Sean Flora is a 26-year veteran recording engineer and producer, with a gold record for his work on the Grammy-nominated album by the Shins, Wincing the Night Away. His live recording of The Black Keys is out on Warner/Nonesuch. Here are some of the artists he's worked with.
The Shins
Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks
Charlélie Couture
Corin Tucker (Sleater-Kinney) and Janet Weiss (Quasi, S-K)
Ken Stringfellow (Posies, REM)
The Black Keys
Franz Ferdinand
Beth Ditto (The Gossip)
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Thurston Moore
Glasvegas
She Wants Revenge
Smokey Brights
Balto
Box Set
Richmond Fontaine
Cat Hoch
Spoon
Portugal. The Man
The Prids
Storm Large
Colin Meloy
Taylor Swift
Ed Sheeran
Kleveland
Madness
Cake
James Mercer (Shins)
Smegma
The Minders
Paper Cameras
Richard Butler (Psych. Furs)
Katlyn ni Donovan
Castella
Little Sue
Audio Learning Center
3 Leg Torso
Purekane
James Angell
Whim Grace
Cheralee Dillon
Daniel Riddle+King Black Acid
Dahlia
The Altarboys
Kleveland
Pepe & the Bottle Blondes
Vagabond Opera
SuckaPunch
Hungry Mob
The Joggers
Casey Neill
8 Foot Tender
Joe McMurrian
Chuck Westmoreland
Crack City Rockers
Morgan Grace
Sam Henry (Wipers, Napalm Beach)
Chris Newman (Napalm Beach)
Michael Vlatkovich
RicanStruction
Roy Tinsel
The Kingdom
The UpsideDown
March Fourth
The Rock n Roll Bnb
In 2016, I wrapped up a three-year project called The Rock n Roll BnB, which was a residential recording studio in a huge house on nine rural acres. Musicians would come and stay for a week or more at a time while we recorded their album. We shared meals, a bit of wine at the end of the day, and a deep connection to the music and each other. That model for working was a big hit with musicians, and got the attention of media as well, garnering us the Small Business Innovation Product/Service of the Year award from Portland Business Journal in 2015, as well as a write-up in the Best Recording Studio category in Portland’s weekly arts paper, Willamette Week’s Best of Portland issue. Eventually the property’s owner sold the land and house and it was time to start a new project—hence Seismic Activities is born.
Station to Station Radio Show
StationToStation was a live-on-air, music performance radio show I hosted, produced, and engineered for KBOO-FM in Portland. Back in 2003, we were perhaps the only live performance show in the US to stream a high-quality audio feed from a professional recording studio to the radio station with a live, in-studio audience. The show featured artists from Portland and around the nation, including James Mercer of The Shins, Liv Warfield (Prince), and performers of Irish music, Hard Rock, Indie, Americana, Punk, even Tuvan throat singing.
The show—and fans—enjoyed a brief revival in 2011–12, when we took the show on the road for KEXP-FM, broadcasting live from the Secret Society Ballroom, Alberta Street Pub, and other locations. Check this page for more excerpts from broadcasts in our archives.