Riley Richardson
GC Pro Logistics Coordinator

It all started for me at the age of 13. I had been an athlete my whole life, but in that fateful year I learned that I had fractured two vertebrae in my lower back and if I were to continue playing high-contact sports it was likely that I would be confined to a wheel chair by the age of 20. Upon receiving this unfortunate news, I decided it was time to explore a new recreational direction.

Ever since I was a young child I had a great affinity for music, focused mainly on classic rock, but it spanned everything from hip-hop, to rhythm and blues, to classical, and even some pop. Due to said affinity, when I could no longer play sports, I instinctively turned to music for solace. I was able to convince my parents to buy me an electric guitar for my thirteenth birthday--as well as pay for a year of lessons: thus knocking over the first metaphorical domino in my music career.

Since then, I have been in numerous bands and worked on multiple musical projects with friends and coworkers. With each new experience I grew artistically and advanced my playing skills exponentially. It wasn't until my sophomore  year of high school that I was introduced to the world of recording and production. A buddy of mine had an old four-track recorder, a computer, and Ableton Live; he showed me some beats he had been working on by sampling his drum kit through the four-track and arranging the songs within Ableton. This seemingly simple process opened my eyes to a whole new world of art and creativity. Needless to say I was hooked. I have been working since that day to learn as much as humanly possible about the processes, techniques, and equipment surrounding electronic composition, recording, mixing, and mastering.

It has been a little over a year since I started working at Guitar Center and my studio has been constantly growing for the duration of my employment. Outside of work I am an independent electronic musician/audio engineer, which is my main exterior focus at the moment. On top of my solo work, I make up half of a rock and blues duo righteously named The Lion & The Leopard. We released our first album at the beginning of 2011, on which I did all of the recording, mixing, and mastering.

I moved to Los Angeles in July of the same year in anticipation of attending The LA Film School to further expand my knowledge and recording and production skills. Down the road I plan on working in post-production or sound design for movies, but as of right now I am  just another guy trying to make something of himself and I love helping others do the same which is why I work at Guitar Center.