S. Husky Höskulds bridges Icelandic roots and global music innovation

S. Husky Höskulds, born Steinar Höskuldsson, traces his beginnings to Iceland but has built an influential career in the heart of the global music industry. Relocating to Los Angeles in 1991, he set his sights on audio engineering, studying at the University of California, Los Angeles. His journey reveals how Icelandic creativity can resonate far beyond its shores.

A career in sound, from Reykjavik to Los Angeles

Höskulds’s early career took root at The Sound Factory in Los Angeles, where he worked alongside producers Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake in the early 1990s. This environment quickly propelled him toward independent projects with renowned acts. He engineered for Michael Penn, The Wallflowers, Sheryl Crow and Tom Waits, and established an enduring collaboration with Mike Patton, the singer of Faith No More, contributing to several of his ventures.

Recognition for Höskulds’s engineering skill arrived most visibly when he shared the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical in 2002. This was for Norah Jones’s debut album, ‘Come Away with Me,’ co-produced by Craig Street. That year, the record swept multiple awards, in part due to its technical as well as artistic achievements. Höskulds also worked on Tom Waits’s ‘Blood Money,’ another critical milestone.

Building creative communities

While pursuing diverse recording projects, with artists as varied as Fiona Apple, Tracy Chapman, Elvis Costello, Susana Baca and Mavis Staples, Höskulds also looked for ways to foster collective creativity. In 2009, he founded Groundlift.org, an online community for artists and collaborators. Groundlift grew to host more than 40 artists from across the globe, with a catalogue including over 50 albums and other digital artworks. The platform supports music, photography, video, animation and more, and has found its way into soundtracks and collaborative projects.

With Groundlift Studios, Höskulds has established working spaces in Los Angeles, Reykjavik and Paris. The platform and the studios aim to empower open-minded artists to experiment and connect, using current digital technology for both audio and visual work.

Höskulds’s ongoing contribution spans genres and geographic boundaries. Whether in Reykjavík, Los Angeles or Paris, his work continues to link the creativity of his Icelandic background with the voices and visions of artists around the world.

Topicsaudio engineeringGrammy AwardsGroundlift.orgIcelandic musicS. Husky Höskulds