DJ M-Dash writesThe True Story of Brad Wood, Producer

by Andy Frye

You might laugh—but Brad Wood has been working at home way, way before it was cool.

Years before the pandemic, this down-to-earth sound engineer and record producer set up Seagrass Studios adjacent to his home in Los Angeles. It has extended the continuum of his important work with some of rock music’s most innovative artists, which began back in Wicker Park in the ‘90s at Wood’s legendary Idful Music Corporation.

Over the span of his long career, Wood has produced albums from Placebo and Pete Yorn to Lisa Loeb and Oklahoma alt-rockers Skating Polly. But he’s best known among Chicago music diehards for producing some of the 1990's best albums, including Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville and Veruca Salt's American Thighs.

Two weeks ago, I spoke with Wood over Zoom about his exploits in recording music. He talked about the different kinds of bands he’s worked with as well as how artists and record labels seek him out.

“Liz Phair and Skating Polly—those two represent two far ends of my career, now that I’m nearing the end of my career,” Wood joked. “But, both came from someone behind the artist who knew of my work and said, ‘I have a record I’d like you to produce.’”

In both cases, he said the artists came from “tiny independent labels, (each) a one-person shop.”

At Idful, with partners Brian Deck and Daniel Sonis, Wood recorded and produced works by Tortoise, Red Red Meat, The Jesus Lizard, Eleventh Dream Day, Loud Lucy, and many others. Wood said that now, in 2024, the music business is different than it was during the exciting thrust of 1990s Chicago.

“Bands do not stay here,” Wood says of Seagrass Studios, explaining that most often, out-of-town artists do Airbnb. “Sometimes, I just get stuff to mix, or I might go where the band is, since it’s cheaper for one person to travel than a whole band.”

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