The Production Pride of Canada

by quarnoz, posted in Metal, Pop Music, Punk, Rock

When I saw that July the 1st was approaching, I felt the urge to put something Canadian together.

Canada Day could probably hold a more special place in my heart, but no matter what country you are born or raised in, you keep getting mixed signals about how much nationalism one is supposed to have. Some think national pride is a good thing because it’s a uniting force that can make the country look great or important on the world stage, while others say it’s bad because they’ll say it overlooks the negative aspects of how certain countries were built or that the extremes of nationalism verge into xenophobia. At the end of the day, Canada Day is simply a day off work for most, and a day to relax.

I’m using the upcoming holiday to reflect on how different Canadians have impacted the music landscape over the years. This is a music blog, after all, so it’s not as if I’m planning on discussing the complexities of Canadian settler and indigenous community politics or the true origins of the Nanaimo bar. I’ll let more educated people handle those topics (especially the former). What I’m on about today is the production side of music.

You never hear much talked about producers, the ones that share great responsibility for getting the best out of musicians onto recordings. Well, maybe you do, but just not nearly as much as the musicians. To use a hockey metaphor, they are like the head coach of the recording session. Many musicians, if left to their own devices, may not be able to put together a good album even if they have songs ready to record even if they know the “rules of the game” (how to write songs, a cursory knowledge of mixing, etc.). The producer often acts as a voice external from the band who can offer up constructive criticism and their well-trained ears to help (along with recording engineers, mixers, etc.) an artist’s songs go from good to great in addition to providing structure to their studio time. Like hockey players (and coaches), there are several producers out there that happen to be Canadian. Even ignoring the Canadian Content rules the country puts in place for airplay quotas, the work these talents I’m focusing on helped shape would have cracked Canadian radio and climb the nation’s charts regardless. In fact, many of the projects they have helmed in the studio were worldwide successes.

For the time being, I’ll cut it off and discuss nine different producers that came from the Great White North.

Bruce Fairbairn

If you were to make a family tree-style chart of producers associated with this man (some of the “branches” I’ll touch on later), this figurative tree would provide enough cover for an impressive range of artists in pop and rock music based on their collective body of work. It’s because of this that Bruce Fairbairn (not to be confused for the actor of the same name) is the first of the lot that I’m featuring.

Beginning his music journey as a trumpeter, Bruce cut his professional teeth with a series of Canadian rock bands that would eventually evolve to become Prism, serving as the horn section as well as producer, beginning on the 1977 debut album co-producing with Rodney Higgs (more on him later). It was with Prism he saw his first major form of acclaim in earning a Producer of the Year Juno award (Canadian equivalent of the Grammys) for their Armageddon album. Around this time, other noteworthy countrymen were seeking his services. Fairbairn would help launch Loverboy’s career with their work in the studio that started with their 1980 debut album, with his skills also earning him writing credits on songs including the hit “Hot Girls In Love”.

As Loverboy broke internationally, so too did Bruce. Slippery When Wet by Bon Jovi is likely the largest-selling album that Fairbairn produced, with it’s current total sales surpassing 12 million in the United States in addition to going Platinum in at least eight other countries. The producer-band partnership followed this by a comparative let-down at a mere 7 million US units sold for New Jersey, but I’m sure only the most parasitic of record executives would lose any sleep over that dip. While he’d help guide these younger bands, more established acts were also known to give him a call. His time with Aerosmith is likely how I first heard of him. Permanent Vacation was considered their true comeback album, their first on the heels of the Run-DMC collaboration and the second that brought their Tyler-Perry-Whitford-Hamilton-Kramer lineup together after Done With Mirrors, and he’d also manage the Pump and Get A Grip sessions. AC/DC’s The Razor’s Edge (another Fairbairn gig) did very well for the band, featuring perhaps what would be considered their last truly big radio song in “Thunderstruck”.

