Robin Smith is another great writer I met in the basement studio at MCA Publishing in Universal City. Robin, being from England, had limited time in L.A. to meet and co-write songs with other MCA writers. In anticipation of this reality, I think Robin had a "backlog" of music tracks he had composed on his sequencer ready to record. When I met Robin we would "crank" tracks out for days at a time. There would be reels and reels of 24 Trk. tape with "Robin Smith" printed on them. I couldn't believe anybody would have so many songs...really good songs, all ready to record. My experiences with recording three songs in a single day with live musicians helped me here; since I was able to get what Robin wanted quickly, without much of a whoop.

As it turns out, Robin and I got along well and MCA Publishing had plans for Robin to produce and develop MCA artist/songwriters. Robin was asked to go to Australia to work with a band called Modern Man. He asked to take an engineer and I was it!

In Sydney, Australia, we had to work very hard with Modern Man because they were new to the studio and needed a lot of help in getting what they and their manager wanted. This is all separate and apart from what Robin and I wanted to hear. Anyway, we finished, and on our way to the airport, we happened to meet Michael Crawley a manager who persuaded us both to stay and work with his band called The Rockmelons. We both thought of it as "quick money", a bonus before leaving Sydney. Over the course of the next four days we recorded and mixed just one song and left the country quickly. Just to show how things can work out: the Modern Man recordings never saw the light of day while The Rockmelons' cover version of Al Green's "Rhymes" became a top ten record in Australia. Later, Robin and I were called back to record the accompanying album called "Tales of The City."

Since then, we have worked together on various projects in L.A. He and his wife Cherie, moved to L.A. in 1993 only to be caught in the 1994 earthquake. (Sorry about that mate!) As well as having them as neighbors, I was looking forward to working with him on more projects in L.A.!