Born in Boston, producer Joe Chiccarelli got his first taste of the studio through a cousin who owned Boston's Fleetwood Studio. Chiccarelli moved west in the late '70s, where he scored an assistant engineer gig at L.A.'s Cherokee Studios. As often happens within the studio world, Chiccarelli caught his break when he happened to be at the right place at the right time (or the wrong place at the wrong time, depending on who you ask). As Cherokee's resident flack, Chiccarelli was assigned to assist demanding clients such as Frank Zappa, who was known for keeping late hours. When Zappa's principal engineer got held up and couldn't make it to the studio, Zappa upgraded Chiccarelli from assistant to engineer. The album, Sheik Yerbouti, was a giant step forward for the young studio man. From there, Chiccarelli went on to engineer several other Zappa efforts, such as Joe's Garage, Baby Snakes, and Tinseltown Rebellion.
Chiccarelli earned his first Latin Grammy award in 2000 for his work on Cafe Tacuba's Revés and took home an American Grammy two years later for his work on the Mexico City alternative rock band's fifth long-player, Cuatro Caminos. He followed up on those successes with a string of high-profile jobs, including engineering the White Stripes' Icky Thump (2007) and the Raconteurs' Consolers of the Lonely (2008), both of which received Grammy noms. Now based at Sunset Sound Studios in Hollywood, Chiccarelli stayed busy into the 2010s and beyond, producing sessions for Minus the Bear, the Killers, the Strokes, Jason Mraz, Alanis Morissette, Bernard Fanning, Morrissey, Divine Fits, and Vance Joy, while also serving as an A&R consultant for major and independent labels. ~ Steve Kurutz & James Christopher Monger, Rovi