Being as in-demand as he was, you’ve got an interesting array of deeper discography cuts by several major artists of the ‘70s and ‘80s worked with later into the ‘90s, such as Face the Heat by Scorpions, Balance by Van Halen (though this was a hit at the time going 3x Platinum, it flies under the radar today), and Elegantly Wasted by INXS. This also includes the final album he was working on, The Ladder by Yes, during which he died suddenly in the mixing phase of the project.

Bob Rock

I planned on beginning with Bob Rock, who was not just the first producer that I knew to be Canadian, but he’s the one of the first (aside from George Martin and maybe another legend or two) whose name I locked into my head as holding that job title. Bob Rock came from a punk background, with his earliest production efforts being Young Canadians, The Subhumans, and Pointed Sticks. His first proper break into the mainstream of the music industry was in the emergence of his own project The Payolas, whose “Eyes of a Stranger”, continues to date as a Canadian classic rock radio staple. He follows Bruce Fairbairn in my list here because Rock’s ascent in the studio began at the side of the late producer, with Bob’s own significant ties to the likes of Slippery When Wet and Permanent Vacation coming as an engineer.

Anybody who knows me knows where I first learned of Bob Rock, and that’s through his long-standing association with Metallica. He brought a crisp sound to the band’s studio efforts that began with a bang in their massive-selling “Black Album”, continuing that clarity with what I consider now as underrated albums for them with Load and Reload before courting much controversy for a rough-around-the-edges sound on 2003’s St. Anger. The Rock-Metallica partnership is well-documented, but that’s simply scratching the surface of his recording history. Just prior to his Metallica duties, hard rock is what Mr. Rock (which surprisingly appears to be his surname of birth) became best known for in the late-80s and early-90s as he took regular lead in the studio. He continues to maintain an extended working relationship with Motley Crüe that began on Dr. Feelgood. Other noteworthy productions of his at the time were The Cult’s Sonic Temple, Kingdom Come’s self-titled album, and the debut album of short-lived super-group Blue Murder.

Not one to be pigeon-holed into the hard rock and metal world, the range of Rock’s work tends to be forgotten. His mark on music spans quite the variety, reigning over sessions in pop-punk (Simple Plan), pop (Michael Buble, Cher), blues-rock (Colin James), and alternative rock (Our Lady Peace) among other styles.

Mike Fraser

Yet another Fairbairn disciple, Mike Fraser is primarily known as a recording engineer and mixer, with his experience stretching across many of the works previously mentioned. However, there are yet plenty of times where Mike would head some major studio sessions.

For instance, here are some of his production credits that stood out to me:

  • He would take over the production chair of AC/DC after working Fairbairn productions, co-producing Ballbreaker with Rick Rubin.
  • Was producing alongside Joe Satriani on a few of the guitarist’s solo albums as well as the second album for his Chickenfoot super-group
  • Coverdale-Page, co-producing with the duo of rock legends
  • He produced the F.U. EP by Canadian pop-punk outfit Gob, a crowd-pleaser among those at my high school back in the day
  • Strange Highways by Dio, which had him sounding as heavy as he ever did
  • Captured Poison on their Flesh & Blood album to close out the peak of the hair metal band’s popularity

The volume of his engineering, mixing, and production work is simply astounding (see his website for his discography). How he keeps it all to such a strong standard is beyond me, and the way he described it in this 2008 interview makes it seem so simple. Meanwhile, I’m wondering how a busy guy like him ever gets time to sleep!

Daniel Lanois

Back almost a decade ago when I used to see rows of discounted CDs at nearby Dollarama locations (a practice the chain seems to have phased out), I’d occasionally see copies of Acadie by Daniel Lanois, and wondered why his name was so familiar. One fast scroll through his total discography made me realize my stupidity! He was all over the place, in front of my eyes (more accurately, in my ears) on countless occasions.

Getting the obvious source out of the way would be his lengthy stint with U2 that began with The Unforgettable Fire, a co-production effort with Brian Eno. On top of working on multiple classic albums by the Irish quartet, the Hull, Quebec-born Lanois also sat in the producer’s seat for albums like Peter Gabriel’s So, the first solo album by Robbie Robertson of The Band, and Bob Dylan’s Oh Mercy (considered to be something of a comeback album).

