Studio wiz Resta puts Chelmsford on pop map

When you think of A-list rock 'n' roll producers, you might picture a wild-haired eccentric toiling away in a lavish studio in New York or Los Angeles, maybe even Nashville. North Chelmsford is not a locale that immediately springs to mind.

But tucked away between the Domino's Pizza headquarters and a print shop in an unassuming old mill building is Bopnique Musique Studios, the equipment-littered home away from home of Anthony Resta, a perfectly normal, well-coiffed and charming producer who is making a name for himself on the national scene.

Like most producers, Resta began life as a musician, mastering drums and keyboards while growing up in Westford and attending Berklee College of Music for a couple of years in the early '80s.

Two things led him to the other side of the mixing board: an internship and common drummer frustrations.

"I was performing as a musician," said Resta, "and then actually I started working in a recording studio in Burlington. I was an intern and I got the studio bug and I just wanted to live in a recording studio."

Especially after having the following experience - repeatedly. "I would say as early as 19, when I first started recording in studios, I would come back two weeks later after my drum tracks were finished and I would notice that everything was going faster than the drums. And everyone was saying, 'Oh the drums sound draggy,' and I thought, 'No, everybody's playing faster than the drums,' " said the former bartender with a laugh.

Resta's interest in production and precise timekeeping dovetailed nicely with the rise of drum machines and keyboard programming in the '80s. He bought one of the first digital drum machines and became an in-demand programmer by local producers. "Gradually I branched out and started doing my own thing," said Resta, whose studio is now jam-packed with everything from vintage and toy keyboards to state-of-the-art computer tools.

Working in earnest for the last eight years, Resta has done production and programming work on gold albums by artists as diverse as Duran Duran (Resta's remix of their 1995 cover of "White Lines" was one of his first big breaks), Shawn Mullins and Collective Soul, and worked with such high-profile local artists as Guster, Letters to Cleo and Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme. Resta, who describes himself as "39 and holding," even worked on a Megadeth remix.

The Collective Soul experience has been among his highlights, says the producer, who works noon to midnight Monday through Saturday. Working on the Georgia rock group's 2000 "Blender" album meant recording one of his heroes, Elton John, who sang on "Perfect Day."

Producing heroes include Brian Eno, Jon Brion and Daniel Lanois, and Bjork is high on his list of dream collaborators. As that list attests, Resta's tastes are far-reaching. "I try to change with every artist I work with, (but) there is a common thread," he said.

Resta tries to combine his love for the futuristic and the retro in a tasteful way, boiling it down to two influences. "There's a certain element of what I do that's definitely based on science fiction," he said. "I love those crazy soundscapes and I try to sneak a little bit of that into everything I do. That and the Beatles, of course, are a huge influence on everything I do. I can't help it."

In addition to producing, Resta also records his own poetry-driven trip-hop under the alias Ajax Ray O' Vaque, works on film and television scores, is looking into opening a second studio-writing workshop in Nashville and expanding his reach in the industry by discovering and nurturing new acts.

One of those acts is the buzzed-about local/intercontinental hard rock group God's Little Joke. The band, which plays the Linwood Grille on Thursday, grabbed Resta's attention. "I like great songs," said Resta. He believes GLJ has them and hopes to record its major label debut. He has "serious interest" from several major labels and describes the music as "real heavy and melodic, song-oriented, like if you took Tool and combined it with Oasis. They're super musical.

"That's really what I want to do," he said. "I want to be a part of packaging artists from the ground up." Considering how well he's packaged his own career and his infectiously positive attitude, Resta should be someone to watch, even in North Chelmsford.

© Boston Herald