In Detroit, Riley worked as a recording engineer at a studio where funk artists George Clinton and Sly Stone recorded. His engineering credits include Parliament's Trombipulation (1980) and Funkadelic's The Electric Spanking of War Babies (1981). He moved to Chicago in 1982 and became bassist in the punk band Savage Beliefs, who released one EP, The Moral Efficiency of Savage Beliefs (1983).
In Detroit, Riley worked as an audio engineer at a studio where influential funk artists such as George Clinton and Sly Stone recorded. His notable engineering credits include Parliament's Trombipulation (1980) and Funkadelic's The Electric Spanking of War Babies (1981). He then joined the punk band Savage Beliefs in Chicago in 1982, contributing to their EP release, The Moral Efficiency of Savage Beliefs (1983).