Nick Norton, PhD, MPSE, makes things out of sound. Electronica.org.uk calls him a “composer and sound artist to be reckoned with,” and Last Day Deaf says his music is “absolutely captivating.” He regularly performs and engineers concerts at venues of all sizes, edits music and sound for film and television projects, produces records, and occasionally teaches all of the above at Moorpark and Santa Monica Colleges.
Nick’s audio engineering experience includes building shows for David Byrne, Justice, Anderson .Paak, LACMA, Lord Huron, Wild Up, The Industry Opera, and many others, producing records on the original Trident A console at New Monkey Studio, throwing faders line-by-line for musicals like In The Heights, recording comedy specials for Netflix, running playback for an F1 event in Las Vegas where he got to light up an entire mountain with lasers, and touring internationally with an orchestral tribute to Pink Floyd.
Born in Santa Monica, Nick grew up going to shows in the Ventura County punk scene, playing guitar and sax in bands, and spending summers on Catalina Island. He went to college for music and political theory at UC San Diego, where he discovered minimalism, noise rock, and avant garde classical music, and to grad school for composition at King’s College, London, and UC Santa Barbara. While earning his PhD Nick assisted electronic music pioneers Clarence Barlow and Curtis Roads with their work and got hooked on using audio technology to make art, eventually coming to believe that speakers are musical instruments.
During his studies Nick founded the experimental concert series Equal Sound, completing his doctorate with a dissertation titled “Concert Production As Composition.” Following graduation, he began working at a classical recording studio, helping record, edit, and mix music by artists such as Ted Hearne, Ashley Walters, and The Crossing Choir. He and the studio owner quickly founded a live production company together, providing audio, lighting, and recording services for clients including LACMA, Netflix, and The Industry.
Seeing his friends’ livelihoods suddenly cancelled when the coronavirus hit, Nick put up a fundraiser with Equal Sound and it went viral. With a team of volunteers, Equal Sound’s Corona Relief Fund raised and distributed over $100,000 to out-of-work musicians.
While the live events industry took time to recover, Nick completed an online certificate program in Digital Audio Post Production at Santa Monica College. He quickly began finding work in television music and sound, and has credits for Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, BET, CBS, MTV, Comedy Central, and many independent producers. He serves on the Emerging Technology Committee of the Motion Picture Editors Guild, IATSE Local 700, and is a voting member of Motion Picture Sound Editors.
Nick is very active in the LA experimental music scene. His first album, Music For Sunsets, was released on people places records in 2023. Mixed by GRAMMY-nominated producer Lewis Pesacov, Foxy Digitalis said of the album that “there is so much thought and craft in each of these twelve tracks, it’s hard to believe this is only his debut.” The follow up, “Hey, slow down.” is slated for release in spatial audio formats later this year.
As a composer, Nick has received commissions from PianoSpheres, HOCKET, the Emerald Bay Association, the American Harp Society, the International Horn Society, WomenSing, and Worldwide Guitar Connections, and worked with artists including the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, the Mustang Symphony, Wild Up, HOCKET, the Kansas City Chorale, the Isaura, Formalist, Eclipse, Friction, and Argus string quartets.
In 2024, Nick incorporated his production company, Submarine Sound. He began teaching at Moorpark College the next year, who hired him to help develop an audio engineering certificate program focused on the fundamental skills that students need to thrive in any sound-related field. He enjoys the company of friends, travel, sci-fi, awesome meals, board games, Zen Buddhism, dogs, and being in or near the ocean.
