Stephen Short

Stephen Short
Background information
Origin	United Kingdom
Occupation(s)	Record producer
Years active	1977–2015

Short manages the popular indie act This World Fair

Stephen Short is a Grammy Award–winning record producer and operated Ping Pong Music, an artist management company. Many songs he had worked on went on to become chart-topping singles that had won Grammy Awards, Academy Awards, and Golden Globe Awards.^[1]

1977–1991: Early years

Stephen Short started his career in the music industry in 1977 at Trident Studios in London, UK. Working with musicians such as Kirk Allen and his band Elixir, Echo & the Bunnymen, Genesis, Paul McCartney, Peter Gabriel, Queen and Wings, Short went from being a teaboy to becoming senior engineer within two years. One of his earliest production credits is the 1978 Donna Summer song Last Dance,^[2] which he had mixed and had contributed his own back-up vocals. The song went on to win an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song. In 1980, at the age of 24, Short created an investment group with three other investors and purchased Trident Studios. Employing a staff of thirty people, Short and his team became some of the most sought-after producers and engineers in the music industry.^[3]

1992–2000: Shift to US production

In early 1992, Short was invited to the United States to discuss the possibility of opening a US branch of Trident Studios. Following several meetings, Short decided to rather focus on production and to move on from the studio ownership business. After spending a brief amount of time in Los Angeles, CA, Short traveled across the United States answering requests to become involved in many different musical projects. During this phase of his career, Short worked with popular musicians such as Remy Zero^[4] as well as Phil Collins.^[5] Short has been awarded a Grammy for his work with the Christian band dc Talk and another Grammy for his work with Chaka Kahn. Over the years, Stephen continued producing for major labels such as Epic Records, Capitol Records, and many others. In 1997, the band Ben Folds Five released the song "Steven's Last Night in Town", which is based on Stephen Short's friendship with Ben Folds.

2001–2015: Artist Management

Identifying a need to develop and nurture young artists, Short formed a production & management company. In 2001, Short signed a band he discovered and managed called Limousine to Jimmy Iovine of Interscope Records. Eighteen months later, Short discovered a group called Augustana,^[6] and signed them a 2 million dollar deal with Sony and EMI publishing. In the mid to late 2000s, Short had developed more emerging artists including This World Fair and Camera Can't Lie. In the summer of 2015, Short announced he had been battling colon cancer for two years. He died on July 9, 2015.^[7]

References

External links

• Ping Pong Music
• Ping Pong's official MySpace profile
• Rethink Records
• This World Fair's official site
• Augustana's official site