Who is Vanessa?
Recording Pomplamoose at the Village, studio AA
"Normally when a guest sits down for a World Cafe interview, our producers or I help them adjust their microphone to the correct distance and angle. And if a piece of technology is misbehaving, we'll sort it out and hopefully our guest will be none the wiser. Not Vanessa Parr. On the day she visited the World Cafe studio, Parr couldn't resist adjusting her own mic to absolute perfection and helping us troubleshoot some finicky recording software. Call it an occupational hazard for someone who is used to making other people sound their very best day in and day out." -Talia Schlanger, World Cafe
Village Studio B
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"Years of Living Dangerously"
Vanessa Parr is a Los Angeles based recording engineer. A 2004 graduate of Berklee College of Music, she has worked on projects with a variety of prestigious and Grammy award-winning artists such as Lucinda Williams, Weezer, Ana Moura, Kandace Springs, the Dixie Chicks, Elvis Costello, John Mayer, and Elton John. She has also worked extensively on many film and television scores, including Across the Universe, Nashville, Crazy Heart, Mad Men, Lee Daniels' The Butler, and The Help.
Vanessa worked as a staff engineer at the Village Recorder for 13 years. While working there, she was lucky enough to come up under many influential producers and engineers (T Bone Burnett, Larry Klein, Hal Wilner, Mike Piersante, Ed Cherney, Jim Scott, Don Was, John Kurlander, Thomas Newman, to name-drop a few). This foundation helped nurture her recording aesthetic as roots-based, and organic.
Thanks to her background, she has enjoyed a fruitful career as both a staff and an independent engineer. Through her time at the Village, she honed her engineering skills on many different types of projects including records, films, jingles, live music broadcasts, and voice-overs. She has worked on a variety of large format consoles, and with all varieties of equipment and microphones. Although she enjoys all aspects of the recording process, she is happiest in a studio with a live band, and Neve console, a pair of ATC monitors, and as many ribbon mics as she can find.