Inside the Studio with Mark Hornsby: An Interview with Carl Baldassarre

I talk to a lot of people. By talk, I mean speaking to large groups of people about  recording technology and/or the music business. In doing so, I’ve been fortunate to meet a lot of really interesting personalities—musicians, songwriters, producers, engineers, students, industry veterans, hobbyists, you name it—really cool people with origin stories that you couldn’t make up if you tried. Over this past Labor Day, I sat down with one of those people, a person who I’ve come to respect and admire not only for his talent and work ethic but for his unique insights and friendship—someone who set out with a task so great that most people would say, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Someone who can leap tall buildings... well, you get the idea. So, without further ado, meet Mr. Carl Baldassarre.

Carl and I met several years ago during a recording master class I was teaching at Sweetwater Studios. At that point in his musical journey, he had completed several re-cording projects with his progressive rock band Syzygy and was exploring his options as to what the future might bring. We hit it off, kept in touch, and a couple of years later, we began what can only be described as one of the most ambitious recording projects I have ever seen anyone take on in one sitting. Over the past three years, Carl has composed and recorded 72 (yes, seventy-two) songs that will be released throughout 2021 on seven separate albums under his own name/brand.