Doug Fenske is an American record producer, recording engineer, mix engineer, and remixer from suburban Chicago, Illinois. He has worked in Los Angeles since 2005, and has been involved in several aspects of record production. Fenske has worked on a string of commercially and critically successful albums, including Frank Ocean's Channel Orange, Chris Brown's Exclusive , Jamie Foxx's Intuition, and Jordin Sparks' Jordin Sparks. His production experience includes collaborations with some of the music industry's most elite artists, writers, producers, and engineers.
Childhood and education
Childhood and youth
Fenske was born in Harvey, Illinois, the first child of an educator mother and a village manager father. He spent his formative years in Richton Park, IL, where he attended Neil A. Armstrong Elementary. His first foray into music began at age 10, when he picked up an alto saxophone, joined the school's concert band and began learning classical music theory. Two years later, he joined the school district's jazz ensemble, and spent a year learning jazz theory and playing second alto behind an older student. But Fenske's skill quickly rose to the surface and by age 13, he earned the lead alto seat for both jazz ensemble and concert band. During this time he excelled as a three-sport athlete, playing football, baseball, and basketball. Fenske enrolled at Rich South High School in Richton Park, and was quickly promoted to the upperclass jazz ensemble, playing second tenor sax, all while performing with the school's symphonic band. As a sophomore, he was moved to baritone sax in both jazz ensemble and symphonic band, and was promoted to lead alto in both bands at the beginning of his junior year. It was during this time that Fenske realized he wanted a career in record production. As a senior, he played in the jazz combo band, and was featured on soprano sax in the jazz ensemble. Still an athlete, he played four years of football, three years of baseball, and one year of basketball for Rich South.
Education
Fenske decided to attend Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, IL as a communications major in 2000. He quickly aligned with other students to form "11th and Cleveland", a band named after the block where they rehearsed. Fenske played sax and keyboards for the band, which spent two years touring the bar circuit and neighboring colleges. Although Fenske was heavily influenced by 90s hip hop, rock and alternative music, his band covered songs by Phish, Led Zeppelin, Tom Petty, and Herbie Hancock – whom he would later work with on Hancock's collaboration with Quincy Jones. As band members started leaving school, Fenske started creating full instrumental tracks on his own with a computer. He continued honing his craft for the next two years and graduated in 2004 with a bachelor's degree. In early 2005, Fenske moved to Tempe, AZ to attend the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences, an audio engineering school known for its prominence in music. While in school, he collaborated with other students on recording projects, was the president of the school's chapter of the Audio Engineering Society, and was at the head of his class. He also began remixing tracks by artists like D'Angelo, The Roots, and Busta Rhymes using live instrumentation. Fenske graduated from The Conservatory in October 2005 and moved to Los Angeles, Calif. to begin his professional career in music.
Fenske has produced songs for a series of independent labels and artists. Most notably, Wind-up Records distributed a song that Fenske produced and mixed for Emily Osment called Drift, and a song for Dylan Synclaire featuring Chris Rene of The X Factor called Hollywood Lyfe.
