Hentschel was born in Sussex. His career began at Trident Studios in London where he was initially an assistant before rising to become one of the in-house producers. In addition to engineering and production credits, Hentschel also played early synthesizers with a diverse range of bands including Nazareth, Pilot and Byzantium. He played synthesizer on several high-profile recordings, including Elton John's "Rocket Man" and "Funeral for a Friend" from the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album. "Funeral for a Friend" featured an early analogue synthesizer, the ARP 2500, to create tonal feeling and effect. After leaving Trident in 1974, he produced his own album Sta*rtling Music for Ringo Starr's short-lived record label, Ring O' Records, consisting of a song-by-song, instrumental cover of Starr's album Ringo and featuring performances by Phil Collins, David Cole, Ronnie Caryl, John Gilbert and Starr. He then began a successful collaboration with the band Genesis which resulted in four albums beginning with A Trick of the Tail in 1976 and continuing through Duke in 1980. In 1975, he recorded 'Oh My My', an instrumental/keyboard version of Ringo Starr's 1973 song. In 1982, Hentschel collaborated with lyricist Don Black on a song cycle album for Marti Webb to follow her success with Tell Me on a Sunday. I'm Not That Kind of Girl was released in 1983. Despite including the talent of Phil Collins on drums and Kiki Dee on backing vocals, it failed to chart and was Webb's last album for Polydor. In 1988, Hentschel produced and engineered the Grammy Award-winning album Politics, by the jazz fusion band Yellowjackets. Hentschel also wrote the scores for the Lewis Gilbert films Operation Daybreak, Seven Nights in Japan, Educating Rita and The Squeeze. Relocating to Los Angeles in 1985, he established one of the first dedicated MIDI studios and worked with Ensoniq on developing instruments and custom sounds. Now living back in England he continues to produce, compose and arrange on both sides of the Atlantic. Hentschel has recently worked as an engineer, musician, producer and arranger for a number of Contemporary Christian music artists including Out of Eden, Jennifer Knapp, Point of Grace and P.O.D.. Hentschel has recently produced prog/harp band Art in America which was recorded in Los Angeles. He is also heavily involved in developing new artists.
Discography
1975 – Startling Music – Starring Phil Collins on drums and percussions, David Cole also on drums, Ronnie Caryl on acoustic and electric guitars, Jack D. Glenliver and Richard Starkey on Finger Clicks and David Hentschel on piano and keyboards.
