JOHN ENGEL

John Engel started writing his first music columns for a monthly magazine when he was 16. His main music-related occupation at the time, though, was singing and playing. He performed week in week out as a singer-songwriter, solo and with bands, in the United States and in Europe, up until he was about 24.

Concurrently, he got a bachelor’s degree in literature and a master’s in filmmaking – his other passion. Film work soon took over and he rapidly climbed the ladder to production manager, producer, and second-unit director, working with such esteemed directors and producers as Brian De Palma, Tim Burton, Neil Jordan, Martin Campbell, Gale Anne Hurd, Joel Schumacher, Larry Franco, and the Taviani Brothers.

In the late 1990s, he took an extended sabbatical to raise his daughter and seized the opportunity to write – fiction, non-fiction, songs, and film scripts. That is how the idea for UNCOMMON SOUND was born: by bringing together his love for writing and music, and his left-handed guitar playing, he would investigate music in a way no one has before, and with the personal care and precision that no regular publisher or other money- and deadline-sensitive entity would ever allow. The no-holds-barred, uncompromising UNCOMMON SOUND is the result.