Mitchell Froom

Mitchell Froom
Born	June 29, 1953 (1953-06-29) (age 58)
Origin	United States
Occupations	Record producer, musician, and composer
Instruments	Keyboard
Years active	1982–present
Labels	Kontextrecords
Website	www.mitchellfroom.com
Notable instruments
piano

Mitchell Froom (born June 29, 1953)^[1] is an American musician and record producer.

Career

Froom began his career as a keyboard player in Sonoma County, California. The band Crossfire featured two keyboards players; Mitchell on one side of the stage and brother David on the other with Gary Pihl on guitar. He also played keyboards on the Ronnie Montrose-led group Gamma's third album Gamma 3.

He produced the first three Crowded House albums, which led to more production jobs with Richard Thompson, Los Lobos, American Music Club, and Suzanne Vega. One early notable work, Key of Cool, later became the soundtrack for the adult film, Café Flesh.

Between 1992-2002 Froom formed a full time partnership with engineer Tchad Blake. Production credits include albums from American Music Club, Stevie Ann, Tasmin Archer, The Bangles, Peter Case, The Corrs, Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, Crowded House, The Ditty Bops, Tim Finn, Missy Higgins, Indigo Girls, Paul McCartney, Maria McKee, Pat McLaughlin, Randy Newman, Nerina Pallot, Pearl Jam, Phantom Planet, Daniel Powter, Bonnie Raitt, Ron Sexsmith, Richard Thompson, and Suzanne Vega. Froom and Blake joined with David Hidalgo and Louie Perez of Los Lobos to form the experimental roots collaboration Latin Playboys.

Froom has produced over 60 albums^[2] and has composed and produced music for numerous films.^[3] He has been nominated for several Grammys including for Record of the Year for "La Bamba" by Los Lobos (1988) and Producer of the Year in 1993 for both "Kiko" by Los Lobos and "99.9F°" by Suzanne Vega.^[4] He was also nominated for the 1998 Golden Globe Award and the 1999 Grammy for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media for co-writing with Sheryl Crow the James Bond movie title song "Tomorrow Never Dies"^[5] although both were won by “My Heart Will Go On" by James Horner & Will Jennings.

As a musician, Froom has released two solo albums, Dopamine (1998) from which the and A Thousand Days (2005). The song "Noodletown" from "Dopamine" won an Emmy when it was used as the theme for PBS’ Sessions At West 54th.^[6]

Froom was a judge for the 2nd annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.^[7]

Personal life

His daughter Charlotte (born 1986) is the former bassist in The Like. Charlotte's mother, Connie Jester, was his first wife.

Froom married Suzanne Vega in 1995; they separated in 1998. Soul Coughing's 1994 album, Ruby Vroom, was named after their daughter, Ruby Froom (born July 8, 1994).

He married Vonda Shepard in 2004. They had their first child, Jack Froom, (named for Froom's late father, a noted physician and educator), on April 15, 2006.

His brother is David Froom, a classical composer and Department Chair of the Music Department at St. Mary's College of Maryland.[1] 

Froom is of Romanian ancestry on his grandparents side.^[8]

References

1. ^ Family Tree Legends
2. ^ Kontextrecords
3. ^ IMDB Mitchell Froom
4. ^ Rock on the Net 1993 Grammys
5. ^ Rock on the Net 1999 Grammys
6. ^ Damn Fine Day
7. ^ Independent Music Awards - Past Judges
8. ^ Vonda Shepard "My husband's grandparents are Romanians", happyhour.protv.ro, 2009-02-16 (in Romanian).

External links

• Official website
• Mitchell Froom at the Internet Movie Database

Persondata
Name	Froom, Mitchell
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	June 29, 1953
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death