Tony Cohen

Anthony Lawrence Cohen (4 June 19572 August 2017) was an Australian music record producer and sound engineer. He worked with Nick Cave'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. He grew up in suburban East Ringwood where he attended St Francis de Sales Primary School. 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). 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.

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, Hee Haw (December 1979). Next he was the engineer and producer, on their second album, The Birthday Party (November 1980). 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. He returned to Melbourne in January 1988 with his drug habit "spiraling out of control."

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. 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.

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). You Wanna Be There But You Don't Wanna Travel (Dave Graney 'n' the Coral Snakes, June 1994), Parables for Wooden Ears (Powderfinger, 18 July 1994), Livin' Lazy (Maurice Frawley and Working Class Ringos, 1994), Three Legged Dog (the Cruel Sea, April 1995), Kim Salmon and the Surrealists (Kim Salmon and the Surrealists, 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 engineer on Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' old master tapes for Stephen Petronio's contemporary dance work, Underland. 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, then Sydney and back, again. 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."

Technical works List of technical works by Tony Cohen including audio engineer, record producer or mixer. Year Artist(s) Work Role(s)

Lolitas Series Américaines Engineer, producer