The Faculty
Daytona State College’s Music Production Technology faculty are second to none. Each is a veteran of the industry with at least 15 years experience. They have earned multiple Grammy Awards or nominations, as well as Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) gold and platinum records, and other top industry recognition. While they are outstanding professors and instructors, they are more than academics. They are practitioners.
Allow us to introduce you to just a few:
Jake Niceley, Program Chair – Jake began his career in as a musician and actor in 1977 and has become one of the most sought-after recording studio designers and engineers in the nation. For more than 20 years, he co-owned and operated recording studios in Branson, MO, Peoria, IL, and Nashville, TN, including the famed Woodland Studios, Seventeen Grand Recording and The Love Shack, where he worked with some of country music’s biggest stars. He is a two-time winner of the prestigious Surround Music Awards and winner of the New Orleans Off Beat Magazine Album of the Year award for the short film “Deacon John’s Jump Blues.” Jake’s personal engineering credits include projects for Alabama, Take 6, Orleans, Bela Fleck, Jill Sobule, Collin Raye, Mindy McCready, The Osmond Brothers, Randy Travis, Roy Clark, Andy Williams, Pat Boone and more. He also has earned nearly a dozen television and film credits for soundtrack recordings, including Men Seeking Women (Showtime), Loretta Lynn (King Of The Hill, Fox), The Water Boy (Touchstone Films), Donna Summer (McDonalds), and Emmylou Harris (A&E).
Bryan Bassett, Adjunct Professor – Bryan is a founding member of the ’70’s CBS/Epic recording artist Wild Cherry, whose hits included the number one single "Play That Funky Music." He also has worked as a guitarist and songwriter for Molly Hatchet and Foghat. He is the winner of three gold records, two platinum records, an American Music Award and two Grammy nominations. He also was the first recording and mixing engineer at Sanford, FL’s, Kingsnake Studios, working for record labels that included Alligator, Ichiban, Malico, Rounder and others specializing in Blues and American Roots music. Bryan currently is serving his second term on the Board of Governors for the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Florida Chapter.
Randy Guidry, Adjunct Professor – Randy is an attorney, songwriter, musician, public relations, marketing and entertainment management professional who teaches business-related courses tied to Daytona State’s Music Production Technology Program. His music career began as a child singing with his siblings in a gospel quartet. Later, Guidry worked as a songwriter (penning several Top 40 hits), as a solo artist, session musician and leading member of the R&B band Spunk. During the early 1980s, Guidry formed Randy Guidry Music Publishing. Later, he earned his law degree, gaining expertise in intellectual property, as well as evaluating and assessing artists’ careers and catalogs for litigation purposes. He has served as a full-time faculty member in the prestigious Belmont University’s School of Business, where he taught Copyright Law and Music Business courses. In addition to his current work at Daytona State, he also is an adjunct professor at Trevecca University, where he teaches public relations and marketing in the Music Business Department. He also is co-owner – along with fellow Daytona State Adjunct Professor Debbie Holley - of Holley-Guidry, a public relations, marketing and talent management services firm with an extensive list of nationally recognized clients past and present.
Debbie Holley, Adjunct Professor – Debbie has more than 32 years experience in entertainment and related fields, including a nine-year stint with Billboard magazine, where she was recipient of a Neal Award for Excellence in Journalism. Prior to partnering with Randy Guidry to form Holly Guidry Public Relations, Marketing and Management, she owned and co-owned a number of other successful PR firms. She also has worked for the RCA Label Group Nashville, overseeing media relations and artist development services for the RCA and BNA record labels. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Academy of Country Music on the Board of Directors of the charitable aid organization Hecel Oyakapi (founded by actor James Cromwell), on the Chamber of Commerce and Theatrical and Visual Arts committees for the Nashville Entertainment Assn., on the Alumni Advisory Board for Belmont University’s Music Business program, and as co-chair of publicity for T.J. Martell Nashville events. She also is an active member of the Country Music Association.
Rande Isabella, Assistant Professor – Rande has been involved with composing, producing, arranging, engineering and performing music since he was a child touring Ohio with a Christian band called The Acts. He holds a Master of Music degree from the University of Miami, where he worked regularly with Jon Secada and other members of the acclaimed Miami Sound Machine. He pioneered a new sound for flutist Nestor Torres and fronted some of his earliest recordings by combining Latin and R&B rhythms. Rande played trumpet with Miami's top salsa bands, such as Elio Rodriguez, as well as soul bands like Jimmie "Bo" Horne. He also played bass guitar with acts such as country Tex Mex singer Freddy Fender. Rande also has worked as a freelance composer for television networks, such as NBC Sports, USA Network and ESPN. He has composed jingles and advertising music for award-winning campaigns, and also has engineered recordings for national celebrities such as Frank Sinatra and Ginger Rogers. Rande also owned and operated Artasia Music Productions, a commercial recording studio.
Daniel Mixer, Instructor – Before joining Daytona State College, Daniel had a long career designing and building small-scale commercial recording facilities on Music Row in Nashville, TN, as well as maintaining recording equipment and facilities for several professionals throughout the Nashville music community. He has produced, recorded, mixed and mastered projects for a variety of independent artists, including Mosaic, Jessica Roadcap, High Road and Erin Manning. Daniel also is co-author and editor of Concepts in Audio Engineering, an audio production textbook designed to convey a broad sweep of technical information in a conversational tone.
Glenn Spinner, Instructor – After earning his bachelor’s degree in 1991 at The Berklee College of Music , Glenn worked at The Hit Factory and Second City Sound in New York. Later, he relocated to Nashville and became a highly sought after assistant engineer, often working at the finest facilities and eventually becoming one of the primary assistants at Ocean Way Nashville. While there, Ocean Way Nashville earned Mix Magazine’s Studio of the Year honors. Later, Glenn turned his attentions to full-time engineering , where he worked with Garth Brooks, Little Big Town, Ricky Skaggs, Amy Grant, Third Day, Peter Frampton and others, as well as doing work for Sony, Capitol, Warner Brothers, Atlantic, Arista, RCA, MCA, Disney and Universal Records. Along the way he has participated in a host of Grammy Award winning and nominated projects.
Aaron Swihart, Instructor – With more than 17 years of sound engineering experience that includes two Grammy Awards, Aaron joined Daytona State’s Music Production Technology program in January 2010. He began his career in Nashville, TN, where he worked as a recording engineer for several facilities, including OMNIsound Studios; Battery Recording Studios, which he helped build; and Ocean Way Nashville, where he worked alongside mentors and industry icons Eddie Krammer, Glyn Johns and Toby Wright. Because of his advanced engineering skills, he was personally commissioned to work on projects with such acts as Jennifer Paige, Landon Pigg, Korn, Third Day, Leeland, Venus Hum, Natalie Imbruglia, Plumb, Pillar, Little Big Town, Steven Curtis Chapman, Audio Adrenaline and PeterFrampton. He also has worked with artists Faith Hill, Keith Urban, Mark Knopfler, the Spice Girls and Amy Grant, to name a few, and has been a recording engineer on major motion picture soundtracks, including How Stella Got Her Groove Back, The Horse Whisperer and the Prince of Egypt. His Grammy awards are for his work on the Audio Adrenaline album Until My Heart Caves In (2005) and Peter Frampton’s Fingerprints collection (2006). Most recently, he was nominated for a Grammy for his work on Ricky Skaggs’ Mosaic (2010).
