Rico Loverde is a multi-disciplined sound engineer and DJ with strong roots in both electronic music and rock and roll. A graduate of Ex’pression College (B.A. of Applied Science in Sound Arts), Loverde, a.k.a. DJ “Dead Lover”, works tirelessly in the fields of live and recorded sounds. When he’s not working, Rico DJs, geeks out over new equipment, and reads up on the latest technology trends. That’s basically all he does besides sleeping -- and watching the occasional episode of “Metalocalypse”.

Loverde’s first career as a chef propelled him to eventually become an instructor at the California Culinary Academy, where his tattoo sleeves and jet black hair belied his insane work ethic and ability to calmly teach and lead large groups of people. He ran the student kitchen, which serves 300-500 people a day, as well as ordering all the food and ingredients for the student kitchen and for production classes. When he got tired of cooking, Rico went after his first love: Music.

While sweating it out at Ex’pression College, Loverde rose to the top of his class to score an internship with famed engineer Jack Douglas, who recorded all the Cheap Trick and Aerosmith albums, among others. Douglas hooked Rico up with the Rondo Brothers (Common and Pharrell, Depeche Mode, Dan the Automator, Pavement, Head Automatica, Mike Patton...), where he currently works on everything from bubblegum pop acts, to post-production sound design, to jingle demos for Cherry 7-Up.

Most notably, Rico has just finished major work on MC Lars’ new album for the Rondos and stuck his fingers so far in the pie he even nabbed a songwriting co-credit. He continues to work privately (and stockpile the latest gear) in his home recording studio. He’s also branching out into video, having recently starred in Eric McFadden’s video for the cover of Britney Spears’ “Womanizer”, and helped with production of MC Lars’ and YT Crackers’ video for Manifest Destiny. He’s comfortable both behind and in front of the camera.

Rico Loverde is well-versed in Pro-Tools, Logic 8, Ableton Live, GarageBand, just about any other DAW, and old-fashioned reel-to-reel. He is available for live DJ gigs, live sound, and any kind of recording projects you want to throw at him. He loves it all.