Alan Moulder

Alan Moulder (born 11 June 1959, Boston, Lincolnshire, England) is one of Britain's premier alternative rock record producers. A major architect of the modern British rock sound, Moulder has worked with such artists as Depeche Mode, Erasure, Gary Numan, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Ride, Lush and My Bloody Valentine, Lostprophets, Shihad, Ivyrise, as well as with many American artists, including Nine Inch Nails, A Perfect Circle, The Smashing Pumpkins, Them Crooked Vultures, and Blonde Redhead.

Biography and career

From an early age, Moulder had an interest in music, listing among his favorite artists Cream, The Beatles, and the Bee Gees. The first album he ever bought was Electric Warrior by T. Rex, and was immediately impressed by the quality of that album's recording. He joined his first band as a teenager and recorded a demo in a local studio; it was there that he realized that it had been the production that he had so enjoyed on that T. Rex record, and discovered that he was more interested in music engineering than in performing.

Moulder's musical career truly started in the early 1980s, at Trident Studios in London. As an assistant engineer, he worked with influential producers like Jean Michel Jarre, drawing from them great familiarity with electronic sounds and textures. Also an engineer at Trident was Flood, with whom Moulder would often collaborate in the future. Moulder assisted in a recording session of Flood's, with The Jesus and Mary Chain, and found that the often fractious and troublesome band enjoyed working with him. The Mary Chain invited Moulder to engineer their live sounds and, eventually, to engineer their 1989 album Automatic. The album's production was praised for its combination of thick, noisy guitar with a polished, listener-friendly tone, and the Mary Chain's label, Creation Records, soon had Moulder producing records for Ride, My Bloody Valentine, and Swervedriver.

After working on the Glider and Tremolo EPs for My Bloody Valentine, Moulder was approached nearly simultaneously by two bands who were fans of that group. In 1992, he mixed The Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream, and Ride's Going Blank Again. Then, in 1994, he co-mixed Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral, which would become a landmark album of the '90s.

His work with Nine Inch Nails led to his engineering several albums for Trent Reznor's Nothing Records, including Prick's eponymous album and Marilyn Manson's debut, Portrait of an American Family. In 1995, he would again collaborate with the Smashing Pumpkins, co-producing with Flood their double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.

In 1992, Moulder also co-produced female duo Shakespears Sister's second album Hormonally Yours, which became one of the biggest sellers in the UK and Europe that year.

During the 1990's, Moulder also worked extensively with now-defunct British alternative band Curve.

In 1996, he worked with Moby on Animal Rights and The Cure on Wild Mood Swings, and the next year worked again with Flood, this time on U2's electronic album Pop. 1998 saw Moulder mixing Monster Magnet's Powertrip. 1999 saw Moulder and Reznor in the studio together again; Moulder co-produced, mixed, and engineered Nine Inch Nails' critically acclaimed The Fragile. Another album with the Smashing Pumpkins, Machina/The Machines of God, followed in 2000, along with a remix album for Nine Inch Nails, the debut by A Perfect Circle, Mer de Noms, and Monster Magnet's God Says No. Alan worked with Lostprophets on a song after the Welsh band released their debut album The Fake Sound of Progress.^[1]

2003 saw him guesting as a producer on Gary Numan's album Hybrid alongside other names such as Flood, Andy Gray and Curve.

In 2005, Moulder produced Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan's solo debut TheFutureEmbrace along with another Nine Inch Nails album, With Teeth, and mixed the debut album Hot Fuss by New Wave revivalists The Killers and Any Minute Now by Soulwax.

In 2006, he worked with the Killers once more, co-producing their second album Sam's Town. The same year, he also mixed the album Ten Silver Drops by Secret Machines and Movie Monster by Sound Team. He also produced Dying To Say This To You by The Sounds.

Moulder also mixed Puscifer's debut album V Is for Vagina, and Saul Williams' The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! and Ashes Divide's debut album Keep Telling Myself It's Alright,^[2] The Wolfmen (debut album tracks), and Blonde Redhead, and produced their new album 23.

In 2007, Moulder mixed all but four of the tracks for Favourite Worst Nightmare, the second album from British band, Arctic Monkeys, including the UK number 1 single, 'Brianstorm'. Also worked again with Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor on the Nine Inch Nails album Year Zero.

In 2008, Moulder produced and mixed along with Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor, the newest Nine Inch Nails albums Ghosts I-IV and The Slip. Moulder also produced and mixed The Morning After Girls full length "Alone".

In 2009 Moulder did a bonus remix of 'Shine On Down', on the album 3-D for Dean Garcia's latest project, SPC ECO, and also mixed Placebo's album Battle for the Sun, BM LINX's sophomore LP "Black Entertainment", and also mixed the eponymous Them Crooked Vultures album. He also produced the 2nd Wolfmother album 'Cosmic Egg'.

Personal life

Moulder is married to former Curve lead singer Toni Halliday.

Notes

References

• Jorgl, Stephanie. Alan Moulder [1]