Studio D at the Music Annex, Menlo Park
About Me
I’m Neil Panton, and I’ve spent my life appreciating, learning, and exploring the musical world. Since my early teens, I’ve been captivated by how music is constructed, how rhythms, sounds, and textures create emotions and tell stories. From my early teens I’ve been driven to play, write, and record music.
Studio Smooth is my creative sanctuary. The journey began at age five with piano lessons and then oboe at age nine. I joined my first orchestra at age 12 playing alongside my dad in the Los Gatos-Saratoga Symphony. As a young teen I started playing piano in blues and rock bands but also joined the California Youth Symphony and Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra as an oboist. I toured internationally to Youth Festivals and more than twenty countries and played with the Rome Festival Orchestrate age 16 . At home, I was experimenting with sound-on-sound recording using my dad’s Sony reel-to-reel recorder.
More History...
During my last year in high school, even as I was prepping to audition for Oberlin Conservatory and Curtis Institute, I began an apprenticeship in band instrument repair in Santa Cruz. That soon led to a second apprenticeship in piano tuning and ended any thoughts of going off to music school. I worked simultaneously at Laurel Street Music and began my piano tuning career doing some private work but also contracted with UC Santa Cruz taking care of thirty or more pianos in their music department.
In 1978 I moved to Monterey where I continued my piano work and also met Gil Rubio. Gil and I put together our first recording and practice studio. We bought our first microphones (Sennheiser 421’s) and a Tascam 4-track recorder. We hung used carpet and egg cartons all around Gil’s girlfriend’s garage in Seaside for sound insulation and recorded our songs late into the night. Our band, Sativa, gigged all around the Monterey Bay area. Before leaving the Monterey area I lived in Big Sur for a while where I had been tuning the pianos for the music at River Inn. Back to my family home in Menlo Park in the early 80’s, I built a backyard studio in Redwood City where many of my earliest songs were written and recorded. Since those analog and early synth days I’ve embraced every change and advancement in music and recording technology, from the days of reel-to-reel and multi-track recording, the revolution of MIDI and home computing, to the digital audio realm and today’s sophisticated Digital Audio Workstations.
After joining West Coast Songwriter’s (formerly Northern California Songwriter’s Association), I learned much about the “business” of music and realized that my writing suited the “Background Music for Film & TV” category. I began working with many video productions companies including Carranza Productions (Silicon Run series) and KMVT, community television for Mountain View. To date I’ve provided music for more than 60 video productions and played with more than 40 bands.
Now in retirement I have time to review the music I’ve written and recorded over the years, and decided to create a website to share this work with my friends and neighbors. Since beginning vocal lessons recently and returning to songwriting classes, I’m inspired to put lyrics to some of the pieces that have just been instrumental pieces.
Panton Music Library
The Panton Music Library was initially created for use by Mountain View Community Access Television (KMVT). It’s a collection of original themes and underscores designed for use in television and film productions.
The library was a chance for me to consolidate years worth of music written by me. It was enhanced by many friends providing their musical talents on guitar, bass and drums,. The library was lovingly mixed by Tom Carr, engineer extraordinaire. A number of tunes were created by “Think Tank”, a group of friends that met weekly for about a year to provide more substance to the library. Some of these tracks, usually completed in an evening remain my favorites. This band went on to become the “Nightime Jelly Jammers”, or NTJJR, who never gigged but delved deep into acid jazz compositions.
Live Performance
My performance career began at age 12 as an oboist with the Los Gatos/Saratoga Symphony. I played second oboe alongside my dad and soon and at 14 joined the California Youth Symphony where I was assistant 1st oboist. My first international tour was with that orchestra to Switzerland and the Czech Republic. At age 16 I was invited to perform with the Rome Festival Orchestra for six weeks. I was a member of the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra’s wind section and toured internationally with them for many years. At the same time I was playing piano with blues and rock and roll bands in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1995 I switched from oboe to saxophone and began voice lessons several years later. I continue to perform regularly in the La Honda and San Gregorio area. My days of late night bar gigs is over!
Production Work & Collaborations
My compositions have been used in more than 50 commercial video productions, where I’ve provided background music, scores and sound effects.
I have had the privilege of working with esteemed composers and artists like Tom Coster and Andrew Latimer. My-decade-long association with Camel Productions involved setting up recording studios, office systems, production work, performance on several albums, and tour preparations, including transcribing parts, programming synths, and samplers.