While I know of him most for the Gabriel/U2 associations, looking more closely at his credits resulted in few surprises emerging. Jazz production seems to have a self-contained stable of producers separate from pop/rock ones, but Daniel bucked the trend by producing the debut album of the Brian Blade Fellowship. Another unexpected gig of his goes back to my childhood listening with Raffi’s More Singable Songs. I’m not sure exactly how a session for a children’s entertainer would differ than working with rock stars, but I’d imagine it to have somewhat less pressure and significantly less hangovers!

If you put stock in awards as a measure of greatness, Lanois has five Juno award wins as Producer of the Year. To translate his success into American and international terms, three albums he produced were Album of the Year winners at the Grammys: The Joshua Tree (U2), Time out of Mind (Bob Dylan), and How to Dismantle an Atom Bomb (also U2). Movie buffs might know him from another source too, as Lanois wrote the score for the Academy Award-winning 1996 film Sling Blade. And sticking with movies, though not from a universally acclaimed film, I must note (should my brother or younger sister happen to read this) that the “Prophecy Theme” in 1984’s Dune was another co-write of his.

David Bottrill

I’ll use David Bottrill to break out from the 1980s and get slightly more contemporary. That said, I’m not about to ignore his extensive body of work in that decade as he worked mainly as engineer on albums like So (with Lanois) and Joni Mitchell’s Chalk Mark In A Rain Storm.

I tend to associate David with his production in many progressive rock-related projects, including King Crimson’s Thrak, and Crimson-affiliated Sylvian/Fripp’s The First Day, but his most-popular production gig in this realm would be on Tool’s Ænima and Lateralus, held by many Tool fans to still be their greatest studio triumphs. You wouldn’t have known it from the result, but initially Bottrill (as told to the Joel Martin Mastery podcast) didn’t think they’d had the right guy for the role since he hadn’t had experience with heavier rock bands.

David has happened to work with several other artists I’ve greatly admired in some further work post-2000. He produced Silverchair’s Diorama, which I believe captured the Australian trio at their peak, and I’m glad to hear that he looks back at the experience with great fondness (as he’d recollect on Too Much of Not Enough: A Silverchair Podcast). Between the Buried and Me’s The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues and Mastodon’s most recent album Hushed and Grim also stand out to me from artists I’ve enjoyed over the years. This includes bands he worked with in mixing roles as well, altering the notoriously rough-on-the-ears mix on Rush’s Vapor Trails and getting it right the first time on The Smashing Pumpkins’ Oceania.

There’s no shortage of great-sounding albums when digging through Bottrill’s back catalog. It’s because of his selection of artists that he chooses to collaborate with that I tend to consider him a taste-maker. I learned of Belgian rock band dEUS by scrolling down a list of production credits and catching their album The Ideal Crash, and my purchase of Circa Survive’s Blue Sky Noise may have come about in the same manner. Either that or it may have been through hearing their singer Anthony Green first in The Sound of Animals Fighting, but in any case, yet another lush-sounding atmosphere Bottrill helped them reach. It’s only a matter of time before I find something else.

Jim Vallance

This one takes us back to the inter-twining branches of the Bruce Fairbairn tree (I felt you deserved a small break). Jim Vallance was a founding member of Prism alongside Fairbairn, with Vallance serving as their drummer on their first album (performing under the pseudonym Rodney Higgs). He’d walk away from the band, contributing occasional songs, but it was far from the last we’d hear from him.

He’s known best for his songwriting, namely aiding greatly in the ascent of Bryan Adams. Jim hooked up with Adams when the singer left Sweeney Todd to break out as a solo artist. The two of them in combination proved to be in-demand as writers, with some of their songs being used by Bonnie Raitt (“No Way To Treat A Lady”), Kiss (“Rock and Roll Hell” and “War Machine”), Joe Cocker (“When The Night Comes” and “Edge of a Dream”), and Juice Newton (“Can’t Wait All Night”).

