Studio City. Sean spent the next five years producing five albums for Armenian pop star, Sako Ghazarossian. These five albums of songs and videos were AMFA-nominated which Sean co-wrote, produced, engineered, and performed on. Sako and Sean won an Armenian Grammy for the song/video ‘Ashoun’ from their ‘Gravity’ album.

Grammy-nominated guitarist George Lynch (Dokken/Lynch Mob/Souls Of We/KXM) reached out to Sean to work with him on his ‘Lynch That Stole Riffness’ E.P. at Sean’s Studio City studio working up and tracking the main arrangements for the release.

Another exciting door opened for Sean to contribute on seven songs for the independent comedy horror film ‘Joe Killionaire’ with producer Herbie Nataraj Tribino. The film won a Park City Film Festival Award for ‘Best Original Music’ as well as a Dances With Film Festival Award for ‘Best Original Song’ for ‘Find Your Rainbow’, a song Sean produced and co-wrote with Pillbox front man Tommy Triant.

Sean continued to produce, engineer and collaborate with a plethora of major recording artists such as Oni Logan (Lynch Mob/Violets Demise), Rowan Robertson (Dio/Violets Demise/AM Radio), Jon E Love (Love/Hate) Dave Schulz (Goo Goo Dolls/English Beat/Berlin) and Erik Turner (Warrant).

As a director, cinematographer and documentary filmmaker, Sean worked with the nation’s premier spine surgeon, Dr. Robert Bray, filming brain, spine, hand, knee and hip surgeries for Carl Zeiss Meditec corporate videos in San Francisco, CA.

Other clients include Emmy-nominated producer Sammy Oriti, Lisa Marie Scott (Playboy Playmate), Golden Globe-winner actress Sally Kirkland, actor Jaime Gomez, actor Dabney Coleman, musician Quincy Coleman, Red Bull, Astrelwerks Records, Capitol Records, Comedian Stephanie Miller, Healthylife.Net, E! Entertainment and Feather Racquets. Sean also shot and directed the music videos for LA Guns ‘Tie Your Mother Down’ which featured Golden Globe winning actress Sally Kirkland as well as their video for ‘Just Wanna Make Love To You’ and George Lynch’s band Souls Of We song ‘Skeleton Key’.

Sean is skilled in all aspects of production and direction for film, video, and music projects including camera operation, technical direction, shooting, dubbing, editing, with final mix-down; in both SD and HD, sound, engineering, and post-production including editing, scoring and titles with music composition, tracking, and mixing. He also specializes in client voice-overs, commercials, national music and video releases, in addition to photography and graphics design.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I guess ‘smooth’ is a matter of perspective. People assume because you “got your break’ then it is smooth sailing. This is far from the truth. Getting the gig isn’t the hard part. Average people can easily sell themselves. The hard part is performing at a high standard the average person cannot. Mediocrity is a rampant thing especially with all the AI technology today. I’m a Gen X’er; the last of the ‘analog’ generation. All my early records were cut on tape and this is how I learned to record. I remember in 1983 when my high school received their first computers. It was a HUGE deal and they could only afford something like three or four of them for the whole student body of six-hundred kids.

The irony is shortly after moving to Los Angeles in 1998, I became factory trained by Steinberg (Cubase), Sonic Foundry (Vegas/Acid), Propellerhead (Reason), Roland, Korg and Kurzwiel as well as numerous other software companies. I found it ironic the ‘analog’ kid with ZERO computer skills was now the “go to” computer guy. Was it “smooth?” Yes and no. The smooth part was I kind of fell into the whole digital audio thing. The rough part was all the sleepless nights researching how to solve whatever problem I was thrown. I had to perform; failure was not an option. If I could not solve the problem, the client would never call me again. But I always persevered, and from the client’s perspective it was “smooth”, from my perspective it was anything but.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a self-taught artist and growing up never considered myself as an artist. My family is mostly blue-collar people and I went to school to be a tool & die maker. I have always been taught to be “hands on”, so at age nineteen I picked up a guitar, started teaching myself to play.

