The only child of classically trained musicians, he not only received a solid musical education, but also unquestioning support when their 10th birthday gift to him, a disc‑recording machine, revealed the strength of his true vocation.

As the man at the desk for Michael Jackson's Thriller, which has defended its best‑selling album status in the Guinness Book Of World Records for more than 25 years, there's no denying that he found himself in the right place at the right time, and there can have been few doors closed to him since, given a CV point like that! But if you look beyond the glare of Thriller's nine‑digit sales figures, it's clear that there's a whole lot more to Swedien's story than good fortune: although the first of his five Grammy awards came with Thriller, his records with Quincy Jones and George Benson had already garnered three nominations for Best Engineered Recording before that. In a rare interview, he lays bare the techniques behind some of the superstar's biggest hits.īruce Swedien considers himself a lucky man. Bruce Swedien at the Harrison console in Westlake Studios, in a photo taken during the mixing of Michael Jackson's Thriller.īruce Swedien has been the engineer of choice for Michael Jackson and his producer Quincy Jones, among many others.

Quincy jones michael jackson