Paul Turney

Born 1958 in Cambridge, New Zealand third son of Dawn and Allan Turney. Lived in Bryce Street then moved to 20 Victoria Road. Schooled at St Peters Convent School then attended Sacred Heart College in Auckland. Played in the roack band Flight X7 when they were looking to replace keyboards. In 1982 he offered the studio job in the Gisborne Studio 'Capture' using 1" Otari MX7800 8-track recorder with MX505 1/4 inch mixdown. Eventide H949 Harmoniser, Yamaha compressor and Soundcraft 2400 8-buss mixer. His Instruments: Yamaha CS30, Yamaha CS70M, Yamaha CP 80, Sequential Circuits Pro One. 1983/4 Paul shifted to Wellington to play keyboards for 'The Body Electric' a false invitation that failed to materialise. So he began to work evenings in Marmalade Studios as a floating engineer under Dave Guinnane. Worked on film sets in Auckland with Mike Westgate, returned back to Cambridge soon after. Turney opened a popular Pizzeria in Mount Maunganui until 1990 when he returned to Auckland to play in a small 'covers' outfit called Big Red Car with Alastair Riddell of Space Waltz fame through their mutual friend Paul Crowther, the original drummer from the New Zealand group Split Ends. In the middle of the 1990's Turney took time out to visit England where he lived in the popular music scene that was Camden Town, and through a chance meeting with Andy Ross of Food Records he met up with a group of musicians who played football on Sundays in Regents Park, notably Stephen Street and Damon Albarn of Blur, and Graham Coxon, Blur's guitarist who wasn't a Sunday footballer, but a fellow drinker in the local boozer 'The Good Mixer'. MTV studios were just up the High Street and in 1995/6 it was a vibrant place for the music industry. Paul landed a job at the mastering studios Chop 'Em Out through Murray Harris, a former flatmate of Paul's cousin David back in New Zealand. It was at 'Chop' that Paul finally got into the sort of audio that studios in New Zealand could not offer. As a Sony Broadcast beta-tester on new audio products and emerging formats it landed Paul in his element. Simon Heyworth, who recorded Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells was the chief engineer, and other engineers remained from the famous Markus Studios