Al Sutton has been founding and running studios & record labels while producing, engineering, writing and recording music for more than 25 years. His production credits include seminal records by The Sights, Dead String Brothers, Detroit Cobras and Don Caballero, as well as current tracks for Uncle Kracker, and most notably, Kid Rock. For the past decade, Sutton has been producing and engineering for Kid Rock on a regular basis, as well as running his own recording studio, Rustbelt, in Royal Oak Michigan.
It was at Rustbelt that the Opticom was born. Danny Russel, designer of the Naylor Guitar Amplifier came to Al with the idea of taking the optical compressor to the next level. After many trials, the Opticom-XLA-3 was finally complete, and ready to be manufactured. All Opticoms are painstakingly built by hand right in Metro Detroit.
In addition to his long-standing relationship with Kid Rock, which has resulted in four multi-platinum records, Sutton has worked with such well-known artists, bands and producers as Hank Williams Jr., Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rob Cavallo (Producer – Green Day), Sheryl Crow, Ron St. Germain (Producer – Creed), Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), Pop Evil and Paolo Nutini. He has received multiple nominations and awards for “Best Producer” by the Detroit Music Awards Foundation. Sutton has also been asked to professionally endorse products by Fender Guitar and Mackie Electronics.
Al also founded Acme Audio Manufacturing Co. which produces modern audio processing equipment delivering vintage sounds.
Watch the video below to learn more about Al Sutton!