He also had a hand in hundreds of songs penned by himself in collaboration with others to span a wide range of talents. He had a key part in the aforementioned Aerosmith’s ‘80s revival, joining Desmond Child and others to help co-write some of their material. He also contributed in writing big career hits for Heart (“What About Love?”), Ozzy Osbourne (“I Just Want You”), and to keep the Canadian content flowing, had a strong writing and production presence with Glass Tiger (did I ever mention that the band’s drummer lived down the road from my mom?). His well-kept website offers great detail for many of the songs he worked on, including his disappointment in Neil Diamond on “It Should Have Been Me”.

Garth Richardson (aka GGGarth)

If we really want to start talking about hip producers (sorry, not The Tragically Hip producers), GGGarth is likely the one out of all the names I’ve included in this list.

Son of another Canadian producer Jack Richardson (an Order of Canada recipient whose name now graces the Producer of the Year Juno category), GGGarth, whose moniker arose from a stuttering issue, appears to have received his first producer credit with Numbers’ Add Up. An obscure release, but notable as it was a family affair, with his brother Craig ‘Cub’ Richardson handling the mastering of the record. Throughout most of the 1980s, Garth commonly did engineering and mixing duties on records including Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Mother’s Milk, White Lion’s Pride, and Alice Cooper’s Constrictor as well Canadian artists such as on Helix’s Long Way To Heaven and Honeymoon Suite’s The Big Prize. He seemed to take on full-blown production duties on a consistent basis towards the end of the decade, with Universe by Montreal-based thrash metal band Dead Brain Cells (or D.B.C.) being one of the earlier examples.

Given his unique one-word nickname, this gave him an air of mystique when I was younger, and a name that was all over the respective CD collections of my brother and I during our high school days. The first spot I’d heard of him was Rage Against the Machine’s self-titled debut album (which I probably heard around the year 2000, eight years after its release), where the genre-blending of punk, funk, rap, and heavy metal still continues to impress listeners (even those that don’t even agree with all their politics). There was also Mudvayne’s L.D. 50, with its heavy low-end and great-sounding rhythm section in one of the more instrumentally-impressive of the alternative and ‘nu-metal’ albums from the late-’90s and early-’00s. I also had plenty of exposure to similarly-classfiable music that featured the GGGarth touch, such as Chevelle’s major label debut Wonder What’s Next and Kittie’s first two albums Spit and Oracle. With many of these bands he worked with during my high school years, he worked as a catalyst to get things started with a bang in their music careers, producing benchmark albums that proved challenging for many of these acts to top.

As I got older, I would get acquainted with more varied examples of his production in the rock and metal world. Testament’s Low is one of his, which had the band tuning their guitars lower in a notable departure from their previous work. He also produced Shot by The Jesus Lizard, and while not as acclaimed as their Steve Albini-produced albums, still very-much worthy of your time. The Melvins’ breakthrough Houdini album was credited as co-produced between Kurt Cobain and Richardson, but the band’s working relationship with Cobain became rather strained and fractured. They must have enjoyed the company of GGGarth as he would return to produce Stoner Witch and Stag. I’ve also enjoyed Scottish band Biffy Clyro’s fourth album Puzzle, the first of a few he’d collaborate on with the trio, a fine example of songwriter-oriented rock that manages to squeeze in the odd experimentation (particularly their earlier stuff). GGGarth’s website covers a large breakdown of most of his discography, which also notes Haste The Day, Atreyu, and Trapt among those he served as producer.

I have to add, there must be something about his surname in addition to his nickname because British producer Colin Richardson (no relation) is another guy that takes up a solid portion my collection.

Greg Wells

I like writing posts that help expand my horizons. In this case, Greg Wells is one I don’t claim to be overly familiar with, but is a great choice to demonstrate how Canadians have impacted the modern pop world.

Joining rocker Kim Mitchell’s band at just 19 years old, Wells would then go on to join k.d. lang’s band before expanding his horizons by taking on many songwriting gigs. His partnerships in this capacity included Celine Dion and Aerosmith (that band must love Canada!), and is a role he continues steadily throughout his career, penning songs like “One and Only” by Adele and “Never Break” by John Legend.

