John Loder (sound engineer)
| John Loder | |
|---|---|
| Born |
7 April 1946 Newton Abbot, Devon, England |
| Died |
12 August 2005 (aged 59) London, England |
| Occupation(s) | Audio engineer, record producer |
| Associated acts | Crass |
John F. Loder (7 April 1946 – 12 August 2005) was an English sound engineer, record producer and founder of Southern Studios, as well as a former member of EXIT and co-founder of the Southern Records distribution company with his wife Sue. He was also the studio engineer of choice for Crass Records, and was often considered to be the band's "ninth member".[1]
Loder was born near Plymouth and educated at boarding school before studying electrical engineering at London's City University. During his post-graduate work there, he became involved in early experiments in digital encoding of audio for the military. By 1970 he had joined EXIT, alongside Penny Rimbaud, utilising a one-track tape-recorder. This led to Loder eventually founding a record studio in his garage after the disbanding of EXIT in 1974. Loder was recording advertising jingles in 1977 when his path crossed once again with Rimbaud, who had by then co-founded Crass, and at this point invited Loder to become the band's engineer and financial manager, roles Loder happily accepted.
When Crass founded their own record label, Loder worked as an engineer on most of the label's releases, and when Loder saw potential in a number of bands turned away by Crass Records due to ideological differences, Loder set up Southern Records.
Loder engineered and produced for many bands other than Crass, among them The Jesus and Mary Chain, for whom he engineered the recordings of the Psychocandy album, Big Black's Songs About Fucking, PJ Harvey, Babes in Toyland, Fugazi, Ministry and Shellac. In the mid-1980s, Loder established a television production facility at Southern. Its notable output included the music show Snub TV, which after first being syndicated nationwide in the USA, went on to further success on BBC2 and in other countries.
Loder was responsible for encouraging and establishing independent alternative internet ezines, donating the use of Southern's servers and bandwidth, taking part in pioneering online media streaming and simulcasting.
Loder died of a brain tumour in 2005, aged 59.
References
- ↑ Penny Rimbaud. "Obituary: John Loder". The Guardian. Retrieved 2014-08-21.
Sources
- Rimbaud, Penny (19 August 2005). "John Loder". The Guardian.
- Mikko Kapanen. "members of the mary chain". April Skies The Jesus and Mary Chain (A Fan Site). Retrieved August 19, 2005.
- "In Memoriam: Southern Records founder John Loder (1946-2005)". Punknews.org. Retrieved August 19, 2005.
- "The "Dean" of Alternative Rock Engineers Steve Albini—Way Back in 1993—Part II". Musicangle.com interview with Steve Albini by Michael Fremer. Retrieved August 19, 2005.