Mitchell Blake Easter (born November 15, 1954) is an American musician, songwriter and record producer. Frequently associated with the jangle pop style of guitar music, he is known as producer of R.E.M.'s early albums, from 1981 through 1984, and as frontman of the 1980s band Let's Active.

He owns and operates Fidelitorium, a recording studio in Kernersville, North Carolina, which followed on from his Drive-In Studio in Winston-Salem.

Early life

Easter was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the only child of Ken and Elizabeth (Lib), and became deeply involved in music from an early age. His parents loved rock music but, according to Easter, "not all of their friends did." Easter credits their bringing home "Raunchy" by Bill Justis, "which had a guitar solo that completely blew my mind," Easter said in 2019. His friend Doug Muir taught him how to play the riff to "Secret Agent Man," which made Easter think he could actually become a musician. David Downing, a student at Appalachian State University, was his first guitar teacher, while Sam Moss (1953–2007), from Winston-Salem, was his guitar mentor. "He showed me the potential of being a guitar player," said Easter. some of them with his friend since second grade, Chris Stamey (later of the dB's). It was with Sacred Irony that he began to write original songs. His bandmates were Dale Smith, Corky McMillan, Rick Reich, Ted Lyons and Terry Rosinger. In 1980, he started Drive-In Studio, a professional recording studio located in what was originally his parents' garage. The first record he worked on, in July 1980, was the Sir Crackers! EP by the short-lived new wave band, the Crackers. (Jay Peck, the band's drummer, played briefly with Let's Active later in the decade.)

As a record producer, Easter is probably best known for his work with R.E.M. from 1981 through 1984. Since 1981, he has produced, engineered and often made musical contributions to albums from many other recording artists, including Donna the Buffalo, Mary Prankster, Ex Hex, Ben Folds Five, Pylon, Helium, Pavement, Suzanne Vega, Richard Barone, Game Theory, The Loud Family, Marshall Crenshaw, The Connells, Velvet Crush, Ken Stringfellow (of The Posies) and Birds of Avalon.

Asked in 1999 about his favorite projects as a producer, Easter cited R.E.M.'s Chronic Town and Game Theory's records – Real Nighttime (1984), The Big Shot Chronicles (1985), Lolita Nation (1987) and Two Steps from the Middle Ages (1988) – which Easter called "a lot of fun, because of the variety in the way they approached recording". Metal Corner (2004) and The Surface and the Shine (2007).

Easter released his first solo album, Dynamico, on March 13, 2007. The record was the first on his own imprint, Electric Devil Records, and was initially distributed by 125 Records. Performances in 2015 included a September show in Minneapolis and two October dates in San Francisco.

Recognition

In 2019, Easter was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame. Prior to giving his acceptance speech, Easter was congratulated, via a video recording, by R.E.M.'s Bill Berry, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe. Among his mentions of gratitude were the coffee houses of the churches in Winston-Salem. "They were magnificent. It was a place that bands could play, and you felt like you were in the rock music business. The kids came out, and it felt like showbusiness." She died in 2002. Easter's father, Ken, followed five years later, aged 76.

Easter has been married three times, firstly to Angie Carlson, who had joined Let's Active. The divorced around 1995. He married Tammy White in 2018.

References

  • Fidelitorium Recordings