Producer/accordionist Joey Miskulin has packed several careers into his life so far. Since his start as a teen accordion ace in the early '60s, he's recorded with artists as varied as U2, Garth Brooks, Townes Van Zandt and Ricky Skaggs. And with his current combo, the classic cowboy group Riders in the Sky, he's also recorded and produced music for Pixar Animation Studios hits such as Toy Story 2 and The Incredibles.

Joey Miskulin

Joey was just 13 when "America's Polka King," Frank Yankovic, hired him to play accordion and B3 organ. He toured with Yankovic's band for five years and played some of the biggest venues in Las Vegas. "I started with Frank in 1962 and continued to do things with him until he passed away," says Miskulin. "He really put polka music on the map—back in 1948. His song 'Just Because,' became a million-seller. You must remember, there was no rock 'n' roll back then. People were looking for a real happy kind of music, and polka fit the bill."

From the beginning, Miskulin strove to develop his own distinctive musical style. "The accordion is a very easy instrument to pick up and play," he says. "But it's very difficult to play well. You can pick out a few notes or play some ethnic music, but to treat it as an instrument is a different matter. I never tried to be an accordion player—I always tried to be a musician who used the accordion as an instrument. I listened to Benny Goodman's and Artie Shaw's clarinet work, Tommy Dorsey's trombone phrasing. I never wanted to play strictly 'accordion music,' the 'Lady of Spain' kind of thing."

In the late '60s, Miskulin began performing and recording with other groups, including a Hawaiian jazz combo, with whom he visited parts of Asia. By 1987, tired of touring, he became a producer and relocated to Nashville. "I decided I did not want any more road," he remembers. "I was burned out. Then I met Too Slim from Riders in the Sky." It was a natural fit, and Joey soon joined the group. "It was so wonderful to just play music again, without the constraints of making 'radio-friendly' records."

In 1999, another door opened when composer Randy Newman asked Riders in the Sky to record a song for Pixar's hit animated movie, Toy Story 2. "It took us all about a millisecond to yell out 'Yes!'" Joey recalls. "We recorded the song in LA and I later mixed it at Skywalker. The folks at Pixar are the best of the best—the most creative, most wonderful people I've ever worked with."

Thanks to the success of Toy Story 2 and the song "Woody's Roundup," Pixar suggested that Riders in the Sky make an album about the characters in the movie. "I did that album on my Yamaha O2R mixing board, and it went on to win a GRAMMY®," Miskulin says. The Pixar connection continued. In subsequent years, Miskulin also produced a Riders in the Sky song for the Oscar-winning short For the Birds, which screened as a prelude to the Monsters, Inc. feature. Then another for the short before The Incredibles. Most recently, Pixar tapped Miskulin to write and produce a polka for a scene in their upcoming feature, Cars.

The Yamaha O2R96 mixing console is an essential part of Miskulin's production toolbox. "I love it!" he says. "Besides the Toy Story 2 album, I produced two GRAMMY®-nominated Yankovic albums on the original O2R. And I did the Cars song on the O2R96. It makes everything so simple. It's especially marvelous for working with Nuendo. Digital is wonderful—you get out what you put in, that's the thing. For the big jobs I do as a producer, I hire an engineer—but this is something I can do myself and do it well. The 02R96 just responds to everything I want to do."

Miskulin's O2R96 is booked solid for the foreseeable future. Upcoming projects include a Christmas record for release in 2006 and possibly another Pixar album in association with Cars. "And we just completed Silver Jubilee, the 25th anniversary album for Riders in the Sky," he says. "It's a double album available on Acoustic Disc."

He's also going back on the road with Riders in the Sky. "Touring with these guys is just as fun as when I first started out," Joey says. "We've played everything from the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall to small clubs. It's just like it should be: four guys on the road having a grand time, enjoying each other's company."