George Ian Boxill (usually credited as Ian Boxill) is a Trinidadian Grammy and Golden Globe-winning musical engineer with credits in all genres extending back to 1995 with the likes of 2Pac, Prince, Tyrese Gibson, Janet Jackson, Aaliyah, K-Ci and Jo-Jo, and many others. A University of Miami graduate, Boxill’s career started when he became employed at what would become The Hit Factory Studios and he jumped off when he became lead engineer at Galaxy Sound Studios, then the home studio of SOLAR Records, which also housed the likes of L.A. Reid and Babyface. He worked at Yab Yum Records from 1995-1998, working with Diana Ross, Jon B, Tamia, After 7 before becoming an independent producer, creating his own recording space, Room 204 Studios.
From 2004-2008, Boxill was the chief engineer and product manager at Paisley Park Studios, shuttling between Los Angeles and the Paisley Park complex in Minnesota to primarily work with its owner, Prince. His work on the songs “Song of the Heart”, won him a 2007 Golden Globe for its inclusion on the soundtrack of Happy Feet, and “Future Baby Mama” earned him a 2008 Grammy Award.
Following Prince’s sudden death on April 21, 2016, Boxill mastered recordings from unreleased sessions at Paisley Park and prepared them for release as a new EP DELIVERANCE. Boxill decided to release it independently through the Rogue Music Alliance, exactly one year after Prince’s death, saying: “Prince once told me that he would go to bed every night thinking of ways to bypass major labels and get his music directly to the public. When considering how to release this important work, we decided to go independent because that’s what Prince would have wanted.” The title track was released on April 18 via Soundcloud.
Immediately after the announced EP, Prince’s Estate and Paisley Park filed a federal lawsuit against Boxill and a restraining order was granted against the release of the project. In 2018, arbitrators ruled that Boxill had indeed violated his working agreement that was in place while he was under contract with Prince, and ordered him to pay almost $4 Million for attorney fees, damages and costs plus hand over all recordings – a federal judge upheld this decision in April 2019.
Website: Ianboxill.com
