Garret ‘Jacknife’Lee
Danny Turner is a London-based music journalist and tech writer with a deep passion for electronic music and the super-creative producers who bring magic to our ears.
Irish producer and mixer Garret ‘Jacknife’ Lee began his career in the music industry manning the sound desk at The Underground on Dame Street, Dublin. After his punk band Compulsion and rock outfit Thee Amazing Colossal Men were emphatically dumped by major labels, he reassessed his approach, learned the art of sampling and began mixing. Credited for a mash-up bootleg which he played no part in, Lee became hot property and exploited the opportunity to embark on a career in production in the early 2000s.
Amidst his catalogue of successes, Lee’s work on U2’s album How to Dismantle an Atom Bomb earned him a Producer of The Year Award alongside two Grammy’s for the monolithic rockers. However, the Dubliner admits to not having a specific production style. Whether bands feel at ease just having his experience to hand or he plays a more active role when it comes to recording, co-writing and production, Lee’s worth is measured by his ability to identify how a band or individual artist can truly evolve, often leaning more towards sonic diversification than refinement.
How did you find your way to becoming a sound engineer back in Dublin?
I used to sell jewelry and bootleg t-shirts. After that, there was a really cool club in Dublin called The Underground and I wanted to work there. Actually, I just wanted to go there, so when a sound engineer job became available I said I could do it even though I’d never done it before. I thought,
