I first became interested in tape recorders as a kid in the late 60’s. My father had a reel to reel tape recorder for recording demos to try to get a recording contract with a record label. This he succeeded in doing and the first EP became one of the biggest hits ever in this country. “The Redback On The Toilet Seat” made Slim Newton a household name. I saw this as a child and grew up immersed in song writing, performing, recording and touring. By the mid 70’s I was recording the show whilst on tour with my folks on “The Rick & Thel Show”.


In 1978, I began a career as a musician touring throughout Australia and New Zealand with a number of touring shows. This was largely due to my brother Eric encouraging me to quit my day job and to come and tour as a rhythm guitar player. Eric and I often talked about one day having a studio of our own and so he purchased a brand new 4 track reel to reel and an 8 channel mixing desk. Tragically, Eric died in 1981 and I decided to go ahead and try to fulfill the dream.


In 1983, Ed Matzenik and I formed ENREC STUDIOS in Tamworth and together recorded and released around 180 titles just on the Enrec label alone. In 1992 I toured with Johnny Chester on the Tammy Wynette Australian National Tour and then in 1993 I moved ENREC STUDIOS to a new location just outside of Newcastle. Here I had two of the busiest years of recording ever. One artist that I had started to record was John Williamson. After some talks with John and Phil Mathews (John’s manager), I returned to touring full time, with John, as the Production Manager and Tour Manager and continued to record John’s albums for the next decade and a half with the most recent being “Chandelier Of Stars”, CMAA Album Of The Year 2006.


By the end of 2005 I decided to get back to recording full time and take a break from touring once again. So far, I have worked on a number of new titles for release including another for my dad, Slim Newton. I began my career just after the transistor was invented and now work in a digital programmable world. I have seen a lot of changes in technology style and ideas.


I have learnt that there are no rules and no formula that works for everyone. There is however three ingredients that are important if you want a good recording. 1) A good song. 2) A good arrangement and 3) Good quality performances. I believe that if you get these three things in place, you will have a good quality, successful recording!



Steve.