Whom of the great masters have you been diggin into, Mike?

I've spent the summer upping my game on the production side of things, as well as trying to write more pop'ish music.

Particularly I've been reading Sound on Sounds' Mike Senior, who is doing the mix rescue series in SOS. His book "Mixing Secrets" is plain awesome! http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-small-studio-Senior/dp/0240815807

My experience trying to write pop is that it's hard to make the right arrangement desicions, coming from the rock side of things, and that it takes a lot of discipline to control my musician ego, toning down guitars and focusing more on repetitive hook lines.

That's very useful for me!