I had a neighbor who played and one day I asked him to teach me how to play. He showed me how to tune it and play three chords, E major, A major and B major, and said, “If you can play these three chords, you can play just about any rock & roll song”. He handed me the guitar and within an hour or so I was playing those chords to a rhythm. He said “Are you sure you’ve never taken any lessons”? I said, “No, I’ve never taken a lesson”. He was shocked and said I sounded like I’d been playing for a year or so. I saved up, bought my first guitar, a 1961 Les Paul Junior SG, and started experimenting with chord shapes, rhythms and most importantly techniques. I drove everyone crazy; I always was plinking on my guitar.

Six months after picking up the guitar, a friend of mine, Tommy Valentino, asked me if I wanted to go to the studio with him. I said sure! I had never been in a professional recording studio and he told me to bring my guitar. I figured he wanted to use it. Once there he asked me to play a part on the song he was working on. I said, “I did not assume you would want me to play on it since I have only been playing for six months or so.” Tommy looked at me with the one eyebrow up grinning and said “If I don’t like what you play, I can always erase it, I’ll give you twenty minutes and if you can’t come up with something, we will move on.” I ended up writing the parts and playing them. He loved them! This was my first recording session.

I asked the studio owner/engineer how much the studio cost per hour. He said $20 which was a ton of money in 1985. I was flipping burgers at Wendy’s at the time and decided to save up $100 a month to go into the studio and teach myself to record. I drove the engineer crazy asking him about what everything did and how it worked; I didn’t record a single note for two or three months as I was learning how to use all the gear.

I’ve used this same approach with all my artistic endeavors, I experiment until I find a technique which works for me. I’ve done this with my film making and photography; even delving into fashion design now with my Sean Owen Fodor fashion line using the same approach. I feel very fortunate to have been surrounded by such great talent in my life and have had the opportunity to look over the shoulder of some of the greatest artists of my generation. I embrace talent! It seems to find me, and I’ve learned to recognize what true talent sounds like when it knocks on my door. I always answer and invite it in.

PERFORMANCE:
Sean has performed with legendary artists:
Willie Chambers (The Chambers Brothers)
Tracy Arrington (Al Green, Curtis Delgato, Steve Miller, Doobie Brothers, Paul Rogers, Tower of Power, George Lynch)
Evil (El Debarge, Adina Howard)
Makoto Izumitani (Gwen Stephani, Eve)
George Lynch (Grammy Nominated Artist, Dokken, Lynch Mob)
Erik Turner (Warrant)
Joey Covington (Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna)
Adam Stanger (Comes With The Fall, Jerry Cantrel, The Young Royals, and Pulp 90’s)
Gabe Rosales (Lynch Mob, Jennifer Lopez, Christina Milan)
Adam Hamilton (LA Guns, Joe 90)
Daniel Alexander (Little Richard, E.G. Daly, Mozart, The Fly’s)
Noriko Olling (Sheila E., Luther Vandross, James Brown, Lee Ritenour)
Frank Warner (Expose)
Dee Robb, Bruce Robb, Joe Robb (Go-Go’s, Jane’s Addiction, Aerosmith, Devo, Public Enemy, Dave Matthews, Lenny Kravitz)

DIRECTOR:
Director of music videos, documentary films, TV pilots and commercial’s Sean has produced:
Sammy Oriti, Emmy nominated producer
George Lynch (Lynchmob)
Sally Kirkland
Jaime Gomez (Nash Bridges, Training Day)
Dabney & Quincy Coleman
E! Entertainment
Astrelwerks Records
Capitol Records
Comedian Stephanie Miller

COMPOSER/ENGINEER:
Sean composed, produced, and engineered music projects for high profile Grammy-nominated artists:
George Lynch (D okken, Lynchmob)
Nataraj Tribino (PM Dawn, Maroon 5)
Dave Schulz (Berlin, Goo Goo Dolls, Mitch Perry)
Ricky Harlow (Michael Jackson, Brittany Spears)
Tracy Arrington (Al Green, Steve Miller, Curtis Delgato, Doobie Brothers, Paul Rogers, Tower of Power, George Lynch)
Jeb Milne, Singer & Songwriter/Founder Wit Animation Studios and WitZend (Roger Daltry, Air Supply, LuLu)
Jon E Love’s (Love/Hate) project ‘Experience The Love’ featuring Randy Barach (drummer for Don Henley, Cher, Lenny Kravitz)
Tommy Lee (Motley Crue) and his producer, Scott Humphrey, selected Sean’s musical track as a finalist in special project ‘Methods of Mayhem’.

