It's 10:30 a.m. and a just-awakened Joe Harvard stares into a mirror taped to the living room wall in his Saratoga Street apartment. "God, I look terrible," says Harvard as he combs back his shoulder-length brown hair with his fingers. One of his four cats, Crowbar jumps off a guitar amplifier, while the other three, Soup, Ringo and Cleo chase each other in the kitchen. As Harvard eats what he calls the "breakfast of Champions" (a chocolate Yodel and a pepsi) he muses over the twisted path taking him from being a kid hanging out of the street cormers of East Boston's Jeffries Point,to being one of the best-known independent music producers in the country.

Harvard 31, whose real name is Joseph Incagnoli, was recently named "Top Local Producer" of 1989 in a Boston Phoenix WFNX-FM local music poll. And his two recording studios Fort Apache South in Roxbury and Fort Apache North in Cambridge - have become nationally-known stomping grounds for musicians on the cutting edge of the underground music scene. The Pixies, Throwing Muses and Treat Her Right have all recorded there. David Bowie almost recorded his last Tin Machine album there, but recorded in Australia instead for tax reasons. And Harvard, who is a singer and guitarist himself, has produced outstanding independent albums including Treat Her Right's "Last Train" the Neats' "Crash at Crush"; the Turbine's "Magic Fingers and Hourly Rates"; and the Throwing Muses' "Fish" video. Harvard has also produced demo tapes for Dogzilla, Gwar, Lifeboat, the Real Kids and Pink Cadillac, among others.

The Jeffries Point native is now on the verge of completing an album of his own music, tentatively titled "Country Eastern," which should be on the record shelves by early summer. But today, Harvard seems more concerned about the toy train set his girlfriend recently bought him, which is taking up the entire guest room of his one-bedroom apartment. "Oh-oh, I lost a couple of cars there," he says, fiddling with the controls of the Amerland train, trying to get the train to go in reverse. "I love toys," he explains. "Sometimes I think I'm going through a second childhood." Harvard's real childhood in Jeffries Point was in a "real neighborhood and a real Italian family," he says.

Harvard's the youngest son of Mary "Mae Mae," 71, and local Eastie sports hero Joe "Shoemaker" Incagnoli, a former semi-pro football player with the East Boston Tornadoes. An all-around athlete, Harvard's father - a retired construction worker -was an unbeatable sandlot athlete and in 1954 won the Michael Milano Memorial Sandlot Player of the Year Award. Harvard was a brilliant student at Don Bosco High School and was on his way toward becoming an archeologist with a degree from Harvard University (from which he graduated in 1982). But Harvard chose rock over rocks. "I'm not saying I'll never be an archeologist," says Harvard, as he leaves an Oriental Food Store he frequents regularly on Mass Ave., around the corner from Fort Apache North. "That's always a possiblity- that I may become an archeologist someday down the line. I just don't want to be 40 years old and looking back, wondering if I could have made it in the music business". Walking toward the studio, located in a warehouse just outside Davis Square on the Somerville/Cambridge line, Harvard rips open a plastic bag of burdock root, a pickled Oriental vegetable used as a garnish for sushi. Harvard eats the whole package. "I guess you could say I have a compulsive personality," he says, chewing on the orange, tentacle-like vegetable.

Harvard is compulsive. He's a compulsive collector of things. He owns over 20 guitars, he has a mint collection of more than 100 Matchbox cars (not counting the 100 or so "seconds" he has in a plastic collection box next to his train set), he collects albums ("music transcends language barriers in an almost spiritual way; that's why I like ethnic music"), and most of all, he collects pop culture memorabilia which covers the wall of his Cambridge office.Among his prized possessions is an autographed picture of the Munsters TV show cast (signed by every cast member except Marilyn), which hangs next to a rare comic book "Hansi, The Girl Who Loved the Swastika." His "good luck box," part of which takes a portion of his office wall, is filled with gnomes, dinosaurs, toy soldiers and other trinkets he has picked up on his frequent music-related trips to Europe, New York and Los Angeles. For the past several months, Harvard has been compulsively working on finishing his first album. So far Harvard has laid down the basic tracks for 17 songs, with covers that include "The Rumble," an obscure 1950's rock song by Link Wray; a slowed-down version of "Another Girl, Another Planet," by the Only Ones; "Sinkhole" by the Throwing Muses; and "Bridgeport Lathe" by the Two by Fours. Harvard's original material, songs like "Twice A Day," "24-Hour Divorce," and "20 Pounds of Love" have a distinctly country, bluesy sound, hence the title "Country Eastern." His music is in sharp contrast to the punk rock he played while a rebellious college student, (which earned him the nickname Joe Harvard) bands with names like Baby's Arm and Unnatural Axe, (with whom he competed in the first rock and roll rumble) and began hanging around the now-defunct "Record Garage" in Harvard Square, a gathering place for local musicians.

