Faculty

Tony has been in the audio industry for more than 30 years as an artist, session guitarist, producer, songwriter, recording engineer, record label executive and music publisher. In addition to producing 41 albums, creating music for 16 feature films, 10 television series and hundreds of ads for radio and television he has had a successful career as a live musician, performing with the likes of Manfred Mann, Bruce Cassidy (Blood Sweat and Tears) and many other accomplished musicians and performers. Tony was also an EMI recording artist, and a staff-songwriter for BMG. He currently co-writes songs with Academy and Grammy award winning songwriters, composes and produces music for feature films and television and works on records with top session musicians in North America.

Brian Watson is an industry veteran with over 20 years of hands-on experience in the business we call music. For the past 10 years he has been busy running the award winning artist management, label and music services company, Maximum Music Group. As the former marketing manager for Virgin Records, Brian had the honour of managing the promotional and marketing campaigns for superstar acts such as: The Rolling Stones, Janet Jackson and The Smashing Pumpkins. In addition, he spent some time working for SL Feldman & Associates as a national booking agent, where the acts he worked with included Sarah McLachlan, Bryan Adams and The Tragically Hip.

With over 100 albums to its credit Maximum’s roster has been recognized with 6 Juno Awards, 9 National Jazz Awards , 6 Western Canadian Music Awards, 5 Canadian “Indie” Music Awards and 3 Canadian Urban Music Awards.

Mike Rogerson is the certified ProTools and Audio Engineering instructor at the Harbourside Institute of Technology. He is one of the only 2 Pro Tools experts in Canada. Mike’s discography and live recording credits include: Green Day, Goo Goo Dolls, Sheryl Crowe, Gloria Estefan, Everclear, Paul Stanley, Joe Walsh, Minnie Driver, Shelby Lynne and Canada’s super group, Chilliwack . His engineering talents on the “Chris Issak Show” helped the series garner 2 Leo awards for best sound.

Mike continues to work as a professional audio engineer/mixer/producer and repeat seasonal audio tech for the Banff Television Festival and Theatre Under the Stars.

Sam Ryan is HIT’s resident Electronics Music Production and Ableton Instructor. He has produced and engineered along side some of the music industry’s most accomplished heavyweights including Jack Endino (Nirvana, Soundgarden).

Sam began his music career co-founding SOS Music, a Vancouver based music production company. Producing and engineering numerous CD and multimedia projects, he works with the newest technologies in digital audio, midi and sample based sequencing, combing his technical and artistic talents to fuse audio engineering with music production.

Sam is the quintessential, perpetual student of emerging technologies and it is no surprise that he  recently made the trip to L.A. where he became one of the few Certified Ableton Trainers in Canada.

Ken Cade is a graduate of both the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and the DePaul University of Chicago. After years of performing (as a violinist) with the Chicago Civic Orchestra he decided to pursue a career in the audio aspect of the film business. He started his own company (Sound Bytes) in Toronto which specialized in sound design and music composition.Sound Bytes which later became, Edible Audio(Vancouver) is a highly successful company which works on major feature films and television series. Ken has won numerous Bessie awards for his commercial compositions and has worked on many TV series and feature films, including The Outer Limits, Poltergeist, Star Gate, Highlander, The 4400, True Justice and Tactical Force. He has been both a nominee and winner of Gemini, Golden Reel and Leo Awards. In 2008 Ken garnered an Emmy Nomination for his work on “Tin Man”, in the category of “outstanding sound mixing for a mini-series or a movie”.

Kerry Galloway, bassist/producer/educator, has performed and recorded with a long list of industry legends, including kd lang and Randy Bachman. He has opened for Neil Young, Sarah McLachlan and Sheryl Crowe as well as having appeared on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and variety performances with Bob Hope. Other accolades include recording with hiphop stars “Sweatshop Union” and playing with the Paris-based New Noakes Quartet on their 14 European tours, where he featured as a soloist.

The modern DJ, using vinyl, CD, Serrato, Ableton – Beat Matching/Mixing, Anthony Traynor,  PropaTingz, is a name synonymous with the thunderous, uncompromising sound of now, known as dubstep, and is responsible for some of the biggest dance floor bangers in the scene.
Heralded as “Man of the Moment” (Fat Drop UK) he has numerous top 10 releases on dubstep’s biggest labels (BOKA, Z Audio, Black Acre, Fabric) and has emerged as one of the hottest names on the international DJ circuit. His cutting edge style has been in great demand for remix and collaboration projects for scene powerhouse producers such as 16 bit, Bassnectar and Breaks legend, Freq Nasty, with major support coming from N-type, Glitch Mob, Akira Kiteshi, and Kissy Sell Out, an instant dubstep rave smash on BBC Radio 1.
Not only a Dubstep Don, his previous incarnation as BreakBeatBuddha helped forge the now lauded International Glitch Hop scene alongside such artists as Edit and Lazer Sword.

Don Striez has been working in the audio industry, in the field of audio electronics and installations for the past 22 years. He has built, wired and set up major recording studios, theatres, live shows and audiovisual systems around the world. Don has been fortunate enough to work alongside some of the greats, including legendary studio builder John Vrtacic, U2, Bone Thugs and Harmony, Jim Belushi, Britney Spears, Ricky Martin, Elton John, Korn, Sarah McLaughlin and Green Day.

Ron Irving is a veteran Canadian Songwriter with over 100 songs recorded worldwide, in six languages. Ron’s songs have been recorded by Anne Murray, Michael Bublé, Lee Greenwood, The Statler Brothers, Asian superstar Jacky Cheung, South African Idol Anke, Germany’s Pop band “Trademark”, Lisa Brokop, Amanda Stott, Karen Lee Batten and numerous others. His “Holdin’ Out For A Hero” recorded by Danish artist, Wenche, brought Ron home a Gold record! Many of his songs have been used in feature films, TV series, song folios, TV Commercials, karaoke and ring tones.

Nick, as an independent musician signed to underground punk and metal labels, Profane Existence and Bleak Art Records, brings the heavy to Hit, with 15 years of live, touring and recording experience. After graduating from Harbourside IT, Nick spent 2 years working at the award winning Vogville Studios where he had the opportunity to record, mix and co-produce many established bands and performers, including: The Higgins, K-os, Default, A Textbook Tragedy, Between Seas, Argent Strand, Dawning of the Inferno, Unleash the Archers, and Chad Brownlee. He is currently the House Engineer at Harbourside Studios and Harbourside Institute of Technology.