Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/778398
24 W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 C A S Q U A R T E R L Y You grew up in Dallas and played the drums. Is there a family history with music or did you just pick it up? My mother was a piano teacher and a choral teacher. She tried to get me to take up the piano, but I rebelled and went with the drums! What kind of music were you playing? Jazz, initially. However, you had to make a living at it, so I switched to rock-and-roll and ended up playing with a couple recording acts. But it was so hard to make a living as a drummer that I decided to give audio engineering a try. And you eventually ended up opening a recording studio. Yes. I had a buddy in college who I was also in a band with, who ended up being a jingle writer for an ad agency. He was one of those guys that could play anything and could write really well. He wanted to have greater control over his songs, so we started a little record- ing studio to work on his stuff. Well, we started to get some outside work so we built a bigger studio and eventually, built one that was even larger. W hen I called this year's CAS Career Achievement recipient, John Pritchett, over the holiday break, he was entertaining a family friend's 2-year-old grandson who discovered John's vintage Ludwig drum kit. John's love for creating sound with those drums even- tually transitioned into his ability to capture sound with surgical precision. With more than 100 credits to his name, John is an industry staple. So much so that the Academy chose to interview him (for nine hours!) for its "Oral History" collection, to discuss his life, work, and production sound. John took some time to chat while gearing up for his next blockbuster, Avengers: Infinity Wars. [Read a detailed list of John's work in the Summer 2016 Quarterly.] An Interview with John Pritchett CAS b y M a t t F o g l i a C A S