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LIFE WAS GOOD for David Fortman in the early 1990s. As lead guitar player for a multiplatinum rock band and a father of two with a house in the hills of Santa Barbara, Calif., Fortman was sure he had arrived.
Then the bottom dropped out. The hits quit coming for his hand Ugly Kid Joe. His record label bailed. Ugly Kid Joe. broke up. And the royalty checks, which once seemed so sure, slowed to a trickle.
Faced with an $1,800-a-month mortgage and a shrinking bank account, Fortman packed it in and made the long trip home to Covington, where the whole adventure had started, a few years before, as just a big dream.
Call the next three years Act II. Since 1998, Fortman has slowly been making a new name for himself, not as a rock star but as a record producer. From a modest studio in Mandeville, Fortman has lent what some call his "magic ears" to albums by a long list of local rock bands.
His production work on the debut album by Mandeville modem rock band 12 Stones, which just won the group a deal with a major record label, may take Fortman back to where he once belonged: the big leagues of the recording industry.
"I need major (record) label work to make it as all independent producer, and no one's going to send it to all eight-by-10 room in Mandeville," fie says. He and partner Gene Joanen operate Balance Productions and Recording Studios from a...