He earned the nickname " Joe Harvard" after he shaved his head one night in a "drunken stupor" during a party in the Harvard Dorms. "I walked into the Record Garage the next morning with the shaved head and everybody said "Who the heck is that? Then one guy said 'That's Joe... you know, Joe Harvard' ", he recalls. The nickname stuck, although he never really changed his name, all his mail is addressed to Joe Harvard, he is listed as Joe Harvard in the phone book, and to everyone who knows him, he is Joe Harvard. "It's a business thing now," he says. "I'm proud of my real last name and I'm proud of being Italian. But Harvard is much easier to remember...Besides, everyone knows me as Joe Harvard now and it would be hard for them to learn my real last name."

After graduating from Harvard University with honors in archeology, he played in various bands and worked odd jobs for a few years (including a stint as an archeologist in New York), until pooling his recording equipment together with three friends in a warehouse in Roxbury. The studio was dubbed Fort Apache because of the dangerous neighborhood it was in. It began as an eight-track cooperative recording studio, with band members sharing equipment. But as local bands discovered the studio, it soon became a thriving business, owned by Harvard, and expanded to a 16- track studio.

Two years ago, Harvard joined forces with Gary Smith (who now owns 25 percent of the studio), and opened Fort Apache North, in Cambridge, a state-of-the-art 24 track recording studio. Fort Apache North offers it's own engineers, as well as six inhouse producers. "The Fort is the best independent recording studio in the country," says Dogzilla bass player Andy McGuire whose band recorded their last album there. "In Boston, Fort Apache is the place to record. Now musicians all over the country are discovering the studios and are flocking to record here".

Fort Apache did $300,000 in business last year. Some say it's Harvard's way with people and his genuine concern for local music that has helped make the studio successful. "He (Harvard) has a wonderful way of sizing up a band and he's good at making sure the attitude of the band is kept fresh," says Clark Dark, former drummer of the band The Dark, and now business manager of Fort Apache. "It's very rare for a producer to have both of those qualities. He has a way of putting a band at ease. That is very important, especially during a 10 hour recording session where tempers can flare."

Harvard may be one of the top local producers, but he says he wants to be known as a top performer. For the past year, Harvard, along with his new band members, have been playing in local clubs including the "Plough and Stars" Pub in Cambridge (where he played every Monday until recently). Harvard says he played his first outdoor concert, when he was in high school, with John and Rick Risti (now of the band Streetkid) on the Jeffries Point waterfront, their amplifiers "competing with the roaring planes," he says.

Harvard says it was older neighborhood role models like guitarist Gerry Twooney, the "Clapton" of Jeffries Point, and later musicians like bass player Bob Campagna and guitarist Damian Cardinale who got him interested in music. "Growing up in East Boston , I had a lot of role models, especially my mother and father." Harvard says. One entire wall of Harvard's Cambridge office is covered with plaques and trophies his father won through sports. My father is an amazing man...both of my parents are great and have been very supportive, " says Harvard, as he thumbs through his father's scrapbook which he keeps on his desk. " I like to keep a lot of things that remind me of East Boston in my office. Growing up in Eastie there are certain things you take with you like family and community. I feel like my family and Eastie watch my back in an almost a spiritual way."

Harvard says his eventual goal is to get the city of Boston permission to convert the old Department of Public Works Building on Sumner Street into a "multi-media center for neighborhood teenagers where they could learn about music, video making and art. "It's funny; growing up in East Boston, I never dreamed I would make a career in the music business. 'Eastie guy goes to Harvard' is one thing, but Eastie guy becomes a rock and roll star? I kinda like that", he says with a smile.

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