From my own experience, I initially didn’t think I had any of his work in my collection when I first saw his name mentioned because I don’t have a great deal of pop music in my collection from the 21st century. It turns out I had at least a pair of albums with some of his handiwork, both of which feature vocalist Chino Moreno. Deftones’ self-titled album saw him gain a co-producer credit (with Terry Date) as well as arrangement work. A few years later, Greg would produce six of the tracks for Chino’s side-project Team Sleep. From a Canadian perspective, I also had a familiarity with the Wells-produced Crash Test Dummies album Give Yourself A Hand (he also co-wrote all tracks), marking a significant experimentation for the band as they dabbled in trip-hop elements and moved further from their folk-alternative style.

My main reason to mentioning Greg would be his surprising (to me, anyway) achievements in pop-music. Wells enjoyed Grammy success much like many of the featured names in this write-up, winning for work on The Greatest Showman: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Higher by Michael Buble (Bob Rock also worked on some of that album’s tracks), while nominated four other times. Contemporary-relevance remains quite high with this producer, with some other more recent highlights including Twenty One Pilots’ Vessel, co-producing (and co-writing) the track “Garden” by Dua Lipa, and “Beautiful Ghosts”, the Taylor Swift-performed song from the 2019 Cats movie.

Bob Ezrin

I’ve left Bob Ezrin as the last of the lot because, and I say this with no disrespect to the others, but he’s likely the biggest name of the whole lot. That says something considering that there is quite the competition just beneath him. Ezrin is such a big name and mainstay in rock music that I tend to forget that he is, in fact, Canadian.

He gave Alice Cooper’s career a huge shot in the arm by joining the shock-rocker for Love It To Death, and he kept coming back over the decades. Their close bond over the years led to Alice being the person of choice to induct the Toronto native into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2004, during which Bob stated his own Canadian pride and stressed the importance in music education.

From there, the gigs came in high quantity, which Bob churned out in great quality. The first Peter Gabriel album, arguably the most important of Gabriel’s career given his exit from Genesis, stands as one of the earlier highlights of Ezrin’s producing career. As would Lou Reed’s Berlin, often discussed as being one of Reed’s greater works. Bob also served Kiss in one of their finer moments in Destroyer in addition to one of their more controversial ones in Music from “The Elder”. Bob’s is such a rich catalog of recordings that it’s a near-certainty that I’m going to neglect personal favourites you may have.

To name-drop a few more of his contributions that I enjoy or otherwise find interesting:

  • Catherine Wheel’s spectacular Adam and Eve, which also featured GGGarth as a co-producer
  • The Fragile by Nine Inch Nails, credited as an additional producer for album sequencing, an underrated aspect of music-making
  • Served as executive producer on Get Your Wings by Aerosmith (them again?)
  • Produced Jane’s Addiction’s long-awaited third album Strays
  • Produced albums by sons of rock royalty with Julian Lennon’s Help Yourself and The Disregard of Timekeeping by Bonham (led by John Bonham’s son, Jason)
  • Has been Deep Purple’s chosen producer for their four latest studio albums, beginning with 2013’s Now What?!

Ezrin may be most widely known for Pink Floyd’s massive conceptual double-album The Wall, even contributing musically to “The Trial” at a point when Roger Waters was less receptive to the contributions of his bandmates. In fact, Bob would collaborate with Waters in the writing of a 40-page script for The Wall during pre-production (though he was not credited for screenplay writing of the eventual film). It was creative peak for many Floyd fans in a time full of noteworthy stories, summarized nicely by the folks at Vinyl Rewind.

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As I developed this list, I’ve noticed several other names spring up that have further touched the music landscape in the past and present that either slipped my mind while compiling my thoughts or I’m not as familiar with their work (or at least on a name basis). I’ll list them here along with some notable artists they have produced, but feel free to mention others in the comments that I haven’t touched on:

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