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Anthony Lawrence Cohen (4 June 19572 August 2017) was an Australian music
record producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...
and
sound engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a sound recording, recording or a Concert, live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization (audio), equalization, Dynamic range ...
. He worked with
Nick Cave Nicholas Edward Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian musician, writer, and actor who fronts the rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Known for his baritone voice, Cave's music is characterised by emotional intensity, a wide variety ...
's groups the Birthday Party, and then the Bad Seeds from 1979 to 2001. In mid-1986 he followed Cave to London and then onto Berlin, in January 1987, to continue to work on their material. At the ARIA Music Awards of 1994 Cohen won Producer of the Year for The Cruel Sea's second album, '' The Honeymoon Is Over'' (May 1993). At the 1995 ceremony he won Producer of the Year and Engineer of the Year for the Cruel Sea's '' Three Legged Dog''. Cohen had been a long-term alcohol and drug user, his health deteriorated in the 2010s and he died in 2017 at Dandenong Hospital, aged 60. In November 2017 he was posthumously inducted into the Music Victoria Hall of Fame.


Early life and education

Anthony Lawrence Cohen was born on 4 June 1957 in Melbourne. His father, Philip Cohen, was an Australian son of
Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
migrants from
Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
, Philip had converted to
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
ism before marrying Margaret, who was an Australian of Irish descent. He grew up in suburban East Ringwood where he attended St Francis de Sales Primary School. The family moved to Mentone, along with younger brother Martin, where Cohen was enrolled at St Bede's College for his secondary education. While at Bede's he started taking drugs including
marijuana Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...
/ hash, amytal and LSD, which adversely affected his academic progress. Cohen started to play the drums when the family had moved to the neighbouring suburb of
Cheltenham Cheltenham () is a historic spa town and borough adjacent to the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort following the discovery of mineral springs in 1716, and claims to be the mo ...
and formed a friendship with fellow aspiring drummer, Chris Thompson. He later recalled, "Neither of us were very good drummers I might admit but we shared a mutual love of music and playing."


