John Custer

John Custer (born October 30, 1962) is an American record producer and musician. He produced the Grammy-nominated "Drowning in a Daydream" by Corrosion of Conformity and their fourth album, Deliverance, which is a gold album. Additionally, he has produced #1 songs on the Billboard charts and The Album Network charts as well as Hall of Fame inducted albums in national and worldwide music press. In 2014, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Carolina Music Awards. He has been called the "Indestructible Godfather of the NC Music Industry". In 2017, he told writer David Manconi, "I remember being at a party, seeing their records, and my jaw dropping. They were real albums on a real record label with real artwork and all that—and from here! It made you think that things were possible…." After high school, he joined the Theatrics, a band that played the Southeastern Circuit, (Maryland down to Florida), playing covers so they could slide–in original material. Another configuration of this group was called Three Hard Men with Custer on guitar, Adams on bass, and Kenny Soule on drums. In 1990, Custer joined Jake Ferrell in a reboot of the band Subliminal Surge.

Custer met Byron McCay, former guitarist of Subliminal Surge and founder/owner of JAG Studios in Raleigh. One reviewer of The Distance's recordings noted, "Producer John Custer creates a madcap roller derby of ringing guitar riffs" on one track, and "crisp, clear aural onslaught' on another. COC bassist Mike Dean seems to agree, stating, "We were dabbling in metal. When [we] got up with John Custer and started really refining that stuff for Blind, that's when something really awesome started happening." An AllMusic review praised Blind as "simply one of the most important heavy rock albums of the decade".

COC ended up on the major label Columbia Records because Sony/Columbia acquired half–ownership of the COC's first label Relativity.

When Wiseblood was released, one reviewer noted, "It is producer John Custer who bears the brunt of the sound's synergy... A finer sound and recording wizard cannot be had." COC member Reed Mullin said, "He [Custer ] contributes an enormous amount of stuff that isn't written in the liner notes. A lot of the writing credits are his… He's the king. He's the fifth member." The COC track "Drowning in a Daydream" from Wiseblood was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1997 for Best Metal Performance.

After the band had worked with Custer on four albums, COC frontman Pepper Keenan was asked why they had continued to work with this producer. Keenan replied: I've talked to some really big producers and they don't know as much as John Custer. I'll bet my life on it. He's amazing but he hates the record companies. He hates dealing with egos. He's been asked to do a bunch of big things and he's like, "No f----n' way!" He is truly a musician/producer. He's like the Daniel Lanois of our little circle and he does not want to put up with that s--t. It's about songwriting, it's about getting the tones on tape and not being scared to take chances. A lot of bands, the only reason they're asking him to do 'em is 'cause they've heard COC records, but they don't understand that COC put their ass on the line to do these records and John Custer's not going to babysit somebody 'cause they want to have a certain sound. You've got to want to do that and write those things. When recording America's Volume Dealer, Custer says, "It was our first foray into ProTools, which is digital recording. We'd made everything else on tape. We got hooked on gadgets. It was a mistake to record them in that format. …We thought, 'Now we can make it sound awesome!' And it sounded less than awesome."

Some of Custer's high-profile collaborations for COC projects include working with Warren Haynes (The Allman Brothers Band, Gov't Mule) who played slide guitar on "Stare Too Long," James Hetfield (Metallica) who sang backup vocals on "Man or Ash", and Stanton Moore (Galactic) who played drums on the album In the Arms of God.

Cry of Love

In 1993, Custer produced the album Brother for Cry of Love. Brother was recorded over four weeks at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama. One reviewer called Brother's sound "loose and live". Brother 's first single, "Peace Pipe," went to No. 1 on Billboard Rock Radio Chart, and stayed there four weeks.

Custer also produced and mixed Cry of Love's second album, Diamonds & Debris, which was released in 1997 by Columbia.

DAG

With COC and Cry of Love both signed to Columbia, Custer was hired by the label for artist development, giving him what he calls "a pathway to the A&R department". The band changed its name to DAG after discovering a preexisting band in New Jersey named DIG. Custer was a fifth member of sorts, writing the majority of the group's songs. Vibe magazine hailed the album as "one of the best funk records since 1978. DAG's debut, Righteous, is definitely some of the most ass-grinding grooves you've heard since back in the day." Other releases by DAG and Custer include Apartment 635 (Columbia 1998) and A Guide to Groovy Lovin' (Columbia 1998).

Other projects While working in artist development for Columbia, Custer produced the album Din of Ecstasy for singer–songwriter Chris Whitley in 1995, and wrote the song "Ha Ha Ha" with Sass Jordan's for her 1997 album Present (1997). He also co-produced Invisible and Bullet Proof (Hal Jalikakik,1995) for Automatic Slim.

In 1998, Custer produced the album The Brothers' Love and Movie for the band Hipbone from Chapel Hill. Custer also produced Gran Torino Two (26.2 Music, 1999) for Knoxville's Gran Torino. Chris Ford, Gran Torino's lead singer, said the band brought in "hip producer John Custer to improve its sound".

In 2004, Custer recorded COC's Mike Dean's vocals for the track "Access Babylon" on Probot's self–titled album. Probot is an all-star project of Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters). Custer co–wrote their track "Bull City Groove." In In 2012, Custer produced 3PLAY, the third recording of The Will McBride Group. Custer also produced Eugene, Oregon's The Sawyer Family's third album of "gruangabilly" .The Burning Tree (Scary As Hell Music, 2008), and their fourth album Sawyer Family (Ghost Owl Records, 2015). Custer and BIG Something also worked together on the albums Big Something (2013), Truth Serum (2014), Tumbleweed (2017), and The Otherside (2018).

Some of Custer's newest projects include producing the albums for the bands Army of the Dog and The Confessor, both from Raleigh, as well as vocalist Nico Arte. Caitlyn Cary (vocals/fiddle for Whiskeytown, Tres Chicas, and solo) recorded a song with Brown. Furthermore, Custer said, "The band has become a heavy rock band now. It's no longer a poppy, singles–type thing…so we're gonna kinda start all over again―new name, new tunes." In 2002, he played in the on-stage band for the Raleigh Ensemble Players' version of the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, with a reviewer noting that the band "are well rehearsed".

As of 2019, Custer is scoring a movie about a funk band, and working on his own opera that will feature singers from Raleigh choirs. "Mano de Mono" by Corrosion of Conformity appears in The Fan starring Robert De Niro. "Sweet Little Lass", performed by DAG and written by Custer, is featured in Bad Boys starring Will Smith. "As" performed by DAG and co-written by Custer, appears in Robert Altman's Ready to Wear starring Kim Basinger and Sophia Loren.

Recognition

In 1993, Custer's original music for WRAL–TV's Rob and Bill Talk Show, including "Grease of the Week" and "Welcome Back to Rob and Bill", was nominated a regional Emmy Award. Produced by Custer, Big Something's Songs from the Middle of Nowhere won the Home Grown Music Network's Album of the Year 2010; BIG Something also won the award for New Band. Custer was featured on the cover of 3 Dot Mag'' in January 2014.

Equipment In a 2019 interview, Custer named his favorite equipment of all time:

Discography