John Hanti
| John Hanti | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 5, 1951 Farrell, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| 🏳️ Nationality | American |
| 💼 Occupation | Record producer and music executive |
| 🌐 Website | www |
John Hanti (born June 5, 1951[1] in Farrell, Pennsylvania) is an American record producer and music industry executive. He is known for establishing SST Studios and Rentals[2] in Weehawken, New Jersey,[3] and played a role in developing the modern concert backline industry during the early 1980s "Second British Invasion".[4]
Early life and education[edit]
At the time of Hanti's birth, his mother and father operated a Farrell, Pennsylvania nightclub called the Bar Haiti. The club catered to Farrell's African-American community and featured popular black entertainers of the day such as a young Ray Charles, Little Richard, Faye Adams, and others.[5] It was part of a nationwide network of black nightclubs called The Chitlin Circuit.[4]
Hanti began playing the organ when he was nine and started playing in local bands in the Mahoning Valley of Sharon, Pennsylvania, and Youngstown, Ohio, at age thirteen.[4] Youngstown's WHOT-FM disc jockey Boots Bell became the first of many mentors to take Hanti under their wings over the years.
Moving to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, after graduating from high school, he continued to perform with various area rock bands.
Career[edit]
After moving from Pittsburgh to southeast Florida in 1971, Hanti joined and toured with a popular band called Virgin. He began to shift his focus from performing to the business side of the music business. He became a booking agent for some of the area's top nightclubs, including the Flying Machine in Fort Lauderdale and a now-legendary Big Daddy's chain of discos. This bought him into contact with South Florida recording moguls such as Henry Stone of TK Records and Mack Emerman of the historic Criteria Studios in Miami. Through these associations, Hanti expanded his music business acumen. His work as a booking agent also brought Hanti into contact with South Florida organized crime and the drug cartels that had infiltrated the South Florida club scene. Wanting no part of that, he decided to leave his Florida career behind and moved to New York in 1978.[6]
On a previous trip to New York, he became friendly with famed Chic producer and arranger Kenny Lehman, who immediately hired Hanti to assist him with his Broadway production, Got Tu Go Disco. Soon after that, Beatles' merchandising pioneer, Nat Weiss, also took an interest in him and suggested that he move to New York.[4] In 1981, Hanti joined forces with Neil Cooper to launch ROIR Records, America's first all-cassette record label. Hanti and Cooper worked together, booking bands for 80's, a rock club on New York's Upper East Side.[7]
In 1983, Hanti founded Studios, Systems, and Transport (SST Rentals) in Manhattan to serve the touring needs of British post-punk bands making their first appearances in the States with backline rentals and transportation needs. To accommodate the rapid growth of SST, Hanti purchased a large warehouse near the west bank of the Hudson River in Weehawken, New Jersey, and converted it to offices and studios. It remains the headquarters of SST today.[4]
In the years since founding SST, Hanti has expanded into a full-scale recording studio, a 2,000-square-foot rehearsal and studio tracking room, a dance studio, an equipment storage building, and the ancillary Willow Building that houses numerous music industry companies and multiple small, independent recording studios leased by various New York City recording artists. Artists that have worked with SST have included Justin Timberlake, H.E.R., Cardi B, Rob Thomas, Jay-Z,[8] and Beyoncé, and the Rolling Stones.[9][10]
In 1989, the owner of the Record Plant in Manhattan, and one of the world's most renowned engineers and producers, Roy Cicala, befriended Hanti. When rising Manhattan real estate costs forced the Record Plant to close its door, Cicala relocated his mobile recording truck to SST, utilizing its big room as a tracking room. This evolved into SST's present recording studio, IIWII ("It is what it is").[11][12]
Personal life[edit]
On the night of October 28-29, 2012, a Hudson River storm surge driven by Superstorm Sandy overran its banks and inundated the SST buildings. The studios and most of their contents were destroyed.[5] It took three years of restoration before Hanti could make SST fully functional.[4]
Soon after Superstorm Sandy, Hanti bought a second home in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he now lives most of the year.
References[edit]
- ↑ "John Hanti — OfficialUSA.com Records". www.officialusa.com.
- ↑ Blangero, John (2022-07-31). "The Story of "Free Will in China Blue"". Signs and Wonders. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
- ↑ "John Hanti". SoundCloud.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Acker, Steven (2019-10-26). "John Hanti finds musical roots in Valley". The Vindicator. Warren, Ohio. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "The Story of SST Studios". AckerCreative.
- ↑ "The SST Story | Weehawken, NJ | SST Studios and Rentals". SST Studios.
- ↑ Kozak, Roman (1980-10-11). "Action at 80s Club in New York". Billboard. Vol. 92 no. 41. p. 67 – via Google Books.
- ↑ "Taking Backline To a Whole New Level by John De Salvo". Not So Modern Drummer.
- ↑ "John Hanti". Discogs.
- ↑ "Про Аудио и Световые Системы". Про Аудио и световые системы.
- ↑ "Focusrite Frankenstein: Billy Perez and IIWII Studios". tapeop.com.
- ↑ "About". March 21, 2016.
External links[edit]
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