Career

Cohen, aged 15, joined a rock, glam rock band Epitaph on drums for a year. He bought a four-track recorder to tape their work and then recorded other local groups. During school holidays in mid-1973 he spent two weeks doing work experience at Armstrong Studios. His friend Thompson went along for a day and they decided on a career in the recording studio. After work experience he refused to return to school but continued at the studios, "No one said anything, so I stayed." For two years he was a "shit-kicker", and started by, "cleaning the toilets and getting the lunches and stuff, and then got promoted to mono dubbing boy." By 1975 Cohen began working as a
sound engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a sound recording, recording or a Concert, live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization (audio), equalization, Dynamic range ...
under the guidance of Roger Savage. In April of the following year he was working as an assistant
record producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...
, alongside Molly Meldrum, on Perth's glam rock group, Supernaut's lead single, " I Like It Both Ways" (May 1976). Cohen produced the group's associated self-titled album, which appeared in November of that year, and its follow-up single, " Too Hot to Touch" (September). In July 1976, Cohen and fellow engineer, Ian MacKenzie, met with Meldrum to organise the production of the pop group, the Ferrets' debut album, '' Dreams of a Love'': "It was all a bit of Elton John, a bit of the 'Real Thing', eldrumcalled us in for a production meeting 9:00 in the morning at his place and he was still in bed ..and putting the music on ..very, very loud and then proceeds to shout at you over the top of it, and we were all sitting there sort of terrified thinking, what on earth is he saying?" After a year production was still incomplete so the Ferrets took over, together with Cohen and MacKenzie assisting. It was finalised in August 1977 and released in October with Meldrum credited as Willie Everfinish.McFarlan
'The Ferrets'
entry. Archived fro
the original
on 9 August 2004. Retrieved 6 June 2015.
In June 1978, Cohen started working with the Boys Next Door (later renamed the Birthday Party), as an engineer at Richmond Recorders on their debut album, '' Door, Door'' (1979). He then engineered the Birthday Party's early
extended play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...
, '' Hee Haw'' (December 1979). Next he was the engineer and producer, on their second album, '' The Birthday Party'' (November 1980).McFarlan
'The Birthday Party'
entry. Archived fro
the original
on 9 August 2004. Retrieved 6 June 2015.
He was the engineer and producer for their third album, '' Junkyard'' (May 1982), which was listed in the book, '' 100 Best Australian Albums'' at number 17. Cohen told the authors that he was directed, "Forget all the bottom end and the rich, lush sounds. Make it sound like trash." He continued as engineer and/or producer for the group's leader,
Nick Cave Nicholas Edward Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian musician, writer, and actor who fronts the rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Known for his baritone voice, Cave's music is characterised by emotional intensity, a wide variety ...
, in the related group, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. From '' From Her to Eternity'' (18 June 1984) to '' No More Shall We Part'' (2 April 2001). Cohen followed the group to London in mid-1986 and then on to Berlin in January 1987 to continue to work with Cave. He returned to Melbourne in January 1988 with his drug habit "spiraling out of control." Cohen reflected on his early work with Cave, in an interview with Richard Fidler in September 2006, " twas all very experimental then, because we were all learning – I fell in love with this new way of recording... because there were no rules. We were looking for sounds that made your fillings drop out rather than pleasant pop tunes, so we got to do crazy things like find concrete stairwells and abuse equipment, so it was all very attractive for me. Some of it didn't work, but as history has shown Nick really honed his craft, he's done some brilliant records... some of the early stuff was a bit rough but it was a learning curve then." Ed Nimmervoll, an Australian music journalist and editor of ''
Rock Australia Magazine ''Rock Australia Magazine'' or ''RAM'' (its acronym and popular name) was a fortnightly national Australian music newspaper, which was published from 1975 to 1989. It was designed for people with a serious interest in rock and pop, and was co ...
