About Us
SPOTLIGHT 87 is the collaboration of 6X GRAMMY™™ Award winning engineer/producer Brian Vibberts, and producer/songwriter/musician, Alex Houton. SPOTLIGHT 87 is a full service music production and artist development company for major label and independent recording artists. SPOTLIGHT 87 has facilities available in both LA and NY, and over 50 years of combined music industry and creative experience. Having developed new artists from their first guitar lessons to major label record deals, and having worked on records that have cumulatively sold over 150 million copies, SPOTLIGHT 87 is the only team you'll need to capture your creative best, and take your music career to the next level.
Producers, founders, and longtime friends, Brian Vibberts and Alex Houton, have been working on music together and separately since their days at Berklee College Of Music in Boston, Massachusettes. Soon after, Brian Vibberts was engineering in New York City's top studios, like Sony Music Studios and the Hit Factory, while Alex Houton was refining his songwriting as a singer/songwriter in New York's legendary clubs like The Bitter End, and also playing sessions at the former Battery Studios and the aforementioned Hit Factory. Vibberts would soon relocate to Los Angeles, where he quickly became in demand in LA's best rooms like Ocean Way Studios and Mad Hatter, while Houton began developing artists as a songwriter/producer and composing and producing music for TV. The two friends stayed in touch but were often busy with separate projects Vibberts contributing to the top artists in LA, and Houton, developing fresh new talent in New York.
Brian Vibberts is a 6X GRAMMY™™ Award winner, and has participated in the making of albums with a total of 270 GRAMMY™ Nominations and 81 GRAMMY™ Award Winners. Technically and creatively, he has recorded or mixed many multi-platinum artists in many genres, including Michael Jackson, Aerosmith, The Pussycat Dolls, Bon Jovi, Natasha Bedingfield, Green Day, Trace Adkins, Faith Hill, Fiona Apple, Toby Keith, Ice Cube, Boyz II Men, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Chick Corea, Brad Paisley, Ringo Starr, Mariah Carey, Tony Bennett and many more. Also visit WWW.VIBBERTSMIXING.COM
Alex Houton brings over 30 years of music experience to production and artist development, creative branding, and marketing in entertainment and sports. Alex has been involved with the creation of several branding properties and event activations related to entertainment, sports, and multi-media, developing co-branding strategies and forming diverse relationships along the way with well-known, prestigious brands, including Clear Channel, YouTube, Universal, The Franklin Mint, IZOD, AB/InBev, CBS, Comcast, IndyCar, NASCAR, Trim Spa, Disney, NBC and others.
Alex Houton spent many years as a session guitarist, sideman, and solo singer/songwriter before eventually producing, writing songs for, and developing artists for Universal, Sony, and Atlantic Records, and artists that have gone onto successes on MTV and VH1's "You Oughta Know" artist series. Houton also helped co-write and produce the second album for country artist, Bailey Grey, nominated for New Music Weekly's, "Breakout Artist of the Year". Alex co-wrote and produced a #1 single for Disney and XM Radio and has produced music spots for ABC, CBS, MSNBC, BRAVO, ESPN, & and music production for TV spots for Comcast, Trim Spa, and others.
In the 1990's, Alex Houton was a guitar, bass, and vocal portfolio transcriber and manuscript arranger of dozens of "authentic transcription" books and magazines for major music publishers including Guitar World Magazine, Guitar School Magazine, Warner Bros., Hal Leonard, and Cherry Lane. His work can be found in schools, libraries, and music stores worldwide, as he is credited with authentic guitar transcription books for dozens of artists including BB King, Yes, The Beatles, Jewel, Pearl Jam, AC/DC, Pantera, Nirvana, Garth Brooks, The Traveling Wilburys, Green Day, Iron Maiden, Warrant, Alan Jackson, Pat Metheny, Metallica, Crosby Stills and Nash, Bush, Credence Clearwater Revival, Alice In Chains, Extreme, George Harrison, Billy Joel, The Black Crowes, Peter Frampton, Mellissa Etheridge, Aerosmith, Pink Floyd and others. Also visit WWW.ALEXHOUTON.COM
