I know Steve Kingsley. He has good judgment and is willing to take risks. How do I know? I am a STATUE. A few summers ago, I was looking for work. I heard that Steve was the entertainment coordinator for a local art & craft festival in South Norwalk, CT. I contacted him and told him he should hire me to entertain. “What do you do?” he asked. “NOTHING,” I said. But I do it very well. He hired me, and since then we have been working together every summer at the SoNo Arts Celebration the first weekend in August in downtown South Norwalk. He’s happy, I’m happy, and so is the general public. Now that is the type of person you should have working for you, someone who is imaginative, has intuition and is willing to take risks.

Randy Orwig (“THE LIVING STATUE”)

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“Hey man. You know Pete Small?”
“Yup. He’s on my hockey team.”, I said.
“That’s cool. You wanna build a ramp?”
That was all I needed to hear to know that I wanted to hang out with this guy. Who was this tall dude who made his way over to my driveway, skateboard in hand, and asked me that? How did he know I knew Pete? Does he know he has the coolest mullet in Norwalk? It didn’t matter. I felt comfortable from the minute he emerged from the shrubs between our houses. “I’ll be right back, dude.”, he said. Ten minutes later, he came back to my garage with a tool kit, a saw, half a pack of Marlboro reds and a stack of random two by fours with plywood. Four hours after that, we had a skateboard ramp at the base of my driveway. I was blown away that this guy, in a few hours, could:
*A) Make a complete stranger feel warm enough to invite him over for the day, after two sentences of an introduction. Not once did I feel the need to ask, “Wait, wait, wait……who the hell are you again?”. His greeting was a blanket, and his people skills made you feel like you knew him all your life.
*B) Have an idea in mind, plan out what needs to be done, set the goal and do anything he had to do to make sure the end product was a complete success.
*C) Made a friend FOR LIFE.

Steve has personal and professional qualities that can’t be taught. There is no school or textbook for what comes naturally to Steve. His knack for fixing or creating is genius. Throughout the 21 years of our friendship, I have been baffled by his abilities. Being a musician myself, I understand only a fraction of what Steve knows about sound and engineering. He has taught me so much about what it is you need to capture a musical performance. From how to position the microphones to what order the songs should appear on the final CD. Any question I have regarding sound, taping, mixing, bootlegs or live music venues, I turn to him. His bedroom growing up was pretty much a recording studio. All of the equipment was purchased by him, and he knew the function and importance of each knob, button and lever. I would sit there in awe watching him. Looking back in my mind around his room now, I see a stereo system that definitely helped Crazy Eddie and Consumers go out of business. This thing must have weighed more than a Buick. Mixing boards, video cameras, computers, actual Asteroids and Space Invaders stand-up arcade games and cassette tapes everywhere. Everything organized and in its own spot. On the walls were posters of every band imaginable, not to mention one of just the enormous crowd at the original Woodstock. So, the whole time you were in the room I felt like I was at a live gig. Somewhere in there was a bed, but most of that was covered with LP’s (vinyl, of course) and headphones. This guy lived for anything to do with the sound of music.

I was in a band throughout most of the 90′s, and out of the 400+ shows we did in that time, I’d have to say Steve taped at least 250 of them. It was and is his passion. We, as a band, were blown away by his loyalty and devotion to capturing our performances. Steve would arrive at sound check sometimes before us to make sure he had his own appropriate mix for the room. He arrived on his own, not even needing a phone call to check on what time load in was; he just knew. After his mics and board were set up, he’d then help the sound man out with monitors and the mix in the house. He knew our sound so well he wouldn’t stop until it was perfect and that we were happy with our mix on stage. The proof was in listening back to the show the next morning. That again is hard to teach; reliability, desire, setting goals and achieving perfection. All together being the easiest and funniest engineer you’d ever want on your team. His love/obsession for music and sound is extremely rare. The amount of trust I have in this man is hard to express with words.

Take it from the kid next door who watched and learned so much from a pro beginning his career right in front of him. Trust me, there is nobody on this planet Earth like Steve Kingsley.

P.J. Pacifico
Recording artist and label manager – Viper Records

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About 6 years ago Steve Kingsley recorded my first demo in his 2 bedroom apartment in Norwalk, CT. Steve was new to recording albums but was an expert live concert “taper”. He set me up on his futon and had his very expensive microphones positioned in front of me and in the room to capture “the feel” of the performance. It was spontaneous and fresh. Neither of us really knew what we we’re doing but at the same time neither of us thought we couldn’t record something great either. Steve had cables and wires tracked through the house to his “engineering room” (the living room) where he sat comfortably in front of his laptop, chain smoking Winstons and sipping on whatever coffee concoction he brewed up that morning, all the while building the prototype for what would eventually become MEDiAGATO. Steve was amazing to work with, it was fun, really fun. Actually when I listen to those recordings today, after every track you can hear myself, Steve and whatever neighborhood friend stopped by to bum a smoke, play some “Bond” on PS2 or just kill time, cracking up. About 2 years later, in the living room of the house right next door, Steve would go on to record, what I consider, and many of my fans (about 3 of our friends) would too, the best Suhoza recording to date. Way better than the ones I did in a professional studio. Steve really made those albums, I consider them his more than mine. I was just the subject be he really was the artist. He tweeked and twisted sounds and echoes and verbs, and really captured a vibe, and anyone who loves recorded music will tell you, that’s the ultimate goal every time. Steve’s ability to multi task is amazing. I don’t know anyone else who could record an album, make toast, drink coffee, work on a website, download music and videos, water his orchids, play video games, and organize his DAT collection all at the same time… and still remember to ask on his way out of the room before I began to play,”Y’all dialed in… need an ashtray?” ( I don’t smoke… never have)

Rob Suhoza, Musician

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I have known and worked with Steve on many types of projects,(work/non work).  He has always been accountable as well as reliable.  It has been a pleasure having him as a “make it happen’ guy, as well as the trustworthiness in work and out.  Steve has always been original and creative at everything he has and has ever done.  He’s a shining team player for which everyone can benefit from.

Adam T. Reynolds – Master Carpenter