He is best-known for producing, engineering and mixing albums recorded by a variety of bands from the mid-to-late 1980s and 1990s, including the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, Alice in Chains, Social Distortion, the Offspring, Anthrax, Fishbone, the Meat Puppets and Spinal Tap.

[2] Jerden developed his engineering and mixing skills at Eldorado Recording Studios in Hollywood, California, beginning in the late 1970s.

[2] He engineered and mixed acclaimed and successful records by artists such as Talking Heads, David Byrne, Frank Zappa, Mick Jagger, The Rolling Stones and many others.

Music Radar stated that these albums went against the prevailing sonic qualities of the day—dominated as it was by "hair metal bands"—and that Jerden had an important hand in shaping such genre-defining sounds.

"[7] By the mid-1990s, Jerden felt overwhelmed by the trappings of his success and decided to "lie low": working on occasional projects, but primarily experimenting with recording equipment involved in the transition from digital to analogue domains.