'', recalled "Nick Cave's Birthday Party were allowed to take up some of the studio time slack. Rather than ohome, their producer Tony Cohen slept in the air conditioning duct." A long-term working relationship had also been established with Tex Perkins, starting with the singer's alternative rock group, Beasts of Bourbon's 1984 album, '' The Axeman's Jazz''.McFarlane
'Beasts of Bourbon'
entry. Archived fro
the original
on 20 April 2004. Retrieved 21 January 2013.
Cohen had engineered and produced it during a single eight-hour session at Paradise Studios in Sydney, in October of the previous year, with label boss Roger Grierson as executive producer. According to Australian musicologist,
Ian McFarlane Ian McFarlane (born 1959) is an Australian music journalist, music historian and author, whose best known publication is the ''Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop'' (1999), which was updated for a second edition in 2017. As a journalist ...
, "Legend has it that the session was fuelled by 72 cans of beer and one bottle of Scotch, and that it only ended when the band members began passing out!" He produced their next studio album, ''The Low Road'', (December 1991). In the following year he was their engineer, producer and mixer for a five-track EP, ''Just Right'', which had been recorded live at the Prince of Wales Hotel in May 1991 by Cohen's childhood friend, Chris Thompson. Cohen's services were used for Perkins' next band the Cruel Sea on their second studio album, '' This Is Not the Way Home'' (October 1991). He was nominated at the ARIA Music Awards of 1993 for Producer of the Year for that album and for "Get Thee to a Nunnery", a track on TISM's EP, '' The Beasts of Suburban'' (20 July 1992). He worked for an ad hoc country blues trio of Perkins, Don Walker and Charlie Owen, as Tex, Don and Charlie on their debut album, '' Sad But True'' (November 1993). While recording that album he was interviewed in the studio by Kerry Negara, the director of SBS-TV's ''Nomad''. At the following year's ARIA Awards
ceremony A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan language, Etruscan origin, via the Latin . Religious and civil ...
he won Producer of the Year for the Cruel Sea's third album, '' The Honeymoon Is Over'' (May 1993). In
1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...
, he won both Engineer of the Year and Producer of the Year. Over the previous 18 months – the eligibility period – Cohen had produced '' Let Love In'' (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, 18 April 1994), Note: this source states that Cohen's 1995 ARIA Artisan Awards were both for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' album, ''Let Love In''. '' You Wanna Be There But You Don't Wanna Travel'' ( Dave Graney 'n' the Coral Snakes, June 1994), '' Parables for Wooden Ears'' (
Powderfinger Powderfinger were an Australian Rock music, rock band formed in Brisbane in 1989. From 1992 until their break-up in 2010, the line-up consisted of vocalist Bernard Fanning, guitarists Darren Middleton and Ian Haug, bass guitarist John Collins ...
, 18 July 1994), ''Livin' Lazy'' ( Maurice Frawley and Working Class Ringos, 1994), '' Three Legged Dog'' (the Cruel Sea, April 1995), Note: this source states that Cohen's 1995 ARIA Artisan Awards were both for the Cruel Sea's album, ''Three Legged Dog''. He shared Engineer of the Year with Paul McKercher. ''Kim Salmon and the Surrealists'' (
Kim Salmon and the Surrealists Kim Salmon and the Surrealists are an Australian indie rock band formed by Kim Salmon in 1987 when he was living in Perth between the final two tours by The Scientists. When the Scientists stopped, Salmon continued the Surrealists as his main ...
, April 1995) and '' Mouth to Mouth'' ( the Blackeyed Susans, July 1995). In the 2000s, Cohen's name started appearing less regularly on album credits. During 2003, he worked as a
remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...
engineer on Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' old master tapes for Stephen Petronio's contemporary dance work, ''Underland''. Cave was unable to provide new tracks for the project due to time conflicts but allowed his material to be used. Cohen had effectively retired in 2004–2005. He emerged in 2017 to produce Augie March's album ''Bootikins'', as he had always wanted to work with the group. He died unexpectedly before the album's sessions concluded, and Augie March leader Glenn Richards stated "It still amazes me that we got a chance to work with the man. The moments are ours and we will cherish them ... He got us feeling like and playing like a real band again after a long interim, and we made some very good music together." In November 2017 Cohen was posthumously inducted into the Music Victoria Hall of Fame. A memoir of his life, ''Half Deaf, Completely Mad'', was published by John Olson in November 2023.


