Steph first got into music at the age of four, plunking it out on the piano with fervor. She then went on to start writing music in grade school, expanding to keyboards in junior high and then the guitar in high school. "I picked up an old Talking He [+]Steph first got into music at the age of four, plunking it out on the piano with fervor. She then went on to start writing music in grade school, expanding to keyboards in junior high and then the guitar in high school. "I picked up an old Talking Heads album in second grade and threw that puppy on my 'Snoopy and The Red Baron' record player," says Steph. "It changed my life. I instantly started hopping up and down doing 'the pogo' and there was no turning back from there."
After taking some audio-engineering and sound-design classes in college, Steph quickly learned the art of recording, arranging and mixing audio. Steph then went on to expand her learning by spending four years doing interviews and spending time in the studio with some of the top audio producers, composers, mixers, sound designers and audio engineers in the world, including Trent Reznor, Hans Zimmer, Alan Moulder, Butch Vig, Jack Dangers, Chris Vrenna, Keith Hillebrandt, Richard Devine and others, whose tips and insights she then took back to her own studio to better produce her own projects.
Steph wrote, recorded, mixed and mastered her first five-song CD "Steph: the demo series" at home in her old bedroom in Menlo Park, playing all of the instruments, creating all of the sounds and singing on the tracks as well. Released in June 2001, Steph's CD instantly captured the attention of DJs in the SF bay area and across the US. The CD has remained in rotation and Steph has been a featured artist on several college radio stations, including KSJS, KSCU and KZSU. Steph also contributed lyrics and vocals in July 2001 on "Outside of Here," a track on instrumental act Andalusia's "Such A Heavenly Eyesore" CD.
In early 2002, Steph had a new studio built, debuted the "Shacklegrind" moniker, and started writing/recording/engineering new tracks for "Shacklegrind I." In September 2002, Steph played some pre-released tracks while being interviewed on KSCU.
In October 2002, Shacklegrind was asked by her friend, filmmaker/videographer Mark Hamilton (who is also the bass player in the band Ash), to score some music for his/Ash's indie slasher film which will star Ash and feature cameos from Chris and Jonny of Coldplay, Moby, Dave Grohl, Andy Dick and others. In December 2002, Shacklegrind was
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