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- Most treasured instrument: His grandparents’ out-of-tune piano.
- Admired producers: John McIntire, Jim O’Rourke, Tucker Martine
- Required listening: Blind Pilot’s 3 Rounds and a Sound, Horse Feathers’ House With No Home, Alan Singley’s Lovingkindness.
Hearing the cozy and lovingly detailed records Skyler Norwood produces from his Miracle Lake Studios, one expects the Camas, Wash., headquarters to be a wood cabin, a rustic A-frame, or maybe a teepee. But no, it's a really, really nice three-story home (with a three-car garage) overlooking Lacamas Lake.
Norwood, a skinny 29-year-old with swoop-cut hair and a well-trimmed beard, didn't grow up here. His parents split at an early age and Norwood lived ("pretty poor") with his mom and sister in Florida. As an adult he reconnected with his father and moved out to Oregon. Even then, he was aimless.
"I was 21, had no clue what I was doing in life and was pretty bummed out most of the time," Norwood says. "I was working at Subway on Hawthorne." Norwood's love of music—a trait he shares with his father, Jack, who had a collection of recording equipment in his basement—was the only thing he had going. So when Kevin O'Connor of Talkdemonic suggested recording an album at Norwood's dad's house, Skyler jumped on the opportunity.
With help from O'Connor and other friends, the Norwoods turned a tangled collection of recording equipment into a legit, three-room studio. The album Skyler and O'Connor built together there, Mutiny Sunshine, would help Talkdemonic become the talk of the town (the band won WW's second annual Best New Band poll in 2005). It would also help Norwood, relying on word-of-mouth to gain new clients—he still doesn't have a website—to become a real producer. "People would be like, 'Oh, you recorded that Talkdemonic album, didn't you?' And I'd say, 'Yeah, mayonnaise and mustard?'"
Eventually Norwood quit Subway over a toasting-related miscommunication. These days, producing; playing with his band, Point Juncture, WA; and working the door at the Aladdin Theater comprise more than a full-time gig. "People ask me if I get tired of music," Norwood says from the back porch of Miracle Lake as the members of Ah Holly Fam'ly run through parts inside. "The first thing I do when I get home is put on a record. The first thing I do when I wake up is put on a record. The first thing I do when I get in the car is put on a record. If there's silence, I've got some song ringing in my head anyway, so I might as well listen to it."
That fan's ear is the spark that Norwood brings to the role of producer. He listens for the elements of a song that give him goosebumps, then he accentuates them. And without exception, Norwood-produced albums have "oh, shit" moments, where the music doubles, then triples over itself, a punchy guitar line or blast of brass ringing out above the arrangement. "I love doubling and tripling everything," Norwood says. "I kind of have a problem with that."
Despite his success in working with some of Portland's most notable artists, Norwood is humble about his contribution. "Any success that's ever come to me at all, I feel like a fraud," he says. "It's the bands that are good!"
WWeek 2015