Who is MassPhonic Studio?

A brief musical history of John Bolduc:


At age 7, John loved “Big Band” music. His heroes were Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa and he wanted to be just like them, so he started playing drums and practiced with an obsessive fury.

By age 11, John was quite advanced on drums and he won a local music store drum competition. Although he was playing regularly with his older brother and some local jazz musicians, something was missing.

At age twelve, John latched on to the electric guitar and never looked back. He practiced non-stop, and loudly, as he absorbed the playing of Johnny Winter, Jimi Hendrix, Steve Howe and George Benson.

At age sixteen, John was playing guitar in two local rock bands and often with seasoned musicians twice his age.

At age eighteen, John found himself at Trodnossel recording studio in Wallingford Connecticut where a big change occurred. John states, “When I sat behind the massive console with three sets of speakers looking at me, glowing lights and buttons everywhere, my mind exploded with the vastness of musical possibility. I was home”.

At age twenty, John took studio recording lessons with master recording engineer, Richard P. Robinson. John recalls, ”This guy knew all the technical stuff, he helped me understand electronic circuits and showed me how to repair and modify recording equipment. Many thanks go out to Richard.”

John’s early twenties were spent as a student at the Hartford Conservatory of Music. At the time it was one of the very few schools that offered music and audio engineering as a major. John says, “Jack Stang was my audio engineering instructor at HCMD and he had placed a song on the Billboard top 100. He had my full attention.”

After the Conservatory, John began to work for Jack Stang at The Media Arts Center. John took this opportunity to record music in every style imaginable. For the next six years he pestered Jack for every bit of information about recording, the creative uses of equipment and the music business.

At age twenty nine, John moved to New York City to see if he could “play in the big leagues”. For the next Five years he worked with some great producers like Mark Rual, Tony Blanco and Ken Gold. John states, “Ken Gold taught me what a song really is and how to make the vocalist get the song across”. John also worked with a wide variety of artists, some on the way up and some on their way down. This dichotomy taught him two valuable lessons: Fame is an illusion of marketing and it IS about the music. During his New York years, he had releases in England, France, Italy and charted with a co-production in Guatemala and Mexico. John quips, ”Those were fast and exciting times, but I needed a change.”

At age thirty-four, John received the opportunity to go back to Hartford Connecticut and be the professor and dean of Recording Arts at the Hartford Conservatory. This teaching job became a huge learning experience. Through a unique set of six-hour classes, he and his students explored the recording and producing of all different genres of music. The advanced classes became a petri dish of new styles and sounds all created in a non-pressure environment. At the same time, he was building his first commercial studio in Hartford.

At age forty-four, John left the Hartford Conservatory to spend the next three years building his dream studio. He took all his knowledge and imagination and created the perfect studio. MassiPhonic. John states, “At this time I am sufficiently prepared to help musicians make exceptional art. Bring it on!