Sean Slade

The duo had their formative experience as producers while they were in Sex Execs. Most of the group lived in a house in Dorchester, Boston that was wired up as a primitive studio. In a 2018 interview, Slade discussed how their career as producers got started at that house with a four-track reel-to-reel recorder they'd bought in New York.

Slade and Kolderie co-produced Radiohead's debut album, Pablo Honey, which was released 1993. They were pivotal in convincing EMI Records to release "Creep" as the band's debut single prior to the album's release. The song initially failed to achieve commercial success, but after the album release in early 1993, "Creep" was re-released and became a worldwide smash.

In 1985, Slade and Kolderie co-founded Boston's Fort Apache Studios, along with Jim Fitting (another friend from Yale and Sex Execs) and Joe Harvard. The studio originated in Roxbury, but later relocated to Cambridge. "We were all a part of that DIY kind of culture," said Slade. "The whole idea of getting someone in to design [the studio] wasn’t part of the plan. The plan was, 'Get a control room, get a playing room, get the wiring right, get a console, and then just start recording'.”

Slade was born in Lansing, Michigan. He graduated from Yale University in 1978. Slade and Kolderie became friends at Yale, where they played in bands together. They both later relocated to Boston, where they became members of Sex Execs, a new wave music band of the early 1980s.

Sean Slade (born 14 November 1957) is a record producer, engineer, and mixer. On many of his productions he worked in partnership with Paul Q. Kolderie.