Personal life

Tony Cohen had an on-again off-again relationship with Joanne from mid-1981, she had been Chris Thompson's girlfriend when they met. They lived together initially in
Elsternwick Elsternwick is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 9 km south-east of Melbourne's Melbourne city centre, Central Business District, located within the City of Glen Eira local government areas of Victoria ...
, then Sydney and back, again. His drug habit now included
amphetamine Amphetamine (contracted from Alpha and beta carbon, alpha-methylphenethylamine, methylphenethylamine) is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), narcolepsy, an ...
and
heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...
. By early 1983 Cohen was also dating a different woman, Josephine, whom he married on 28 May 1983, in Melbourne. According to his brother, "I don't think Tony ever had a distinct line between dumping one girl and getting on with another." The couple moved to Sydney in late 1983 and then back to Melbourne in July of the following year. Cohen and Josephine relocated to London in mid-1986 before they separated (and later divorced). He then moved to Berlin in January 1987, and returned to Australian early in the next year. Early in 1991, Cohen began a relationship with Astrid Munday, a vocalist for country music groups Killer Sheep and then Desert Boot. After living together in Sydney they moved in with Cohen's parents at their rural property at Kongwak, Victoria in November 1991. At different times he attempted to curb his alcohol and drug dependencies. The couple returned to Melbourne in February 1992. Cohen had earlier been diagnosed with
hepatitis C Hepatitis C is an infectious disease caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) that primarily affects the liver; it is a type of viral hepatitis. During the initial infection period, people often have mild or no symptoms. Early symptoms can include ...
, then
pancreatitis Pancreatitis is a condition characterized by inflammation of the pancreas. The pancreas is a large organ behind the stomach that produces digestive enzymes and a number of hormone A hormone (from the Ancient Greek, Greek participle , "se ...
(September 1992) and
diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...
(October). At the ARIA Music Awards of 1995 he had a hypoglycaemic event, "just as they announced my name so I was in the suit and everything and sweat was just dripping off me so I had to go and hide up the back and Molly was standing on the seat going 'Where are you? Tony, where are you?' So it wasn't a great memory for me... I couldn't get up on stage and make a speech... you know, my blood sugar had dropped and I was a mess; such a shame." In late 2000, Cohen and Munday moved to London, where he worked on ''No More Shall We Part'' (April 2001) for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, while Munday worked as a temporary teacher. By that stage Cohen's diabetes was worsening and his studio attendances became erratic. After the recording sessions ended he struggled to get further work in London and so returned to Melbourne. By 2004 or 2005 he was in semi-retirement, "In a bid to rid himself of a renewed taste for drugs and to revive his ailing health." His health continued to deteriorate into the 2010s. Tony Cohen died on 2 August 2017 at Dandenong Hospital, aged 60. Although no cause of death was reported, his sibling recalled, "Tony lived a hard life with drugs and alcohol playing a big part of his professional career. He did give them up many years ago but always knew that he would eventually pay for his 'sins'." Conversely, "we were like chalk and cheese. But, I loved him and fully respect what he achieved in his career. He was technically brilliant, but also a caring, big-hearted man." Upon the inclusion of Cohen's work in the Australian Music Vault, his mother Margaret stated, "it wasn't until his untimely death, that I was made aware of the esteem that he was held in by so many people. I am proud of his contribution to the rock and roll music industry here and all that he achieved through his life." A suitcase of cassette tapes he used as back-ups of recordings was donated to the vault. Munday released an album with material dedicated to her husband, ''Beauty in the Ordinary'', in August 2020.


Technical works

List of technical works by Tony Cohen including audio engineer, record producer or mixer.


Awards and nominations

Four albums which Cohen worked on are listed in the book, ''100 Best Australian Albums'' (2010): the Birthday Party's ''Junkyard'' (May 1982) at No. 17, the Cruel Sea's ''The Honeymoon Is Over'' (May 1993) at No. 63, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' ''Tender Prey'' (September 1988) at No. 83, and Tex, Don and Charlie's ''Sad But True'' (November 1993) at No. 84.


ARIA Music Awards

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1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...
, , The Cruel Sea – '' This Is Not the Way Home''
TISM – " Get Thee to a Nunnery , , Producer of the Year , , , , Note: User may be required to access archived information by selecting 'The History', then 'By Award', 'Producer of the Year' or 'Engineer of the Year' and 'Option Show Nominations'. , - ,
1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...
, , The Cruel Sea – '' The Honeymoon Is Over'' , , Producer of the Year , , , , , - , rowspan="2",
1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...
, , himself, Paul McKercher – The Cruel Sea – '' Three Legged Dog'' , , Engineer of the Year , , , , Note: only lists the artisans for 1995 , - , himself – The Cruel Sea – ''Three Legged Dog'' , , Producer of the Year , , , , , -


Music Victoria Awards

The Music Victoria Awards are an annual awards night celebrating Victorian music. They commenced in 2006. ! , - ,
2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...
, Tony Cohen , Hall of Fame , , , -


References


External links

* podcast by Richard Dinnen, broadcast on 8 August 2017, archived on 4 March 2019, accessed on 20 November 2020. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Tony ARIA Award winners Australian audio engineers Australian record producers 1957 births 2017 deaths Musicians from Melbourne Australian people of Irish descent Australian people of English-Jewish descent People from Ringwood, Victoria People from Cheltenham, Victoria People educated at St Bede's College (Mentone)