Chicago native Kerry Kelekovich is a veteran of both the music and film industries, and has worked as a music producer/recording engineer and musician for over 25 years. He is also adjunct-faculty in the Film & Video Department of Columbia College Chicago, the largest film school in the United States, a position he has held since 1984. He served for many years as Chief Recording Engineer for the Film Department's Sound Studios, mixing hundreds of films and recording many more songwriters and bands, and currently teaches Filmsound and Music for Film.
Kerry made his professional musical debut in 1976 at the original Kingston Mines in Chicago, opening for Blues great, Lefty Dizz. This began a career devoted to the fusion of audio, music and art. As a musician his resume spans a broad range of recording artists and performers, from rock and alternative to country and R&B, including Cath Carroll, Michael McDermott, Dag Juhlin, The Drifters and The Wildroots with Jim Ralston from the Tina Turner band.
As a recording engineer and producer, Kerry studied with world-renowned musical acoustics expert Dr Thomas Rossing and the celebrated Chess Records recording engineer, Malcolm Chisholm. He has worked with songwriters and filmmakers of all styles ranging from Geffen Records' singer-songwriter Robbie Fulks to avant-garde, performance artist Navaab Fischer. He also has extensive experience in mixing live performances, having worked with Uncle Tupelo, Smashing Pumpkins, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Mick Taylor (Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan), West Coast punk icon and actor, John Doe, Eleventh Dream Day amongst others.
Kerry has served as audio and acoustics consultant, including mixing duties at a number of legendary music venues such as Orphans, Lounge Ax, Riviera Theatre, Vic Theatre, Park West and North American concert halls from Montreal to Seattle to Los Angeles.
Also a songwriter and composer, Kerry has written songs recorded by British chanteuse Cath Carroll and Indiana's Nomad Planets and has composed music for film and television while working with a variety of companies including American Mongrel Films, Nuveen and Rockwell International.
In addition to teaching and consultancy, he is currently writing music for songwriters, composing tracks for filmmakers and producing albums with bands for his own Lilypad Records imprint. The newest Lilypad release, "Poster Boys For The Apocalypse" by World Wide Riot, was released Earth Day 2008 (April 22). Other projects currently in the studio with Kerry -- the "lost" Miaow demo from 1987 is in restoration, a new Hit Parade collaboration with Cath Carroll that will appear on "Cornish Love Songs" (2009 JSH Records), the latest Hollus full-length, "The Joker And The Queen" (2009 Hollus), the next Cath Carroll album which he is currently co-writing and recording and the follow up full-length (no title yet) by WorldWideRiot (Lilypad 2009).
Composer for Sacred Hearts (American Mongrel Films 1995)
In 2000, Kerry enlisted the help of several, longtime, musical friends to promote Cath Carroll (Heart & Soul Records), which he co-produced and co-wrote with the former Factory Records' recording artist. (The pairing had previously resulted in Matador Records' 1995 release, True Crime Motel, which received rave reviews in the US and Europe.)
Chicago Tribune September 2000Leads you into a subversive, shadowy corner of the adult-pop universe occupied by Jobim, the pre-disco Everything But The Girl and Bryan Ferry's "The Bride Stripped Bare". Carroll, a native of England, sings with the detached cool of a bossanova vocalist, and her richly atmospheric songs - written in collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Kerry Kelekovich- are thick with ghosts, innuendo and a vague sense of dread." - Greg Kot
The Citizen Cath Tour performed autumn 2K with the Border's Books Series and concluded performances for Cath Carroll with a grand finale midnite St. Patrick's Day at America's premier music, film and multi-media festival- South By Southwest 2001.
In 2002, Kerry digitally remastered Factory Records' cult classics England Made Me (1991) and When It All Comes Down (2002) which compiled the rare recordings from Brit-popsters, Miaow, including two sessions recorded by legendary DJ, John Peel. To complete the workload, Kerry simultaneously finished producing and co-writing the fourth Cath Carroll album, The Gondoliers Of Ghost Lake released November 11th, 2002 (LTM Records) to critical praise both in the U.S. and abroad.
mundanesounds.com 1/03
Of course, special mention should be made of Carroll's husband, producer Kerry Kelekovich, because his backing work is just as much a part of what's made Gondoliers a beautiful record. His musical abilities and production skills have given Carroll a full-band backing, when in fact he was the only musician backing her up in the studio! Brilliant production.
Q Magazine 1/03
On her fourth solo effort, co-writer husband Kerry Kelekovich's moody guitar textures and flat electronic beats discreetly light her diaphanous waft of a voice and songs which slip along reality's edge, questioning everything. Her key character, in Man Goes Down The Highway, is always "at the point of finding out what it all means". Think Twin Peaks, even The Blair Witch Project, minus screams and corpses.
Uncut 1/03
Cath Carroll possesses an extraordinary voice, sensuous and dreamy and capable of uniting diverse influences with a cool grace, here acid-folk, Smiths-esque pop, hippie rock and Latino club romps are blessed with her hypnotic understatement and literate guile. This is grown-up pop resounding with heartfelt warmth and steely seriousness.
Time Out New York 12/02
Carroll has stuck around Chicago, quietly recording with her husband, multi-instrumentalist Kerry Kelekovich, and writing about music (she's a TONY contributor). The album is Carroll's best since her Factory days, and her most musically adventurous: There's a rich palette of shuffling electro loops, spooky atmospherics and funhouse psychedelia dappled with bright acoustic guitar. May these recordings, old and new, bring Cath Carroll the audience that's long been her due.
Tangents 12/02
Finally then, there's Cath Carroll and her new album for LTM, The Gondoliers of Ghost Lake. Once again working in collaboration with her husband Kerry Kelekovich, Cath shows us what a fine touch she has for effortlessly merging and blending styles and influences into something that sounds both contemporary and timeless all at once. The influences are perhaps more subtly hinted at here than on, say, her recently reissued 1991 debut England Made Me, but nevertheless, there's a grand mix of Latin, folk, dub, psych-rock and even bluegrass seeping out of this album. Standouts for me would be 'Free', with it's hints at '60s psych-soft-pop and rock; 'The Divine Miss A.' which tells the tale of a transgendered Mancunian at the turn of the '70s/'80s and which comes over all Kinks meets Madonna via Morrissey; the eerie sophisticated folk-dub of 'Man Goes Down The Highway' that you could play next to Luscious Jackson and not find out of place; the upbeat romp of 'Mystified' that frolics around the grey streets draping coloured garlands from the lampposts, dreaming of Brazilian sunsets. This is an accomplished and memorable album that will only continue to grow in stature with repeated listenings. I recommend you pick it up at the first opportunity.
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