After working briefly in mechanical engineering, Magoo began in music as a live sound engineer, touring nationally before producing seasoned local Brisbane bands the Dreamkillers and
Pangaea in the early 1990s. By the mid-1990s Magoo had recorded music by
Powderfinger, as well as two EPs by
Regurgitator. He rose to prominence with his production work on Regurgitator's debut album
Tu-Plang, which also earned him his first
ARIA award nominations in 1996. In the late 1990s, Magoo was engaged to produce or engineer for a number of high-profile acts such as
Midnight Oil and
Skunkhour. In 1998, Magoo won the ARIA awards for both production and engineering, the former for his work on the Regurgitator album
Unit, and the latter as a collective award for his work with
Midnight Oil,
Regurgitator and
Skunkhour. He also produced records for
Custard (
Loverama) and ARIA-nominated artists
Not From There,
Jebediah, and
Shihad; as well as records for Australian artists
Front End Loader,
Happyland,
Screamfeeder,
Sekiden,
Isis,
Dave McCormack and the Polaroids,
The Boat People,
Gota Cola, and
Broken Head. From 2002 to 2010, Magoo established his own recording facility, Black Box Recording, with Brisbane producer/engineer Jeff Lovejoy, continuing to work with classic Australian acts, such as
Regurgitator,
Spiderbait,
Gerling, and
Renee Geyer,
End of Fashion,
Dan Kelly and the Alpha Males, and
Butterfingers. From August 31 to September 21, 2004, Magoo was part of a recording experiment conceived by Paul Curtis and Regurgitator in Federation Square, Melbourne. Referred to as
Band in a Bubble, the project was a televised event on
Channel V and captured the recording process for 24 hours a day, 21 days continuously. In 2007, Magoo received ARIA award nominations for his work with
Kate Miller-Heidke and
Operator Please. Between 2007 and 2014, Magoo co-owned Applewood Lane—a boutique recording retreat, west of Brisbane, which was set in a converted church. He produced and recorded with artists
the Jungle Giants, Saskwatch,
Art Vs Science,
Tex Perkins and the Dark Horses,
An Horse and
The Gin Club. Applewood Lane closed in 2014, and Magoo continues to mix and record for independent artists. In 2017, Magoo served as a judge for Happy Mag's inaugural Needle In The Hay vinyl competition. In 2018 Magoo was awarded a PhD from the
Queensland University of Technology. His dissertation was entitled "Space, time, creativity, and the changing character of the recording studio: Spatiotemporal attitudes toward 'DIY' recording". Magoo is currently a lecturer in Contemporary Music at the
University of the Sunshine Coast. ==Awards and nominations==