Sal Villanueva

Sal Villaneuva is an Italian-American record producer. A stalwart of the music scene for years, Villaneuva cut his teeth in the New York hardcore scene, playing in various bands including Demonspeed and Murphy's Law. Currently he is the bassplayer for Joe Coffee, the new band of ex-Sheer Terror mastermind Paul Bearer.

Villanueva discovered his talents as a producer in the midst of the boot camp recording sessions of the New York's Hardest compilation series done at the Big Blue Meenie Recording Studios. In the fall of 1999, Thursday's lead vocalist, Geoff Rickly, approached Villanueva to produce the band's Eyeball debut Waiting. Since then he has produced almost all of the band's recordings, including their major label debut War All the Time for Island/Def Jam.

Following the success of Thursday's Full Collapse, Victory Records approached Villanueva to work with and develop Long Island emo band, Taking Back Sunday. The band's debut album, Tell All Your Friends, not only sold over 900,000 copies, but also became Victory's fastest and biggest selling record to date. Taking Back Sunday's Notes from the Past also contains a song called "The Ballad of Sal Villanueva".