Mitch Easter

Mitchell Blake Easter (born November 15, 1954) is an American musician, songwriter and record producer. Frequently associated with the jangle pop style of guitar music, he is known as producer of R.E.M.'s early albums, from 1981 through 1984, and as frontman of the 1980s band Let's Active. He owns and operates Fidelitorium, a recording studio in Kernersville, North Carolina, which followed on from his Drive-In Studio in Winston-Salem.

Mitchell Blake Easter (born November 15, 1954) is an American musician, songwriter and record producer. Frequently associated with the jangle pop style of guitar music, he is known as producer of R.E.M.'s early albums, from 1981 through 1984, and as frontman of the 1980s band Let's Active. He owns and operates Fidelitorium, a recording studio in Kernersville, North Carolina, which followed on from his Drive-In Studio in Winston-Salem. ===Record production and engineering=== 's Lolita Nation in San Francisco, 1986. L–R: Easter, Michael Quercio, Scott Miller.]] Easter became inspired by the studio equipment visible in photographs inside the 1970 Thunderclap Newman album Hollywood Dream, specifically a 3ma track in front of Pete Townshend. "I needed to have that feeling around me," he said in 2025. In 1980, he started Drive-In Studio, a professional recording studio located in what was originally his parents' garage. The first record he worked on, in July 1980, was the Sir Crackers! EP by the short-lived new wave band, the Crackers. (Jay Peck, the band's drummer, played briefly with Let's Active later in the decade.) Another of his early recording sessions was for "Radio Free Europe", the debut single by R.E.M. Drive-In Studio became an integral part of the local indie-rock scene of Winston-Salem, recording a number of bands at low "knock-down" rates. Easter closed the Drive-In Studio in 1994, and moved from Winston-Salem to Kernersville, North Carolina, where he opened his current recording studio, Fidelitorium Recordings, behind his home. Fidelitorium, dubbed "Brick Henge" by Easter, was designed by acoustic architect Wes Lachot. As a record producer, Easter is probably best known for his work with R.E.M. from 1981 through 1984. Since 1981, he has produced, engineered and often made musical contributions to albums from many other recording artists, including Donna the Buffalo, Mary Prankster, Ex Hex, Ben Folds Five, Pylon, Helium, Pavement, Suzanne Vega, Richard Barone, Game Theory, The Loud Family, Marshall Crenshaw, The Connells, Velvet Crush, Ken Stringfellow (of The Posies) and Birds of Avalon. Asked in 1999 about his favorite projects as a producer, Easter cited R.E.M.'s Chronic Town and Game Theory's records – Real Nighttime (1984), The Big Shot Chronicles (1985), Lolita Nation (1987) and Two Steps from the Middle Ages (1988) – which Easter called "a lot of fun, because of the variety in the way they approached recording". ===Performing and songwriting=== ====Rittenhouse Square and the Sneakers (1970–1981)==== At the age of 15, in 1970, Easter joined the band Rittenhouse Square, which included friends Chris Stamey, Peter Holsapple and Bobby Locke. Membership in the band changed frequently, except for drummer Locke. The group released an independent album in 1972¹ but broke up in 1973, after its various members went off to college. In 1978¹, Easter joined Stamey's Sneakers, a band that Easter characterized as "pre-punk transitional". Prior to Easter, the Sneakers released a self-titled 7-inch EP (with original guitarist Rob Slater) and one album with Easter replacing Slater, In the Red (1978). When the Sneakers disbanded in the late 1970s, Stamey and bandmate Will Rigby formed the dB's and moved to New York. Easter and Holsapple remained in Chapel Hill and formed the H-Bombs in the fall of 1977¹. Easter briefly moved to New York City, but returned to Winston-Salem in the summer of 1980. In January 2006, the Sneakers played a reunion show in New York. In the Red has been reissued on CD by East Side Digital and Collectors' Choice Music, and in September 2015, Omnivore Recordings reissued the Sneakers EP as a CD with five bonus tracks. ====Let's Active (1981–1990, 2014)==== In 1981, after a trip to England as soundman for the dB's, which made him realize how much he missed being part of a band, Easter formed Let's Active with then-girlfriend Faye Hunter and drummer Sara Romweber. "That was a magical little trio, while it lasted," said Easter in 2019. Around the same time, Easter worked with R.E.M. to record their debut single, "Radio Free Europe". This initial work led to a number of collaborations with the band, with Easter producing their debut EP and (with Don Dixon, who he first met in 1970) their first two albums. Let's Active toured with R.E.M., which led to a recording contract with I.R.S. Records. Although Let's Active was not commercially successful, Easter's offbeat style of guitar-based pop music, which came to be known as jangle pop, was considered a major influence on groups such as R.E.M. ]] On the I.R.S. label, Let's Active released the EP Afoot (1983¹), and the albums