Chiccarelli’s career was launched by Frank Zappa, who gave him his first major engineering credit on Sheik Yerbouti. He went on to engineer Zappa’s Joe's Garage Acts I, II & III and Tinseltown Rebellion, before working with the White Stripes on Icky Thump and The Raconteurs on Consolers of the Lonely, the latter winning the 2008 Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, his eighth of eleven Grammys. To date he is responsible for album sales well over 60 Million and Streams of 22 Billion.
Career
Chiccarelli got his first taste of the studio through a cousin who owned Boston's Fleetwood Studio. He also worked as an engineer at Music Designers Recording Studio in Boston. Chiccarelli moved west where he scored an assistant engineer gig at L.A.'s Cherokee Studios. He got his career break engineering Frank Zappa's album Sheik Yerbouti. In an interview with HitQuarters, Chiccarelli said: "[Zappa's] engineer couldn't make the session and so he decided to take a chance on me. I'm so thankful ever since that day because he gave me a career."
He is credited with discovering singer Tori Amos and signing her first band, Y Kant Tori Read, to a label deal. However, Chiccarelli refuted this in an interview with HitQuarters saying, "That's a myth. Tori was already signed to Atlantic Records as a solo artist when I got involved." In 1998, he mixed the Latin album Un Tributo (a José José), a tribute to José José, the first of many collaborations with Cafe Tacuba.
In 2007, Chiccarelli recorded and mixed The White Stripes' Icky Thump. The band set him the challenge of creating a modern, punchy, heavily edited sound without relying on digital production tools; the album was tracked and mixed on analog tape.
After Producing the Platinum album for The Shins "Wincing The Night Away". In 2009 Chiccarelli produced sessions for Brandi Carlile as well as Minus the Bear's album Omni, released on May 4, 2010. He produced four tracks on The Strokes' fourth album, Angles. He also produced the Multi-Platinum debut album from Australian group Boy & Bear. The band received five ARIA awards for the album. He also Produced the Platinum selling debut album for Young The Giant. It yielded two Platinum singles Cough Syrup and My Body. He also engineered and mixed tracks on Morrissey's Swords album.
In 2011, Chiccarelli produced Jason Mraz's Multi-Platinum fourth album Love Is a Four Letter Word which was Grammy Nominated and yielded the 7X Platinum single "I Won't Give Up", released April 17, 2012 and Alanis Morissette's upcoming Havoc and Bright Lights as well as the album Songs of Patience for Alberta Cross. In 2012 he produced what became a Gold album, Departures, for Australian artist Bernard Fanning as well as tracks for Dwight Yoakam. His 2013 album projects include Divine Fits, Hellogoodbye, Saints Of Valory, Plain White T's, Need To Breathe, The Madden Brothers, Number One Charting Australian Album "Greeting from California", and Oxbow. In 2014 he has produced Morrissey's album, World Peace is None of Your Business, the first of five album's he's produced for Morrissey. He also produced five songs on Spoon's album They Want My Soul, and tracks with The Rocketboys, Ivan & Alyosha, JEFF the Brotherhood and Victorian Halls. In 2015 he produced a duets album for Doug Seegers and Jill Johnson, becoming a Platinum Number One album in Sweden.
Album releases in 2016 included releases from Oxbow, Buffalo Sunn, Bleached, Cherry Glazerr, Night Riots, SPEAK and Broken Social Scene. Album productions in 2017 included Flogging Molly, Jamie Lawson, The Wonders Years, Vance Joy and Morrissey. Album sessions in 2018 included debut album for Rare Americans, new albums for Broken Social Scene, Charly Bliss, Half Moon Run, Morrissey, The Shelters and Run River North. 2019 sessions included Morrissey, The Falls, The Jacks, Rare Americans, Little Dragon, Taylor Janzen and the Juno Award winning album for Half Moon Run's A Blemish In The Great Light. 2020 Sessions include Didirri, The Dumes, Duncan Laurence, Jagwar Twin, Liily, and Classless Act. 2021 sessions include new albums for The Districts, Michael Bublé and Cayucas. 2022 sessions include Middle Class Rut, Oxbow, Orianthi, Tegan & Sara, The Blue Stones, Robert Randolph and Liz Brasher. 2023 productions with Morrissey, Oxbow, Michael Bublé, Keith Urban, Illiterate Light, Falls, Art D'ecco, Robert Randolph, Jake Wesley Rogers and The Takes. 2024 sessions include Morrissey, Oxbow, Ripe, Sun Room, Steve Bardwil, The Takes, and Weezer. 2025 sessions include Morrissey, Des Rocs for the album To Hell and Back, DICE and Arde Bogotá. In 2026 Produced "7 Generations" on Robert Randolph's Grammy Winning "Preacher Kids" album. New album for Arde Bogota "El Club De La Gente Sola" for Sony Spain. A Number One ARIA Chart album In Australia for band DICE "I Thought the Altitude Would Be Worth The View". A new album for The Steve Bardwil Band. EP For artist Liam St. John. Mixed the upcoming album for Nūs.
