As the daughter of a jazz pianist father and choral conductor/music educator mother, Moira grew up involved in music from day one. She played piano at 3, flute at 7, guitar at 13 and tympani at 14 as well as singing in SATB chorales and the rock band Piper’s Riot based in the NYC area.
She attended New York University with a major in Music Business and Technology. While at school, she began an internship at what was to be one of the world’s most prestigious studio facilities: Right Track Recording on 48th street in Manhattan.
During her tenure at Right Track, Moira was trained by Grammy award winning engineer Frank Filipetti and assisted such studio icons as Bob Clearmountain, Ron St Germain and Ed Stasium on albums for James Taylor, Kiss, Carly Simon, Billy Idol and Mick Jagger just to name a few. She was at Right Track six years when producer Jim Gaines (Carlos Santana, Huey Lewis) tempted her to work for him in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Moira was working with Gaines on the first Melissa Etheridge album at the Record Plant in Sausallito when she met Cory Lerios (Pablo Cruise) and began an exciting new phase in her career. Cory was about to compose music for the TV show “Max Headroom” and needed an engineer. Moira worked for Lerios in SF and then followed him to Los Angeles to work on the “Child’s Play 3” film. Along with composer John D’Andrea, they worked on a plethora of projects over the next nine years including 8 seasons of “Baywatch”. During this time she still found time to engineer and produce numerous live and studio recordings including 3 albums by the incomparable Kevin Russell – a Bay Area blues legend.
As analog gave way to the digital age, Moira again embarked on another journey into TV and Film. With the help of veteran engineer and editor extraordinaire Stan Jones, she began working in music editorial and absolutely loved it!!! Of course, still with the heart of a musician, as well as being a mom to daughter Kathleen, she wanted remain in the music business and be close to home so, she designed and built “Mo’s Garage” her private recording facility along with partner Tom Banghart (world wide engineer/producer – trained by Shelley Yakus at Herb Alpert’s legendary A&M Studios).
Since its inception in November 2003, Mo’s Garage has hosted a wide array of diverse acts including up and coming LA punkers “The Blood Arm”, The US Marine Corps Band, hip hop pioneers Public Enemy, Michael Doman and power pop’s The Fizzies. We have also done film mixes for independent films – Craig Shoemaker’s “Unzipped”, “Beautiful Friends” and “Finding Kraftland”. Currently all live music acts for “Last Call with Carson Daly” are being mixed here by Tom Banghart!
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