AWARDS
2010 Addy Award (Oscar of Advertising)
Sean Fodor and Jeb Milne of Wit Animation for Animation & Sound
The State of Florida Campaign ‘Don’t Feed Wild Dolphins’

2009 Webby Awards (Oscar for the Web)
Sound Engineering For Blue Movies on Kold Cast TV

2005 Park City Film & Music Festival
Gold Medal for Best Picture ‘Joe Killionaire’
Best Original Score ‘Joe Killionaire’
Best Integration of Music Styles in a Film
Best Director – Sean David Morton

2005 New York International Film Festival
Joe Killionaire – Selected from over 400 films – Received mention on ‘Tonight Show’

2004 Big Apple Film Festival
Official Selection ‘Joe Killionaire’

2004 Sedona International Film Festival
Best Comedy (Top 20 Fest) ‘Joe Killionaire’

2004 Dances with Films Festival June 10-16 Fusion Audience Awards
Honorable Mention ‘Joe Killionaire’
Best Song ‘Cruel Judy’

2000 ARMENIAN MUSIC FILM AWARDS / BEST MUSIC VIDEO WINNER
Armenian Grammy for Producer Sean Fodor and Artist Sako Ghazarossian (Armenian pop star)
AMFA nominated for all records/videos Sean co-wrote, produced, engineered and performed (4 albums total). They won for ‘Gravity’ album, their song video ‘Ashoun’ which Sean produced.

 

CREDITS:

Year Role / Type Name of Production / Director

2011 Producer/Director/Editor, Documentary Lennon Scott / Spiritual Warfare Productions

2009 Producer / (Short) (1 credit) Blue Movies / Kold Cast TV

2009 Self (Short) (1 credit) Blue Movies / Kold Cast TV

2008 Associate Producer/Sound Department (2 credits) Blue Movies / Kold Cast TV

2008 Producer/Director/Editor, Corporate Carl Zeiss Meditec AANS Show Reel

2008 Sound Recordist / Short (1 credit) Live with It / Jaime Gomez

2008 Sound Recordist / Documentary (1 credit) Quincy Coleman: It’s All in the Song

2005 Director/Camera Operator/Editor, Digital Lisa Marie Scott Calendar Shoot

2004 Director/Editor/Camera Operator, Music Video LA Guns / Tie Your Mother Down

2004 Composer (1 credit) Joe Killionaire Film Soundtracks

Joe Killionaire Written by Darryl Rue and Sean Fodor Performed by Fluffer

Lizzie Borden Written by Sean Fodor and Erik Turner Performed by The Red Pills

Celebrate Written by Sean Fodor and Sako Performed by D-Toxx

Look At Me Written and Performed by Sean Fodor

White Trash Written and Performed by Sean Fodor

2004 Production Assistant / Video Scarecrow Gone Wild

2004 Key Set Production Assistant Surviving Eden

2004 Production Assistant / Film Joe Killionaire

Miscellaneous Crew (3 credits)

2001 History’s Mysteries (TV Series) – God’s Angel Sodom and Gomorrah

2000 History’s Mysteries (TV Series) – Mafia Hit Man The Death of Marilyn Monroe

2000 History’s Mysteries (TV Series) – Mafia Hit Man The Death of Marilyn Monroe 

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
Well, it’s hard to say…. I work in several industries and believe this is where change is headed. Artists are wearing multiple hats these days. For example, Johnny Depp, one of the greatest actors of my generation makes a record and tours with one of the greatest guitarists to walk the earth…Jeff Beck.

Artists are crossing over genres, styles and industries. Ryan Reynolds owns Mint Mobile, George Clooney owns Casamigos Tequila, Maynard Keenan (Tool/Perfect Circle), another guy who spent some time in West Michigan, owns Merkin Vineyards and Caduceus Cellars and is becoming a premier wine producer, and Dexter Holland (Offspring) owns Gringo Bandito Hot Sauce.

For me I’m delving into fashion with my Sean Owen Fodor “NOVA DOG” collection. This is a natural progression for me as I’ve always been into fashion, so now I’m creating it. Artists are diversifying and not just using their talent in a one-dimensional way. They’re using their creativity, talent, and skills in many other ways. True artists can adapt and change with the times.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.westmultimedia.net