A Pretty Phair Producer

Does it make any difference to you whether a record was produced by Brad Wood or by Ed Wood?

Record companies are banking that enough people do care--and that’s why they’re showering offers on Brad Wood, rock’s hottest young producer.

Wood, 30, produced both of Liz Phair’s acclaimed albums and the heralded debut by Veruca Salt. That success has placed Wood alongside Butch Vig (Nirvana’s “Nevermind”), Steve Albini (Nirvana’s “In Utero”) and Brendan O’Brien (Pearl Jam) on alternative-rock’s A-list.

“It’s always been busy at the studio I run, but now it’s at a different level,” Wood says. “Mostly it’s a difference in who I talk to and all the extra zeros (on the checks).”

That’s a long way from recent times--Wood basically did Phair’s debut, “Exile in Guyville,” for free, charging just for studio time and not his own services. And for the three months he spent working on Veruca Salt’s “American Thighs,” he billed the band just $5,000 to cover expenses.

Now he has a production deal with Capitol Records, scored during the label bidding war for Phair--though Phair herself stayed with the Atlantic-distributed Matador. (Wood’s currently in Atlanta, producing the new Capitol band Mother.) And artists are ringing his phone off the hook to discuss their upcoming projects.

But do fans care who produces an album?

“Some people will buy, for example, anything that Steve Albini produces,” says Karen Glauber, post-modern editor for Hits magazine. “People have that kind of loyalty. Brad’s catalogue isn’t that deep yet, but he has managed to make records, especially with women, that don’t sound contrived.”

A trained classical and jazz musician, Wood set up his Idful Music studio in Chicago seven years ago and quickly became an active player in the Windy City’s rock scene, best known as the home of Smashing Pumpkins.

Wood has a reputation as a quick worker--he claims to have produced 50 albums in the last year. With Veruca Salt, though, he encouraged the band to take its time, and the project, originally slated for 10 days, lasted three months.

Even with more demands on his time and higher stakes on the line, Wood says he hopes to be able to keep working in his old way.

“If a band is totally broke and I like it, sometimes I’ll pay out of my own pocket,” he says. “And whenever I do that, good things always come back to me.”