Cypress (1984), Big Plans for Everybody (1986) and Every Dog Has His Day (1988). A compilation CD, Cypress/Afoot, was released in 1989¹. After weathering several line-up changes, Let's Active was disbanded by Easter in 1990. In August 2014, Easter and Sara Romweber reunited Let's Active for a benefit performance, inviting former Game Theory bassist Suzi Ziegler to join the group. Easter had previously worked with Ziegler when he produced Game Theory's 1986 album The Big Shot Chronicles. ==Discography== ===Solo=== 2007: Dynamico (Electric Devil Records) ===Orange Humble band=== 1997: Assorted Creams (Half a Cow) 2001: Humblin' (Across America) (Half a Cow) 2015: Depressing Beauty (Citadel) ===Let's Active=== 1983: Afoot (I.R.S. Records) 1984: Cypress (I.R.S.) 1986: Big Plans for Everybody (I.R.S.) 1988: Every Dog Has His Day (I.R.S.) ===As producer (selected)=== 1982: R.E.M. – Chronic Town (I.R.S. Records) with R.E.M. 1983: R.E.M. – Murmur (I.R.S. Records) with Don Dixon 1983: Richard Barone and James Mastro – Nuts And Bolts (Passport) with James Mastro and Richard Barone 1983: X-Teens – X-Teens (Dolphin) 1984: R.E.M. – Reckoning (I.R.S. Records) with Don Dixon 1985: Game Theory – Real Nighttime (Enigma) 1986: Game Theory – The Big Shot Chronicles (Enigma) 1986: Waxing Poetics – Hermitage (Emergo) with Mike Mills 1987: Game Theory – Lolita Nation (Enigma) 1987: The Connells – Boylan Heights (TVT) 1987: Bobby Sutliff – Only Ghosts Remain (PVC) 1987: Hyaa! – Get Yer Hyaa-Hyaa`s Out! (no label) 1987: Washington Squares – The Washington Squares (Gold Castle) 1987: Hege V - House of Tears 1988: Velvet Elvis – Velvet Elvis (Enigma) with Tom Laune 1988: Even the Odd – self titled (Wanga) 1988: Mambo-X – Whirled (Wanga records) 1988: Love Tractor – Themes from Venus (DB) 1989: The Hummingbirds – loveBUZZ (RooArt) 1990: Lava Love – Whole Lava Love (Sky) 1992: Moose – ...XYZ 1993: Two Pound Planet – Songs From The Hydrogen Jukebox (Alternative) 1994: Motocaster – Stay Loaded (Interscope) 1994: The Loud Family – The Tape of Only Linda (Alias) 1994: Velvet Crush – Teenage Symphonies to God (Creation / Sony) 1995: Grover – My Wild Life (Zero Hour) 1996: The Drag – Satellites Beaming Back At You (Island Records) 1996: DM3 – Road To Rome (Citadel) with DM3 1997: Pavement – Brighten the Corners (Matador Records) 1997: Helium – The Magic City (Matador Records) with Helium 2001: Velvet Crush – A Single Odessey (Action Musik) 2002: Coronet Blue – Coronet Blue (Laughing Outlaw) 2002: d Henry Fenton – Autumn Sweet (Laughing Outlaw) 2002: Glory Fountain – The Beauty of 23 (Undertow) 2003: Mary Prankster – Tell Your Friends (Palace Coup / Orchard) 2004: Tim Lee – No Discretion (Paisley Pop) 2004: Shalini – Metal Corner (Dalloway) 2005: The Mockers – The Lonesome Death of Electric Campfire (Zebra) 2005: Jeffrey Dean Foster – Million Star Hotel (Angel Skull) 2006: Honor by August – Drowning out the Television (Low Watt) 2006: Velvet – The Juggernaut (Double Decker Bus) 2007: Angel and the Love Mongers – The Humanist Queen (Rock Snob) 2008: Baskervilles – Twilight (Secret Crush) 2008: Spank – Get Bent (self-released) 2009¹: Western Civ – Shower the People You Love with Gold (Nomorefakelabels) 2011: Birds of Avalon – Birds of Avalon (Gigantic / Bladen County) 2011: Big Troubles – Romantic Comedy (Slumberland) 2012: A Fragile Tomorrow – Be Nice Be Careful (Piewillie) 2015: The Old Ceremony – Sprinter (Yep Roc) 2016: Waiting for Henry – "Town Called Patience" (Mighty Hudson Music) ===As contributing musician=== 1983: The Accelerators – Leave My Heart (Dolphin) 1985: Marshall Crenshaw – Downtown (Warner Bros.) 1985: Marti Jones – Unsophisticated Time (A&M) 1986: Marti Jones – Match Game (A&M) 1987: Chris Stamey – It's Alright (A&M) 1987: Don Dixon – Romeo At Juilliard (Enigma Records) 1987: Marshall Crenshaw – Mary Jean & 9 Others (Warner Bros.) 1995: The 6ths – Wasps' Nests (Factory) 1995: Stephen Duffy – Duffy (Indolent) 1998: Steve Almaas - Human All Too Human (Lonesome Whippoorwill Sweden) 2000: Steve Almaas - Kingo A Wild One (Parasol Records USA / Lonesome Whippoorwill Sweden) 2001: Alejandro Escovedo – A Man Under the Influence (Bloodshot) 2002: Caitlin Cary – While You Weren't Looking (Yep Roc) 2002: Gerty – Sweets From the Minibar (Eskimo Kiss) 2003: Madison Smartt Bell – Forty Words For Fear (Gaff Music) 2003: Thad Cockrell – Warmth & Beauty (Yep Roc) 2006: Drive-By Truckers – A Blessing and a Curse (New West) 2006: Little Diesel – No Lie (Telstar) 2006: Steve Almaas – You Showed Me (Parasol) 2011: The Parson Red Heads – Yearling (Second Motion) 2012: The dB's – Falling Off the Sky (BarNone) 2012: Steve Almaas - Trailer Songs (Lonesome Whippoorwill Sweden) 2013: Chris Stamey – Lovesick Blues (Yep Roc) 2013: Polvo – Siberia (Merge) 2014: Dwight Twilley – Always (Big Oak) 2014: Karen Haglof – Western Holiday (self-released) 2015: Chris Stamey – Euphoria (Yep Roc) 2021: Steve Almaas - Everywhere You've Been (Lonesome Whippoorwill Sweden) ==References== ==External links== Fidelitorium Recordings

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