Chet Chambers
Studio Manager

In addition to managing our talented Studio Team, Chet is Producer/Engineer for many of our Songwriter and Artist album projects. He was Sweetwater’s first full-time producer and studio manager beginning since the earth cooled (1983) and has enjoyed the privilege of producing hundreds of projects for Sweetwater’s artist clients and corporate clients.

Chet is married to Sherri, enjoys playing with his 10-year old daughter, Hunter, and is very involved in music and worship at the church he attends.

Arranging, producing music, and being involved in the “creative process” with other musicians is Chet’s “dream job” that he has always wanted to do since his pre-teen years, which seems like an awful long time ago, (perhaps because it was a long time ago).

Sweetwater’s Studios are the perfect playground for him to romp in daily.

Julie Doust
Administrative Assistant

Julie is an indispensable part of our staff. As Studio Receptionist and Administrative Assistant Extraordinaire, her many duties include reading minds, dodging bullets, and otherwise doing the impossible. And when she's not leaping tall buildings in a single bound, she's also responsible for the studio's billing, scheduling, ordering materials, handling of pressings and duplication, and coordinating vendors. In short, we are convinced that Julie is really in fact, Wonder Woman in disguise.

Chris Liepe
Producer / Engineer

Chris is our main Producer / Engineer / Writer for audio marketing tools, corporate music and band projects. He is also called on to help with album projects and spot production where needed.

Chris holds a B.S. in Music Technology from the University of Colorado at Denver. Prior to coming to Sweetwater, he worked at the Aspen Music Festival and School, freelanced for churches, and ran his own production company.  

When not working to provide great music for artists and agencies, he enjoys spending time with his wife, being outside (in good weather), racquettball, and playing with his cats. He also collects fake frogs.  

Justin Zellers
Producer / Engineer

Justin’s chief responsibilities (at Sweetwater) include producing message on hold and radio spots. He also works on many of our hip-hop and R&B projects, as well as being called upon to help engineer album projects on occasion.

JZ (as he’s known in the biz), graduated from Ball State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree from their renowned Telecommunications department. While attending BSU, Justin was a producer and lead audio engineer for BSU LateNite, and also had a radio show on WCRD.  As a capstone to his college education, Justin interned here at Sweetwater Productions before being hired as a full-time engineer.

In his spare time, Justin enjoys watching CNN (as he’s a self-proclaimed news junky), obsessing over Apple Computer products, eating Taco Bell, ‘singing’ karaoke, and of course, listening to music. Some of Justin’s favorite bands/artists are Pink Floyd, Neil Young, The Who, Steely Dan, The Eagles, and Led Zeppelin.  JZ also admires the artistry of Jim Nabors and Michael Jackson, but you didn’t hear that from us...

Banner Kidd
Studio Account Executive

Banner's history with Sweetwater began back in the early 80's in late night recording sessions with his band and Sweetwater CEO, Chuck Surack.  

Banner is an integral part of the creative team, helping to advance the level of cutting edge custom music and audio marketing tools for radio, TV, video and 'yet to be thought of' corporate applications. His many years of audio and marketing experience help him to be a top-notch liason between our clients and our production team.

In his spare time (yeah right!) Banner is a songwriter, blog author, co-hosts an internet Bible teaching podcast, and plays bass in his church worship team.  Banner and his wife of 27 years have four children and live in Stroh, Indiana.

Give Banner a call for all your corporate audio and music needs.
Be forewarned, Banner has been known to sing "The Star Spangled Banner" to clients over the phone to help them remember his name. We apologize in advance.

Jeff Steeg
Studio Engineer/Producer

Jeff Steeg serves as an experienced Engineer/Producer for many Sweetwater projects including live recordings, band demos, and custom album projects.

Jeff graduated from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music-Recording Arts program.  While at IU, Jeff logged over 500 hours of live concert recordings and studio projects.  He also served as a Production Assistant for the Recording Arts department, working on quality control and preparing recordings for delivery.  

In his time away from Sweetwater, Jeff enjoys spending time with his wife, family, and friends.  In addition to spending time with family he is an avid IU basketball fan and has hopes of joining the PGA if only they would increase par to 84.  Some of his favorite musicians include Stevie Wonder, Joshua Redman, Pat Metheny, Sonny Bono and John Mayer.

Ben Boxberger
Studio Sales Assistant

Ben is a Fort Wayne native, and a 1992 Bishop Luers High School product. He graduated from IU in 2003 with a degree in Kinesiology. Prior to coming to Sweetwater Ben served as a college recruiter for Indiana Tech and sold advertising for the St Francis University Football team. Ben is the resident trivia expert of the studio team - at least in two areas. He can recite all the winners of all 41 Super Bowl games and has an amazing grasp of music history from the 80's! Ben lives in Fort Wayne and has a daughter named Riley. He is a vital part of the Sweetwater Productions Team.