WMG Names Rob Cavallo Chief Creative Officer

Cavallo won the “Producer of the Year” Grammy in 1998 and was nominated in 1999 and 2004. Cavallo has also won Grammys as producer for  with Green Day including “Best Rock Album” in 2004 and in 2005, “Record of the Year” for Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Overall he's won six Grammys, an Oscar and a Golden Globe, and produced or or been involved in albums that sold more than 125 million units.

Most recently, Cavallo produced Paramore’s new album which just debuted at No. 2 this week in the U.S. following last week’s No.1 debut in the U.K. Cavallo also produced Kid Rock’s multi-Platinum "Rock N Roll Jesus" and Shinedown’s Gold album "The Sound of Madness", and “Decode,” Upcoming albums include Uncle Kracker and Meat Loaf.

From the press release:

In making the announcement, Lyor Cohen, WMG’s Vice Chairman and Chairman and CEO, Recorded Music, Americas and the U.K. said: “Rob is one of the most successful producers of our time and is not only a natural fit for our company but will also serve as a terrific resource for our artists and labels and, on a selective basis, for outside projects with other artists and labels.  Having worked with Rob on numerous albums in a variety of genres, I have seen first-hand the creative brilliance he brings to the studio and the passion he brings to every project. I am excited we’ll have the ability to benefit from his exceptional talents and look forward to a long-term collaboration that will benefit many WMG recording artists.”

“WMG has been my musical home since I started as an intern in 1987, and I am so proud to be working there again,” said Cavallo. “The company’s artist- and art-first approach to the business is unmatched and their artist roster is a deep and exciting pool of talent that I am excited to add to, work with and help develop more fully. Throughout the years I’ve done some of my finest work with WMG and I have been consistently impressed with the company's ability and willingness to drive success by supporting the creative process and giving artists and producers the freedom they need to achieve greatness. In the end, it’s the people that make the difference, and I am so proud to be in the WMG family.”

“Having enjoyed a long and successful relationship with Rob at Warner Bros., I am thrilled about having him rejoin the company in this broader role,” said Tom Whalley, Chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Records.  “Rob’s been a vital creative partner for so many of our artists and working alongside the team at Warner Bros. he’s delivered many blockbuster albums and soundtracks. I am looking forward to a strong lineup of future projects together.” 

"Few producers have worked with such a broad range of artists and continued to achieve creative excellence time after time the way that Rob has," said Christian Tattersfield, CEO Warner Music UK and Chairman, Warner Bros. Records UK. "His feel for each artist’s creative vision has resulted in some incredible, genre-defining music, so I’m pleased to be able to offer our UK acts the opportunity to draw upon Rob’s creativity and experience. I look forward to working closely with Rob."

Said Craig Kallman, Chairman and CEO of The Atlantic Records Group, “Rob’s great gift as a producer is his innate ability to create a nurturing environment that allows artists to do their best work. Rather than imposing his own sound on a project, he is brilliant at identifying and bringing out the unique qualities that set an artist apart from the pack, regardless of genre. Over the last few years, Rob has used his talent and insight to make great records with a diverse group of our artists, including Kid Rock, Phil Collins, Shinedown, Paramore and Uncle Kracker. I’m thrilled to join Lyor, Tom and Christian in welcoming Rob to his new and expanded role at WMG.”   

About Rob Cavallo:

In the mid 1980s, Cavallo worked as a local musician and engineer in Los Angeles. He landed his first job under famed producer, engineer and inventor, George Massenburg, at The Complex.  Cavallo first joined Warner Bros. Records in 1987 as an A&R representative where he was originally assigned to work with Black Sabbath. In 1989, he signed the multi-Platinum band Goo Goo Dolls to Warner Bros./Reprise Records and, in 1993, signed Green Day to the label. He produced Green Day’s major label debut, Dookie, his second-ever full album production, which sold 15 million units worldwide. Since then, he’s produced or executive produced six of the band’s albums which have now sold more than 45 million worldwide units combined. In 1994, he was promoted to Senior Vice President of A&R for Warner Bros./Reprise, where he oversaw the label’s A&R department and served as an in-house producer.

In 1997, Cavallo was an instrumental force in reuniting the members of Fleetwood Mac at Warner Bros. and produced the band’s reunion album, DVD video and TV special, The Dance, which combined have sold more than six million units. In 1998, Cavallo joined Hollywood Records as senior vice-president of A&R, where he signed, developed and produced a number of artists including a Gold-certified album from BBMak. That same year Cavallo produced two No. 1 singles for Warner Bros. on the City of Angels soundtrack, Alanis Morissette’s, “Uninvited,” which went on to win two Grammy Awards, and Goo Goo Dolls’, “Iris,” which was nominated for three Grammys. The soundtrack has sold more than eight million album units worldwide, the second-best-selling soundtrack in WMG history.

In 1999, Cavallo worked with Phil Collins on the Disney feature animated movie, Tarzan. The lead single, “You’ll Be in My Heart,” won an Oscar, a Grammy and a Golden Globe award for best original song from a motion picture. The song stayed at No. 1 for 19 weeks on the Billboard Hot AC chart. This was Collins’ longest running hit at that format.

In 2002, Cavallo returned to Warner Bros. Records where he produced American Idiot, as well as Green Day’s DVD/CD set, Bullet in a Bible, which features a live performance of the band. These two bodies of work have now sold in excess of 15 million units worldwide.  He has since worked extensively as an independent record producer and, in 2006, served as President of Level 7 Artists, an entertainment-technology firm he co-founded with Dr. Henry Nicholas of Broadcom.

In addition, Cavallo has worked on recordings for David Cook, Chris Isaak, Jewel, Less Than Jake, Sixpence None the Richer, as well as on numerous movie soundtracks including Clueless, Private Parts, Mission Impossible 2, Runaway Bride, The Other Sister, Twilight, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Godzilla, Wayne’s World, Varsity Blues and The Crow, and produced all the songs and wrote the score for the film adaptation of the Broadway musical RENT.

Cavallo recently completed work on Dave Matthews Band’s Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King (which he recently brought to WMG for distribution outside of North America). Rob has also just signed the band Switchfoot to an expanded rights deal with Atlantic Records and is providing additional production on several songs for the album’s producer, Mike Elizondo.

Cavallo graduated from the University of Southern California where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Composition, Communications and Sociology.  After graduating, he earned a certificate from the Dick Grove School of Music in Los Angeles where his studies focused on recording engineering, orchestral arranging and guitar.