Fifty-five-year-old music producer Paul Mahern’s home studio is simple, yet elegant.
It exudes an oddly soothing, melodic feel — a staunch contrast from his longtime punk rock band the Zero Boys.
Two analog tape machines reside on either side of the main switchboard. The unit nestled right of the desk, a 1967 Ampex 440 half-inch 4-track, was completely rebuilt by Mahern.
In the center of the room, a massive Apple iMac computer flashes interchanging album covers. Acts such as Sonic Youth, Husker Dü, the Descendants and Elvis Costello engulf the screen in a patchwork sequence.
This is Mahern’s musical dojo.
“All of this is precisely placed based on readings in the room,” he said regarding the acoustic equipment that coats the walls.
With credits ranging from Neil Young to Iggy Pop, Mahern’s sound engineering has marked the albums of rock 'n’ roll’s brightest stars.
Today, he still accrues 40 hours per week in the studio. Yet his longstanding musical tradition has also shifted to the classroom.
Though Mahern's taught MSCH-P 353: Audio Production in the Media School for over nine years, it wasn’t until Jacobs School of Music professors Glen Gass and Andy Hollinden approached him last Christmas that he considered developing a history of punk rock course.
“Oh, he loved the idea,” Hollinden said. “I don’t know if he’d ever fantasized about it or if he’d even thought about it, but when I first thought about it I thought ‘Oh my god, why hasn’t this been obvious to me?’”
The longtime record producer had booked his next gig, albeit one he’d have to adjust to.
“I’ve been a punk rocker since I was a teenager,” Mahern said. “But that’s very different than being a historian.”
One of seven children, he was born into an Irish-Catholic family in Indianapolis in 1963. At the age of 8, Mahern and his family moved to Chicago. It was there that he experienced his first concert — The Jacksons.
“It was a small place,” he said of the Evanston, Illinois theater. “I can’t imagine it held more than 2,000 people.”
And while his musical beginnings were in the poppy hits of The Jacksons and The Beatles, Mahern found himself drawn to the growing punk rock scene in high school.
“I had a spiked haircut and a leather jacket and all the other kids called me ‘Fonzie,’” he said of his appearance.
In the spring of 1979 Mahern, guitarist Terry Hollywood, bassist John Mitchell and drummer Mark Cutsinger formed the Zero Boys.
A proponent of the Sex Pistols and the Ramones, Mahern found influence in their work. Searing guitar rifts, high-energy vocals and steadily wild drumbeats highlighted the Zero Boys’ sound.
Though the band has persisted – including the release of a new single, “Don’t shoot can’t breathe,” in May 2018 – Mahern found himself drawn to the opposite side of the glass early in his career.
“I think because I was such a fan of records and recorded music I think that was always what really I wanted to do – was to make records,” he said. “I felt like records were a cool way to broadcast into the future.”
Roughly six months after the Zero Boys’ first record released, Mahern approached Keystone Recording audio engineer John Helms about interning. Helms turned him away with one caveat – if he brought a band to record, he’d show him the ropes.
With a small loan from his father and eldest brother, Mahern paid for bands from Milwaukee, Chicago and Dayton, Ohio to create a Midwest compilation album in Helms’ studio.
“By the end of it I was hands-on, I’d learned how to [equalize] stuff, got a production credit and I was the producer on the record,” he said. “So I was never an intern. I was never a second engineer. I was a record producer.”
On the production side, Mahern is best known for his collaborations with pop-rock icon and fellow Hoosier John Mellencamp.
In the mid-1990s, Mahern had begun working at Echo Park Studios in Bloomington. With an eye on cutting his commute from Indianapolis, he moved to town.
Then, in 1996, Mike Wanchic, Mellencamp’s guitarist and a co-owner of Echo Park, approached Mahern regarding a project The Cougar needed a quick turnaround on.
“We got along pretty well, and he liked what I did well enough to bring me back again and again and again,” Mahern said.
Together, he and Mellencamp have worked on 16 projects together since 1997.
“I’ve spent weeks, months in the studio with John,” Mahern said. “And every artist is completely unique. He is certainly as unique as the rest. He is very different in some ways. He’s the most tenacious person I think I’ve ever worked with.”
At present, Mahern’s spiked, gray hair from the 1980s has shifted to a long ponytail. With a set of glasses resting on his nose and a soft-spoken voice, he presents a more stoic representation of the once rowdy rock star.
In a career that’s spanned parts of five decades, Mahern remains equally in love with music production.
Simply put, it’s a ride he couldn’t have engineered any better.
“I’ve had a great career,” Mahern said. “I love my job. I still love it.”
