My guest this week is producer, songwriter and keyboardist CJ Vanston.

CJ Vanston started doing jingles in Chicago where he soon became a first call player, doing as many as six sessions a day.

After moving to Los Angeles, he worked with a wide variety of artist like Toto, Def Leppard, Prince, Joe Cocker, Tears For Fears, Spinal Tap Ringo Starr, Bob Seger BB King, Celine Dion Barbra Streisand, Dolly Parton among many others.

He’s also worked on films like Waiting For Guffman, Best In Show, Sweet Home Alabama, A Mighty Wind, Mascots and more.

CJ has also written and performed pieces for the Dalai Lama and Muhammad Ali, and most recently y co-wrote, co-produced and performed on Jeff “Skunk” Baxter’s 2022 solo release called Speed of Heat.

During the interview we talked about how he got the nickname CJ, getting started in the studio scene, learning to engineer and mix, and much more.

I spoke with CJ via zoom from his home in the Hollywood Hills.

On the intro I’ll take a look at the ruling that finally gives songwriters a retroactive raise, and the camera that can see vibrations and record multiple instruments separately.

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