Howie B

Howard Bernstein (born 18 April 1963,Glasgow, Scotland), professionally known as Howie B, is a musician and producer, who has worked with artists including: Björk, U2, Robbie Robertson, Elisa, Tricky, Mukul Deora and The Gift.

Upbringing

Born into a Jewish family amidst the Catholic/Protestant sectarianism of Glasgow, Bernstein attended socialist Jewish youth clubs in the city while finding a musical education in John Peel's radio shows, recording tracks from the show on a two-track tape recorder and making rudimentary mixes from them.

Later, he spent a year in Israel working on a kibbutz as part of Jewish cultural youth movement Habonim before living for a period in the United States.

Early career

Once back in the UK, he moved to a squat in Limehouse, London with a desire to work in the music industry, and after establishing himself as a DJ, eventually found a job working as a teaboy at Lillie Yard studios – owned by legendary film composer Hans Zimmer. He worked his way up there between 1984 and 1986, from teaboy to tape operator to assistant engineer to engineer. "I could see myself DJ-ing forever, but I wanted to learn a skill, I wanted to take it seriously," he said of his decision to move into the world of music production. "And so I went into apprenticeship in a studio. When I began working there I was so intimidated. I did not know what the hell I was meant to do or what any of the technical stuff meant. Because of this I had a completely different attitude to equipment, but I did learn all the technical details and procedures. Lillie Yard was a film studio, so working there was a bit crazy: one minute I'd be recording a jingle for McDonalds, the next a jingle for Danone, and then I'd be recording a 20-piece choir or a small orchestra. I'd often record and mix 40 minutes of music in one day."