Sean Beavan is a musician, record producer, writer, composer and audio engineer best known for his work with Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, God Lives Underwater, and Slayer. His production style is typically heavy, with heavily saturated guitars, but his work is diverse and wide-ranging as exemplified by bands like No Doubt, System of a Down and indie bands like Thrice and 8mm.
Beavan started his career as a musician and engineer in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. He played bass and sang in various local bands, and played fret-less bass with Clevelander Eric Carmen (of The Raspberries) on the song “Hungry Eyes” on the Dirty Dancing Soundtrack. While working as an engineer at The Right Track Studio in downtown Cleveland, Beavan met Trent Reznor who worked as the in-house programmer. Reznor also played keyboards in several local bands that Beavan mixed.
Reznor asked Beavan to mix the demos of what would eventually become Pretty Hate Machine, which had received multiple offers for record deals. Beavan mixed sound during Nine Inch Nails’ live concerts for many years, eventually becoming an unofficial member of the live band, even singing live backup vocals from his place at the mixing console. Reznor invited him to work on The Downward Spiral as well as mix several songs on Marilyn Manson’s debut record Portrait of an American Family. After contributing to several Nine Inch Nails remix releases (including Closer to God), Beavan mixed and co-produced Marilyn Manson’s Antichrist Superstar.
In 1996, after 8 years, Beavan left the Nine Inch Nails camp to mix front-of-house for the “Antichrist Superstar” world tour. In late 1997 Beavan and Manson moved into the Hollywood Hills and started production on Mechanical Animals.
Beavan went on to produce and mix records for artists as diverse as Guns N’ Roses, God Lives Underwater, System of a Down, Depeche Mode, No Doubt, Slayer, Kill Hannah, HYDE, P.O.D., Paloalto, Thrice, Unwritten Law, MOTH, Kidneythieves, Tommy Stinson, Tiger Lou, Hypernova, and Chronic Future. He also returned to work with Manson, mixing Eat Me, Drink Me.
Beavan is currently involved in his own band with his wife Juliette Beavan, and Drummer Jon Nicholson, called 8mm. 8mm have released 4 discs, “Opener”, “Songs To Love And Die By”, “On A Silent Night” (Christmas EP) and the current “Love And The Apocalypse”, all of which have attracted critical acclaim worldwide. 8mm are one of the most licensed artists in the industry. In addition to recently being featured on national promos for “Nip/Tuck” and Yamaha, their music has been popular with TV and film, including “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Nikita”, “Kings”, “One Tree Hill”, “Shark”, “Cold Case”, “Moonlight”, and the “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” soundtrack, to name a few. Having supported Sean Lennon on the west coast leg of his North American tour the dynamic Trip hop band are currently regulars in the Los Angeles music scene and have toured the US, Great Britain and South America.
After producing and mixing Denver Colorado favorites Meese for Atlantic Records, Beavan worked in the studio with Marilyn Manson on “The High End Of Low” with Chris Vrenna and Twiggy Ramirez at Sage and Sound in Hollywood, followed by mixing the album at his home studio, The Blue Room. Last March found Sean Beavan mixing fellow Clevelanders THIS IS A SHAKEDOWN!’s debut record on the newly formed Reversed Image Unlimited record label. Produced by multi-platinum producer Michael Seifert and recorded at Michael’s Ante Up Audio in the heart of downtown Cleveland, Sean mixed the record in their new SSL suite. Beavan followed up by mixing four songs for Japanese-American Sony Records artist Kylee produced by Jeff Turzo of God Lives Underwater fame. Later in the year, he produced and mixed Long Island indy faves Envy on the Coast. Maintaining his reputation for brilliance in diversity, he recently mixed albums for the seminal jazz-metal band The Shining, metal legends Forbidden and sonic master-minds The Kidney Thieves.