This article is about record producer Gary Smith. For the professional hockey player by the same name, see Gary Smith (hockey player)

Gary Smith is a record producer and artist's manager known for his work recording albums by alternative rock musicians since the mid-1980s at Fort Apache Studios. Smith has been an owner of the studio since the late 1980s, moving it from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Bellows Falls, Vermont, in the early 2000s.

A Rhode Island native, Smith gave supportive early guidance to Newport, Rhode Island's Throwing Muses group, advising them to move to Boston's burgeoning alternative music scene in 1986. That year he saw a new band called the Pixies opening for Throwing Muses at The Rat in Boston and convinced them to let him produce their first demos in spring 1987 at an early incarnation of Fort Apache's studio digs, then a "ramshackle" building in a dangerous neighborhood. Since joining Fort Apache in the mid-1980s, Smith has produced dozens of influential recordings, including the Pixies' Come On Pilgrim album on the 4AD and Rough Trade labels. Other artists he has produced include Throwing Muses, Tanya Donelly, Blake Babies, The Connells, Juliana Hatfield, Scrawl, 10,000 Maniacs, and Billy Bragg.

Smith currently resides in New Hampshire across the border from his Vermont studio. Active in producing major releases and new talent, as well as in managing Tanya Donelly and Natalie Merchant, Smith maintains a "Screed" blog at the Fort Apache website.

References

• Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Pixies Biography. All Music Guide. Retrieved Apr. 20, 2005.
• Fort Apache Selected Discography. Fort Apache Studios website. Retrieved Apr. 18, 2005.
• Harvard, Joe (1998). Articles on Fort Apache. Boston Rock Storybook webpages. Retrieved Apr. 18, 2005.
• Harvard, Joe (November 2002). Part 4, Fort Apache North: Music Business Blues. Boston Rock Storybook webpages. Retrieved Apr. 18, 2005.
• Harvard, Joe (December 10, 2002). Joe Harvard: Bits and Pieces. Boston Rock Storybook webpages. Retrieved Apr. 18, 2005.
• ""An Interview With Tanya Donelly". (January 26, 2005). Boston Beats. Retrieved Apr. 13, 2005.
• Smith, Gary (1997). Pixies Biography. Hip Online. Retrieved Apr. 20, 2005.

External links

• Fort Apache official site
• The Windham