Photography by Andrea Ceraso
Joe LaPorta is a mastering engineer – which means that he’s the guy who puts the final touches on an audio recording. And, though the mastering engineer is – particularly since the disappearance of credits being printed on an album cover – invisible to the listener, the subtle changes the mastering engineer makes can make all the difference in how a recording is received by listeners. …Joe is heard but not seen!
Joe has mastered tunes for Shawn Mendes, Future, Foo Fighters, J. Cole, and Jelly Roll, to name just a few big stars, but he’s also a giant in the Contemporary Christian space. And he’s the ‘go to’ for quite a few top artists, including Keith Urban, who, as Joe says, “...is way involved! The artist is always in control…it’s their vision. But sometimes the artist wants to attend the session in person, and other times I work with their team remotely and don’t actually get to meet the artist. The downsides of my business are that I always have to be available, artists and mixers often set tight deadlines that I have to meet, there isn’t much flexibility with working remotely as I need to be in my studio to get the best results, and…that I don’t share in the residuals!”
Mastering engineers are only eligible to win Grammys in 5 of the 65 award categories…and Joe has won the Grammy for Record of the Year for Miley Cyrus’ Flowers and the Grammy for Best Engineered for David Bowie’s final album Blackstar, been nominated 8 other times, and is now again nominated – at the 2025 Grammy Awards taking place in Los Angeles in January 2025 – for Best Engineered on Willow Smith’s album Empathogen!
Joe lives in Armonk with his wife Tara and their two sons, Jayden who’s 12 and Justin who’s 9. But Joe grew up in North Salem, and traces his start in the music industry – and meeting Tara – to his days at North Salem High School. “I used to make rap beats on a four-track cassette recorder and put together recordings with other local rappers,” Joe recalls. “At some point during my senior year in high school, my friend and I started a label and secured what’s called a production and distribution deal with a subsidiary of EMI Records. They would only make 5,000 or so copies of each release, but it was really cool to go to the mall and see our albums on display!”
“I listen to music all the time,” Joe comments. “I often listen to my current projects while I’m commuting, and I’m mostly thinking about how I could improve on what it is that I’m hearing. I’ve got the Sonos system in my house blaring until it’s time for the kids to go to sleep. …And whether it’s a concert, wedding, or even snow blowing my driveway – to protect my ears – I’ve got earplugs in!”
I’m just in love with music.Joe LaPorta
“I like rap and rock and EDM and jazz. And I’m totally intrigued by the way music is made,” Joe declares. “I went to NYU for a Bachelors in Music Technology, and had an internship at a mastering studio called The Lodge. I was given a ton of responsibilities very early on and once I realized I could do it, I was on my way. My internship turned into a job for the first eight years of my professional career. Then, in 2013, I joined Sterling Sound, which is the preeminent mastering studio in the world. We have studios in Nashville and where I go to work in Edgewater, New Jersey. I work in a specially-built listening room – that, among other things, is built on springs to avoid any interference or distortion caused by the music output or any vibration or sound happening outside the room. The sound I’m listening to has to be a perfect production of what’s recorded. …And when I’m listening, I can tell if there was a dip in a particular frequency range, or if there’s an issue in the room where the sound was recorded.”
“My job,” Joe explains, “...is to take the work of the recording artist and the mixer who’s already assembled the multi-tracks of the recording…and make it better! There’s no room for error! I can make a recording feel more balanced, more dynamic, more striking, and more pleasing. And while people say I ‘have the ear’, it’s also my musical intuition that I’m bringing to the table. …When I’m mastering, I see the music like an array of colors, and what I’m doing is filling-in colors or shades that are missing from the picture. Accentuating something, or turning down the bass or some other facet of the way a song is recorded. Most often, my personal comments are drum related, as the drums are almost always the backbone of the creation. …All of these subtleties can help take an artist’s work to the next level.”
Still a bit starstruck about getting to work with entertainment giants, Joe tells about having been a guest at a dinner thrown by the Foo Fighters…with Johnny Depp, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Paul McCartney, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Tony Hawk all in attendance! As to who Joe would have over for a fantasy dinner party of his own, Joe remarks, “My list would consist of some of my biggest influences in different genres of music… James Brown, Led Zeppelin, Miles Davis, King Tubby & J Dilla!”
As featured in the January/February 2025 issue of Bedford & New Canaan Magazine