Gordon Raphael is a record producer and musician from Seattle, Washington and New York, currently working in San Antonio, Texas.
Gordon Raphael is most widely known for his work with The Strokes, whom he met while attending one of their very first shows at Luna Lounge on the Lower East Side, New York City. He produced their debut EP The Modern Age as well as their first two albums Is This It (which was voted best album of the decade by NME in the UK, and number 2 best of the decade in USA by Rolling Stone) and Room On Fire. The EP and first album were recorded entirely in his own studio Transporterraum NYC. He has also produced many songs with Sarah Maguire, Fake Chemical State for ex-Skunk Anansie lead singer Skin, Mexico's very famous rock band Fobia, the well loved highly imaginitive album "Soviet Kitsch" by Regina Spektor, Stockholm-based Doctors & Dealers, form Bognor RegisKill Kenada, Britain's The Moonies, the highly skilled London based band Three Trapped Tigers Operatic art rockers Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man Swiss literary-rock band The Mondrians, Finland's Caroline Taucher, and UK artists Charly Flynn and The Sound Explosion .
As a musician, Gordon formed two original bands in Seattle, Mental Mannequin and Colour Twigs which featured his own songs. In the 1990s during the famous Grunge Revolution he was keyboardist for the psychedelic band Sky Cries Mary- and starred in an epic dark-wave band called Absinthee with Anna Mercedes. His favorite instrument is the Arp Odyssey, which he started learning at age 18. This small 1970's analog synthesizer creates an infinite pallet of evocative, intense outer space noises as well as a barrage of bass which he uses on many of his own and other artist's recordings.
Gordon moved to London in 2002 following the success of Is This It, and founded a studio there called The Silver Transporterraum of London. (This place is now called Urchin Studios, in Limehouse, London). In his first year living there he worked with 30 bands, and was asked to produce the debut album of The Libertines whilst doing the live sound on their first-ever UK Tour (with the Vines and The Strokes). Living in London was a dream come true for Gordon, as his primary rock influences were mainly British, and he saw it as a great chance to learn more about the people, history and culture there. He participated in Skint and Minted, a talent night at Filthy McNasty's pub, which at the time (2002) was a heady meeting place for young creative London minds. As well, Gordon made a strong bond with Toby L, the founder of Rockfeedback.com (and Transgressive Records) and they created a clubnight called The Basement Club which presented very early concerts by Regina Spektor, Bloc Party, The Libertines, and Gordon's own band Black Light among many others. In 2005, after working for almost a year on The Strokes album First Impressions of Earth, Gordon moved to Berlin to be close to his friend, the wonderful producer Moses Schneider. From his Berlin base, many European bands began to contact him through the internet to work: Zeno and the Stoics (Madrid), Mikkel Glasser (Copenhagen), Husky Stash (Berlin), Sue and the Unicorn (Berlin), Satellites (Mallorca), Big Deal (London), A Brand (Brussels), Deportivo (Paris), Scanners (London), Olivia Anna Livki (Warsaw), Super 700 (Berlin), Ian Astbury (London), Eva Loft (Berlin), The Michelles (Berlin),
In January 2010, Raphael went to Cape Town, South Africa, to produce the debut album Shark by indie rock band The Plastics. They had a number one song called Jukebox from that record which features Gordon on Piano, and a lush string section.
In April of that year Gordon Raphael recorded 11 songs in 7 days with the Argentinian indie band Calendar, at La Casa De la Música studios in Villa Mercedes, San Luis.
recently produced the new album by San Antonio band "Education" and was quoted saying:
"“I worked with Education for the last four days and we almost finished a 10-song album, and it’s really good. And I think when people hear this record a lot of them are going to want to come and record with me here, and Education will get a lot of respect and power to get their music out into the world. They’re a really good band and the songs are amazing.” (Gordon Raphael-famed Producer of The Strokes) " Enrique Lopetegui - San Antonio Current