# Steven Machat

Steven Machat (born October 18, 1952) is an American entertainment mogul, lawyer, and the producer of Bird on a Wire, the documentary film of the Leonard Cohen 1972 European tour. In addition, he is the co-founder of SSK Records.

## Biography

Machat was born in Manhattan, New York, to Roslyn Golden Machat and Marty Machat, known for representing artists such as Phil Spector, Sam Cooke, and The Rolling Stones. He attended University of Miami as an undergraduate, where he studied accounting, and then attended Vanderbilt University Law School.
Machat is an entertainment mogul. Specializing in music and movies and producing worldwide live music and theatre shows. His clients have included Electric Light Orchestra, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Ready for the World, Leonard Cohen, Phil Spector, Snoop Dogg, New Edition, Bobby Brown, Manu DiBango, Rita Lee, and from Sweden, Yung Lean and The Sad Boys. In addition, he was associated with Jet Record Business in legal affairs from 1978 to 1985.
In London, Machat wrote the book Gods, Gangsters and Honour, filled with stories about the celebrities he worked for. Machat wrote the book to share the light he discovered handling the careers of many of the top icons of the music industry. The first edition of the book was published in the UK by Beautiful Books Limited (UK) in August 2009. He also published Unraveling the Bible in 2023. The book focuses on the alternative perspective on the creation of mankind based on his research of different religions, cultures, and traditions, which he learned during his travels. According to Machat, all religions in the world came from a shared, and a single source, and the spread of this realization can free the world from wars, discrimination, hate, and poverty.
Machat lectured across Europe and the United Kingdom at universities, including both Oxford University and Cambridge University, as well as at musical festivals and book fairs.In 1990, Machat became a co-owner of Acid Jazz Records, where served until 1994. He served as a co-owner of Hippos in Tanks, an innovative record label that fostered groundbreaking artists like Grimes and Arca, alongside his son Barron Machat and his associates from 2011 until Barron's tragic death in a car accident in 2015.
In 2021, Machat announced his return to the music industry with the label SSK Records, which he co-founded with his wife, Debbie Kuhn Veltri Machat. The 2025 Roster of Artist who will be touring the world includes Jesus Aguaje Ramos and his Buena Vista Orchestra, The Gulls, Cubanismo, and Kiko and Gypsy Land and Issac Ryan Brown.

## Background

Machat has a traditional law background; he graduated from Vanderbilt Law School and the University of Miami Business School. At Vanderbilt, he got his feet wet in the real legal system as a public defender in Davidson County, Tennessee for 2 years. He started his commercial career in 1978 as a law partner with his father Marty Machat at their law firm Machat & Machat in New York, Los Angeles, and London.
Machat has ventured into the creative and business process of theatre, movies, and movie soundtracks. These include "Elvis" with West London Production; Private Lives with Elizabeth Taylor; Flashdance, Streetfighter, and Judge Dredd with Stan Lee Properties; HOPE, an album with the Dalai Lama dedicated to Peace, and the award-winning musical documentary Bird on a Wire about Leonard Cohen's travels from Dublin, Ireland to Tel Aviv, Israel. Machan's film Saving The Motherland is an epic Russian World War II drama centered around the Battle of Stalingrad. Next up is the documentary Climate Live, in which Steven draws into sharp focus the irretrievable damage mankind has inflicted on the planet. He is also on the advisory board of the web series God's Gang.
Machat has written 9 books: Highways of Man – The Odyssey Almanac; Man, Community & Living The American Dream; Gods, Gangsters and Honor: A Rock 'n' Roll Odyssey; Sacred Knowledge, A Rock 'n' Roller's Guide to Higher Consciousness, Spiritual Insomnia, The Colonization of Earth, The Making of Man, The Creation of Ozzy, The History of Viruses and Taking Jesus off The Cross.
In 2016, Machat ran for the U.S. Senate as an independent in Florida. In 2018, he ran for Congress in Florida’s 26th district as a progressive Democrat. His press secretary in 2018 was the activist and writer Al R. Suarez, who was in charge of his 2016 campaign in Tampa.

## Personal life

Machat was married to Lisa Benson Torres from 1979 to 2006. The couple had two children Margaux Lorraine Machat (born 1983) and Barron Alexander Machat (born 1987 – died 2015). He then married Mischa Marie Estrada in 2011 and divorced in 2014. Since 2022, Machat has been married to Debbie Kuhn Veltri Machat, who is also his business associate at SKK Records.
He lost his son Barron, the co-founder and co-owner of the record label Hippos in Tanks, in a car accident in April 2015.

## Publications

* I Can Hear Music: The Heroes and Villains of the Muses
* Highways of Man – The Odyssey Almanac
* Man, Community & Living The American Dream
* Gods, Gangsters and Honor: A Rock 'n' Roll Odyssey
* Sacred Knowledge – A Rock N Rollers Guide to Higher Consciousness
* Spiritual Insomnia
* The Creation of Ozzy,
* The History of Viruses
* Taking Jesus off The Cross.
* We’ve Got to Get Out of This Place
* Unraveling the Bible
* Revelations

## Filmography

| Year(s) | Title(s) | Credit(s) |
| 1974 | Bird on a Wire | Producer |
| 1977 | Elvis | music producer |
| 1983 | Flash Dance | music producer |
| 1984 | Paper Dolls | actor (as Steven Elliot) |
| 1994 | Street Fighter | music attorney: CAPCOM |
| 1995 | Judge Dredd | executive music supervisor |
| 1996 | Caught | executive music supervisor |
| 1997 | Shadow Conspiracy | music consultant |
| 1997 | This World, Then the Fireworks | music consultant |
| 1997 | Warriors of Virtue | executive music producer |
| 2001 | Bully | executive soundtrack producer |
| 2006 | Racin’ for a Livin’ | executive music producer |
| 2006 | Splinter | Producer |
| 2007 | One Long Night | executive music producer |
| 2010 | Tapping the Source | executive producer |
| 2019 | 321-ya sibirskaya | co-producer and voice-over artist |