About Bob McPeek
Until recently, Bob’s musical career was focused on recording and producing other artists in one of north Florida’s premier studios, Mirror Image, which he founded in Gainesville in 1977. His vision of a combined audiophile listening room and audio and video production facility led to Mirror Image’s metamorphosis into Heartwood Soundstage in 2017, where he worked as both live and recording engineer until retiring in 2019. At that time, armed with the skills honed by producing over 10,000 songs, he spent almost three years writing and recording his career defining work, a solo album of original songs called Mixing Metaphors.
Out of the spotlight and behind the board, Bob has worked with Bo Diddley, River and Rain Phoenix, Bernie Leadon, Sister Hazel, Less Than Jake, Mo Tucker (Velvet Underground), Jack Endino (architect of the Seattle sound, including the first Nirvana album), John Kurzweg (producer of Creed, Puddle of Mud, Jewel and others), Mark Johnson and the Rice Brothers, and more people than he can remember. He has won an array of awards for radio productions and contributed to music for the Discovery Channel and Disney. In concert he has collaborated and performed with the likes of folk legend Tom Paxton. His most widely heard compositions range from a theme song for the Florida Gator basketball team to a cowritten song on the Grammy-nominated singer Eliza Gilkyson’s album 2020.
Bob is a versatile, accomplished guitarist, but more than anything a consummate lyricist and musical storyteller. His far ranging musical vocabulary was gained not only from extensive and diverse work in the recording studio, but from a record collection gathered during his ownership of Gainesville’s legendary used record store, Hyde and Zeke Record Exchange, from 1977-1986.
Prior to starting the studio, Bob earned a Ph.D. in social psychology from Ohio State University. In addition to his musical career, Bob has worked as International Director for Sabine Musical Manufacturing, Director of Research for the Center for Applications of Psychological Type, and an adjunct professor for Santa Fe College.
A very tiny and oddly curated swath of Bob’s discography (artist, musician, engineer, and/or producer) can be viewed at https://www.discogs.com/artist/552569-Bob-McPeek